Personal Archives - M. C. Lee Books

Why Should You Read My Book Lists?

I’ll be honest–I think I’ve gone through every category in my Goodreads and given you my favorites. I’ll still post a “favorite books this year” every year, but what else would like from my book review posts? Or should I stop doing them (except the yearly review) and just do writing posts?

While you’re thinking about that, here’s a summary of what sort of books I tend to read, and how I tend to rate books. You know, if you want to know if I like the same things you do. 😉

As of the middle of July, 2022:

2.97 avg stars. Yes, I’m a harsh grader. I don’t actually have very many 1 stars, relatively speaking, but I do give a lot of 2 & 3 star ratings. On the other hand, I consider a 3-star book to be perfectly acceptable. I probably won’t reread it, but I don’t consider it a waste of my time. Two stars were a waste, and one stars get angry rants. Four stars means I really liked it and would reread happily, and five stars means I’m probably going to buy it.

Numbers are rounded. Some categories cross fiction/non-fic lines, but I’ve done my best to sort them by the most common occurrences.

Audience:
children ‎(500)
juv-ya ‎(4000)
adult ‎(4000)

Fiction Genres:
action-adventure ‎(400)
beast-tales ‎(400)
comedy ‎(200)
comics ‎(100)
family-child ‎(600)
fantasy ‎(3000)
fiction ‎(2000)
historical-1700s ‎(100)
historical-1800s ‎(500)
historical-1900s ‎(400)
historical-ancient ‎(100)
historical-medieval-renaissance ‎(300)
historical-pioneer-oldwest ‎(100)
historical-regency ‎(300)
historical-roman-circa ‎(100)
horror ‎(100)
mystery-puzzles ‎(800)
picture-bk ‎(300)
poetry-theatre ‎(50)
romance ‎(1000)
sci-fi ‎(1000)
short-stories ‎(500)
sports ‎(50)
steampunk-gaslamp-flintlock ‎(200)

Non-fiction Genres:
biography ‎(200)
business ‎(100)
camp-hike ‎(20)
cognition ‎(100)
comedy (200)
cooking ‎(50)
craft-sewing ‎(10)
education-homeschool ‎(50)
family-child ‎(600)
finance-economy ‎(50)
health ‎(100)
various historicals (see #s under fiction)
home-garden ‎(60)
literary-linguistic ‎(50)
parenting ‎(100)
personality-behavr ‎(200)
philosophy-psych ‎(100)
politics-law ‎(50)
preparedness ‎(20)
religious ‎(400)
science-math ‎(100)
social-relationship ‎(200)
travel ‎(20)
writing ‎(20)
writing-business ‎(100)
writing-character ‎(50)
writing-conflict ‎(10)
writing-description-prose ‎(20)
writing-dialogue ‎(10)
writing-editing ‎(10)
writing-emotion ‎(10)
writing-plot-structure ‎(50)
writing-productivity ‎(50)
writing-research ‎(10)
writing-worldbuilding ‎(10)

Yes, I read a lot of different things. Always have.

Happy reading,
Marty C. Lee

P.S. Remember to comment to say what you want from future posts!

Blessings

I’ve been pondering for a while what I wanted to say about Christmas this year. In the past, I’ve sometimes managed cute Christmas + writing posts. This year… that’s not happening.

Instead, I think I’ll just talk about blessings, which are gifts from our Heavenly Father, even when they don’t look like it. In random order, because life is random…

