Tag: self-publishing

Writers: Don’t Get Scammed!

August 20, 2024 / Rissa Renae

We live in a world where scammers lurk around every digital corner. There are virus threat scams, banking scams, fake websites, and click-bait ads. Everything imaginable can be used by The Bad Guys to con you out of your money.

Including publishing your book.

If you take anything away from this article, let it be this: PUBLISHING, of any kind, IS FREE!

“But Rissa, what about cover art, and editing, and blah blah blah?”

ALSO FREE! For both traditional and self-published authors. The process is 100% free.

How Do You Find Free Publishing Resources?

The quick answer is: just Google what you need, plus the word “Free”. Chances are, if you need something, there’s a website that will help you do it for free.

Need a book cover, try Canva or Visme.

Need an editor, try Grammarly or Quillbot.

Need to convert your manuscript to an eBook? Try Calibre or Adobe (yes ‘that’ Adobe). Even KDP can now convert and code an eBook format for you from your manuscript.

100% free.

To self-publish, you only need …

A cover image (KDP will tell you the dimensions and resolution to plop into whichever website you use)
Your manuscript in either a word processor document (like from Google docs or Microsoft Word) or a PDF file.

Both KDP and IngramSpark will walk you through creating both the physical book (hardcover and trade paperback) and eBook for eReaders.

You can, of course, pay for these services, such as manuscript editing and cover art. But when it comes to handing the cover and interior over to be published, this process is absolutely free. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a scam.

Vanity Presses are infecting the publishing world like a virus. These services offer you the world–they will piece together the cover, the interior mater/manuscript, and publish your novel, all in a process they make out to be super-scary and oh-so-difficult.

It’s really not. And this is coming from the poor unfortunate girl who had to wade through the horrors of the CreateSpace hot mess to self-pub her first novel!

Be it ever so confusing, CreateSpace got me published. Photo: Rissa Renae

Whether you are self-publishing or traditionally publishing, the process is always free for the author. Publishers pay YOU. If you pay the publisher, even a penny, it’s a scam.

What is a Vanity Press?

Any publisher that asks the writer to pay upfront to publish is a Vanity Press. Why is this a scam? Because they’re asking you to pay the press to do something you can do for free. As mentioned above, everything from editing to publishing an ebook or physical book is free. There’s a price only if you choose to pay for it, and those items should never be more than editing or cover art.

In the end, you are paying thousands of dollars for the vanity of holding a physical copy of your book . . . which services such as KDP and IngramSpark can do for you for free.

Are Self-Publishing and Vanity Publishing the Same?

Yes, they are. So why pay for the opportunity? You, the author, bypass literary agents and publishing houses to take your book directly to market. These two publishing methods follow the same workflow, involve the same processes, and need the same tools to publish.

The difference in the two comes down to who controls the publishing process and who owns the rights to your book. Self-publishing, as the name implies, keeps full control of the literary rights and content with the author. With vanity presses, often the author is giving up the literary rights and a sum of money over to a 3rd party to, in essence, self-publish for the author. The ‘publisher’ then controls your book, not you. The ‘publisher’ then retains the rights to your book (depending on the contract). This is why it’s a scam. The vanity press takes your money, takes your rights, and takes control of the manuscript.

Think about a vanity press like this: It’s like paying someone to drive your car through a fast food drive-thru to order you a value meal. And they keep the car in the end.

Are There Trustworthy Vanity Presses?

Yes, there are! But these are not called vanity presses, they are considered hybrid publishers. Like self-publishing, the author is still bypassing literary agents and traditional publishing houses, but the author and the press now share any costs needed to publish the book–things like editing and cover art.

And why is hybrid not a scam but vanity is? Because a hybrid publisher has skin in the game. The hybrid publisher invests in your novel, in much the same way a traditional publisher would. The hybrid publisher and the author share a percentage of any costs agreed to, and also share a percentage of the sales/royalties. This can be advantageous if an author needs in-depth editing services for the manuscript, needs to pay a cover artist, or needs help with publishing.

A hybrid publisher can help share the costs an author chooses to undertake in the process of publishing a novel.

When Do I Know It’s a Scam?

As soon as you, as the author, are asked for money, it’s a scam.

If some someone contacts you unsolicited, it’s a scam.

Because no legit publisher will reach out over Instagram. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Now, keep in mind, if you have gone out of your way to research a hybrid publisher and sign up, you should make sure to acquaint yourself with the terms of your contract to see what the publisher pays for, what you pay for, and what you both pay for.

Is Indie Publishing like Hybrid Publishing?

Small traditional publishing houses are called indie publishers, or small-press publishers. These publishers tend to work with new authors, or indie authors, and authors who are making the leap from self-publishing to traditional publishing.

