Indie Week: An Adventure With Cinta Garcia & Little Nani: To Become An Indie Author

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Little Nani and Me – Why I Decided To Become an Indie Author

The dream of any writer is to be published. Ideally, every writer dreams of signing a wonderful contract with a big publisher, or at least with a publisher big enough as to make us well-known and to make us sell lots of books. As I said, that is ideally. There are lots of writers out there, and there are lots of very good writers out there. All of them deserve a big contract, because their books are amazing. Sadly, not many of them get that desired contract. That’s how the Indie community appeared. Not now, but long time ago.

I have always wanted to be a writer. I started writing when I was very young, and I even won a literary contest when I was 8 years old. I wrote a short story about the environment, I made it into the finals, and then I won: I got a collection of classic books and a desk. So my dream has always been to publish a book. Till August 2011 I didn’t know that it was possible to find an audience if you went self-published, but then I saw that lots of writers that I was meeting in Twitter were selling a huge amount of books. Hey! I also wanted to write a book and sell a lot of copies!

So Little Nani started to take shape in my head. I wrote a story, I published it in my blog, and people liked it. I felt good, so I wrote a second story, and people liked it even better. I was very happy, so I decided to write a collection of short stories with Little Nani as the main protagonist. Little Nani is a little girl who wants to be a witch. She meets a lot of friends, and she is always messing around with the wrong spells; but she is also sweet and willing to help others. Her adventures are very funny and I thought that my book could be directed to children.

Well, I sent some stories to several publishers. Just three replied to my email. Two of them told me they weren’t interested at the moment in publishing such a book, but the third one said they would be happy to publish my book, since the stories were funny and would easily find an audience. I trusted them. That was my mistake. We authors, sometimes, are too willing to have our books out there, and that makes of us naïve people sometimes. I was naïve, I fell for their flattery, and I got what I deserved for my naïvety.

After months of writing my stories, and weeks of waiting for a reply from my supposed “publishers”, I started to worry and I started to think that maybe the “agreement” I had signed was not the best of the ideas. After talking to some friends, we then discover that this supposed Publishing Agency was a fraud, and they were under investigation. I felt outraged, I felt stupid, and I promised to myself that I would have my book out there for everybody to read it even though no publisher were interested in my stories.

That is how I chose to become an Indie author. Thinking about it now, I should have done it from the very beginning, and I shouldn’t have fallen for the flattery and the suave speech of these deceptive people who only want to take your money and mess up with your dreams. But I guess that everybody learns lessons in this way, in the hard way. After months of suffering, not knowing what was going to happen to my book, now I am in full control, now I am getting it ready to publish it through Createspace, and now I feel absolutely happy about my book. I don’t care if I just sell one copy, or even if people don’t like it; at least, I will have fulfilled my dream of having published a book. And it will be even more satisfactory, since I self-published it. So my “The Funny Adventures of Little Nani” will be out and ready for selling very soon, hopefully at the end of the summer.

What do I want to say with all this rant? Well, if you really want to publish a book, if you really have faith in your writing, go self-published. Don’t wait for a professional publisher telling you that your writing is not worth of it. You don’t need them. You just have to believe in yourself. You will be surprised of how much other authors will help you, providing valuable pieces of advice, helping you to promote your book, even reading and reviewing your work. And eventually, maybe one day someone from a big publishing company reads your self-published work, loves it, and offers you a big contract. Who knows? But till that happens, you need to make your work known, and going Indie is the best option. The Indie Community of writers is like a big family. A family all over the world. And I love being part of that family.

Thanks, Rob, for letting me rant like this in your Indie Week

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About the Author:

Cinta García de la Rosa is a Spanish teacher who always dreamt of being a writer. So she writes, every day, compulsively. Always active, she is also an avid reader, a blogger and a book reviewer. Her first writings were in Spanish, but, since she got her BA in English Studies, she decided to start writing in English. Now, she feels more comfortable writing in English than in her mother tongue. She is finishing the editing and formatting of her first book “The Funny Adventures of Little Nani”, a collection of stories for children, with illustrations and other surprises. She is also working in other projects: a collection of short stories and a novelette based on the British Regency period. Apart from writing and reading, she enjoys meeting new people, dancing, and traveling.”

