What Do You Want Your Indie Life to Look Like?

I regret to report that this will be my last blog post for Indie Life, as it's being incorporated into the Insecure Writers' Support Group. While it can be reassuring to discuss writing doubts and fears with other writers, I personally prefer to blog from a position of strength (as Ronald Reagan would say). At this point, I'm not planning on participating in that meme. If you are, I wish you all the best and hope you still stop by to visit. Perhaps later on I may join IWSG if my wants/needs change.

At this point, I'm still a long way from living a 100% indie life. But why do I seek it so determinedly? Because this is what I want from life:


1. A chance to live my life according to what I feel gives it its meaning.

2. A chance to control my time, my working environment, and my projects.

3. A chance to do something that will help others.

4. A chance to connect with others, especially with those who are "in my tree."

5. A chance to keep learning and developing, both as an author and as a person.


Whatever you want out of your indie life, I hope you find it. And if someone, say in traditional publishing, tells you that going indie is wrong, igore them and listen to Billy Joel instead:




P.S. I have a short story up today on Indie Writers Monthly if you'd like to stop by.

The Indie Life: Indie Resolutions and Indie Writers Monthly

Welcome to the first Indie Life edition of 2014! Even if you've already given up on your diet, here are two resolutions you might want to make this year:

1. Don't worry about what people in the traditional publishing industry have to say about bookstores, self-publishing, or reading. A lot of the things they're talking about have minimal impact on us. We're not dependent on brick and mortar stores (though I still appreciate them), and how can anyone track what's going on in publishing if you're just looking at IBSNs? For a good analysis of the industry, read The Passive Voice--and don't forget the comments!

2. Put developing craft ahead of promotion. Yes, discounting and running ads do increase sales--in fact, it seems like most of my sales are in conjunction with ads--but in the long run, the best promotion is writing another book. Tell stories people want to read, something that will engage them. The type of story that engages someone will vary from reader to reader, but when someone really gets your work, they'll promote you to other readers.

I'm pleased to announce this month that several other indie SF/fantasy writers and I have started our own group to support each other. We're Indie Writers Monthly, and come check out our blog! We're also on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Are you part of an indie writers group? If so, what are the best and worst things about it? What resolutions do you have for your indie life this year?

Indie Life--The Life/Writing Balance

I sometimes say I have four jobs: my day job; taking care of my son; taking care of cooking, laundry, cleaning, and all the other chores of life; and after all that gets done, writing. My main writing times are on my lunch hour at work and after my son goes to sleep; it's actually harder write on the weekends than it is during the week. You can imagine with that kind of schedule, it may be hard to make any progress with writing. It is slow at times, much slower than I'd like, but it does add up over time. I would love to be able to devote more time for writing, but that's not an option right now.

What is a healthy ratio of writing to the rest of one's life, and how does going indie affect that? Obviously, an indie author does have to add a lot of other writing-related tasks into her schedule that aren't actually writing. But if these tasks give you control, they may not feel so much like work. (Except for formatting for CreateSpace. That's always work.) Also, formatting, editing, and other publishing tasks generally take less time than it does to write a story, and they get easier with practice.

As difficult as it can be sometimes to juggle a lot of different roles, this isn't always bad news for a writer. Doing different tasks can refresh your mind so you can come up with a new approach to a story. Daily life can also serve as inspiration for situations or characters. As much as I sometimes want to spend all day in front of my laptop working on the stories in my head, that's not always healthy. Sometimes different jobs or roles will shift in priority, so being adaptable can help.

Anyway, having spent most of my writing time this evening trying to work on this post, I think it's time to hit publish and go to bed--something that doesn't always get as much of a priority as it should?

What are your priorities in life? How do you maintain a life/writing balance?

The Indie Life: The Pace of Self-Publishing

Please don't forget I'm still jousting at M. Pax's blog this week. Cheer me on up to three times a day using the phrases "Lady of the Lab," "Lyon's Legacy," or "Tosspot" for a chance to win an eBook from me!

This month's issue of Indie Life was inspired by a post called "New Rule: No More Binge Publishing!" You can read the original post here and some excerpts on Passive Voice. It's very interesting to see how the comments differ on the two sites: commenters are more supportive on Libby's blog than on the Passive Voice blog.

Is there a limit as to how much one should publish each year? What is the ideal number of stories one should publish, and does the length of the story matter? I for one don't think there's a hard-and-fast rule for this. Someone who has a backlog of stories, whether unpublished or with rights reverted, might be able to publish them more quickly than someone starting from scratch. Also, the more time you have to write, the more quickly (in theory) you should be able to finish, edit, and prepare the stories for publication. However, novels will probably take longer than short stories. The ideal and realistic number of published stories each year is going to vary from author to author.