I’m thankful for the gift of my family, even when they drive me crazy. I’m thankful for my “new” house (and my new office!), even though the envelope of repair receipts is now bulging. I’m thankful for a loving husband who thinks I ought to be a writer. I’m thankful for sunshine. I’m thankful for snow, because the earth appreciates it even when I don’t. I’m thankful for books to read that I didn’t have to write. I’m thankful for being able to write the stories in my head. I’m thankful for shoulders that are healing and only hurt sometimes now. I’m thankful my mom finally agreed to wear a bicycle helmet around the house to protect her head when she falls. I’m thankful for the gospel and for Jesus Christ. I’m thankful for easy access to food, and for chocolate. I’m thankful for space to open my hobbies again. I’m thankful for clean water and electricity. I’m thankful for the internet to keep us connected even during a pandemic. I’m thankful for a computer that let’s me type faster and neater than I can write by hand. I’m thankful for modern medicine and transportation. I’m thankful I don’t have to do laundry by hand. I’m thankful for cute pictures of baby animals and awesome pictures of nature. I’m thankful for a billion stars and one moon in the sky. I’m thankful for hot showers. I’m thankful for tissues I can throw away when I have a cold, instead of laundering handkerchiefs. I’m thankful for colored pens and automatic pencils and white boards and computer files full of notes. I’m thankful for old and new friends. I’m thankful for the opportunity to learn lots of new things and put them into practice. I’m thankful for electric blankets and central heat.

I’m thankful for life.

What are you thankful for?

Merry Christmas,
Marty C. Lee

Writing Process, Book 4

Sigh. Yet again, I’ve gone too long without giving you an update on my writing. That’s probably a good thing for me (indicating fewer frustrations), but maybe not as good for you (assuming your interested in the topic).

So, book 4 has actually come out already. *cough* Writing it was easier than the first three in some ways and harder in others. Each of my books has had different problems.

How was it easier, you ask? My plotting system is working better now that I’ve had some practice and fine-tuned my process, so I didn’t struggle as much with the beats. I write a little faster than I used to. I’m very familiar with the characters by now. 😉 I got to wrap up all the little strings I left in the other books.

How was it harder? I had to wrap up all the little strings I left in the other books. Several characters wrote themselves into the story with quite a bit of determination, and they insisted on being important instead of walk-on characters. I wrote myself a pretty little dilemma (how does an entire world lose the key to a city, and how would one person find it?) and had to figure out how to solve it.

I have become much more of a plotter than I used to be, but I still make up a lot of things as I go. In this book, that involved both character and plot elements. For instance, I found out (and yes, it really feels more like “found out” than “made up”) that Ahjin has a cousin I didn’t know about. She used to be a priest and left when Ahjin told Irajahan he couldn’t force recruits anymore. Now she’s a diplomat from Ioj to Iskra. I thought that was the extent of her involvement, but no, she wiggled her way into the climax of the story, too.

Then there’s Tarakh. He’s a nice boy who likes Zefra. (Zefra isn’t sure how she feels about that, especially when he says outrageous things to her…) I thought he was going to be a minor character for a few chapters, but no, he really wanted to be part of the adventure. Also, if you’ve read any of my books, you’ve seen my cute chapter headings with cultural info or book excerpts or “world” proverbs. It takes me a long time sometimes to choose those sayings, even when I’m borrowing proverbs. (“Which one fits this chapter?”) Then Tarakh comes along, and he’s spouting proverbs like crazy, and I don’t even have to make them up, because he’s supplying them. (I promise I’m not insane. Writer-brain is just weird sometimes.)

Let’s not forget the lost city. I hadn’t planned on it being lost or a maze, honestly, but I hit a spot in my beat planning where I needed something, and I had nothing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I outlined 2/3 of book 4 and then discovered some major problems and had to start over. It was pondering what kind of song I’d write for this book that gave me the clue out of my mess. 😉 After I had the first missing part figured out, I reread the prior books for inspiration, and lo and behold, I’d accidentally left a trail of clues for myself without realizing it.

Book 1 had the newly rediscovered starting point for finding the lost city and a casual mention of Zefra’s grandparents’ occupation which I threw in just because it was convenient but now it was important. Book 2 mentioned the collection of “legend” maps AND the fact that some of them came with songs. Book 3 and a short story that hasn’t been published yet had some villain characters I needed, as well as the beginnings (continuation) of the conspiracy. Nia’s language talents became important again, and this time, her singing was important to the plot instead of just everyone’s mood. I managed to tie in the romance from book 3 in an important way, and Ludik’s children became plot-essential. Ahjin’s political shenanigans in book 1 made a difference to book 4. Everything started tying together in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Yeah, the first three books can be read as standalones if you really want (though *I* think they’re better in order), but book 4 is much more dependent on the others.