Find more from Cinta:

• Cinta’s Corner (website)
• Find her on Facebook
• Follow Cinta on Twitter

Indie Week: C.J. Listro & To Indie Or Not To Indie

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To Indie or Not to Indie…

To indie or not to indie? That is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler—gotcha. No, I’m not going to write this entire post in Hamlet-speak. However, the question is an important one with fierce and violent supporters in both camps. Indie or traditional? If you’re teetering on the pre-published fence, like I am, it’s a question that has to do with much more than ideology. Not to be a negative Nancy (or Nellie, if you prefer), but a lot of people rush into the indie business before they’re ready. (Same for traditional, but agents and editors are pretty good about sniping them down.) Doesn’t mean they don’t have a killer story. But going indie is a lot more work than just writing the Great American Novel and hitting the publish button.

What? You mean, you can’t just send your story to Amazon and rake in the dollars? No. Not unless you’re a wizard. Are you a wizard? No? Well consider the steps of novel selling:

• Write the story
• Edit the story
• Format the story
• Design a cover
• Publish the story
• Distribute the story

Market the storyWhen you go traditional, you have a team of editors, marketers, designers, etc. etc. etc. who take care of the last four or five steps for you. You can’t exactly just sit back and smell the roses, but you don’t have to become an artist, editor, coder, and marketer all at the same time. Or hire them. For the indie, it’s more complicated. You edit the novel (or pay someone to do it). You design the cover (or pay something to do it). You distribute the story and get red in the face when major booksellers won’t carry your paperbacks. You arrange the book signings, the tours, the blogs. You send free copies to reviewers and cross your fingers. If you’re planning to do this as your day job, good for you. If you’re tacking this onto your day job, just add up the hours (and money!) and make sure you still have time to sleep.

If you do it well, it can work. Let’s take a look at two people with different indie trajectories: S.M. Boyce of Lichgates and Amanda Hocking of Trylle. Boyce is known for her charisma, her fierce marketing campaigns, and her magical editing skills. Hocking earned herself millions by releasing books every few months, networking like a madwoman, and losing a lot of sleep. But even Hocking went traditional in the end. Because she wanted to be a writer—and only a writer. And in my opinion, the wrong member of this duo is making the millions (okay, okay, I’m biased and in my opinion, Lichgates is way better written). But I digress. A traditional publisher can’t guarantee you success. Some indie books sell way more than their traditional counterparts (Hocking is the poster child for this concept). But what do both these women have in common? They’ve spent a lot of time and money. Editing their books or finding editors. Shopping for cover artists. Learning how to format for .mobi and .epub. These things are non-negotiable. There’s nothing less appealing than a badly-formatted indie e-novel with an MS Paint cover and a slew of typos. If you’re not willing to put in the extra effort—well, maybe indie isn’t for you.

Before the indie warriors stab me with pitchforks, I’m not anti-indie. I love indie. Indie has all sorts of advantages. You keep more of your royalties. You can sell cross-genre or experimental works that publishers are too afraid to touch. You retain creative control so some editor doesn’t slash up your work to ribbons and add a gross-looking cover. You can sell your brilliant novel that agents and editors just don’t seem to clamber for, even though the only thing wrong with it is that there are thousands of other books being submitted and you don’t have any snazzy literary connections. Indie publishing has broken open a literary world previously controlled by the tastes of publishers and now controlled by the tastes of the masses. You know, those people actually reading the books.

But if you want to go indie, you have to be willing to put in the time and money and schmoozing. And for miss poor, overworked, shy grad student over here (that’s me), that’s a commitment my life can’t handle right now. So I may publish a few indie stories for fun, or to get my name out there, but for my novel series (insert shameless Dark Moon plug), I’m going traditional. You know—if the planets align.

Moral of the story? Indie publishing has a whole load of benefits—if you’re willing to work for it.

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About The Author

C.J. is a graduate student going for her doctorate in Clinical Psychology. She likes to pretend to be a hipster but let’s face it, she’s just a nerd. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and a double major in English from the University of Notre Dame, where she participated in a creative writing group named after a condiment. She likes to write about real people who don’t exist.  She can typically be found reading on her balcony, slaving in her office, or posting silly things on her sarcasm and citrus themed blog. She has an eye for good prose and a nose for that old musty book smell.  Her novels and short stories span the genres from YA fantasy to adult literary horror, but they’re currently locked away in her secret safe until someone decides to publish them.

For More Information on C.J.

