Gert Comes Alive

I can't believe I'm saying this. *whew* I'm writing a book. Ever since I told Paul Wheaton that the best way to promote permaculture is to edu-tain, (educate while entertaining) The story of how Gert came to be has been coming to life in my head. Her family members and newbie permaculture experiences keep popping up in my dreams. I think there comes a point for every storyteller when they can't ignore their fantasies anymore. They must give birth to them.
SO. Despite all the crazies in my life, here it goes. I have undertaken a 30-day challenge to write the rough draft! By February 17th, I should have this large milestone finished.
Am I crazy??!  Maybe so! Follow this thread to see if I can make magic happen.

I've reached 12,000 words now!
Gert has reached the so-called "Inciting incident" of most fiction novels. The point at which things will never be the same.
I've been immersing myself in the world of fiction writing: connecting with authors I know, researching necessary steps to work towards publishing, and the hundreds of ways to go about them.

Self-publishers of the Permies community, what was helpful? What have you tried that sucked?  

I've been thinking of joining a Self-Publishing school to help with all the unknowns. But it's 7,000 smackers! They're sure I can achieve a ROI if I follow their methods. Yet my financial, mental, and scheduling capacities are heavily tied up in the house build my husband and I have planned for this year. Another debt seems foolish at this time. On the other hand, maybe that's the reason to get help? So I don't have to wrap my mind around every step and detail? Sheesh! Why isn't writing a book as simple as meeting pen with paper?!

Hi Rebekah,

Hooray for your adventure!!!
I haven't written a book (yet) and it all sounds more complicated than I had imagined indeed...
In your first post you said you'd give yourself a deadline of 30 days for the rough draft. How do you feel about just doing that for starters, focus on pouring it all out and refining until you hit the 30 day mark on February 17th.
Perhaps keep a separate notepad for all the questions outside the storyline that might bubble up from your subconscious while you're writing - that way you're catching the questions on paper, but putting them aside until your self designated challenge has been completed.
Yes! Good luck and a strong flow to your book writing!

Well done Rebecca - it turns out you are someone!

There are a few threads on publishing books here, and many have self published successfully. I for one would love to read Gert's story!

Try these as a start:
https://permies.com/t/123317/permaculture-writing/art/publish-promote-book#988625
https://permies.com/t/93189/permaculture-writing/art/Publishing-Resources#764881
https://permies.com/t/168534/Publish-Ebooks

I'm pretty sure there must be several BBs in writing a book!

I have no experience with publishing so I have no advice for you.  This I can however offer, put me down for a copy.  Keep in mind I'm old (well older) and like to hold a book in my hands, if you do this e book thingy I will have to ask a friend for some help !

Peace

Congratulations for your efforts.

I am looking forward to the final results ....

Awesome.

I just wrote a novel too about Permiculture. It is in its second printing now and reviews have been very positive so far.

I got the good stuff in: rocket mass heaters, underground houses, micro hydro, etc

People often forget how powerful words can really be but they hold immense power.

Good for you!

Rebekah -

My father published through what I would style a "vanity press".  I think it cost him near the figure you mentioned for the "school" (as I recall, about $5k, US) for a short run - a few boxes, with more available POD if required.  They promised to help him promote the book, but their help wasn't much actual help.  The woman who was repping his book didn't even know what it was about, and never read it.  They reminded me of the vanity press side of the publishing company in "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco (who also wrote "The Name of the Rose", which was made into a Hollywood movie a few years back).  Even though "Foucault's Pendulum" is a work of fiction, I have no doubt that Eco was writing from experience, either directly or indirectly, when it came to sketchy publishing houses.  If you haven't read this, I recommend finding a used paperback copy, just for the insight into the publishing business.

My father recently died, and still had boxes of his book in his house (it was published 20 years ago).  Admittedly, his book is very niche and special interest - hermeneutics of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, with special emphasis on extended Hebrew parallelisms within the text - so it's difficult for me to imagine that the appeal, worldwide, would have exceed more than several hundred persons.  The publishing house he used seemed to specialize in the "Amish romance" genre and the like, so probably should have told my dad to try elsewhere, but they happily took his money.  When my dad passed, we were discussing how best to distribute his later writings - a POD press, as PDFs, etc..

So, be careful.  There seem to be some unscrupulous operators in this space.  Caveat emptor.

Your book will have much broader appeal than did his, and tie-in promotions through these forums are likely, so getting the word out initially will be much facilitated.

