Lay the Foundation—Three Crucial Steps before Self-Publishing

By: Heather Day Gilbert

One day when I was throwing a piece of pine in our outdoor wood-burner, a thought hit me. Before we could deposit and position this extremely heavy stove in our yard, we had to build a sturdy foundation for it. My dad and my husband had to dig out a large area, build a frame, and fill it with concrete. And then we had to wait for it to set.            

I couldn't help but notice the similarities to the self-published author. Yes, you can jump in fast and just plant that stove (novel) any old where. But over time, it will sink into the ground, go crooked, or possibly even topple. 

You want a firm foundation, and foundations take time. Please understand—I myself am allergic to waiting. Yet this advice is consistent throughout self-publishing circles, and I want to give you the biggest head start on success if you decide to self-publish.

The first thing to square away is your writing. Don't skimp on perfecting it as much as possible before releasing your first novel. Sorry, I know this is ye olde "work on your craft" advice, and I've never loved it, either. When I first jumped into the querying arena, I was convinced my novel was perfect. Several years and *ahem* several rejections later, I can recognize that my very first "perfect" novel will take extensive edits before I'll ever self-publish it. I've learned some tricks of the trade along the way—from agents, editors, critique groups, and my crit partner. This is where making friends in the industry really helps you—finding a mentor a few steps ahead of you, who has been edited and knows things you don't yet. Listen to and integrate sage advice (if it resonates with your novel and writing style!).

Platform-building is also crucial in this electronic age. I firmly believe authors need a blog "home base" where readers can find them, but you don't have to knock yourself out talking about every topic under the sun to build your audience. One brilliant new way to build an early reader base is to share your actual writing on your blog. (Caveat—don't share stuff you want to enter in contests or submit to an agent/publisher). But it's a great way to let people know if they like your stories or not.

Another way to build platform is to interview other authors or review books. While it's no guarantee of said authors' support when your book releases, you get to know them better, bring helpful content to your readers, and extend your sphere of authorly influence. 

There are plenty of other platform-building techniques. I like the advice that agent Amanda Luedeke  of MacGregor Literary gives: you utilize the social media outlets you feel most comfortable with. Try them all—twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, whatever—you might be surprised where your readership migrates. I was unprepared for how much I would love my FB Author Page, which has become a crucial and easy way to reach my readers.

Besides working on writing and platform, the self-publisher needs to lay a firm marketing base. I believe you need at least three months to really focus on marketing before your novel releases. For me, this translated into three months of spending at least two hours a day, brainstorming early readers, asking for endorsements and reviews, and just trying to be fearless with approaching the unapproachable. Not to mention hours spent perfecting an eye-catching book cover and Amazon blurb.

Even now that my book is out on Amazon, guess what? I'm still marketing. Yes, the burden is lighter as I now have readers who will seriously go to bat for my book. But, to be blunt, self-pubbers have a more expensive route to get their novels noticed. Most larger review sites, like Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, require a substantial fee to join, and even then, there's no guarantee your novel will be chosen to be reviewed. 

So you have to think outside the box...tapping into the haunts where you know your readers hang out, finding smaller free review sites, and incorporating techniques you see working for other authors. Free Kindle giveaways are a great way to reach readers outside your online sphere of influence, but it's tricky to do if you use only Kindle KDP versus Select (I'll save that for another post). 

One blog I love following for updated tips on indie publishing is Joanna Penn's The Creative Penn. Joanna got into the e-publishing world early-on and she has learned many things she's happy to share. 

You might wonder who on earth I am, thinking I know all this stuff. Trust me, the past few months, I spent plenty of time wondering if I'd done anything right as I geared up for my book release. There were some marketing hits and misses. There were plenty of people who ignored my emails (but hey, I've been out on submission—I was ready for being ignored or rejected!). And yet there were also many people who got back to me, loved the book, and endorsed or reviewed it. 