• Blog
• Follow on Twitter 
• On Goodreads

Indie Week: Jessica Fortunato Discusses Thomas & Giveaway of The Sin Collector and Thomas

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It’s Friday the 13th! Batten down the hatches and avoid ladders!  At least that is what I should be telling you to do.  Instead, I celebrate the superstition of the 13th. With black cat trailing and ladders too small to walk under, I will be decorating for my LilSister’s birthday.  You see, the 13th is lucky to me.  I got a baby sister on the 13th, and this year I am lucky enough she is still here.
However, there is another reason I feel like the luckiest girl in the world…fate gave me all of you.

When you are an Indie writer, you are on your own 99% of the time in your work.  This past month I learned that being Indie also means you have an awesome underground community of authors and readers who know exactly how hard a job it can be.  As an Indie author, some of the most creative, brightest, kindest, and GENEROUS people surround me.  Without their help I would never be able to be here talking about my latest release The Sin Collector: Thomas.

My first novel, The Sin Collector, released earlier this year, and has exceeded my expectations.  Sometimes I need to stop and remind myself it has only been in the world for five months.  I get DM’s all the time wondering about future work, and I even have a fan who intends to get the Collector tattoo in August. (Yikes! no pressure to be a success or anything!)

The Sin Collector is Book One in the Trilogy of the same name.  In The Sin Collector, I introduced the world to Liliana, a snarky, sometimes too trusting, easy going immortal.  Her personal journey encompassed a paranormal whodunit.  Some people have said she seems too young for her 120 years of age (hey, not every immortal can be whiny and sullen like the Cullen family) some have said she is their new favorite heroine.  The Sin Collector ended on a happy note, with Liliana finding a place for herself, and that is all I will say to avoid spoiler alerts.

Suffice it to say, perfection is easily shattered in Book Two, Sacrifice.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Thomas is what we are here to talk about. Thomas will be released on Amazon on July 20th!  Here is a short blurb about Thomas:

“Thomas has taken vows. As an immortal, he is impervious to harm on the battlefield. As a Collector, he alone can take away the sins of the fallen and allow them to move peacefully into the next life.
But valor never comes without sacrifice.

Far away from combat is his home, and her name is Lucy. Lucy is a human and frail from the explosion that nearly took her life, but Thomas’s duty pulls him from her before she can recover. His letters are his only connection to her, and to her caretaker, Thomas’s best friend Emmilina.

Every character is a person, and they have led entire lives before the main story even begins. This is the history of Thomas.”

Thomas began as a secondary character for me.  I barely focused on his intricacies.  However, as I wrote I found myself falling in love with his character and adding him to more scenes.  I had written him calm, kind, but somewhat apathetic.  Even as the writer, I wondered what would have happened to a person for them to be this way?

I hope that in the short story of Thomas’s life many of your pressing questions are answered in a satisfying way.

More than anything, I hope that you take the new questions that are handed to you and have the patience to wait for the answers in Sacrifice.  I promise, you won’t regret the wait!

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Giveaway: One lucky commenter will win an ecopy of The Sin Collector, the first book in The Sin Collector Trilogy AND an ecopy of the soon to be released companion story The Sin Collector: Thomas!!! All you need to do is leave a thoughtful comment here on the post and be sure to leave your email so the winner can be contacted. It’s a great chance to read the first book of what is sure to be a great trilogy and to continue right along with the story of Thomas, all in anticipation for Book 2 in the near future.
Giveaway ends 12:01AM July 23th

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About the Author:

Jessica Fortunato resides in Pittsburgh, PA.  When she isn’t at her computer you might be inclined to call missing persons.  However, be sure to check the kitchen first because she is probably just baking something.  She collects stuffed elephants, thinks fairies hide her stuff, and she’s never once been convicted of a crime.  She has however been cited several times for being awesome in public.

Fortunato’s first book The Sin Collector can be purchased on Amazon

You can find her and her book at the following places:

♠        The Sin Collector Website
♠        Jessica on Twitter
♠        The Sin Collector on Facebook
♠        Good Reads

Indie Week: Review: The Sin Collector: Thomas, by Jessica Fortunato

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Title: The Sin Collector: Thomas
Author: Jessica Fortunato
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Thomas is a short story based on one of the most beloved characters from Book One of The Sin Collector Series. 

“Thomas has taken vows. As an immortal, he is impervious to harm on the battlefield. As a Collector, he alone can take away the sins of the fallen and allow them to move peacefully into the next life. 
But valor never comes without sacrifice.