Ernie and Erica Wisner used New Society for their book on rocket stoves.  I bought the ebook (in PDF format) directly from New Society, but may yet purchase a dead trees version, also.  All else being equal, I still prefer to hold a real book in my grubby mitts, but I have accommodated myself to reading electronic versions of lots of things, since my intellectual interests are wide-ranging and perhaps a bit arcane (apples and trees, doncha' know!).  I've bought "The Art of Fire" (and several other items) through this forum in PDF format.  One of the publishing houses (maybe Chelsea Green?) watermarks their PDFs with the original purchaser's name and email address.  This is a subtle version of "name and shame" - or stocks and pillory!  If a purchaser shares the electronic file, they may be signing themselves up for a lifetime of spam emails, or worse!

I don't know if any of this is actually helpful to you.

There are plenty of others on these forums with more direct experience with publishing their work, but this is what I have observed, once removed.

Kevin

Nina Surya wrote:
How do you feel about just doing that for starters, focus on pouring it all out and refining until you hit the 30 day mark on February 17th.

Eat an elephant one bite at a time, right, Nina? Yes, I maybe should refrain from making any publishing decisions until I have a manuscript with which to deal.

Nancy Reading wrote:

I'm pretty sure there must be several BBs in writing a book!

Thank you for the links, Nancy!
I'm still not great at navigating all the forums here at permies.
I think I will best serve the audience who reads Gert's story if I have a clear picture of who they are. Do they find her book on permies forums? Listening to a podcast? On audible? Or a hard copy gift from a friend? Those are all different avatars for whom to market. So I am grateful to explore possibilities soon.

I don't think the actual writing of the book is a bb. But I believe the selling of it can be part of the commerce badge.  

Steve Zoma wrote:Awesome.

I just wrote a novel too about Permiculture. It is in its second printing now and reviews have been very positive so far.

Oh yeah, Steve? Where could I get a copy of your book?

Thanks, Anne and Deane! I'll keep a copy for ya 😉
Kevin, I've heard of vanity publishing. It's like in-between self publishing and using a publisher, if I understand correctly. I'm such a newbie that I really could be taken advantage of.

I'd read that book of your dad's, tho! I'm a scripture nut who would appreciate it.

Hello Rebekah!

This is so great!  I am glad you are writing and bringing Gert to life!  
Is there a draft copy we can read??
Does Ferd come into the story?

My dad is a self published children's book author.  He uses IngramSpark https://www.ingramspark.com/
They do on demand publishing and will do the shipping for you too if you want.  

Two of his books are here on permies in the digital market as e-books.

https://permies.com/wiki/179537/ebooks/Longest-Darkest-Night-Peter-Lewis



https://permies.com/wiki/213689/ebooks/Pickleman-Bickleton


Permies is a wonderful place to get your content in front of tons of people who will love it.  You can and make ads and get thread boost!
https://permies.com/wiki/61482/Thread-Boost-feature


You can even get a mention in the daily-ish!


This sounds like a great way to earn the passive income bb!
https://permies.com/wiki/151870/pep-commerce/Develop-Residual-Income-Streams-mo

Rebekah Harmon wrote:I'd read that book of your dad's, tho! I'm a scripture nut who would appreciate it.

Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Unfolding-Romans-Wayne-Olson/dp/1414101597

Looks like there may a couple of used copies floating around...

Or purple mooseage me and we can work something out to get you a copy fresh from the box sitting in his living room.  Make me an offer, and I can figure out what shipping will cost.  I won't throw them away, but they'll likely just sit, unless there is a suddenly unexpected flush of interest in Hebrew rhetorical forms for a lay audience.

He spent the last 30 years or so of his life working on this project (examples from both the Tanakh and the New Testament).

Kevin

Vanity publishing is a known scam because YOU pay them to publish your book. But what they really make money on is overcharging you for editing, printing, promotions and those sort of costs to the point where they make so much money on the author they could care less if that actually sell your book.

It’s easy to not get scammed with book publishing: they pay you and you never pay them.

It’s just tough because you have on average one in a 200 chance of being accepted. With 1 million new books every year completion is fierce.

The book publishing market is really archaic and needs to change.

You can flat ship a book at #2 rate for around $10 via the us postal service.

They do have a cheaper $4 rate I can get that is book rate but often say it is only library to library rates.

Fab progress, Rebekah!

Absolutely don't pay that kind of money to a "self-publishing school"! I've been successfully publishing my own books for over ten years, made enough money from the books to buy our retirement home and renovate it, and spent next to nothing learning how to do it. There's so much information on how to do this available at no cost, and the process is much simpler now than it used to be with lots more options. It's very possible to create and publish a beautiful book with minimal spend.

