SPROUT A NEW LEASE ON YOUR WRITING LIFE ...

Greetings everyone!

I hope you had a wonderful end of year celebration! Now that we are into our first week of 2014 it is time to GET BACK to work. LOL.

I know many of you still kept busy writing schedules over the holidays, BUT if you were like me, well, (hangs head in shame), you did not do much writing at all. I know we all have our, ehem, excuses, but no more will be accepted. LOL.

One of our special blogger friends, N.A. Windsor, affectionally know as Nutshell, has brought together an anthology with co-editor, Alana Garrigues. It is an amazing collection of writing exercises and their collective works written by the children's book writers of Los Angeles.

This is a book ALL Indie writers should have in their library. And what's even more special, through January, 50 percent of the proceeds will go to help aid in the Philippine Relief Efforts! SO... this is THE perfect time to break in all your Amazon gift cards and help support the many people devastated by this wicked force of nature.

Here are the highlights!

Story Sprouts Blog Tour: The Many Roles of an Indie Author

Last year my nonprofit writing group, CBW-LA, published its first ever anthology. It was our first foray into the challenging yet wonderful world of self-publishing. 

We learned a lot during the four months it took us to publish the anthology, including the fact that indie authors have to play many roles. 

1. AUTHOR

This is the most important role you have to play. As an author, you give birth to new characters, create worlds for them to live in and bombard them with a thousand conflicts to make them grow. You will rewrite and revise your manuscript until the plot holes have been filled and the story flows seamlessly.

2. EDITOR

As an indie author, you’re advised to hire editors before you self-publish. But before you even hire a developmental editor to see how your story flows, and a copy-editor to make sure you have dotted all the i's and crossed all your t’s, you still need to make sure that you have personally edited your manuscript to the best of your ability. Sending a polished manuscript to your editors will ensure that you can publish it sooner rather than later. This also saves you money in the long run. A polished manuscript will have none of the unnecessary scenes and wasted words—which means less work for the editor and less pages for the printers to print.

3. DESIGNER/ ARTIST

A book is judged by its cover—at least initially, so as an indie author, you’re advised to hire a book cover designer, particularly if you’re not artistically-inclined. If you happen to have graphic design skills, then you’re one of the lucky few who can save some money to create your own cover art. But whether or not you do hire a designer for your book cover, you still need to learn about what makes a book cover stand out. You’ll need to learn about fonts, colors and text and graphic placement so you can apply it to your own book. Since you know your story inside and out, you’re the only one who can give the graphic designer the concept so he can create a cover that gives readers an idea of what your story is about.

4. FORMATTER

As an indie author, you’ll need to format your book not just for print but for the different e-book platforms out there (mobi, epub, pdf, etc). Thankfully, this is one role which you can delegate to a professional, if you so choose. When we created STORY SPROUTS, we made sure that we hired a formatter like Morgan Media to work on our manuscript because we wanted to make sure the anthology looked professional and polished on all platforms.

5. DISTRIBUTOR

Will you be publishing your ebook withAmazon, iBooks, Smashwords ,Barnes & Nobles’ Nook or all of them? How much will you sell your ebooks for? How about your print book? Will you be selling them just domestically or internationally? Will you be selling to bookstores and libraries? These are just some of the questions you’ll need to answer and work on as you fulfill the role of distributor.

6. SALES/ MARKETING/PROMOTIONS REPRESENTATIVE

You’ll have to create a marketing plan and put it into motion. How will you get the word out about your book? Will you be doing book tours? Will you do Blog tours and promote your work through various social media? Will you give away swag on your blog? How about promotional items related to your book like bookmarks, pins or t-shirts? As an indie author, you’ll not only have to be your own marketing representative, you’ll also have to be your own publicist.  This will include setting up your own events, asking for book reviews, and creating publicity materials such as a press kit or press releases.

7. ACCOUNTANT/PROJECT MANAGER

As an indie author, you’ll also have to be your own project manager. You’ll need to create a financial plan and stick to it. You’ll have to make sure everything from writing to editing to publishing stays within your set timeline. This goes for the allotted budget as well. Spreadsheets will become your best friend as you also play the role of accountant. You’ll have to keep track of your sales, your vendors and your taxes. 

These are the major roles an indie author has to play, along with being a multi-tasker, problem-solver and go-getter as well. It takes a lot of time and hard work, but it is so worth it to be a part of every step your book takes from its inception to its publication. 

STORY SPROUTS: CBW-LA WRITING DAY EXERCISES & ANTHOLOGY 2013

Paperback: 240 pages

Publisher: CBW-LA Publications (October 18, 2013)

Edited by: Alana Garrigues, Nutschell Anne Windsor

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0989878791

ISBN-13: 978-0989878791

Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches

Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

STORY SPROUTS 2013 ANTHOLOGY STATISTICS:

19 Authors

38 Combined Anthology Entries – 2 per Contributing Author

6-hour Workshop

10 Writing Exercises (included in Story Sprouts)

Dozens of Photo, Character and Conflict Prompts (included in Story Sprouts)

240 pages

BLURB:

What happens when linguistic lovers and tale tellers workshop together? Inspiration. Wonder. Discovery. Growth. Magic. 

Brave and talented, the writers featured in this anthology took on the challenge of dedicating one day to the raw and creative process of writing. 

A rare view into the building blocks of composition, Story Sprouts is made up of nearly 40 works of poetry and prose from 19 published and aspiring children's book authors.

This compilation includes all of the anthology writing exercises and prompts, along with tips, techniques and free online writing resources to help writers improve their craft.

KINDLE & PRINT COPIES AVAILABLE THROUGH AMAZON: 

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Sprouts-CBW--Exercises-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00G2X3E52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388179768&sr=8-1&keywords=story+sprouts

LINKS:

Learn more about Story Sprouts at http://www.storysproutsanthology.com/

Join the Children’s Book Writers of Los Angeles at www.cbw-la.org  

Find Nutschell at:

Blog: www.thewritingnut.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nutschell

Linked-In: www.linkedin.com/in/nawindsor

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/nutschell

Thanks for having me on your blog, Michael!

It was TOTALLY my pleasure, Nutshell! I wish you all the best with this incredible Anthology.

Thank you all for stopping by today and showing support for a very worthy cause! Have a GREAT weekend everyone.