Far away from combat is his home, and her name is Lucy. Lucy is a human and frail from the explosion that nearly took her life, but Thomas’s duty pulls him from her before she can recover. His letters are his only connection to her, and to her caretaker, Thomas’s best friend Emmilina.”

Every character is a person, and they have led entire lives before the main story even begins. This is the history of Thomas.

(Description from Goodreads)

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Earlier in the year I read Jessica Fortunato’s debut novel The Sin Collector, book one in her Sin Collector Trilogy. The book was a refreshing take on the paranormal in the sense that Fortunato dug up a little known (at least to me) mythical being sometimes known as a Sin-Eater or Collector. That alone had me had me wanting to read the book, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Not too long after the author allowed the fans to choose which character from the book they’d like to read as the star of a short story. Thomas won with flying colors. There was a good amount of intrigue into his past that I wanted his story to be told as well. This short story is the product of that voting process.

Fortunato’s writing style comes through in Thomas just as much as it did in her longer debut novel.  This was great to see because sometimes an author can’t translate their normal style to the shorter form of a short story. The mechanics are just different, but that doesn’t seem to have gotten in Fortunato’s way.

The pace was fast, which is one of the things I loved about The Sin Collector. Also, while it’s easy to speed through, the it doesn’t let you breeze over the words. Some fast paced stories can easily be read and forgotten. With Thomas there is nothing lost along the way. The pace just helps the reader gain the information that they long for; Thomas’s history.

Did I like Thomas’s character even more after knowing where he came from and what he was doing long before what we know from Book 1? Affirmative! He was already one of my favorite characters, but this story was essential to locking him in as one of my favorite characters. Was his story all that I had been waiting for? Affirmative; it was satisfying and more. I had no idea what I was going to be reading since I didn’t have much to work with. He was very mysterious. What takes place in this story reveals all that was needed to be known…but then it leaves some more questions after it’s done.

I can’t get into the questions that arise. I’m pretty sure I have the answers, but you’ll need to read this story for yourself. I refuse to spoil anything about Thomas. I will say one things though, please read The Sin Collector before you read The Sin Collector Thomas.

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Book 1, The Sin Collector  can be purchased on Amazon. The Sin Collector: Thomas is not available until July 20th available now from Amazon, so you still have some time to read the first book in the trilogy before Thomas is released.

You can find more on the author at the following links:

 ♠       The Sin Collector Website
♠        Jessica on Twitter
♠        The Sin Collector on Facebook
♠        Good Reads

Indie Week: S. Fitts & A Venn Diagram (And Giveaway)

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Exploring the Vast Indie-Lit Community or Fun with Venn Diagrams

I started writing a post comparing indie literature to indie music and how they’re both evolving in this flaming, digital death-future we’re currently inhabiting.

I realized I couldn’t define “indie” in a literary sense. As a movement, it’s so alien to indie music and film that I was stymied.

Indie lit isn’t always gritty, at least not as far as the content’s concerned. The editing might be gritty, which I suppose could be compared to the sound of a poorly-produced punk record. Difference: some people like the second thing.

There isn’t an “indie style” in the literary world, merely an independent method of operating, and unlike indie musicians and filmmakers, a lot of these authors and their work seem so… normal.

Every time a romance writer with a conservative avatar follows me on Twitter, I scratch my head. “You’re self-published? Why? And why are you following a degenerate like me?” I follow back, of course. I’ve got an open mind.

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The Indie-Lit Community:

I am one of you.

I don’t know who we are.

I had to make a Venn diagram.*

The original three circles were labeled: “Rejected by Establishm’t,” “OCD,” and “The Insane.”

The kinder, second revision is labeled: “Tired of rejections/don’t trust the establishm’t/burned by the establishm’t,” “Artists with a specific vision which they will not allow to be altered,” and “The Insane.”

* Level of brilliance is irrelevant in this discussion.

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Click to Enlarge Photo

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Let’s look at the first circle: Authors with issues regarding “the establishment.”

We’ve all heard a story of some lady inManitobawhose sci-fi/fantasy trilogy about a world where guinea pigs rule as feudal lords was rejected eight thousand times by agents and editors worldwide. This lady then found GREAT SUCCESS by self-publishing her trilogy on Kindle. She now has a BMW. (Try KDP today!)

Okay, so this person clearly has an audience, and the agents misfired. She might have been rejected for simple commercial reasons – too many guinea pig-related submissions already in the slush pile. Perhaps her queries were incoherent. Doesn’t matter. She didn’t want to wait for her prince any longer, and no matter her current level of success or the wholesomeness of her project, she is indie.