Guess what? On release day, my Viking novel, God's Daughter, hit three Amazon best-seller lists. I'm not saying this to toot my own horn (it was totally God!), but I do feel that laying the foundation was crucial to getting that out-of-the-gate buzz. Maintaining the buzz requires an extended and relentless marketing effort from the author, but it can be well worth it. God's Daughter has stayed on the Amazon Norse/Icelandic historical best-seller list for two months now, largely due to the various guest interviews/blogposts I've been blessed to be part of. I can see a direct spike in sales when those go live.

I really believe self-publishing is going to bring new voices to the fore in Christian fiction—voices that can't be ignored. But for your voice to be heard above all the din of traditional publishers' marketing techniques, you have to lay that foundation, wait, and offer the best product you can. 

And then trust your readers. They will find you.

One Viking woman. One God. One legendary journey to North America.

In the tenth century, when pagan holy women rule the Viking lands, Gudrid turns her back on her training as a seeress to embrace Christianity. Clinging to her faith, she joins her husband, Finn, on a voyage to North America.

But even as Gudrid faces down murderous crewmen, raging sickness, and hostile natives, she realizes her greatest enemy is herself—and the secrets she hides might just tear her marriage apart.

Almost five centuries before Columbus, Viking women sailed to North America with their husbands. God's Daughter, Book One in the Vikings of the New World Saga, offers an expansive yet intimate look into the world of Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir—daughter-in-law of Eirik the Red, and the first documented European woman to have a child in North America.

Heather Day Gilbert enjoys writing stories about authentic, believable marriages. Sixteen years of marriage to her sweet Yankee husband have given her some perspective, as well as ten years spent homeschooling her three children. Heather is the ACFW West Virginia Area Coordinator.

You can find Heather at her website, Heather Day Gilbert--Author, and at her Facebook Author Page, as well as Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Goodreads. Her Viking novel, God's Daughter, is on Amazon and Smashwords.

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Why My Novel Will Not Sell

My first new novel in two years is finally out this week. (Cue the trumpets.) It’s called The Opposite of Art, and I hope you’ll forgive a little boasting if I say right here in print that I think it’s my best work ever. I really do.

It has everything I love in a novel: strange and enigmatic characters, looming suspense, a love affair, beautiful settings, epic scale, more than a touch of the magical, and a persistent sense that there’s something important happening down below the words.

I know how bad it sounds for me to brag like this, but I don’t care. I just love this novel. I also predict it will be a commercial failure.

There are a lot of reasons it won’t sell many copies. 10,000 traditionally published novels out each year, for one. Not all of them can hit the bestseller lists. Not even most of them. In fact, just a fraction of them will come to any particular reader’s attention. After all, even if a person reads a novel every day, that’s only 365 in a year, which leaves 9,635 unread.

Plus there’s the fact that I hate all that marketing stuff the publishers have me doing, and it probably shows in poor execution. (Should I be saying things like this in public? I don’t know, which is probably Promotional Mistake Number One. And I don’t care, which is probably a Number Two. All I know is, like most writers I just want to write, and anything that interferes with writing is annoying.)

But to fully understand why The Opposite of Art won’t be a bestseller, you have to realize what it takes to satisfy a hundred thousand average readers or so.

If you’re reading this column, chances are you’re not one of those hundred thousand “average” readers. You’re more likely a published author, or a writer seriously trying to be published, or else one of those rare people so caught up reading that she wants to know everything she can find out about the art of writing. In short, you’re a true fiction lover, the way a gourmet loves fine food or a numismatist loves uncirculated coins, which means there’s nothing average about the way you read, which means if you want to satisfy that kind of reader, you have to work to understand them.

Begin with this: typical fiction readers seem to want all the loose ends tied up neatly in a novel. Every question answered. All mysteries dispelled in the end.

They won’t get that in The Opposite of Art. On the contrary, like most of my novels, it probably asks more questions than it answers.