Indie publishers are traditional publishers, in that indie publishers will pay you for the rights to publish your novel. The difference between indie and hybrid is that the author doesn’t pay anything to the publisher. The indie press takes on all responsibility for publishing the novel.

Indie publishers tend to move faster than traditional publishers and have all the perks and opportunities, but sometimes with smaller advances (the payment the author gets when the publisher buys their manuscript). The great thing about indie publishers is that a good deal of them do not go through an agent to find manuscripts–the author pitches the story right to the press, and then the press decides if they want to work with the author or not.

My books! Novels #1-4 of The Rose Cross Academy, and my upcoming LitRPG, The Gamemasters. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Whichever publishing route you choose to take, just remember: the process is free unless you choose to pay for a piece of it. Yog’s Law states that money flows towards the writer, not away.

Any form of publishing can seem big and scary at first, but it really isn’t. There is a huge community of fellow writers out there willing to help out. If you need support, check out Facebook Groups and Reddit subs. Here are some great subs that can help out:

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing

https://www.reddit.com/r/authors

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish

And remember, writing is supposed to be fun! Enjoy the process, just make sure to watch out for yourself.

– Rissa

New Book release news

June 6, 2024 / Rissa Renae

… or why a write-a-book-in-a-month challenge isn’t necessarily a good challenge.

Welp, it’s been a while, I know. I wish I could say I’ve been furiously writing, but alas, I have not. In all honesty, the pandemic threw a wrench into my writing. I’ve been trying to re-establish my writing habit, but it’s been hard.

A collection of rejected proofs on my shelf. Photo: Rissa Renae.

That being said, I am happy to report that I am close to publishing my 5^th novel! If you’re waiting for the final book in The Rose Cross Academy series, well, sorry, you’ll have to wait a few months longer! My pandemic project, however, is in the final steps of self-publishing. After which I will be working to complete the final novel in the RCA series.

My newest novel, The Gamemasters, is a LitRPG / GameLit sci-fi novel. The high-level premise is gamers beta testing a cutting-edge virtual reality game become stuck in the game. As the game’s storyline kicks off, the game itself starts killing players. As players try to stay alive, they turn on each other. I see this as Lord of the Flies in a virtual reality setting.

The cover I have concocted is a paint-over of an AI-generated artwork. The cover depicts one of the dungeon bosses the players must defeat in the game. I mean, who doesn’t get the heebie-jeebies at seeing a two-story hairy spider?

A screengrab of my Photoshop doc, work in progress! Photo: Rissa Renae.

I started this novel for a certain month-long writing challenge in 2020 (I’m leaving it unnamed since there is some controversy surrounding the entity at the moment) during the pandemic. I managed to get through the month and came out with a 60,000K novel, but after the stress of writing thousands of words every night for a month, I needed a break. Even after the writing break, I found it hard to get back into writing. Just thinking about writing, and sometimes even opening a document sparked a wave of panic.

I had to take a long break. A really long break. What I think happened was that I turned writing—which until November 2020 was a fun escape—into a high-stress project that I had to do no matter what.

Literal Word vomit (from a font encoding error) on my *Gamemasters* file. Photo: Rissa Renae.

I started to hate writing. Near the end of November 2020, I was already dreading opening a document and writing again. This hobby was no longer fun. Now it was a chore, right up there with cleaning the bathroom. I wrote because I had to, not because I wanted to.

During my ‘break’, I shifted my focus away from writing. I got back into table-top card games. In the 90’s, I used to play Magic: The Gathering with my high school friends. That’s probably hinting at my age right there! I had found my old (and I do mean old) deck from the 90’s and decided to get back into collecting the cards. Now, 10,000+ cards later, I was finally able to open my works in progress and work on them without getting panic attacks.

A collection of my excess Magic: The Gathering cards. Photo: Rissa Renae.

For 2022 to now, I worked on both the final book in The Rose Cross Academy series, as well as polishing up The Gamemasters. At the beginning of June 2024, I had finished two rounds of self-editing of the manuscript, as well as an AI check of the document. I wavered a few times on whether to split this novel into two parts (it comes in at a juicy 158,000 words), but in the end, I thought “Ah, screw it! I’m self-publishing. This novel can be as long as I want it to be!”)

I did briefly think about submitting the novel to a few agents, but there are very few sci-fi agents accepting queries, and even fewer who will take a sci-fi that is not spaceships and alien planets.