So far, self-publishing seems to favor authors who can write quickly and publish rapidly. Since every work promotes all the other stories by making you more visible, this is a good strategy. I think even when the self-publishing industry matures a little more, the advantage will still lie with the prolific authors. However, it's also an industry that looks to the long-term. No matter what happens to the current distributors, there will be other ways of getting your books in front of readers. Since these stories will be around for a long time, it's best to make sure they're as good as you can make them at the time of publication. Even though your skills will improve with practice, you can learn more by finishing several stories instead of revising the same one over and over. Ultimately, each author will have to figure out for herself how quickly she can write and publish well.

Personally, I originally planned to publish six works this year. I did publish three early in the year, but the other projects I've been working on have turned out to be longer and more complex than I thought they'd be. Sure, it's frustrating that they're taking so long, but I think they'll turn out to be better stories for it. I'll know when they're ready to share with the world, and I hope my readers will agree. I also hope as my son gets older, I'll be able to find more writing time, since it's currently very limited. In the long run, I'd like to plan a writing/publishing schedule every year so readers know when to expect the next book in a series, though of course real life has a way of trumping plans.

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The Indie Life: Celebrating Two Years as an Indie

This weekend, Lyon's Legacy celebrated its second birthday, making it two years since I began my indie journey. If my novella had been traditionally published (which is a big if, since traditional publishers tend not to publish stories at this length as standalone stories), it probably would have been long gone from the bookstores. Thankfully, Amazon can keep eBooks on sale indefinitely, and I can transfer my work into other formats, such as paper and audio. I can also continue to promote my work, and though sales take a while to build, they have gone up each year.

I'm celebrating my second anniversary by putting the Amazon eBook of Lyon's Legacy on sale for $0.99 all month long, so if you haven't read it yet, now is a good time to get it.

Here are some thoughts on indie life after two years:

1. Patience: Even with book promotion (see my thoughts on that below), it takes time to sell books and develop a fanbase. It can be frustrating when you have little time to write but want more time for it and can't get it. It's also frustrating when sales are slow, especially when you're investing your own money in editing, book covers, and book promotion, and you need to earn it back. How do you handle this? I remind myself this is a long game and that every writing session gets me closer to my goal.

2. Goals: I originally planned to publish six stories this year, but I don't think I'll make it. I published two short stories in January and a novel in March, but it's taking me longer than I planned to write the next works in the Catalyst Chronicles series, and one project that I thought would be a novella has turned into a novel. I'd rather take a little longer to get the stories right than to push them through prematurely. However, as my craft improves, I'd like to cut down the number of drafts I need to make a story publishable. Even if I don't make my goal for this year, it helps to have an idea of which projects I want to write and when I want to publish them. This will be especially important once I start juggling two series.

3. Book promotion: I personally haven't seen much response to Goodreads ads/giveaways or blog tours, though they do provide exposure. Ads on sites like BookGorilla have better results, though they're not outstanding. Maybe I need to work on my book descriptions, or maybe it has something to do with the genre. There could be other factors involved too. I think with book promotion, you have to be willing to try lots of things, but you always have to keep writing. According to writers such as Kristine Katherine Rusch, the best book promotion is your next book, and the more works you have available, the more your books can promote each other. (That's why I want to get more shorter works out.)

4. Support: I've been touched by the support I've received from my friends and high school classmates. I also enjoy being part of the indie community and the larger writing community. Whether it's helping out at the BroadUniverse table at a convention or promoting another author on my blog, it's good to give support too.

5. The good stuff: Here are a few things I enjoy about being an indie writer: Picking the editor and cover artist I work with; taking my family out to dinner to celebrate when I publish a work; being able to write what I want, put it out when it's ready, and release it in as many formats as I can manage; and having control over my career.

Here's to many more years of indie writing and many more short stories, novellas, and novels!

The Indie Life: Indie Reader Guides

It's time again for another edition of Indie Life, when indie authors share their experiences and tips.

Are you an indie author looking for a place to showcase your book? Are you a reader who'd like to read more indie books and discuss them with other people? Check out Indie Reader Guides! This website is still under development, but it will offer several features useful to book clubs, such as lists of books arranged by genre, readers' guides, review copies, and private sub-forums for discussing books. I'm proud to say Lyon's Legacy will be among the books listed when the website is finished. Come check it out, and read more Indie!

The Indie Life: Who Defines Quality?

Welcome to this month's post about The Indie Life!

