Author Sally Ember, EdD: What I wish I had known for indie #publishing and #ebooks - an open letter to my earlier self

 What I Wish I had Known for #Indiepub #Ebooks 1 and 2: An Open Letter to my Earlier Self

By Sally Ember, Ed.D.

As I get ready to return to writing Volume III, This Is/Is Not the Way I Want Things to Change, in my sci-fi/ romance/ paranormal/ multiverse/ utopian The Spanners Series, I consider what I wish I had known for ebooks 1 and 2 of this series, my first launch and second foray into being an indiepub author after having been traditionally published.

I decided to write a series of letters to my pre-publication self, since I believe in simultaneous time. I know that this letter and all the subsequent ones are already written and I am already reading them before I publish Volume I, This Changes Everything, and Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever. I'm sharing this information with the public here (again).

Follow that? It helps to be a sci-fi or quantum physics fan, for sure.

Here is Part I of my tips for my earlier self and therefore, all new indie authors who are about to publish their first ebook (or even afterward). There will be a series of such letters advising myself. I need a lot of help!

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Dear Earlier Sally,

So, here you are, in December, 2011, writing your first sci-fi novel. You don't know, yet, that you're going to become an "indie" author, or even what that is.

Let's recap what a sorry state you're in, as an author, and see what, if anything, we can do to rectify this ignorance that could short-circuit your incipient writing career. 

           

You still think you're going to write query letters, try to find an agent, seek a publication "house" and become a published author the way you've seen it happen with your previous nonfiction books and countless others' fiction books. You haven't even considered not having a print book and haven't even read or seen an ebook at this point. You have no idea how much this industry is about to BOOM!

In fact, even though you've heard of Kindles and other ereaders, you've never seen one and don't know anyone who owns or uses one, yet. You've never heard of or seen anything about Google+, "author platforms," or blogging by authors. You think those who blog are self-centered, boring, unemployed journalists or stay-at-home workers who have time to surf the net and write drivel about their lives that you can't imagine anyone wanting to read.

You aren't on or aware of most of social media. For example, Twitter: you have no Followers except by accident (you now have 7). You never tweet, retweet, or favorite anyone's tweets. In fact, you never read and respond on Twitter at all. Furthermore, your Facebook activity is conducted strictly to stay in touch with friends and family, people you actually know. You belong to no Facebook groups except those that include people you know and have a specific purpose (your high school reunion group, a meditation group).

Additionally, even though someone told you to sign up for and join Goodreads, you almost never visit it and have no idea what it's for. You also believe that people who use it are just sharing book lists and books they like. You never read or write reviews there or on Amazon and rarely buy books from online stores; you prefer bricks-and-mortar bookstores when you buy books and mostly use lending libraries.

You don't consider yourself a book marketer and have not the faintest idea what book marketing entails, nor do you want to know. In fact, you plan to have all that done by your publisher and perhaps your agent (you're a little fuzzy on who does what and when). You believe that their experienced and intensive marketing efforts will succeed in getting you/your book on TV, radio, and in print reviews and ads which will make your book rocket to best-seller status very quickly, since you're sure it's that good.

You've ever heard of or used any Google+ Communities, Hangouts, or Circles.

You have never heard of Metadata and wouldn't know how to apply that to your ebooks, either.

You do not know about most of nor do you belong to any in-person much less virtual writers' groups, authors' groups, marketing groups, review sharing groups, or any professional writers' groups of any kind.

You've never heard of ALEXA, Google Page Ranks, Google Authorship or KLOUT  scores and you don't know much about having an online presence. The extent of your knowledge is that you check Google every now and then to make sure nobody else is using your name or is saying bad things about you online.

Oy, vey. 

Can your writing career be salvaged? Can you become a published author and have ANYONE know it? How will your book get reviews? How will you acquire any followers, much less readers? Will you sell even one book to anyone outside your friends and family?