One of my biggest headaches came when I needed to write the “key” to the maze. I already had the design for the maze, but I needed two pathways through it (“right” and “wrong”) and a poem that would lead BOTH ways depending which way it was interpreted. If you aren’t groaning already, then I haven’t adequately explained how awful this was… To make it worse, I had to wrote music for the poem that would have clues in it, which meant I had to write the music THEN instead of waiting until I finished everything else, as usual. And even though I’ve written four songs for the books, music and all, I am not actually a musician. As if that weren’t enough, then I had to figure out how Zefra unraveled the mystery in the story, and she’s no musician, either!

Whew! Writing the book ended up being almost as tangled as the conspiracy IN the book, but at least I got to write some really cool scenes, like shapeshifting spies and a midnight duel and a race through the desert. And Tarakh flirting with Zefra. 😉

Happy reading,
Marty C. Lee

2021 Foresight

2020 hindsight is supposed to be perfect (but usually isn’t). I’m sure my plans for 2021 won’t be perfect, either, but I’ll give it a shot. I want to change my methods a bit next year, and I know some of it, but thought I’d also give you a chance to vote on what you see in the coming year.

First, I’ll be shifting my blog to every three weeks instead of every two, so that I can spend more time writing. I still plan to alternate book posts and writing posts.

Second, unless you have another category for which you want a list of recommended books, I think I’ve run out of ideas for lists. I thought maybe I’d go back through my lists and start writing more detailed reviews for some of them. Please feel free to leave a comment requesting a new list that would help you, or your opinion on leaving reviews and which category you’d like me to start with.

Third, I wondered what topics would be most helpful to you in the “writing” posts. Are you interested in personality stuff? I could tell you about the personality tests I took for my main characters. Do you like the “how to be an author” posts? Do you like posts about outlining? Plot? Characters? Something else? Do you like hearing about my progress in the books I write? Would you like to hear more? Less? About the same but some kind of different? Do you want to hear about writing groups or critique partners? Do you want to hear my lecture on why an editor is not a replacement for learning grammar and punctuation? 😉 Do you have questions you’d like me to try to answer? Go ahead and put all your ideas in the comments, and I’ll see how many I can tackle during the next year (or two, if you give me lots of ideas!).

Fourth, did I miss something you’d like to vote for? Consider this a blank essay space where you may right anything (legal, moral, and polite) that you’d like. Go ahead, give me a comment about anything… 🙂

I promise to read all the comments. 🙂

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I’ll see you in January,
M. C. Lee

Creativity

I had an interesting conversation with someone recently. I was answering a survey about a writing tool I use, and it was much less technical than I expected. One of the last questions wasn’t about the tool at all, but about what my writing means to me. To my surprise, and probably to the surveyor’s, too, I found myself talking about God.

(Spoiler warning: If you don’t want to hear about God, you should change to another page now.)

This is more or less what I told him.

I believe we are children of our Heavenly Father. As His children, we share some of his attributes and powers (in a lesser portion, of course). One of these is the power of creativity. Yes, I believe that the ability to create comes from God, even though it can be misused for ungodly purposes.

Since it is a gift from God, I believe I should use my creativity and practice my talents. Doing so honors Him and helps me become a little more like Him.

Now, creative talents come in all sorts of varieties. We hear a lot about music and sports, art and writing, and other “performance” talents, but I don’t think those are the only ones that exist. Some people create friendships easily. Some people create a tidy, happy home. Some people create fresh bread or delicious meals that are always on time. Some people create happy children. Some people create beautiful gardens. Some people create sewing masterpieces or amazing crafts. This is not an all-inclusive list. If I didn’t name something you can create, then go ahead and add your personal talents to this list. 🙂

I do a few of those, though not necessarily the ones I most want. But for the survey, I was talking about my writing. I do believe that I write because of a gift from God. (No, I’m not saying my writing is a gift from God; I’m saying my ability to write is a gift from Him. What I do with it after that is up to me.) Of course I have to work to improve my talents, especially since I’m not one of those amazing writers who seems to know everything already. But it doesn’t matter how much talent I start with it, or end with, only how much I improve and use it.