Last week, I announced that one of my books had won a "stamp of approval" from the Book Readers Appreciation Group. Ironically enough, the timing of the B.R.A.G. award for Lyon's Legacy came right around the time when an article about Awesome Indies was published on The Passive Voice blog. Some indie authors think that sites that give awards to indie-published work are becoming the new gatekeepers and think they're a bad idea, even if it's a way for writers to validate their work. (Personally, I see it as marketing.)  The discussion on that post got so heated Passive Guy wound up deleting all the comments, which is a shame.

Why do we get so passionate about quality and who gets to define it? Perhaps because, according to Robert M. Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (one of my favorite books), Quality cannot be defined. However, when Pirsig teaches English composition to freshmen, he starts out by having them rank works by different students and found that the rankings were pretty consistent. He then had them look at various aspects of the work, such as organization. Even though this by itself is not Quality, it contributes Quality to the work. To paraphrase Pirsig (because I'm too lazy to look it up), "What started out as heresy turned into a beautiful introduction (to the class)."

Even if you don't accept Pirsig's statement that Quality cannot be defined, you can still agree that we all have different ideas about what makes a good book. Some people may focus on story craft, while other care about writing mechanics. People may disagree on how to begin a story, how much description to add, and what point of view works best. These ideas may change over time, both for the person and the overall culture. On the face of it, figuring out what makes a good book is hard.

I think in the end, each reader and writer has to decide for herself what makes a book good. As a writer, one should make one's work as good as possible given the skills and resources at hand. As a reader discussing books, it's helpful to explain what you liked and didn't like about a particular book. The more details you can provide, the more helpful your thoughts will be to others.

Pirsig quotes a line from Plato's Phaedrus: “And what is good, Phaedrus, And what is not good—
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?” I say both yes and no. As a writer, I do need to hear objective comments about my work because I'm too close to it to see it clearly. But as a reader, I have forty years experience reading, so I think I know by now what I love and admire, what makes me close a book prematurely, and what leaves me feeling so-so about a work. Self-publishing means any reader can make that decision about any work independently of someone letting that book slip through the system. Let's not take these readers for granted.

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The Indie Life--Zen and the Art of Website Maintenance

It's time again for another edition of the Indie Life, hosted by the Indelibles.

I tend to talk about writing business for these posts, and today is no exception. My focus today is author websites. I've known for a long time that it's important to have an author website, so sometime in the mid-nineties I bought sandraulbrich.com. I did my own website design, and boy, does it show. I haven't updated the site in several years. (Priorities change when you have a young child.) I think I used Frontpage or something similar to design the site, but I don't even have the program anymore.  Given that I publish my work as Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, and given that I don't even have my books on my current website, something has to be done. Fortunately, there are at least two easy ways for an author to set up a website.

One way is to go through a service like wix.com. Wix provides free websites (with better features if you pay for an upgrade, naturally) with customizable templates. (Squarespace offers a similar service, but I think they're a little more expensive than wix.) I recently set up a new website with them at sandraulbrichalmazan.com; please check it out if you have the time. (I hope you think it's better than the old site!) I'm still playing around with features, but so far this is a lot easier to use than Frontpage. Wix provides a shopping cart for your website with one of the upgrades, something I may consider doing if/when it makes sense to sell books directly through my website. For now, I get most of my sales through Amazon, so I'll hold off on using the shopping cart until I have more of a fan base.

Another option for authors is to skip the website altogether and use a blog as their main web presence. Like Wix, Blogger and Wordpress both have customizable templates for layout and design, and since you can add separate pages to your blog, you can make it function like a website with pages for a bio, books, and so on.

If blogs and websites are so similar, is it worth having both? In my opinion, a website is more permanent than a blog, so it makes a better Internet base. On the other hand, a blog may be easier to maintain and keep updated. I have my blog feeding onto a page of my new website to combine them. Perhaps later on I'll try exporting this blog to the website so everything is in one place.

How about you? Do you have a website, a blog, or both? Where are they hosted? Do you have any blog or website maintenance tips you'd like to share with your fellow indies?

The Indie Life: Stuck in Kobo Limbo

I self-published Twinned Universes in March of this year. Since I want to make my work available in as many formats as possible, I prepared a paper version as well as an eBook (and an audio version will be available very soon; I'm currently in the final review stage). I also distribute the eBook to all the major sellers, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords for the other retailers. Unfortunately, Twinned Universes isn't available on Kobo, which is a shame, since this is the first book I've tried to directly publish through them instead of through Smashwords.