1. Write the book;
2. Type it up using proper formatting- this is a good guide: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200645680  Yes, it's Amazon, but the basic formatting works the same for ebooks no matter where you publish and good formatting in the manuscript right from the start will make it way easier to format your paperback. There's also plenty of other good information about self-publishing ebooks and paperbacks on their Kindle Direct Publishing site. Draft2Digital is another useful site  with good info -- it's one a lot of authors use to publish ebooks if they don't want to be exclusive to Amazon. The instructions given are usually for Word, but if you don't have access to Word, Google Docs or one of the other free word processors will work fine and cost you nothing;
3. Run a spelling and grammar check;
4. Get people you trust to read it, ideally people who aren't close friends or family members but who do read this sort of book. You need people honest enough to point out typos, what parts of the book worked well for them, what maybe didn't work so well;
5.  Consider what changes you might want to make based on the feedback. Always keep backup copies of the previous versions in case you change your mind!
6. Get the book edited. This can be a big expense, but I know plenty of authors who haven't paid for editing, who swap edits with author friends;
7. Think about where you want to publish and sell the book. Ebooks are a big market, so don't ignore that! Read up on the different options for where to publish ebooks, paperbacks, and even audiobooks;
8. Cover design - people will say you can't do your own, and for some people with absolutely zero design sense that's true. But most people do have some feeling for design and can do a decent job of a cover. An important issue is to be sure to only use fonts and images that can be used commercially;
9. Think about how you want to communicate with your readers - social media, newsletter, website? None of these need to cost a lot of money. You can start setting this up before you publish the book;
10. Go ahead and publish the book on your chosen sites following their guidelines.

Pray a lot and enjoy the adventure!

I've written a few novels and self-published one. I've also done a lot of reading and reviewing of other people's self-published novels, so here are my thoughts from that experience.

1. Almost all of the self-published novels I've read were weak. Most had ideas that could be made into a great story but missed the mark on execution--usually due to weak characters. My best guess is that they didn't get good editing or were unwilling to do as much work as their editors suggested. I look at my rough draft as about the 40% mark on writing a good book, as I think some fall into the trap of thinking a rough draft means "almost done".
2. People often recommend learning to format for e-book yourself, but you can also have it done for a couple hundred dollars, so it's really a time vs. money question. I spent the money, but I think the right choice is individual.

I may be available to read an early draft and give feedback: I say "may" because I am careful about committing future time, but I'd also like to help in your mission (and hopefully, I'll simply enjoy reading it). Feel free to PM me when you're ready, or maybe I'll see it on this thread.

There are a lot of scams around that are targeting authors. Personally I would not spend any money on a “school”. It’s possible to learn everything needed to publish an excellent quality book for free, and to then hire a real editor and/or proofreader of your choice.

There's a website called "Reedsy" where you can find freelance editors. I haven't used it myself, but it seems pretty transparent and non-scammy.

There are several cheap options for self publishing. I am most familiar with Amazon/KDP and IngramSpark, but Lulu is another popular one. Amazon/KDP has a cover creating tool, so that you can make a book cover online without needing any programs or graphic design skills, I think Ingram may have launched something similar, Ingram in general are a bit tricker to deal with about their file requirements than Amazon.

All three of these services will let you upload your book, set your pricing, and then have it available for people to buy, and they they send it out for you, so you don't have to worry about storing boxes of books.

For any self publishing, I would recommend getting an experienced proofreader and probably also an editor. Unpaid beta readers that can read it and provide general feedback can be a good idea too.

Jane Mulberry wrote:

Pray a lot and enjoy the adventure!

Hey Jane!
I'm absolutely floored by your 10 steps to self publishing!! I checked into your website. Wow!! How many books have you published!? I consider your words absolute gold. Thank you for taking the time to help a noob author get going.

Josh McDonald wrote:

I may be available to read an early draft and give feedback: I say "may" because I am careful about committing future time, but I'd also like to help in your mission (and hopefully, I'll simply enjoy reading it). Feel free to PM me when you're ready, or maybe I'll see it on this thread.

Hey Josh! I am rather worried about your assessment of weak storylines being possibly true for me. So far, I've mapped out my characters, and they're solid. But I am a first timer! I'm sure I will male all the rookie mistakes.
I will take your excellent advice to heavily self-edit, professionally edit, and find Beta-readers like Jane suggested.
I will reach out for Beta readers when I am ready!! Thank you so much for your help 🙂

Kate Downham wrote:
All three of these services will let you upload your book, set your pricing, and then have it available for people to buy, and they they send it out for you, so you don't have to worry about storing boxes of books.

