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Month: May 2017

My 2017 Camp NaNoWriMo Experience: Failures & SuccessesCamp NaNoWriMo

My 2017 Camp NaNoWriMo Experience: Failures & Successes

Published by Janell E. Robisch on May 8, 2017

I have this bad habit of jumping into National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) experiences at the last minute. Last Halloween, I decided to do my first NaNoWriMo, which started November 1, without any real preparation and only an idea. Then, I went and did it again for this April’s Camp NaNoWriMo when some Twitter friends asked me to join their cabin (What Are Cabins?).

I was already working on a rewrite of my urban fantasy novel, Blood Mastery, so I figured I could just add another tracking form to my month and get some extra support in the meanwhile. It didn’t turn out to be that easy, and here I’ll discuss why.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2017

Camp NaNoWriMo: Failures

1. I didn’t write as many words as I did in November.

Camp NaNoWriMo is not set up the same as November’s NaNoWriMo. To win regular NaNoWriMo, you must write at least 50,000 words within the 30-day month of November. With Camp NaNoWriMo, you set your own goal.

In the end, although I technically won, I had written only 20,184 words on Blood Mastery in April versus the 52,359 words I wrote on my other novel in November.

2. I had to lower my goal part way through the month.

I started out with a goal of 25,000 words. It quickly became clear that I wouldn’t be able to write that many, at least not on my novel. Before April 20, when people were allowed to start validating their writing for a “win,” I was allowed to change my goal in Camp NaNoWriMo, and that’s what I did, although I didn’t feel so hot about it.

3. I felt stretched completely thin.

I ended up feeling more scattered and stressed during Camp NaNoWriMo that I had during NaNoWriMo, even though my goal was lower. The reason was that during November’s NaNoWriMo, I was working on a single project, one novel. By the time April rolled around, I was working on several projects, each of which needed my attention.

In addition to my novel, I was writing and editing four weekly blog posts, a one-act play, and a nonfiction booklet for authors. Because I couldn’t put any of them off, my 20k words for Camp NaNoWriMo had to be done on top of all these other things.

4. I got slowed down by poor planning.

Although I had a rough outline for my book, by about the middle of the month, I realized that my rewrite wasn’t going to be long enough to qualify as a novel. I was quickly approaching the climax, and I was only about 25,000 words in.

I had a brainstorming session with my cabin mates, and I was able to come up with some ideas. I would add more conflict and subplots to my book. However, obsessive that I am, I went back to the beginning and edited the book right away before going any further. Of course, that slowed my writing speed down a lot.

5. I lost a complete day because of unforeseen events.

One of my children injured her foot at gymnastics, and we had to go to multiple appointments to make sure that it wasn’t broken. Life happens, and I don’t regret taking the time out to see to it, but it wasn’t any good for my Camp NaNoWriMo progress.

Camp NaNoWriMo: Successes

1. I wrote twice as many words for my novel in April as I had the month before.

I write basically every day, participating in the Twitter monthly writing challenge and allowing very few things to stop me.

The extra incentive that Camp NaNoWriMo provided helped me to write 20,184 words of my novel in April. Even with my small goal of 500 words a day, I had added only 10,432 words in March, even with the same extra projects. That’s almost double.

2. At the beginning of the month, my goal was flexible.

As I mentioned before, I reduced my goal part way through the month. That flexibility was an advantage, even though I didn’t feel good about using it. Camp NaNoWriMo lets you set your own goal, and before winning begins, you can adjust it up or down.

You can’t do that with regular NaNoWriMo: it’s 50,000 words no matter what. It’s more about proving to yourself that you can write a novel than meeting your own personal goals, although those two interests might intersect.Camp NaNoWriMo

3. The support was phenomenal.

Our cabin, the little group of writers that was my community during Camp NaNoWriMo, came mostly from people I know on Twitter and the monthly writing challenge. However, in this new forum, we were able to share and support one another more deeply than we normally can with the limited 140 characters or less per post allowed on Twitter.

There were questions and conversations about general writing topics but also real, nitty-gritty problem solving and feedback that helped us all keep moving forward. The one-thread forum format was a little difficult to navigate, but we managed.

4. I wrote 10% of my goal on each of the last two days.

By about halfway through the month, I had pretty much given up any hope of winning Camp NaNoWriMo. My distractions—a.k.a. my other projects—were taking away too much of my attention. However, as the last week rolled around, I realized that I was now in a place to put them aside for at least a week and work only on the novel. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded since I was out of town on two of those days for a kid-related activity.

Despite all that, I ended up writing more than 2000 words on each of the last two days of Camp NaNoWriMo, just barely clearing my goal. One of those days, I dictated them, and on the other, I typed them in a hotel room with two of my children playing nearby.

In any case, I impressed myself a little. It’s not that I’ve never written 2000 words in a day, but it’s pretty rare for me. This full-time editor thing, homeschooling my kids, etc., keep me pretty busy.

Camp NaNoWriMoWould I Do Camp NaNoWriMo Again?

I honestly don’t know if I will take part in Camp NaNoWriMo again or even in NaNoWriMo in November. I will just have to see where I am at that point with each of my projects.

Despite my lack of preparation, last November turned out to be the perfect time to start a new novel. I had just finished the first draft of Blood Mastery. I really needed to put it aside, and working on a new novel was the best distraction.