So when I write, I hope my stories find readers who like them. I look forward to the day they touch someone who needs it. But even if that never happens, I believe I’m honoring my Heavenly Father by using a gift from Him, and I will continue practicing to be more like Him.

This Christmas season, I hope you reflect on all the gifts your loving Father has given you, both the tangible and intangible. And then I hope you look for a way to share your gifts with those who need help or hope or a loving hand.

Merry Christmas,
M. C. Lee

Conflict and Earned Endings

You’re going to look at the title and the first few paragraphs and be confused, but stay with me. It will all make sense… in the end. 😉

Authors frequently say “write what you know,” but it doesn’t always mean what you think it does. You don’t have to be a spy to write a spy thriller, and you don’t have to know how to ride a horse to write about them (although you should ask an expert if you got everything right enough to not look stupid). What you should “know” is emotions and conflict and human behavior and all that good stuff. Fortunately, life usually gives you lots of material, as long as you pay attention.

Can’t you make it all up?

You can try, but your readers will probably notice. However, you can cheat a little. You don’t need to lose a boyfriend to write about losing a boyfriend. If you lose a friend, you ought to understand the loss of a relationship well enough to make your readers believe the emotions. You don’t have to understand wanting a bike more than anything in the world, you just have to understand wanting SOMETHING that badly.

What about the conflict in your story? Do you have to have an archenemy to write about one?

Nope. Remember, you’re allowed to cheat. What about that neighbor that always puts up fancier Christmas decorations, or the student across the aisle who got ONE measly point better than you on the final? Or what about the serial killer you read about, even though you never met him? (Whew!) You know, the one who reminded you of that weird relative who is certainly not a serial killer but has a really peculiar collection of something?

Even better, think about the conflict in your own life and find a way to apply it to your story. You can tweak it. You can bend it completely out of shape! But keep the emotion so your readers will feel it when they read.

Trust me, life will provide you with plenty of opportunities to collect conflict.

Can’t you have a story (or a life) without conflict?

Let me sit down for a minute. When I can stop laughing enough to catch my breath, we can talk about this.

No. Neither stories nor life are worth much without conflict. Think about it. If you’re reading a book and everything falls in the hero/heroine’s lap without any effort or opposition, is it an interesting story? Even more important, when you get to the end of the book and the happily-ever-after, do you think the character has earned it? Do you put it down and say, “that was great,” or do you slam the book shut because “nothing happened!” Why should the girl win the prince without even a bad date in the process? Why should the guy get his dream job without struggling through a degree (and the interview)?

In order for the happy ending to be believable and satisfying, it needs to come after a struggle to achieve. And the character at the end of the book is stronger and bigger and better because he/she has overcome challenges and grown to conquer.

And since we’re writing what we know, and because we want to earn our own satisfying happy ending, we need to remember that our lives will also be full of struggles. (Don’t go looking for trouble; trouble will find you just fine.) While frustrating, that’s not entirely a bad thing. (But take note of the sad feelings so you can write them later. If you aren’t a writer, take note anyway, so you’ll be ready to comfort your friend when he/she feels sad.)

So I have a challenge for you. This Thanksgiving, while you’re giving thanks for your blessings, take a moment to give thanks for the challenges that have—and will—shape you into a better person. It will all be worth it. In the end.

Happy writing, and good luck with your struggles,
Marty C. Lee

A Day in the Life of a Writer

Disclaimer: I can’t speak for ALL writers, so this is really just a day in MY life as a writer.

I don’t write or do business on Sunday, and Saturday tends to be erratic, so this is for weekdays.

I wake up early enough to make me wish I was still asleep, but not really that early. (Sometimes it’s before the sun in winter, but the sun beats me in summer.) I shower, dress, eat breakfast, and read my scriptures. Ideally, by 8 am, I’ll be at my desk.