Thanks for chiming in, Kate! I do plan to use at least KDP and Ingram. I'd also like to publish a print copy and an audible copy, launching three times to cover each version. Any ideas for audio books? Your help is wonderful!

My permie friends! I am blown away by your help. All the author options are so overwhelming as all who have been there know! My heart is so full of gratitude for each of you who have taken the time to direct me. This community is THE BEST!

THANK YOU!

I can't wait for Gert to reach her happy place; both in her adventure, and in the hearts of happy permie readers 💖

Rebekah Harmon wrote:
I'm absolutely floored by your 10 steps to self publishing!! I checked into your website. Wow!! How many books have you published!? I consider your words absolute gold. Thank you for taking the time to help a noob author get going.

Rebekah, I think I'm on book 29 now. But that's taken over ten years of indie publishing, and quite a few "practice" books before I felt ready to publish! I've been so blessed to be able to develop my writing into a reasonable income stream and reach a lot of readers.

I've done it all on a very limited spend. My biggest expense has been professional editing. Thankfully I have an excellent editor who doesn't charge anywhere near what she is worth! For everything else, I've developed systems that work for me but don't cost a lot of $$. Once your book has been through a few rounds of beta readers and revisions and you feel ready for next steps, let me know and I'll discuss what worked for me and suggest what I feel might work for you.

Rebekah Harmon wrote:
Thanks for chiming in, Kate! I do plan to use at least KDP and Ingram. I'd also like to publish a print copy and an audible copy, launching three times to cover each version. Any ideas for audio books? Your help is wonderful!

I’m not very familiar with audiobooks but understand that they are popular.

I’ve recently discovered a self publishing discussion forum on Reddit. I don’t normally like Reddit, but this one is a very active group with a lot of useful information - I recently was able to search on here and confirm my instincts that paying to get my book on the “indie book display” at a librarians conference would have been a waste of money, so it’s a useful place to search in whenever you’re tempted to spend money on something and want to know if it’s a scam or not.

I don’t post often, but I am available as an experienced editor/proofreader.

Audiobooks are a growing market, but it's best not to be tempted to pay a lot to get one. A friend, a far more successful bestseller than me with her ebooks, spent $2000 to get an audiobook made of her most popular book. Even after three years and a lot of promo effort, it hasn't earned out. I did three audiobooks on a far lower budget, but again, the earnings just don't justify the time invested, even when they can be produced for no cost but my time.

There are ways to get audiobooks without a big spend. Many authors are learning how to narrate and produce their own, which can then be uploaded to bookselling sites using ACX (a division of Amazon) or Draft2Digital. Many authors are getting into selling directly via their own website or sites like Gumtree or Etsy. I haven't tried this - where we live is way too noisy to record, we don't have the space to soundproof a closet to make it an audio booth, and I don't think it's worth me investing time in the learning curve to get competent with audio editing software. But there plenty of info out there about authors who've gone this route.

Other options - ACX have various audiobook production options from full pay-per-finished-hour to getting a human narrator to produce your ebook for no upfront cost, taking instead a 50% royalty share for 7 years. The catch is that good narrators won't usually do all that work unless they can be sure sales will be good. I got in early on this when there were still good narrators doing royalty share, or you might luck out and find someone new, working to build a portfolio and willing to do royalty share. But my lovely narrator sadly earned very little for my audiobooks, I felt so bad I paid her a big bonus payment I really couldn't afford because she'd poured many hours of work into them and was lucky to make $10 a month from them! The royalty share contract also requires that the audiobook be exclusive to ACX for seven years, which means it can only be sold through them on Amazon or iTunes, and the audio can't be used anywhere else. After the seven years, you own the audiobook and can sell it anywhere.

Using ACX to contract narrators to produce your book using pay-per-finished-hour can cost anything from $50 to many hundreds per finished hour, but you own the finished audio and can choose to sell it wherever you want.  Findaway Voices is another quality non-scammy audiobook production business offering pay-per-finished hour. But as my friend experienced, it's not likely for anyone apart from the big bestselling authors who can spend $$$ on promotion to make their money back when paying a good narrator to produce their audiobooks. I don't recommend it unless the author really really REALLY wants an audiobook and is happy to lose money to have it. But it may be possible to get a pay-per-finished-hour contract with a good but new narrator for a reasonable cost via ACX.