I'm not sure why Twinned Universes is stuck in the publishing process at Kobo. I didn't encounter any issues when I went through the various publishing steps on Kobo Writing Life in March. (I reviewed everything last night, and everything is checked off.) It's possible there may have been some conflict between Kobo and Smashwords. (I may have had Smashwords at one point set to distribute the book to Kobo at the same time as it was supposed to be published on Kobo's website. I think I even played with the settings a couple of times to see if it made a difference. However, currently I am opted out of using Smashwords to distribute to Kobo.)

I've been so busy with many other things that I haven't had the chance to seek support from Kobo until last month. Their response (sent on 5/22) was essentially to make sure Smashwords wasn't distributing the book to Kobo and then publish the book through Kobo. This didn't fix the problem, but they sent me an e-mail on 6/2 telling me since they hadn't heard back from me, they changed the status of my troubleshooting ticket to "pending solved." I wrote back to them telling them I'd gone through the procedure they'd suggested, but it didn't work. From what I can tell, there's no way for me to remove the book from their system. I therefore asked Kobo to delete my account so I could push the book through Smashwords. They then told me they could forward the book to their publishing team so they could take care of the problem; otherwise if I confirmed my e-mail address, they could delete my account.

I thought about it for a while, then decided to give them one more chance and asked them to publish my book. I sent my response on 6/4 but got no response. I had to double-check my account settings before realizing it could be due to me sending the e-mail from a different address than the one they had on file for me. Accordingly, I updated my e-mail address and contacted them again. I even told them I was going to blog about this problem on Wednesday and hoped we could report it resolved. This time I received an apology and a reassurance that the Kobo team was working on the problem and my book would be available soon. As of Tuesday evening, Twinned Universes is still stuck in Kobo Limbo.

I think if there's no change by next Monday, it'll be time to pull the account with Kobo. Honestly, even if Kobo does get my book published before then, I'll be very reluctant to publish directly through them in the future. I hate to do it, but it may be simplest to just use Kobo as a retailer, not a publisher. If the problem really is due to a conflict with Smashwords (remember, this is just a hypothesis; it's not proven yet), then the systems need a way to identify this issue for the authors and to check when the conflict has been removed. In the meantime, I apologize to any Kobo users who would like to read my book; I'll have to refer you to Smashwords to sideload the correct format.

Have any of you Indies had similar experiences with Kobo or other publishers? If so, were you able to have the problem resolved? What has your experience been with Kobo?

The Indie Life: Postcards and Cover Keepers

Once again, it's time for another round of Indie Life. This month, I'd like to share with you an idea for possible book promotion. We could all use more help with that, right?

Sherry Ficklin, one of the members of the Scene 13 group blog, has started a program that will benefit both readers and writers. It's called Cover Keepers, and it's a way for readers and writers to connect. Basically, writers send in signed postcards of their book covers and blurbs, and readers sign up to receive them. You can learn more about this program here. The first batch of covers is scheduled to go out in June. If that's too soon for you to get cover postcards made, don't worry; covers will be sent out every month. Be sure to read the requirements here first.

In case you were wondering, yes, I'm part of this program. You can get covers for Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes through Cover Keepers. Here's a picture of what they look like:

I decided to put QR codes on the back, along with the blurb. The QR code brings up the book on Amazon. If you search, you can find several sites out there that will create a QR code from any link for free. (I think I used QuickQR). Then you can save a copy of the QR code and take it to any site to have your postcards made.

In addition to sending these postcards to the Cover Keepers program, I plan to bring some with me to WisCon and display them on the BroadUniverse table. Maybe I can send these promotional materials to other conventions as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the Cover Keepers program or the postcards. If you have any marketing tips you'd like to share with your fellow indies, please do so in the comments.

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Science of the Week, 5/3/13

Here are some of the most interesting articles I read on Science Blog this week:

UCSB researchers successfully treat autism in infants

People may grow to love talking objects

The dream-reading machine

How burning plants tell seeds to rise from the ashes

Microbe feast clue to smell of ancient Earth

Foul-smelling gas shows health benefits in reducing joint swelling

Conversion from bad fat to good fat

Quantum physics peeks head into classical world 

Turning human stem cells into brain cells sheds light on neural development 

Printed ear melds electronics and biology




I've decided I'm going to take Monday off from blogging. The next BRoP interview starts later next week, so I'm not scheduled to post again for it until May 13th. I still have Blog Chain next Tuesday, Indie Life on Wednesday, and Science on Friday, so please stop by then to see what's new.

The Indie Life--Short Stories and Collections

If it's the second Wednesday of the month, it's time for another Indie Life discussion.

