Baby Steps to Publishing

The second season of my podcast Coffee and Catastrophe is underway.  You can check out both season one and the current posted episodes of season two by clicking the Podcast tab above.

As many of you know, I started spending a lot of time on KBoards toward the end of 2016 as I tried to wade through the ever-changing world of marketing for indie books.  Lately I've been seeing a ton of posts by newbie authors asking about what they need to do since finishing their first manuscript.

So this season Brian and I are focusing on talking about various insights into the self-publishing realm.  The latest episode 2.3: Baby Steps to Publishing offers an overview of the steps newbie authors need to take when they prepare for self-publishing that first book.  Since Brian and I tend to yak a lot in between each step, I'm posting the list we discussed below.

1.  Write Your Book - make it the very best it can be

2.  Edit, Edit, and Edit Some More - from self-editing methods to proofing and developmental

3.  Develop a Team of Beta Readers - find people who will give you helpful, solid, and specific feedback

4.  Set Up Website/Blog/Social Media/Mailing List - limit social media initially to what you can keep up with on a regular basis, but be sure to create a mailing list link so readers can sign up for new releases

5.  Get a Professional-Looking, Genre Appropriate Cover - strong legible fonts readable in thumbnail, avoid busyness, and avoid too much flat black

6.  Decide Where You're Going To Sell Your Book - will you stick to one site (KU?), use an aggregator, or go all in wide
- www.kdp.amazon.com
- press.barnesandnoble.com
- www.writinglife.kobobooks.com
- download iTunes Producer
- aggregators www.smashwords.com or www.draft2digital.com

7.  Select Keywords and Categories - study your genre and choose up to 10 keywords and 2 genre classification categories

8.  Prep Front and Back Matter - your formatted manuscript will need a table of contents, legal disclaimers, cover artist information, author bio, dedication, acknowledgements, and a link to that mailing list you've created

9.  Develop an ARC team - don't know what that is, then listen to the podcast

10. You'll have to listen to the podcast to find out this all-important last step

Be sure and listen in to podcast 2.2 on how to avoid scams and scammers.  They're rife in the indie world, so make sure you're prepared for how to deal with them - 'cause you WILL have to deal with them.

Until next time, happy reading!

2017 Writing Schedule Quarterly Update

It's been a busy writing year thus far in the DA Bale Publishing universe - and it's time for a quarterly update to key you in on where things are headed for 2017.

First item on the agenda, I've got some good news to share with you in relation to my publishing schedule.

The first book in my upcoming space opera series (think that old TV show I still miss, FIREFLY) has cleared the first draft hurdle and I've started working on the storyline for book two in that series, the working title being THE OUTLIERS' WAY, though I'm considering something more along the lines of Outliers' Pact or Outliers' Accord for the final title.  Who knows?  I may use all three in the end.  My plan is to get two books in publishable shape before releasing book one.  That way I can put up a pre-order for book two and release it within thirty days.  Be looking for the book one cover reveal coming later this spring and release dates announced for sometime this summer.

For those of you who are dying to read the next chapter in the Vicki saga, I'm nearing the halfway point of the fourth book in the Bartender Babe Chronicles DIE BEFORE YOU WAKE.  Last night I cleared twenty-thousand words toward my fifty-thousand word first draft goal.  If you've followed Vicki's antics up through book three, you know some major changes are getting ready to take place in her life.  I can't wait to bring them to you!  Seems lately I wake up and go to sleep (and sometimes dream) with Vicki's voice in my head.  My bedside notebook is getting pretty full about now, which is a really good sign to me.  I've no problem coming up with more crap to hit the fan in Vicki's world this time around.  By the end of this month, I should have a release day locked down and a cover ready to reveal.  Stay tuned!

Now for those of you who want the dark stuff, I've started on a new series that will take some time to dig down deep and fully plumb.  Originally I'd planned to approach it in a different way, sort of a dark romance perhaps (this from a non-romance reader who got tired of the strong-arm tactics of my fellow writers).  However, after allowing myself to ruminate on it for several weeks now, I've decided to give it a dark mystery bent since mysteries and thrillers are a better fit for me.  Sorry, gang, but my brain just isn't wired to be all gooey and mushy - bleh!  Tentative working title is UNAPPROACHABLE, but don't look for any form of release announcements on it until sometime in 2018.  This one is gonna be a slow burn to get all of the strings laid out to eventually weave together.

So for this fall, I'm allowing myself a chance to see which final book for 2017 I'll be in the mood to work on.  Will it be AIM BEFORE YOU SHOOT, the fifth book in the Bartender Babe Chronicles?  Or will it be the third as yet unnamed book in the Outliers' series?

I guess we'll all have to wait for that one.

Next item on the agenda, don't forget to check out some of the silly discussions we get into on the Coffee and Catastrophe podcasts.  For all of the other writers in the audience who seek to improve their writing, fellow author William Brian Johnson and I have spent the better part of this year thus far in our Nuts & Bolts series, discussing various mechanics of novel writing.  If you'd like to catch up on some of it, just click on the "Podcast" tab above and take your pick to listen in right here on the blog.

Last item on the agenda, be sure and sign up for my new newsletter.  On the far right of the blog here, you'll see a sign up box.  Don't worry.  I won't continually hound you about all things through the newsletter - that's what my blog, Twitter, and Facebook accounts are for!  However, my newsletter will now be the first place to go to get specific news on releases and special sales of my books.  You won't want to miss the pre-order pricing you'll only hear about there and notices when prices are about to change.  Since I'm now also direct-selling through Kobo Books, I get to take advantage of their promotions from time-to-time, so you'll want to have the newsletter to stay abreast of those deals.

In the meantime, watch for the cover reveal and release announcement of DIE BEFORE YOU WAKE coming soon.

Catastrophic Coffee New Podcast Episode

Hey, readers!  If you aren't yet aware, I've partnered with fellow author William Brian Johnson to host a podcast on writing and self-publishing - and we've got a new episode posted on D A Bale Publishing.

Click on the Podcast tab up above or HERE for the link to all four episodes thus far, including the most recent Episode 4: Marketing for Idiots, Complete Idiots, No Not You.  Some of the promotional websites we discuss during this episode are referenced below:

Free
www.mybookcave.com

Low Cost
www.readingdeals.com
www.thefussylibrarian.com

Mid Cost
www.ereadernewstoday.com
www.bookgorilla.com
www.booksends.com

High Cost
www.bookbub.com
www.freebooksy.com 

If you like what you hear and have a specific topic you'd like us to pursue, email us at catastrophiccoffee@gmail.com.  Stay tuned for more episodes!

A Halloween Announcement

Happy Halloween!

On this auspicious day of candy and capers, I offer up an announcement guaranteed to rot your brain better than a year of candy bars.

There's a podcast going on.

Yes sirree.  After months of working out the details and tripping over ourselves through the whims of the weather, I've partnered with a fellow writer to put together Coffee and Catastrophe...Writers on a Caffeine High, a podcast on novel writing and the ever-changing realm of indie publishing.  We'll converse about general principles, the important rules of novel writing, my personal experience with many of the marketing websites out there, NaNoWriMo, and what it's really like to visit the Vomitarium.

You read that right - but you'll have to listen to find out more.

If you've visited the site within the past week, you'll notice a new tab at the top labeled Podcasts.  Or you can click on the link HERE and follow the few episodes posted thus far.  Each episode is just under thirty minutes, and the plan is to post new episodes weekly.

So join me and co-host William Brian Johnson as we explore this world of novel writing and self-publishing.  Or just laugh at us as we try to navigate our way through the podcast experience. Either way, we promise a wild and interesting ride.