Google Play Books offers free AI narration for audiobooks that are listed for sale with Google Play. There are also AI narration apps of varying quality. Not everyone is okay with the idea of AI narration, but it's an option.

If you can and you would enjoy the process, DIY is possibly the best option!

Josh McDonald wrote:I've written a few novels and self-published one. I've also done a lot of reading and reviewing of other people's self-published novels, so here are my thoughts from that experience.

1. Almost all of the self-published novels I've read were weak. Most had ideas that could be made into a great story but missed the mark on execution--usually due to weak characters. My best guess is that they didn't get good editing or were unwilling to do as much work as their editors suggested. I look at my rough draft as about the 40% mark on writing a good book, as I think some fall into the trap of thinking a rough draft means "almost done".
2. People often recommend learning to format for e-book yourself, but you can also have it done for a couple hundred dollars, so it's really a time vs. money question. I spent the money, but I think the right choice is individual.

I may be available to read an early draft and give feedback: I say "may" because I am careful about committing future time, but I'd also like to help in your mission (and hopefully, I'll simply enjoy reading it). Feel free to PM me when you're ready, or maybe I'll see it on this thread.

I am not so sure on this. I have always said like any creativity there is a huge difference in being discovered and having talent. Take for instance Steven King, he never thought he was good enough and if it had not been for his wife Tabitha sending in his first manuscript he might never have been discovered. I have 20 books that I have done from Legal Thrillers, to Romance, to Childrens books and Memoirs. But that does not mean a person in Tanzania is a bad writer. They may be way better than me, just never to be discovered.

But the things you cite change too on the genre being written about. THE most prolific, successful writer EVER, Agatha Christie SUCKED at characterization, in fact she admitted her novels were void of good characterization, but she did mysteries where she focused on the plot because that was what her readers wanted. But she could not have gotten away with that had she written a lot of legal thrillers where characterization is everything.

Myself I view myself more of a story teller then I do a writer. Writing to me is just how I get my story across to others, but it is all about the story. In fact that is why I started my own publishing company, I HATED how the modern day publishers only care about marketing and not how the story is put on paper. I understand why, but I have two absolutes in my writing:

Focus on making the story the best it can be
Never forget the reader

But while I do not have time to disclose this now, people can print their own books and using the equipment they already have at HOME. A laptop, printer, a few snap clamps, glue, a laminator and a cutter is all that is needed to have a book that is identical to what you buy on the shelf at a bookstore. I even emboss, deboss my covers but granted that takes a cricket machine.

So everyone... WRITE... because you can get it published even if it means doing it yourself.

Hey Gert friends! I want to post an update on my progress. At first, I aimed to finish my rough draft by Feb. 17th, which was this Monday. I had been thinking, at the time, that my book should be about 30,000 words. Since then, I've learned that most self help books are this size. Most novels are 50,000+ words.
Anyways, I have 25,000 words so far, and the main character is almost to the "Point of no return" in the hero arc. This makes me a third of the way through the word count I predict. I now aim to finish the rough draft by March 15th.

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Hey Gert friends! I want to post an update on my progress. At first, I aimed to finish my rough draft by Feb. 17th, which was this Monday. I had been thinking, at the time, that my book should be about 30,000 words. Since then, I've learned that most self help books are this size. Most novels are 50,000+ words.
Anyways, I have 25,000 words so far, and the main character is almost to the "Point of no return" in the hero arc. This makes me a third of the way through the word count I predict. I now aim to finish the rough draft by March 15th.

That is impressive progress! I bet that if you were to do a Kickstarter when the book is ready a bunch of us would jump on it.

Good afternoon, Gert friends! I am happy to report going over 30,000 words! In the story so far, Gert has left the city and is living a free-range life! About half way through the book, I think. I've learned many things that steal my creative vibes for the day, and I'm learning to protect against those stressors.
I have the next large section of the book outlined, and I'm excited to keep writing. If I get back to a 1,000 word a day pace, I'll finish around April 15 (funny, since that's a tax deadline! lol)

I had a crazy interaction where I felt a massive cosmic nudge to visit a local hot spring, one which I use in a scene in the book. I told myself it was for pictures (Pictures I'll use to illustrate the book) but that's not why I needed to be there. Turns out, at the springs, just happening to be traveling by, were two employees for a local printing press. I didn't even know Idaho had a publisher!! I was brave enough to ask them about content editors, and now I have wonderful contacts in the printing industry. Crazy, right!?

Anyway, its happening. :D