Guest Post: Emlyn Chand on Self Publishing

To celebrate being back from my well-needed blogging break, I am having the wonderful Emlyn Chand over today for a guest post, courtesy of Orangeberry Virtual Tours. Without further ado, here is her post!

The Guest Post

The Self-Published Author is No Different than the Salem Witch

Let's face it - the publishing industry is changing. We can all pretty much agree on that, right?

What we've got on our hands is an oncoming era of enlightenment (I prefer that to the often-touted “revolution”). ‘T wasn’t long ago that being a self-published author was practically as shocking and horrific as being a witch in Salem, Massachusetts circa 1700.

“What damnation have you wrought upon yourself? Upon us all?” The traditional pub villagers would cry as they rushed for their pitch forks and torches. “Be gone with you, unnatural creatures!”

And those unkind words were enough to send us packing. They didn’t have to chase us out of the village, for we never had any real magic, we were never any real threat.

Until…

We opened our eyes. We saw the true powers we possessed, and we saw the villagers for what they lacked.

We are able to manipulate our circumstances. We have more control than any who’ve gone before us. Self-publishing truly is magic.

But we can’t just walk around all blasé, showing off our green skin and harry warts while levitating our way through the park. That would be a mistake. We need to put on a little bit of concealer and keep our feet on the ground. We wouldn’t want to scare them away.

Similarly, a self-published or indie author needs to put on a bit of a show. We need to know when to conform to the “village” way of life and when to do our own damn thang. If we can get them to come in for a closer look, they might understand our allure. Then they’ll stop being so afraid.

Our make-up isn’t Maybelline to cover that green skin (I ♥ you, Elphaba). No. We apply our foundation by writing a truly fetching and well-edited manuscript. We dab on the blush when we take the time and expense needed to don an attractive book cover. Our lipstick is a professional, personal, and functional web presence.

Don’t we look pretty? We do, I tell you. And we’re all the more beautiful for knowing that we possess something so much deeper within: creativity, stick-to-it-ness, bravery, and of course – magic.

If you really examine the state of the publishing industry, it’s not the traditional house execs that populate the villages. Oh, they’re definitely the mayors, the cryers, and a few other choice townspeople. But if you want to see who lives in the village, go and knock on a few doors.

It’s the readers, bibliophiles, book addicts. They’re the ones who built this town. The mayor would have no village to govern if ‘tweren’t for them.

And thank God for it!

We arrived on their doorsteps – beaten, bloody, in need of a hot meal and a bit of rest. They may have been put off by our bedraggled appearance, but they ultimately let us in and showed us the true nature of their hospitality.

I kind of like this town; I think I’ll move in ;-)

Book & Bio

From an early age, Emlyn Chand has counted books among her best friends. She loves to hear and tell stories and emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). Her affinity for the written word extends to absolutely every area of her life: she has written two-and-a-half novels, leads a classics book group with over three hundred members, and, of course, runs the whole shebang at Novel Publicity.

Alex Kosmitoras's life has never been easy. The only other student who will talk to him is the school bully, his parents are dead broke and insanely overprotective, and to complicate matters even more, he's blind. Just when he thinks he'll never have a shot at a normal life, an enticing new girl comes to their small Midwest town all the way from India. Simmi is smart, nice, and actually wants to be friends with Alex. Plus she smells like an Almond Joy bar. Sophomore year might not be so bad after all.

Unfortunately, Alex is in store for another new arrival—an unexpected and often embarrassing ability to "see" the future. Try as he may, Alex is unable to ignore his visions, especially when they suggest Simmi is in mortal danger. With the help of the mysterious psychic next door and friends who come bearing gifts of their own, Alex embarks on his journey to change the future.

Interview: Jessica Bennett of Grub Street Reads

Today's interview is a little bit different from what you might be used to here on Nyx Book Reviews. I'm not interviewing an author (well - she is an author, but that's not the focus of the interview), but the co-owner of new indie book endorsement company Grub Street Reads.