How and when will you ever figure out that you need to create and maintain a website, build and improve your author's platform, join and become active in online and virtual communities/groups, become KNOWN as YOU, your brand, online, as a sci-fi author and blogger, a creator and curator of useful content?

Tip #1: Forget the query letters, hunts for agents/publishers and all that trad pub jazz. Indie is the way to go. Ebooks are rocking the readers. Believe me. I know.

Tip #2: You may have noticed that I've actually decided to write these letters to you to offer a kind of road map to your salvation as an author. If you read and research each of the words or phrases I've put into BOLD in this letter, for example, those are the dots you have to connect, the work you have to do, to create the best future for your books and for you as an author.

Do a lot of it NOW, before you publish, and then keep doing more. That is key!

Stay tuned for Part II and subsequent Parts to this intraself communication which will contain advice for many indie authors as we continue on this journey of educating this indie author, earlier Sally: YOU!

Get to work!

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Sally Ember's Work:

Volume I,  This Changes Everything,  The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D.

Dr. Clara Ackerman Branon, 58, begins having secret visits from holographic representations of  beings from the Many Worlds Collective, a consortium of planet and star systems in the multiverse.  When Earth is invited to join the consortium, the secret visits are made public. Now Earthers must adjust their beliefs and ideas about life, religion, culture, identity and everything they think and are. Clara is selected to be the liaison between Earth and the Many Worlds Collective and she chooses Esperanza Enlaces to be the Media Contact. They team up to provide information to stave off riots and uncertainty. The Many Worlds Collective holos train Clara and the Psi-Warriors for the Psi Wars with the rebelling Psi-Defiers, communicate effectively with many species on Earth and off-planet, eliminate ordinary, elected governments and political boundaries, convene a new group of Global Leaders, and deal with family's and friends' reactions. In what multiple timelines of the ever-expanding multiverse do Clara and her long-time love, Epifanio Dang, get to be together and which leave Clara alone and lonely as the leader of Earth? This Changes Everything begins the 30-year story of Clara's term as Earth's first Chief Communicator, continuing in nine more Volumes of The Spanners Series. Are YOU ready for the changes?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HFELTG8   

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/376197

Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever of The Spanners Series

Intrigued by multiple timelines, aliens, psi skills, romance and planetary change? Clara and the alien "Band" are back in Volume II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever of The Spanners Series. Now as Chief Communicator, Clara leads the way for interspecies communication on- and off-planet. Fighting these changes are the Psi-Defiers, led by one of the oldest friends of the Chief of the Psi-Warriors, its reluctant leader, Rabbi Moran Ackerman. Stories from younger Spanners about the first five years of The Transition fill Volume II. How would YOU do with the changes?

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424969  

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KU5Q7KC 

Connect with Sally:

http://www.sallyember.com main website
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HEV2UEW author page
https://www.twitter.com/sallyemberedd Twitter: @sallyemberedd
https://www.facebook.com/TheSpannersSeriesbySallyEmber Spanners Series' page on FB
https://www.facebook.com/sally.ember
http://www.pinterest.com/sallyember
http://goo.gl/tZKQpv Spanners Series' page on Google+
http://www.google.com/+SallySueEmber Sally Sue Ember on Google+
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqnZuobf0YTCiP6silDDL2w/videos
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7237845.Sally_Ember

Sally is the author of The Spanners series. The Spanners Series is for adults/new adults and young adults. Sci-fi/ romance/ paranormal/ multiverse/ utopian/speculative fiction stories for this series come to author, Sally Ember, from dreams, meditation, visions and scientific research. www.sallyember.com/

Sally's Guest Posts at The Book Cove

Author Sally Ember, EdD: Letter to my Earlier Self about #Blog #Hops and #Virtual #Book #Tours (Part 4)

Letter to my Earlier Self about #Preorders (Part 3)
An Open Letter to my Earlier Self about #Book #Reviews and #Reviewers (Part 2)
What I wish I had known for indie #publishing and #ebooks - an open letter to my earlier self (Part 1)