Let’s Talk Print On Demand

What’s been your experience with Print On Demand? It took me a few months to decide whether I wanted to go down this road. I weighed several options and found that CreateSpace offered the best bang for the buck. So I took a deep breath and jumped, hanging on to the edge for a moment then finally with the help of my editor/assistant I let go. (She would say I went kicking and screaming. It wasn’t all that bad. Really it wasn’t ;))

If you’ve never looked into CreateSpace I would suggest giving them a try. They make it so easy to submit your book and cover. But remember you have to have the back and spine completed also. Now that was a different monster in itself. We had to read the instructions about measuring the spine. Yep it’s a fine science and guess what, if you don’t do it right the spine design with wrap around to the front and back. Thank goodness the one it did that on with me actually turned out looking pretty cool.

With CreateSpace you can pay only $25 and go into their expanded distribution program. This sends your books to several wholesale distributors and big book franchises. I at first wondered if this was going to be a good thing, but when I googled one of my books it was amazing how many places my books have shown up. One day I found my books on someones blog that I had no idea who they were. That was so cool. Then it started happening pretty frequently. It’s like you’re paying $25 for advertising.

Also your book goes on Amazon and you can connect it to your author page. When Amazon recognized book stores pick up your print book, Amazon posts it on your book page. Sometimes the other companies post a different price then you input but you still get what you’re supposed to.

As for sales on the CreateSpace page, not many but you as the author can buy them really cheap from CreateSpace. All you pay is the print costs and shipping. At least you have your book in print without paying a huge printing fee. Try it, you might be surprised. Hope this helps you out or gives you a little food for thought.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you…

Nice surprise on Twitter yesterday…

One of my Twitter friends Tattie Maggard sent me a nice tweet. She has a Christian ebook blog and she featured “With All My Heart” yesterday on her blog along with 3 other Christian romances. It was a nice surprise. Check out the link to the post.

http://christianfictionebooks.blogspot.com/2013/01/four-christian-romances-to-fit-your.html

Social Media! Oh Me!

Well, it’s official. I’m now on Facebook. My books have been on Facebook for a while, but now I am personally. I’ve been fighting it forever. My assistant has been telling me I needed this for my Author platform. Well, I did it. I broke down and joined the millions of people on Facebook. It’s a little daunting. I’m sorry, but I just don’t get into telling everyone what I had for breakfast. Yikes!

I have never been Mrs. Social Butterfly. It took my assistant forever to get me to publish my books. She said it was like pulling teeth to get me set up on Twitter. It’s funny because now I’m on every social media site I can think of. It’s crazy how being a published author can change your life. All of a sudden people want to know what I think. Me! Plain, nutty, me!. I had someone ask the other day what I drink while I write. Really!!! I told them with a smile, sweet tea. I’m a southern girl, gotta have my sweet tea.

So if you get a chance go on over to Facebook and friend me. I will friend you back when I figure out how to. You may be laughing but I’m serious.

On a book note, go over to Goodreads and check out my new book giveaway for “The Winner Is Love”. It goes through December 31st. It is available to US, Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, India and Canada. I think that’s all of them.

As always, good writing and May God Bless you!

Publishing in today’s world…

It has been an interesting ride since publishing my first novel. I had always said I would never do social media. Well, guess again. I now tweet, blog, and do most of all the social media networks except Facebook. I do have a Facebook page for one of my books, but it is handled by my editor. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is great, but just a little too social.

When I first decided to publish my books I played with the idea of a traditional publisher. I spoke with a couple and they said well send in your manuscript and we will let you know. Well if you have ever done this it is a long wait for the let you know part. After doing a lot of research on traditional publishing, I decided against that route. As I researched I discovered a lot of things I did not care for.

One of the things that bothered me was the royalties. They wanted to pay me just a fraction of what I would be charging for the book. One publisher said we can offer you 5% royalties on all books sold and the highest offer was 25%. I sat there doing the math and decided that was not happening. When you work hard on your novel and it is like part of you, why would you give a publisher 75%.

Well, then I discovered self publishing. I smiled at the thought of the tables turning in the other direction. With self publishing I had control of my own work. I could control where it went and how. I have not regretted that decision yet. I have been approached by several publishers wanting to get my already published books in their market. One even offered to take my books to new heights for the nice round figure of $3000. After I put my jaw back in place, I nicely told him thanks but no thanks. He wanted to put them where they already were at.

I know with traditional publishing you get the whole media, advertising, and all with it. But in reality, they wanted to put my books where they already were. Now you do have some wonderful Indie publishing companies that are not out to drain you of your profits. I may decide to go with one of those for some of my future work, just to see where it leads. Who knows.

This is not a post to discourage or persuade anyone from anything. I just wanted to give my experiences. As always, good writing and God Bless!

Shameless post for the week!! Sorry!!!

Ok, so here is my shameless blog for the week. I have 4 books in publication now. (Grinning widely, with much fear in the background). I would love to hear some feedback or reviews. I have gotten some really nice reviews, thanks by the way, and only one review that was not exactly the best, but he admitted that romance was not his genre, so I took him at his word.

So here are the links where they can be found, if anybody is even remotely interested. (Fingers crossed).

I tried to make it simple with these links! Come on give it a whirl!

Ghost Lover can be found at the following locations:

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/212795

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Lover-Stephanie-Payne-Hurt/dp/1478376864

https://www.createspace.com/3958430

Moonbeam & Roses can be found at:

https://www.createspace.com/3942428

http://www.amazon.com/Moonbeam-Roses-Stephanie-Payne-Hurt/dp/1478336811

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/180924

Tender Flames can be found at:

http://www.amazon.com/Tender-Flames-Of-Love-ebook/dp/B0084USOE2