The Interview

Nyx Book Reviews: Hi Jessica, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Jessica: Hi Celine, I’m really pleased to be here at Nyx Book Reviews. My business partner, Leslie Ramey, and I are both fans of the blog, and we’re excited to share information about our business, Grub Streets Reads, with you and your readers.

Leslie and I are, first and foremost, passionate readers. Personally, my addiction started when a shady friend slipped me my first Goosebumps book at a young age. That was the gateway book, and I’ve been hooked ever since. It shouldn’t be surprising that both Leslie and I knew early on that we wanted to be authors.

Fast forward a few decades, and I found myself sitting across from Leslie in a writer’s critique group. She and I began to meet separately to critique each other’s work and to discuss publishing our work. We both did our own research of the current publishing market and decided to self-publish. It was a really exciting time, but also scary. Self-publishing means that you’re on your own, especially when it comes to marketing your book. Marketing is a task that almost all indie authors struggle with.

During this time, Leslie and I looked at every possible way to market our books. We assumed there was some organization out there that provided endorsements or had developed a quality standard for indie books, but all we found were authors and readers alike asking for this type of service. No one was doing it, even though the need was clear.

Leslie and I spent a lot of time discussing the idea. This included much lip chewing, brain storming, and maybe a few tequila shots, but eventually we decided that if no one was going to step up to the plate, we would. A year – and much, much, much work – later, we’re fit to burst with pride over Grub Street Reads, which officially launches July 9th.

Your company is called Grub Street Reads. What do you guys do?

In a nutshell, Grub Street Reads seeks to encourage higher readership of self-published and indie authors by providing a quality standard for self-published and independently-published novels. The Grub Street Reads endorsement seal is given to those books that pass an evaluation process based on the fundamental qualities of good storytelling.

We believe that the indie book market needs standards and that spotlighting the best indie books on the market with our endorsement is a good thing for authors, readers and the reputation of the indie market.
We’re very open about our evaluation process and endorsement criteria on our website. We also have a fun and kooky video on our home page that explains our business in a little more detail: www.GrubStreetReads.com

You endorse books. How is this different from publishing books, like the big publishing houses do?

One of the biggest differences is that we don’t consider ourselves to be “gatekeepers”. Just a few years ago the only viable way to be a successful author was to get into the big bookstores. In most instances, this required an author to get an agent who would then have to place the book with a publisher. If a publisher didn’t accept the book, the author had a very poor chance of ever getting visibility. Agents and publishers are very picky and only a very small percentage of authors ever got a publishing contract.

At Grub Street Reads, we don’t stop anyone from publishing their book. Even if we don’t endorse a particular novel, that author can still self-publish on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and potentially be a great success.

Our main focus is to spotlight and support quality indie books, not to hold anyone back.

Another big difference is that a publisher will typically handle all aspects of an author’s book publication, marketing and distribution. This includes editing the manuscript, developing a cover, publicizing the book, etc…

At Grub Street Reads, we don’t publish or actively distribute books. We do list all of our endorsed books in the Grub Street Reads Library and include links to where they can be purchased. We also try to support our endorsed authors by acknowledging them on our website, our social networking sites, our newsletters and in many other ways.

What kind of books/authors are you looking for?

Quality is the most important factor when it comes to receiving a Grub Street Reads endorsement. We are very clear about what our endorsement criteria are and even have a “Read Before You Submit” page on our website with Dos and Don’ts.

If you’ve got a great book, we’d love to evaluate it and give you our endorsement if your manuscript meets our criteria.

As far as specifics go, we accept all genres of fiction except for children’s book. We also accept creative nonfiction. We don’t accept poetry or screenplays. Manuscripts must be complete, and at this time we’re only accepting manuscripts written in English. We accept manuscripts that are unpublished, self-published, and traditionally-published.

Do you think indie publishing will take over the market?

I don’t think we’ll be seeing the major publishing companies melt away entirely in the next couple of years, but they’re definitely not the only game in town anymore. . The explosion in self-publishing will only get bigger as more and more authors look at the market just like Leslie and I did and see all the opportunities that abound for indie authors.