If I do either NaNoWriMo event in the future, I will not only start with a rough outline but also clear my schedule as much as possible. I’ll write and schedule extra blog posts the month before and move other writing projects around as necessary. The extra stress from those extra projects was just a little too much, and I wouldn’t want to repeat that experience.

I want to say thanks to the writers in my cabin for all the great support! And congratulations for accomplishing the impossible!

Did you do Camp NaNoWriMo this year? What was your experience like? Will you do it again?

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Expanded Distribution for Print Books: The Costsextended distribution, self-publishing, indie author, createspace, ingramspark

Expanded Distribution for Print Books: The Costs

Published by Janell E. Robisch on May 1, 2017

Many of us grew up loving the experience of going into the bookstore or library, perusing all of the covers, and choosing just the right one. Many of us still do, and the thrill of possibly seeing our own covers on those same shelves is just too great to pass up. So, it’s no wonder expanded distribution is a hot topic among indie authors.

Expanded distribution is a self-publishing choice that gives you the chance to get your book into bookstores and libraries, places that are usually off limits to indie authors. Actually, extended distribution only makes your book available to these places. There is no guarantee. Each bookstore and library must decide on its own which books to include in its collection.

The two major players in print-on-demand publishing are Amazon’s CreateSpace and IngramSpark, a part of Ingram Content Group and a long-time major player in the book distribution game.

 

expanded distribution, self-publishing, createspace, indie author          expanded distribution, self-publishing, IngramSpark, indie author

Expanded Distribution through CreateSpace

One author client of mine chose to publish his book through CreateSpace. Like many authors, he wanted expanded distribution, that is, until he learned the cost. CreateSpace is free to use, but once a book is put into CreateSpace’s expanded distribution program, the base price, or cost of producing and distributing the book, goes up. This leaves the author with a much lower royalty and/or a higher priced book. Higher prices often lead to fewer sales and, thus, less money earned.

For illustration purposes, I used CreateSpace’s Royalty Calculator (in the Royalties tab) to figure out the approximate royalties for a 200-page 6 × 9 book priced at $9.99. Here are the results:

expanded distribution, self-publishing, indie author, createspace, royalties, royalty calculator

I had to price the book at $9.99 to get any positive royalty at all through expanded distribution channels. At first, I thought this was ridiculous, but when I looked into IngramSpark’s program, I found much the same thing.

Expanded Distribution through IngramSpark

IngramSpark has a different way to approach the same situation. The company charges a setup fee of $49 to publish a print book, and all of its books go through expanded distribution.

Its books are made available to “just about anyone on the planet who sells (or is even thinking about selling) a book in any format.”

On the surface, this seems like a better deal. Just pay a setup fee and keep more of the royalties to yourself! However, because of discounts, this isn’t the case after all.

When I used IngramSpark’s Publisher Compensation Calculator (their version of a royalty calculator) for the same 200-page 6 × 9 book, these were the results:

expanded distribution, self-publishing, indie author, ingramspark, royalties, royalty calculator

The royalties, or publisher compensation, were 10 cents lower. Why? The answer comes in the form of discounts to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors.

Discounts and Pricing

According to Joel Friedlander, retailers such as your local bookstore generally demand at least a 40% discount on the list price of books. The wholesaler (such as Ingram or Baker and Taylor) take its cut, too, about 15%. Then, the distributor takes a chunk. In the end, “as a publisher you will have to give up 65-70% of the retail price to get the benefits of full distribution.”

Which Is Better?

In a curious twist, CreateSpace’s expanded distribution uses Ingram to distribute your books, and IngramSpark distributes through Amazon as well as other retailers.

The only difference that I found was the rumor that some brick-and-mortar stores refuse to order from Amazon, which they rightly view as competition. In addition, if your book is distributed through Ingram, it may show up as available from a “third-party seller” on Amazon.

In the end, it seems that you’re getting much the same service for a similar price, except for Ingram’s $49 setup fee. So, you have to ask yourself whether the $49 fee is worth forgoing certain retailers’ aversion to Amazon.

Some experts, such as Joanna Penn, advocate publishing “wide,” or using as many platforms as you can to publish your book. For example, you could publish your print book on CreateSpace without expanded distribution and earn a higher royalty through Amazon’s channels. At the same time, you could use IngramSpark to cover all of your other bases and make your book available to brick-and-mortar stores, libraries, and other retailers.

Other Options: Skipping Expanded Distribution

If you are an author wishing to keep your initial investment low, you may wish to forgo expanded distribution for your print book. You can start out by sticking to CreateSpace and grabbing your chunk of Amazon’s massive market share.

Alternatively, you might want to skip the print market altogether, at least as a beginning strategy. Ebooks are a massive part of the market. According to the “Top Ten Trends in Publishing Every Author Needs to Know in 2017,” “70% of adult fiction sales were digital” in 2016.

Once you’ve established yourself as an indie author and started to build a platform with plenty of positive reviews, you can explore your options with expanded distribution.

What options have worked best for you? What are your plans for publishing your print book?

Please note that the conclusions in this article have been drawn from my own research and experience. It is essential that you do your own research and draw your own conclusions because the publishing world is constantly changing and, to stay competitive as an indie author, you have to keep up.

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