These are notes I took from a wonderful writing symposium called Life, the Universe, and Everything. We have a lot of talented people in Utah and visitors with a great deal of knowledge. Any Misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

Q: When do you know when your book is ready?
– Have some beta readers read it and gives a lot of comments and have it proofread.
– If start to hate the book you’ve done something wrong or you’re done
– If told the book is good.
– Done is the book you are willing to make it.

Q: How much should you spend getting your book ready to be published? Average cost:
– Editor/proofreader $300 for a 70,000-word novel.
– Formatter $175 for eBook and print for 70K book.
– Bellium is an eBook publisher.
– Cover design. Anywhere from 150 750 and beyond
– $6K to launch a book that stands a chance.
– Print as an eBook. Do not waste your time, energy and resources.
– Front and back matter in eBooks.

Q: Front matter: not as important as back matter. Most retailer shortcut readers right to chapter one.
– Title page
– Copyright
– Synopsis of the book
– Dedication
– Also, have a page with links to where readers can buy your books.

Q: Back matter:
– Immediately after the end of the book has a link to the next eBook you want to read (excerpt of next book. And link to that book to buy online.
– Include a Thank you for reading the book and make a request to review a book. And maybe explain how a review helps writers
– Follow me on Instagram.
– Have follow me too when fan can be told when next piece by the author comes out.
– Have it as clean and simple as possible.

Q: How to price your eBook?
– From 9 yrs. experience.
– Series starters: most come from series.
– Difficult to market a standalone. If only one book.
– The first book of a series 2.99 to 5.99.
– Full special price to fans or family for $99. Price at 99 c can fund advertising
– The free first book of a series. Once you have the other series.
– Follow up on a series. Book 2.99 or 3.99 and each book increases by a dollar. Or all same but last book is one dollar more
– Standalone price, you only have one shot to make money on this book.
– Don’t let your pride get in the way to move copies. Don’t charge high for a book because you’ve spent a long time on the book.
– If a book is long you can charge less. A 30K word don’t charge 5.99

Q: Where to publish books online, EBook retailers.
– Amazon (kindle unlimited) 67%
– iTunes apple books 21%
– Google pay 8 %
– Barnes & noble 3 %
– Kobo 1% dominate the market in Canada.
– Draft to digital will update for you. Will take a %
– Small swords (I think digital conversion but is a source of a lot of pirated material

– Realistic expectations:
– 2 K books published a day on Amazon.
– You do have to pay for visibility
– The market is in constant change. What works now may not work in two months.
– Readers will forget about you. (Warm bodies’ movie) the sequel did not do well. The audience forgot about him.
– If you want to make full tie money you can’t take this casually.
– If you aren’t willing to learn new skills please don’t be happy with writing being your hobby.
– To make a living as a novelist today you have to promote one book while editing another, and writing another, an reading 10 other a tearing pages from yet another and eating those pages one by one unit you r … sorry didn’t get the whole quote but you get the idea.

Q: What to do for your first book
– Set up social media and start posting
– Create an Amazon author page
– Set up on bookbub
– Get set up on Goodreads.
– Create a website.
– Start following other authors in your genre who are successful. Study them and see what they do on all the things listed above. Imitate their actions.

Q: What not to waste your money on:
– Paying to be part of a book signing at a conference to have a table local.
– Or just doing it for the experience.
– You pay for travel and pay for copies.
– Difficult to sell enough copies. (For print book)
– Swag: buttons, bookmarks only good for give away. Be careful getting too much.
– Be cautious of publishing companies who will help you and get your book published but take your rights and not do anything for you. There are a lot of scammers.
– Most important of all write your next book.
– Some authors publish one book a mo.
– Need to have more than one book.

Advertising:
– Facebook ads different from sponsored posts.
– In amazon, make sure the price per click is not over budget to make it worth it. Advertising.amazong.com
– Bookbub (send out an email each day and you check what genre you’re interested in. give books on sale for that genre. Their selection is based on covers and reviews. It is difficult to be accepted. They are very selection is based on reviews and quality. They are costly. $200 to $800 range.
– Other adverting mailer sites.
– Ereader
– Freebookey
– Bbargin (did not get a complete list)
– On advertising keep track of what money earns back our investment. Maybe use an excel sheet. Keke0 track of what ads give what results in space out ads and spread them out to see which ones give what earnings.
– How much spend advertising a day $60 a day. Some authors do $1 K.
– You can sell audiobooks besides eBooks.
– Schedules marketing and sale date on an excel sheet to remind:
– Schedule sales after new releases
– Stick ads either the same day or within a few days of each other
– recycle ads. Maybe do ads on backlist once a month.
– Plan at least 6 weeks ahead.
– Knowing that mailing list advertisers will advertise permanently free.
– Have a calendar to keep track of ads

Q: Mistakes author made to avoid:
– The biggest problem is genre bouncing. (Maybe have different names for different genres)
– You are staring over when change genre.
– It a challenge to interact with fans.
– Not collaborations with other authors.
– Getting personal. Readers want to feel connected to their lives. Readers lie getting to know the author.
– There are more opportunities now than ever before. If you have the drive and work very hard you can have success.

If you have additional recommendations, feel free to add them in the comment section of this blog.