For those of you who are interested in office spaces, I use the family computer and my desk is currently in the living room, though I hope to get an office one of these years. When I get my own office, I’ll add white boards and bulletin boards and a filing cabinet and a bookcase and a cheap timer and a door to keep people out… Right now, I get a water bottle, a pair of headphones, and an assortment of pens and pencils.

I try to write new stuff until noon, though sometimes “write” means “outline” or “brainstorm” or “research” or “pick names” or “world build” or any of the other author-y tasks that sometimes have to come before actual writing. I also resort to side tasks when writer’s block is being stubborn. I’m not particularly fast, but I try to get 2000 words in that time. My goal is to one day get 1000 words an hour and be able to purposefully leave time for outlining/brainstorming.

I’m sure you’ve heard of writers who can write 10,000 words/day (good for them!), but I used to get about 5000 per MONTH, tops, so I’m still faster than I used to be. (By the way, don’t compare yourself to others. Nothing good comes of it.)

On my critique-group day, my group takes the place of my morning writing. I also have a Friday obligation that cuts my writing time in half.

After lunch, I take a break and do more-brainless activities, like house cleaning, reading, errands, or social media. Sometimes I give up and take a nap.

Around 1:30 or 2 pm, I get back to work. After a quick spin through my email, I spend some time editing my own work and/or beta reading/critiquing other people’s stuff. I also use this time to go over my own beta feedback. I love my beta readers. 🙂 I love finding out what’s working in my stories and what needs to be fixed. (If you’d like to be a beta reader, let me know…)

Most of the time, beta reading for others is also fun, since I tend not to accept beta reads that bore me to death. Reading other writers’ works-in-progress is actually a good way to learn more about your own writing, by the way.

In a couple of hours, I switch to business things like marketing, budgeting, or formatting. This is not the funnest part of my day, but it needs to be done. Always keep track of the business stuff, guys, or you’ll be sorry later.

If the weather is nice, I take a break to walk and meet my sweetie on the way home from work. In winter, I just keep working until supper.

I try to reserve the evening for my family, but occasionally I either NEED to catch up on something or WANT to avoid what they are doing (zombie movies, for instance…) In that case, I’ll work on whatever is farthest behind my goals or has the closest deadline.

After I turn off my computer, I spend some time reading and relaxing before bed. If I’m smart, I don’t let myself get so carried away with the reading that I don’t get to bed at a decent time. *clears throat*

It’s pretty boring, actually. A lot more goes on INSIDE my head than outside. My family assures me that I am not at all interesting to watch when I’m writing. 🙂 That’s okay. I’m happy if my books are interesting, instead.

Happy writing,
Marty C. Lee

Science Fiction & Fantasy Conference

Every year for several years now, I’ve gone to the Life, the Universe, and Everything sci-fi/fantasy conference in Utah. Last year, I told you about it after the fact, so I’m trying to do better this time, in case you’d like to go. I’m telling you, if you like science fiction or fantasy, it’s a really cool conference to attend.

No, you don’t have to be a writer. They also have art classes, and a game room, and movies, and presentations of academic papers, and meet-and-greets.

Yes, they do have writing classes. And the art classes, and business classes, and worldbuilding classes. And oh-that-sounds-super-cool classes. Two of my family members got to attend a weapons class with real weapons. They raved for weeks.

Yes, you can meet writers there. Yes, you can attend any of the classes, presentations, movies, games, book signings, etc with your pass (except for a very few “bonus” things that either cost extra or require an extra sign-up). It’s a pretty reasonable price, as these go. Check it out at ltue.net

If you decide to go, here’s a little practical advice.

Have someone drop you off, or be prepared to walk from farther parking. Or stay in the hotel and don’t worry about it!

Wear good shoes and comfortable clothes/hairstyle. Layers allow you to go from Utah-winter-outside temps to variable inside-room temps.