Speaking of alien planets… The May 10, 2024 solar storm. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Today, I uploaded the cover and contents to KDP, and have requested a proof copy. Likely, I’ll get the proof within a few days. I was planning on taking the novel on vacation with me and doing an edit while on the plane, but we’ll see where the world takes me. I still have the copyright to finish before publishing, so I still have some busy work to do.

Oh! And I need to update the website. Geesh. I haven’t done that in ages. I hope I still remember my HTML!

As a side note, I have been dabbing in an epic fantasy, the title still unknown (although I have a couple of thoughts). I like the idea M. Night Shyamalan presented in The Village and I am trying to work in a twist like that into this novel, but also keep the setting high fantasy with mythical creatures and magic.

Now as the weather warms and the summer flowers come out I hope to get back into a habit of writing. It doesn’t have to be daily. I think that’s what got me into trouble in the first place. If I can do something creative every day, not just with writing, I think I can get myself back into a good groove.

Yellow roses resting on a fence. Photo: Rissa Renae.

Don’t forget to get outside and enjoy the world. And drink lots of water!

Until next time.

-Rissa

What to do if you lose your Amazon KDP access

April 22, 2022 / Rissa Renae

Life gets in the way, at least, it did for me during the pandemic lockdowns. I suffered a roller coaster of anxiety and panic attacks at being stuck in my house (I’m an introvert and I couldn’t stand to be in my own house!). I also have the a-cursed “underlying medical conditions”, and I was certain COVID-19 would mean my demise should I catch it.

During those long days of ‘can’t stand my house but too afraid to go outside’, I also didn’t write.

We also chose to move house across the country.

We were crazy!

When the dust settled and I was back at the keyboard, I logged into my KDP account, all excited to publish the 4^th Book in my Rose Cross Academy series. Upon clearing the dust off my KDP account, I came to a horrific discovery.

I couldn’t access my KDP account anymore.

After we moved, my phone number changed. Thanks to that villainous beast called Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), any attempts to log into my old KDP account required a verification code to be texted to my old number. A call to Support told me that after a year of no account activity, the Amazon side of my account had been terminated and could not be retrieved.

Keep in mind that there is zero public-facing information on how to contact KDP Support without logging into a KDP account (which I couldn’t do since KDP wanted to send an MFA code to my old phone). All links redirect to Amazon customer support. So I racked my brain at what to do about my lost books and KDP account.

Important Note: Online KDP Support will point you towards forms to fill out to prove your identity in order to change the phone number for MFA. Unfortunately, those forms require you to log into your KDP account that, in my case, wanted to send MFA to the old phone, thus providing no help to me. All civilian links for KDP Support redirect to Amazon Support, and Amazon Support is not equipped to deal with KDP issues. (It took me 5 different Amazon Support team members before I finally gave up).

Long-story-short, after trying many different things over the course of a month, I finally regained control of my previously published novels. Here’s how I did it.

Prerequisites:

An error-free formatted manuscript ready to be published to physical media (not an eBook), complete with cover matter. This is a must.
A separate email account other than the one used for the locked/lost KDP account. One can easily be obtained from Google.
An ISBN number of a published book in the old account.
Banking account info used in the old account.
Mailing address used in the old account.

Step 1: Create a new Amazon KPD account

It is true that Amazon will delete “duplicate” accounts. I’m not sure what kicks off that process on the Amazon side. What we’re going to do is create a new account, then have KDP Support merge the old account into this new account. I thought I heard a rumour there was a one-month grace period to do so, but don’t quote me on this!

Set up this new KDP account as if you were a new author just starting out, using a different email address than that used in the old account. Make sure to enter tax and banking info, and set up the account as directed.

Step 2: Publish a physical book

This is an essential step. KDP will only merge into an account with an active, published book. Yes, this can be an eBook, but the physical book is required in order to hook up the Amazon Marketplace portion of the KDP account. You can simply publish a rough draft manuscript formatted into a book template or old CreateSpace template, then bring that through to being ‘Live’ if a final draft is unavailable. The important point is to have a physical book live for the next step.

Step 3: Set up the Amazon account

Once the physical version of the book is ‘Live’, order an author copy. No worries, you don’t actually have to order the copy in the end. The point of this activity will be to get the Amazon Marketplace account set up and linked to the KDP account. I chose Amazon.com as the marketplace as the U.S. was my largest market even though I am a Canadian author.

Go through the motions of setting up the Amazon account, including adding a credit card and mailing address. Once set up, if you don’t want to purchase the author copy, simply remove the book from the cart.

Step 4: Request a call from KDP Support

Go back to the KDP Bookshelf, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and click the “Contact Us” link.

Under “Account, taxes, and getting started”, choose “Close or merge accounts”.

Choose to be contacted by phone. Fill in the form as needed, then wait for the call back. I receive the return call in about 10 minutes.