One of the great things about self-publishing and eBooks is that you can publish stories of any length. I was able to keep Lyon's Legacy at novella length instead of padding it out to a novel (although some reviewers have mentioned they wished it was longer, I feel the story says what it needs to say). Although there have always been markets for short stories in speculative fiction, I like being able to write them without worrying about finding a market for them. Short stories can also help flesh out series. My Catalyst Chronicles series has a short story between Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes, and I plan to write another one (though it might be a novella) set between Twinned Universes and Catalyst in the Crucible.

At some point, I plan to assemble my short stories into a collection. This will be a better value to my readers and also allow me to put them out in paper. My main concern right now is how many stories to include. I was originally planning to wait until I have thirteen stories out and put them into a single collection, but now I'm debating on putting out smaller collections. Story length will be a factor; another possibility might be doing some themed collections (for example, a collection of my SF or Catalyst Chronicles stories, another collection of stories set in my fantasy world of Challen, and another collection of miscellaneous fantasy stories.) 

If anyone else has put out a collection, how did you decide the number of short stories to include? Were they all previously published, or did you include a bonus story?

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The Indie Life: Business Tools

It's time again for another edition of Indie Life. If you're not familiar with this monthly blog meme, hop on over to The Indelibles for more information. The linky list will be at the bottom of this post if you want to read more blog posts on this theme or join the list yourself.

I've had a tough time trying to figure out what topic I want to discuss this month. I was considering time issues, especially for those of us with full-time jobs and families, but I finally decided to talk about business tools.

What do you consider the most important business tools for self-publishing? Obviously, a computer is vital. I personally prefer a laptop over a desktop so I can write at work or elsewhere. Next in importance are your files. I recently starting using Mozy to automatically backup my files twice a day.  Now I no longer have to worry about losing my files.

Programs are also important. I use Word to write, though I know other writers use other programs. Another important tool is a spreadsheet program like Excel. I use it for things like tracking my expenses and monthly sales for each story and planning blog tours. I currently have a spreadsheet set up to list people I want to contact or have contacted, along with when I contacted them, their e-mail address, the subject matter of the guest post or interview, the date I sent the material, and what sort of thank-you I'm giving the person. (Which reminds me I need to follow up with someone....)

I'm sure there's more tools out there that I can't think of right now. What tools do you use for your writing business, and what do you use them for? Are there any tools you think you need but don't know how to use?

I do have one quick announcement: the paper version of Twinned Universes is now available on Amazon.  The eBook will also be available on Kobo shortly.

Indie Life: The Second Time Around

The Indelibles recently started a monthly feature called Indie Life, running the second Wednesday of every month. Even though I'm already part of a blog ring, a blog chain, and a group blog, I couldn't resist adding this feature too. After all, "being indie doesn't have to mean going it alone."

If you've been following this blog for a while, then you may know that I self-published my first novella, Lyon's Legacy, back in October 2011. Since then, I've also self-published four short stories while I revised Twinned Universes, the sequel to Lyon's Legacy.  I'm currently in the final stages of preparing Twinned Universes for release next month. Here are some things I'm doing differently the second time around:

Announcing a release date in advance. Last time, I didn't know how long it would take me to format the story and publish it, so I didn't pick a date in advance. Now that I (in theory) know what I'm doing, I decided to pick a date. Since my main character is pure Irish, as is the man he's cloned from, I decided to go with Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, and see if I can get a little "luck of the Irish." Turns out that's a Sunday, but I since may need to do some last-minute adjustments before hitting the "Publish" buttons, that should work out for me. At this point, I don't know if I'll be rushing to make that deadline or waiting impatiently for the date.

Formatting for CreateSpace first.  I first published Lyon's Legacy in eBook format; I didn't know about CreateSpace at the time and didn't get a paper version of my book out until 2012. Now I'm formatting the paper book before I work on the eBook version. Both versions should be available by the release date.  I figure if I want to tweak wording to avoid widows and orphans in the paper version, then I should do that first and base the eBook on the paper book. I wish I could say formatting for CreateSpace was easier this time, but it still took me over a week to get an "issue-less" PDF. Alternating headers are so much simpler to manage without page numbers, which work better in the footer. I'll do the eBooks after I review the paper proof. What's your biggest issue with formatting, either for eBook or paper?

Adding the book to Goodreads in advance. I knew indie authors could add books when they're out, and I knew publishers could schedule book that aren't out yet, but I didn't know indie author could add unpublished books too. Once I had an IBSN for the paper version of Twinned Universes, I used that to add the book to Goodreads. I'll add other things, like the cover and eBook editions, when they're available. In the meantime, people can already add the book to their shelves.

Organizing a blog tour in advance. With my first book, I waited until it was out before asking people to interview me or review it. This time, I've already contacted a blog tour organizer, and soon I'll e-mail some bloggers who already said they would be willing to host me.



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