Take food to eat, especially if you aren’t going to take an actual lunch break. (An actual lunch break is a great idea, but sometimes the classes are just too tempting…)

Look for a freebies table. There are usually bookmarks, business cards, and who-knows-what-kind of goodies.

Check out the book room. Besides books, they have swag and art and authors.

Talk to people–lots of people. Pretend you aren’t shy. Understand that lots of people around you are also desperately trying to pretend they aren’t shy, and just say something (nice) to them.

If hauling weight bothers you AT ALL, slim down your bag to lighter than you think you can carry all day.

Ask experienced attendees which bathroom tends to have shorter lines, and use it immediately after class.

Drink lots of water (if you lightened your bag, take a small bottle and refill it every hour). I know, it will just make you need the bathroom, but trust me, dehydration will not enhance your experience.

Wash your hands frequently. If you are sick, don’t shake hands with anyone, even your favorite author that you ran into in the hall. (Elbow bump, perhaps?)

If you have business cards in a related field, bring them. Give them out to anyone that wants one, or leave them on the freebie table. But be nice! If someone doesn’t want one, they don’t have to have one…

If the class you want to take is full, try something else or find someone for a conversation.

Take a shower (obviously), but please, please don’t wear perfume, cologne, essential oils, scented lotions, or other scented products. Not only are there a LOT of people, and scents pile up, but some people are allergic, and it’s not very polite to make things uncomfortable for them.

Be nice. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that, do I?

And have fun! Maybe I’ll see you there,
M. C. Lee

Lifelong Reading

I hear some of you like to hear personal things about your favorite authors. I have a pretty big space bubble around my personal life, but I thought maybe you’d like to hear about my reading experience. After all, I have been recommending books to you, as well as writing books FOR you.

I’ve been reading (fluently) since I was four years old. Yes, really. My mom says I was reading at 7th-grade level before I even hit kindergarten age. Since I am not one of those people whose memories go back to toddler-hood, I literally can’t remember I time I couldn’t read. I’m pretty sure it’s had an impact on my view of the world. 😉

I started reading “big-people” books very quickly, and by the time I was eight, I was reading Lord of the Rings. No, I didn’t understand all of it; I was only eight! But I read it about once a quarter every year for many years, then dropped to twice a year, then annually. When my sister dropped her book and lost her page, she called me on the phone. “Quick, tell me what page I’m on!” “What just happened in the story?… Okay, here’s your page.” No, I didn’t have it memorized. Yes, that’s about how long it took me to find it.

Junior high was the first time I attended school (lousy timing!), and people started asking me how many books I read a year. Well, I don’t know! The library only lets me check out ten at a time, and I go every week. But I read books from home, too… So I started tracking. For three years, I wrote down every book I read that had at least 90 pages and wasn’t a textbook. Back then, there was no electronic way to do this (not much internet, folks, and the school computers could put their entire hard-drive on a single floppy drive!), so I did it all by hand. Decades later, I typed it all up so I could analyze it. Yep, I’m a nerd.

Three years. An average of 620 books/year. Lowest year was about 430, highest was a bit over 800. Yes, I realize that’s almost two a day. No, most of them did not have 90 pages; most of them had several hundred pages. Yes, that included some repeats, but most of them were new. You can also assume I read that many books every year until I had kids. (Children require attention, go figure, so I dropped down to only 300 or 400 books for a while.) Even now that I’m writing, I still manage to read over 200 books. Guys, that’s a LOT of books.

No, I don’t read sixteen hours a day. When I was seven or eight, I asked my mom what speed reading was. She gave me the 30-second explanation (or less), and I promptly forgot about it. I apparently started using some of the techniques, though, because my reading speed kept going up until it hit borderline-speed-reading. Not real speed-reading, just borderline. My family thinks it’s amusing to watch my eyes when I read. When they’re really bored, they’ll add pinball-game sound effects. They’re not as funny as they think they are.