It’s easier than ever to self-publish, and the royalty rates offered by Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online distributors can’t be beat. With the continued and far-reaching adoption of Kindles, Nooks, iPads and other electronic reading devices, readers are buying ebooks in droves. No longer must authors get their novels into (dwindling) bookstores to be successful.

The publishing promise land has come for authors. Unfortunately, that promise land is getting really crowded. The process of self-publishing a novel may be easy, but actually developing a strong readership is anything but. Authors still need to find a way to stand out from the crowd and please readers.

Speaking of readers, I think most of them don’t care whether a book is self-published or comes from a big publishing house. They just want a great story that will sweep them away. Unfortunately, with so many low-quality books floating around, readers are starting to shy away from trying new authors.

The bigger the indie book market gets, the greater the need for Grub Street Reads.

Thank you for answering my questions (:

Thanks for letting me stop by your place to chat! It’s been a pleasure. A couple last things I wanted to mention: Grub Street Reads officially launches July 9th, but our beta site is up, and we already have a growing list of endorsed indie books in the GSR library. We invite readers of Nyx Book Reviews to check out our site, view/mock our kooky video and read more about our endorsement process and criteria. We’re also offering a 25% discount for all manuscripts submitted before our official launch, so hurry up and hustle over.

Thanks so much for your time!

Guest Post: Graham Parke on Publishing

As you probably know, to become an internationally best-selling author, you need to sell three books. This is not an easy task, but once you’ve managed to rack up these three sales, the rest is more or less a done deal.

Now, these sales themselves will not put you on the best-seller lists. They won’t even put you within a million spots of the bottom of the lists, but what they will do, and what they do every time, is spark a slowly growing buying frenzy that will get you there.

These three people will love your book, they will tell another five people, who in turn tell another seven. Within roughly four-and-a-half weeks, you finally make your first million.
That’s how it happens. Every single time.

But, how does an author tackle this monumental task? Where does he find these three readers?

I myself was quite lucky. When my novel appeared on Amazon I already knew over five people! What’s more, some of these people even liked me... somewhat. So I set out to become an internationally best-selling author by convincing at least three of these five people to buy my novel.

I started with my mother. Of all the five people I knew, I probably knew her the longest. I showed her my Amazon page and she nodded approvingly. She did not, however, make any attempts to buy a copy. So I logged on for her, navigated back to my novel’s page, and left the mouse pointer conveniently positioned over the BUY button.

She read the novel description again, searched-inside-this-book, and nodded some more. When I asked her if she’d like to buy a copy, she scrunched up her nose and said;

‘But what if I don’t like it?’
I told her not to worry. ‘It’s a really good book,’ I said. ‘I should know. I’ve re-written it like 50 times. It’s really funny and interesting.’
My mother wasn’t convinced. ‘I’m not really into comedy writing, though,’ she said.
‘It’s not just a comedy,’ I pointed out. ‘It has a real story; it’s a mystery. And it has twists and turns and believable characters.’
My mother hesitated. ‘Maybe I should just play it safe and buy another Stephen King novel…’

I ended up having to offer a personal money-back guarantee, and purchase a copy using my own credit card for the time being, but she finally cracked. I’d made my first sale!

Next, I prodded my wife. Although she did like words in general, she wasn’t sure she was up for reading and entire book full of them. ‘Is this like your usual stuff?’ she wanted to know.
‘What usual stuff?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Is it like listening to you talk?’
‘What’s wrong with they way I talk?’
‘Nothing. It’s just, well, sometimes you talk a lot of nonsense.’
I waved it away. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I am much more interesting and ‘telligible’ on paper.’

Long story short; my second sale is almost in the bag. Now I just need to find one more person to buy my novel, and I’ll be set for life!


Check out the Summer of Gomez!


Get free books and win a Kindle or iPod.

As reviewers have been calling “No Hope for Gomez!” the perfect summer read - light, fast, fun - I decided to give this summer's Gomez readers some exclusive content and the chance to win prizes.