When I was a little boy I annoyed my parents with the constant question, “Why?” Now I’m getting old, and I realize there are many questions nobody can answer. And you know what? I like it that way. I find asking questions without answers keeps life interesting. In fact, I can’t imagine how I could continue living if I knew the answer to everything (oh, the dreadful boredom of the gods).

Of course the major plot points are all brought together in the end of The Opposite of Art. I do play by the rules. But mysteries will also linger after the final page, because readers like me love loose ends. Most do not, but I do, so I’m okay with that.

On a related point, typical readers in the Christian fiction market in particular not only want all the questions answered in the end, they also seem to want the answers to include a message, a moral, or even (shudder) a clear doctrinal statement. You know: the way The Little Engine That Could teaches “don’t ever give up,” or The Cat in the Hat instructs one on the importance of tidying up before Mother comes home.

Again, I fear such readers will be disappointed in The Opposite of Art.

A certain kind of reader might encounter a few new ideas about the universe or eternity or whatever if they make an effort to think about the story while they read. They (you?) are the type of readers to be inspired, I hope, by the unanswered questions already mentioned. But I did my best to avoid writing plainly or overtly about Big Ideas. For those, readers must dig a little because above all, The Opposite of Art is a story about an artist who drowns, sees something he can’t begin to imagine, and comes back to life with a compulsion to paint that thing, even if it kills him. It’s a story, not a sermon or a parable, because I tend to think that’s what a novel ought to be.

Now here’s something strange: The very same readers who want a clear moral, or message, or doctrinal statement in a novel are usually the ones who don’t like thinking much about a novel. They want their Eternally Important Message, and they want a “fast paced page-turner” too, and they want it all in the same book!

I have never understood this, but it’s true.

Please don’t misunderstand. I enjoy page-turners as much as the next guy. At the beach, at the airport, or when I’m reading myself to sleep I think pulp fiction is great fun. I might even write a few pulp fiction novels one of these days.

And as you can probably tell by now I also enjoy literature, the kind of novel that makes me stop and re-read paragraphs just to savor the language or a thought. But both kinds of experiences in the same novel?

Thank you, no.

There mere idea of that makes me think of a restaurant where I had lunch recently. They were playing Ella Fitzgerald on the sound system, but I had a table near the kitchen and back there they were rocking out to Foreigner. Now, I love Ella, and Foreigner had some excellent material, but the experience of listening to both of them at once was absolutely awful.

While I do think The Opposite of Art will keep most readers interested from cover to cover, it is in no way intended to be a “page turner” in the classic sense. Instead, I wrote it for readers who want to stop, back up, and read some parts again. I love the kind of novel where the words themselves create a level of enjoyment in addition to the story that they tell, and I try hard to write the kind of novels that I enjoy. They don’t sell at newsstands, but writing that way makes be happy.

Every novelist has a thousand choices to make. Sometimes those choices are clear, and sometimes not so much. One of the first choices is probably the reason we sit down to write a novel in the first place. But even there, I’m okay without a complete answer.

I’ve never been totally certain why I write. I know only this for certain: I don’t write to answer questions; I don’t write to preach sermons; I don’t write to help my readers pass the time, and I don’t write just to tell a story.

All of which explains why The Opposite of Art won’t make me rich or famous. While that would be nice, there are about a thousand easier and more certain ways to get there so I’d be a fool to write for fame and fortune. Instead, I’ll just thank God for the (very) few people who truly love my work, and who are, of course, all geniuses.

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Free Books—Really a Bestseller?

Have you guys been following the trend of free books being offered on Amazon for their Kindle. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just check out the Literature & Fiction Bestseller List and skim through the top 50 books.

The New York Times recently featured an article that gave coverage to both opinions—stating that publishers and authors are divided on this issue. One side makes a case that it allows the public to discover new authors risk free, the other side argues that it devalues your product.

The article also states that authors are "torn" on this issues.

Are we?

For this post I'm asking you to share your thoughts, specifically talking about your books. Would you want to see your work offered free for e-readers, and under what conditions?

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