By now, you might think I’m bragging. I’m not. I’m just pointing out that I have a lot of experience in the field. 😉 By now, I’m pretty good at picking out fun books. My tastes might not match your own, but if they do, then you’re probably fairly safe taking recommendations from me. Handy, isn’t it? Go ahead, search my posts for all the different lists… I’ll wait for you here. 🙂

As for writing, being a good reader doesn’t necessarily make one a good writer, but it certainly helps! I hope you decide my books are good enough to make your list of recommendations.

Happy reading,
M. C. Lee

LTUE 2019 Business Class Notes

Every year for several years now, I’ve gone to the Life, the Universe, and Everything sci-fi/fantasy conference in Utah. It’s sort of a writing conference, and sort of not. They also have art classes, and a game room, and presentations of academic papers, and meet-and-greets.

But I mostly go for the writing classes. And the business classes. And the worldbuilding classes. And the oh-that-sounds-super-cool classes. Two of my family members got to attend a weapons class with real weapons. They raved for weeks.

I wrote about my other classes here, and now I’m moving on to the business classes. If the class was a panel, I didn’t list the speakers and I didn’t keep track of who said what.

Finances
Rules to pass audits: Keep mouth shut. Answer questions clearly and succinctly. Don’t volunteer anything.
One-time sales tax must be paid right after. Regular sales must have license.

On the Road
Road stuff is no fun
Write what you love, and lots of it

Video trailer
Stock video sites for video clips
Kaden live free software or Adobe premiere
Sony Vegas good for beginners $50
DaVinci resolve free

Tools of the Trade
Scrivener is good for disorganized
Storyoriginapp.com, Prolifwords, and Mybookcave for reader magnets
Bundle rabbit
Kdp rocket

Working with Reviewers
Be polite & professional
Try to build a connection
Kirkus reviews are useless

What I Wish I Knew When I Started Indie, by M.A. Nichols
Don’t wait for book to be perfect
Income is the goal, not sales
Write more books!

Realistic Self-Publishing (all notes for rest of page), by Keary Taylor
Smashwords is a common source of piracy
Publish 2nd book before spending money on ads
She spends $60/day on ads
Be organized

Are you willing to:
Find & hire editors, proofreaders, cover artists, & formatters?
Manage your own marketing & PR?
Learn a lot of new skills?
Get creative with books AND entrepreneurship?
Treat this as business?

Average costs:
Editor/proofreader: $300 for 70K book
Format: $175 e & print
Cover designer: $150+
=$600-1000 to launch book that has a chance

Series starter marketing:
Only book: launch $2.99-5.99 depending on genre/length (pref 2.99-4.99)
Once established, first-in-series:
Full price= more cost to marketing
$0.99= charging a little helps pay for marketing
Free= no risk for readers

Follow-ups in series:
Increase by $1 each book (2.99, 3.99, 4.99)
Same price for each in series
Same price until last book, then increase $1

Backmatter:
Immediately after The End, have lead-in to next book with LINKS
Also by with LINKS
Thanks for reading, ask for review
Author bio
Social links
Follow on Amazon
Newsletter signup
CHOOSE SOME, NOT ALL. Keep it clean & simple.

Don’t get caught up in swag or book signings. They’re fun, but not profitable.

2000 books published/day on Amazon
WILL have to pay for visibility
Readers WILL forget you
Market constantly changes
For full-time, can’t take this casually

Set up social media sites, Goodreads, BookBub, Amazon Author Page, website.
Study what other authors are doing

Places to advertise:
Facebook
Amazon Ads
Bookbub
Other paid sites (in order of effectiveness)
eReader News Today
FreeBooksy
BargainBooksy
Free Kindle Books
RobinReads
FussyLibrarian
BookBarbarian
BookAdrenaline
BookSends
ManyBooks

Schedule sales around book releases
Stack ads (same day or close together)
Cycle ads, including backlist
Plan at least 6 weeks ahead (sites fill up early)
Mailing list advertisers WILL list permafree books

Downfalls: Genre bouncing, not interacting/getting personal with fans, not collaborating with other authors

Whew! I feel overwhelmed now. How about you?

Happy writing,
M. C. Lee