Step 5: KDP Support will help you merge accounts

The KDP Support person will ask questions about books in the old account. They will ask for information that can personally identify the old account as yours. This verification process took about 5 minutes.

Once that has been completed, the Support person will email the address on file for the old account to seek permission to merge. At this point, the Support call will likely end. Login to the email account associated with the old KDP account. Once you receive that email from Support, simply reply to that email stating that you approve of the merge.

I waited until the next morning and found all my old books now popped up in my new account! I was so happy.

Step 6: Clean up

Whether there have been changes to the way the physical books and eBooks are linked, I wouldn’t know since I hadn’t logged into my account in about two years. I did have to re-link my eBooks to my paperbacks. This took about 24-hours to sort itself out as the eBooks stuck around individually even after I linked them.

As of writing this, all my books are back under my control, complete with all the ratings and reviews I had received. All my original short links still work as well.

What did I learn?

So the moral of this story, I guess, is to log into both the KDP and Amazon Marketplace accounts at least once a year. This is to approve or acknowledge any changes to the functionality of your books, or agree to changes in terms and conditions that may happen on either site.

When I was going through the motions of trying to reclaim my previous works, it helped that I had my copyright notice from the United States Copyright Office. I know registered copyrights are a polarizing topic to some indie authors, as your work is technically copyright as soon as you write it. My case may be different, but I was told I needed to seek permission from “the original publisher” (aka myself) in order to claim the novels in my own account. Having that physical copyright proof saved me the step of having to write and certify a publishing release statement from myself to myself, and got me immediate help with KPD during the process.

This piece of paper (redacted and cropped) saved my sanity. (photo: Author)

All in all, I’m glad to have my novels back in my control, and I’m more than happy that all the reviews and ratings came with them. I’m not as prolific at writing as I’d like to be, so I’ve set myself up a reminder to log into my accounts at least every six months to keep them active, and tend to any updates in terms of service that may be pending.

This year is going well for writing, and I’ve published 1 of 2 scheduled books already. I may not be as prolific as some of my favourite authors (Sanderson, I’m looking at you!), but I’m honing my craft to become more prolific than I have been.

Until next time, keep writing and keep dreaming!

– Rissa

Q4S Part 5: To the eBook and Beyond!

December 23, 2015 / Rissa Renae

In this post, we’ll finally realize our dreams: we’re publishing! There’s a light at the end of that self-publishing tunnel, and it’s not a freight train. That nasty exercise to create the eBook itself is far behind us and the final journey in the adventure of self-publishing is before us. Through all the blood, sweat, and tears, we’ve prepared ourselves for this moment. And it will be wondrous.

I see the light!

Prerequisites

An Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account.
A CreateSpace account with a completed book.
Your completed EPUB from the last post (or you can use the Interior File you created for the CreateSpace parts 1 and part 2).
Electronic Book ISBN (must be different from the ISBN you used in CreateSpace).

So, are you ready to become a published author? Take a deep breath, cuz here we go!

Transfer from CreateSpace to Amazon KDP

From your CreateSpace project, click on the Publish on Kindle option.
Publish on Kindle
You will be taken to an “are you sure?” type of page. Click on I want to publish my book on Kindle.
I want to publish my book on Kindle
If you want to upload your EPUB, choose to upload a separate file. If you’re using your CreateSpace file and not your EPUB file, choose the Transfer and Convert option. Click Continue.
the Upload EPUB option
Choose the publishing rights and DRM that applies to you. In most cases, choose “This is not a public domain work” as you should be publishing your own works at this point in time. The only time you would choose a public domain work is if the original author is deceased and you have rights to publishing/republishing their work(s). Here you can also choose your DRM option – DRM helps protect your book from pirating and illegal distribution. After you have chosen your options, click Submit my files to KDP.
Establishing DRM rights
You will be taken to Amazon’s KDP site. Sign in to your KDP account. In most cases, the KDP login information is the same as your Amazon login information.
Sign in to KDP
If your files make it in, congratulations! You’re one of the lucky ones. This rarely works for me. So if you run into the the most uninformative of errors, just click “OK.” We’ll fix things up.
Thanks. Real informative there, Amazon.

Welcome to KDP!

Okily dokily! We’re ready to push the button! There’s just some final clean up and configuration we need to set up before we’re officially an author. Let’s get started!

