Ali Cross Guest Post and GIVEAWAY of BECOME

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here on Sophia’s blog! She is awesome and I’m pretty
sure all of her readers are super cool too.

Sophia, thank you for having me, and for helping me celebrate the release of my book,
BECOME.

So, Sophia asked me to talk about how I came to self-publish, what my journey had been. Oh man, let me tell you—it has been quite the journey. And I’m not even talking about all the legwork that goes into bringing a book to life all by yourself. The formatting, the marketing, the uploading, the pricing, the marketing, the reviews, the sequels, and the marketing. All. By. Yourself. Or, if you’re lucky, you’ll do it the way I did—sharing some of the burden with a handful of other rockin’ indie authors.

Then there’s the whole journey-of-the-mind. The one in which you say (lots of times) “Oh my gosh! Am I really going to self-publish? Am I doing this? For realz?” A couple deep breaths. “Seriously? Are you SURE?”

With heavy dashes of intermittent terror and euphoria.

Because self publishing is terrifying. And completely awesome.

Right around the time I decided to go forward with the independent release, BECOME took second place in the full manuscript division of the League of Utah Writers’ yearly competition. (They like me! They really like me!)

Before that, BECOME had been rejected, in the full for the 103rd time. Wait, the full wasn’t rejected 103 times. I think it was only rejected, um, about 32 times. Oh yeah. It was read, in the full, by 28 agents.

Before that, one agent read it three times. She never actually requested any of the revisions, she just kept rejecting me, I kept fixing it up and she kept agreeing to read it again. She liked my writing, what can I say? But, obviously, she just couldn’t fall in love with my story.

Before that, an agent offered to represent BECOME! Yeah! We had an awesome talk where she told me some (but not all) of the changes she would like to see. She said she’d send me the notes, and as long as I agreed to them, she’d sign me. Hurray!

Except, the notes never came.

I emailed her and asked if she’d changed her mind about me. She assured me she still wanted me and my story. Work on something else in the meantime, she said. But four months later I had to face facts: The agent wasn’t playing fair and she had no intention of signing me. So I got back to work. Revised according to the things we talked about (because they really were great ideas) and started querying again.

Before that, I had a contract with a small publisher. BECOME was set to be released in July of 2010. But alas, that publisher went out of business.

Before that, I worked like any aspiring author to perfect my story. I wrote, revised, wrote and revised some more. I entered (and won) several competitions. My story was strong. But it would not be published any time soon.

Okay, fast forward to today. Yesterday I released my book. I spit and polished it. Had it professionally edited. Hired a professional artist for the cover image. Did my darndest to give it the best birthday I could manage.

And now it’s up to you to determine if all those agents were right to reject BECOME, or if I was right to publish it because, damnit, they were wrong.


Bio: Ali Cross is the sensei of the Writer's Dojo where she holds a black belt in awesome. She lives in Utah with her kickin' husband, two sparring sons, one ninja cat, two sumo dogs and four zen turtles.
ali's blog: http://www.alicross.com 
ali's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authoralicross
ali's Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ali_cross 

Sixteen-year old Desolation Black wants nothing more than to stay in Hell where it’s cold and lonely and totally predictable. Instead, she’s sent back to Earth where she Becomes the evil she despises and the good she always feared.

  

When Desi is forced to embrace her inner demon, she assumes her Choice has been made—that she has no hope of being anything other than what her father, Lucifer, has created her to be. What she doesn’t count on, is a reason to want to change—something she’s never had before—a friend.

Ali is giving away an awesome SIGNED copy of BECOME, along with swanky swag!  Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter.  Ends Nov. 20

Ebook Publishing Vs. Self-publishing

Another great guest blogger for you today!  Author Jamie Grey (and my critique partner) is here to discuss the newer trends in publishing - and she should know! Her short story Princess for Hire debuted in eBook form this month.  I have it queued up on my Kindle as we speak.

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There has been a lot of talk lately about indie publishing (otherwise known as self-publishing) and the amazing success people like Amanda Hocking, Zoe Winters, and JA Konrath are having. To say they’re making millions on their self-published work is hardly an exaggeration! The eBook revolution has made a real difference in getting works out there that traditional publisher might not be interested in. But there’s another aspect to the eBook trend that doesn’t get touched on quite as much - eBook only publishers. This is a huge, growing market, and one that’s primed to take off just like the indies. So what’s the difference between the two?

eBook publishers (the reputable ones at least) are still publishers

They have a submission process, they comb carefully through their slush pile for works that are well written, and fit with their publishing house. They use editors to edit those stories into shape before publishing, and provide professional cover design. Some ePublishing houses even help with marketing and reviews. Basically, you’re getting all of the perks of a hard cover publisher, but your book is released electronically. Some of the better known ePublishers are romance or erotica based, such as Samhain or Ellora’s Cave, but there are other, smaller houses who do a little bit of everything (My own publisher, MuseItUp included). But just like regular publishers, you must do your research and find the one that works best with you and your story.

Self-Publishing is easier than ever

People who choose to self-publish, often have to do all of this work themselves, or hire someone to do it for them. It can cost a lot of money out of pocket. The plus side is that they have complete creative control over their work – from the images, to the format and the venues to publish. Amazon makes it really easy to self-publish through their Kindle program, and I know Barnes and Noble are moving that way themselves. Other places you can post your work to include Smashwords, Bookstrand, and Kobo. If you’re comfortable marketing your work or already have a good online presence through your blog, facebook or twitter, self-publishing can be a good way to go.

How to Decide

So how do you tell if your novel or story is something that might work well as an eBook? And should you try to self-publish or find an ePublisher? I think the easiest way to answer that question is to ask what you want out of the publishing process. There is no right or wrong route to take, but you do need to be aware of all of your options and do enough research to decide which path is best for your work.

In closing, here are some questions to consider:

1.       Is your work long enough to be considered full length? Or is it an odd length – novella, short story, short novel? ePublishing or self-publishing might be the way to go.

2.       Are you comfortable finding your own cover designer and formatting your book properly for each different eBook format? Or do you need help with that? Whatever you decide, remember that people do judge a book by its cover, even an eBook, so you want it to be as polished as possible.

3.       Has your book gone through extensive editing or do you need additional help? Are you willing to pay for this? You can’t always expect ePublishers to provide extensive editing help or take on a story with a lot of problems, but most do provide editors and feedback for making your story the best it can be. If you go with self-publishing, you should expect to pay for editing services, or find yourself a fantastic critique group.

4.       Are you in this for the money? If so, stop right now. Most of us will never have the success of Amanda Hocking or JA Konrath. Self-publishing eBooks is significantly cheaper than a hard copy book, but it is still an investment, in both time and money. And it is HARD work to start from nothing and build a readership. Be warned that it will cut significantly into your writing time.

ePublishers offer varying royalties, most still better than traditional publishers, but again you will still need to work hard to advertise your work and create the name recognition that will help your career move forward.