Once KDP loads, check that the book title and author info has come over, then click on “Continue setup”.
Continue Setup
Dismiss the “What to do next” box to continue.
What to do next? Publish!
Next comes the Kindle Select option. A word of warning about Kindle Select – yes, the royalty structure is awesome, but you’re locked in to KDP as your only distribution channel for 3 months. So choose carefully and read the fine print. You can opt in at anytime, but you’re locked in for 90 days once you do opt in. If you’re found selling your book anywhere else, KDP kicks you out of the Select program and may put a hold on your ability to offer your book on Amazon.
Read carefully!
Scrolling down the page, check over your book details. The things I found I had to watch out for were:
1. Line breaks on the Description field. Correct this if your text is not organized properly.
2. Enter your ISBN number for the eBook (do not use the ISBN you used for CreateSpace as you must have a separate ISBN for the physical and the electronic versions of the book.

Double-check your book info

Choose the two categories that best describe your book.Click “Save” to move on to the next step.
Book Categories
Upload the EPUB we created in the previous post.
Upload EPUB
Review any spelling mistakes and preview the book to make sure you’ve uploaded the correct EPUB. If all is good, return to your book home and click the Save and Continue button.
Save and Continue
Verify Your Publishing Territory. If you own the ISBN (you purchased your number from an ISBN agency and not CreateSpace), your territory is Worldwide. Otherwise, you may have to do some research as to which countries and territories you’re allowed to publish in.
Publishing Territories
Select your desired Royalty option and set the book’s base price. Leave all other territories checked to “Set price automatically”, that way your book stays priced appropriately as exchange rates vary.
Royalties and Pricing
Keep in mind that some territories require you to enrol in Kindle Select to achieve the 70% Royalty. Make your own decision on this, but keep in mind if you enrol in Kindle Select, you can only sell your book on Amazon and CreateSpace, and no other outlet.
Kindle Select pricing
Kindle MatchBook & Kindle Lending are neat options. If your reader buys the trade paperback, you have the option of giving them the eBook for a discount, or for free using Kindle MatchBook. Personally, I like the free option as the Trade Paperback is more expensive than the eBook to begin with, and they’ve already purchased a copy of the book. And Kindle Lending, as the name suggests, allows your reader to lend the eBook out to friends and family to widen your readership. I would suggest taking advantage of both.
Kindle MatchBook and Book Lending
Scroll to the bottom of the page. Click the check box, then click Save and Publish!
Save and Publish! OMG!
It takes a few hours to get the book to the masses. In the meantime, the book will appear under ‘In Review’ status.
In Review status
After the files have gone through Amazon’s pre-processing stage, you will receive an email from Amazon asking you to verify your publishing rights. Just follow the steps in the email – you will have to re-declare your publishing rights, DRM and publishing territories.
Verify Your Publishing Rights.
Once the publishing rights have been verified, within 24 hours you’ll receive confirmation from Amazon that your book has been published!
And You’re Published!

Paperback Temporarily Out Of Stock

Just a word of warning: Even though Amazon owns CreateSpace, the two platforms do not talk nicely to each other when you first publish. If after publishing, your paperback version shows up as Temporarily Out Of Stock, fear not. Once your readers order the book, it will be printed and delivered immediately, despite what Amazon says. In contacting both CreateSpace and KDP, representatives will give you excuses such as ‘high volume of demands’ or will use the nearest holiday as an excuse. All of us will experience this, so don’t worry too much. However, if you feel it’s a bother, feel free to contact KDP Support.

Temporarily out of stock

Go Forth, Published Author!

Now, go forth! Just because you’ve published, don’t think the hard work is done. No sir! Now you have to promote that gem of a novel you’ve just written, not to mention expand your novel into the other eBook and Print-On-Demand platforms.

High Five!

But that, my friends, is best left for another time.

And with that, I bid you adieu, new author. Congratulations!

Quest for Stories: So You Want to be an Author

November 18, 2015 / Rissa Renae

It’s here! The last leg of that marathon sprint to the finish line of the ‘Self-Publishing’ race. Are you ready? Do you have all the tools to succeed? Let’s find out!

IRS, and Royalties, and ISBN’s! Oh My!

The mere mention of the IRS can strike fear into most hearts, but the IRS is just like a big burly puppy dog. As long as you supply the right documents and information (or the occasional belly rub), you’ll find out the IRS isn’t really that scary, even for foreigners. And neither are bank accounts or ISBN’s!

CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier

You’ve got to start somewhere, and I’ve found that starting with the CreateSpace template that is suitable for your book is the easiest way to get the eBook (and the physical book) going.

CreateSpace: The Final Draft Frontier (Part II)

All the CreateSpace-ness was just too much to fit into one post, so here’s part two: finalizing the interior, uploading the cover, and proofing your book – both digitally and physically!

High Calibre eBooks with Calibre

And now, the piece de resistance, we will publish our eBook!

To the eBook and Beyond!