(Cheers on the BMW.)

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Then we have those who don’t trust the establishment. Perhaps they’ve been fucked over by a bad agent, are offended by the literary status quo, hate The Man on principle… Again, I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. They think agents and publishing houses are filled with axe-wielding goblins, so they avoid them and self-publish.

Often, this camp voices their opinions loudly and defensively, causing the establishment to point and laugh. It’s a disturbing rift. Vonnegut once said that all writers are extended family, just like all musicians are family, and plumbers, and car mechanics, and so on, and I believe in that. (I’m paraphrasing. I can’t find my copy of Cat’s Cradle, but I’m pretty sure it’s in the prologue.)

Sometimes, I agree with the establishment. Sometimes, the professional retorts sound like high school hazing, and I can understand the troubled authors’ mistrust.

Bitter, pensive, or misunderstood, they’re indie, too.

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The Second Circle: Control Freaks.

I don’t want an editor touching my shit! I want approval over the cover! I want to pick the font! I want to dry-hump my art in the dark!

Please, know this: I’m making fun of myself, too.

I’m fortunate. I have a degree in graphic design, and my focus was, logically, typography and bookmaking. While these are useless skills in today’s job market, they’re wonderful to have stashed up the old sleeve when self-publishing a book.

The downside: I don’t have the same passion for graphic design that I do for writing. My knowledge base is outdated. I didn’t want to design any of it, but the friends willing to attack the project didn’t share my vision for the book’s overall feel. In the end, I did it myself because I could.

That’s not to say that I think the book’s design is impeccable. It’s definitely not. I made mistakes, I learned, and I gave an imaginary intern full credit.

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On self-editing: Do it. A lot.

More importantly, find friends willing to read your shit and point out their disappointments. None of mine are professional editors, but some are writers, some are voracious readers, and they all had invaluable notes.

I’m positive Bleeding Gut Blues would have benefited from a professional editorial spit-shine. It also would have been better if it were my third book instead of my first. C’est la vie.

The point: Editors are good. If you’re self-publishing the work they’re editing, you aren’t obligated to take their advice. What’s to lose in seeking out a professional opinion?

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An author isn’t necessarily foolish to want to protect their baby – financially or artistically. Horror stories abound. An acquaintance told me about a friend of hers, wrote a book about lesbian pirates. Publisher slapped a stock pirate photo on the cover and marketed it as YA. Clusterfuck ensued, and the author can’t do a damn thing about it.

Now, granted, it was probably a vanity publisher. (Sidenote: Being self-published means you will be harassed in every form of contact by Dorrance and its subsidiaries for, I can only assume, the rest of your life.) I don’t believe a legit publishing house would make a mistake like that. Perhaps I’m naïve.

As far as rights and future earnings are concerned, I have a piece of paper that says Bleeding Gut Blues is mine, all fucking mine, to do with as I please. On the flipside, no one’s invested a slice in its ownership, and therefore, selling it is my sole responsibility.

That’s the indie Catch-22: Total artistic control begets total responsibility. Artists don’t always have heads for marketing. I certainly don’t. I’m an antisocial bastard who sits in a corner typing.

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Which leads us to the last circle: The Insane, those mentally unable to work within the establishment.

You probably thought that part of the diagram was a joke. Sadly, it wasn’t. Just because someone’s neurotic or worse doesn’t mean their work is crap. It just means they’re crazy. Professionals hate dealing with crazy, and who can blame them? Therefore, these people end up indie as well.

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In the center of the diagram, we’re left with an eccentric, paranoid, passionate, possessive, enterprising, and self motivated individual.

The same could be said for plenty of published writers. All creative types, in fact!

I guess I’m still stymied.

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The author of this post would like to giveaway an ebook copy of the book Bleeding Gut Blues to one lucky commenter. To enter, please leave a thoughtful (maybe even discussion worthy) comment on this post. Be sure to provide your email as well, so I can have the author contact you if you win.

Giveaway ends 12:01AM July 18th

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About the Author:

Born in Houston, transplanted in Rhode Island since 2000, S Fitts is the author of Bleeding Gut Blues and keyboard player for punk bands Almost Blind and Drunk Robb & the Shots.

[I'm also a shitty poet, hack busker, self-hating graphic designer, RISD graduate, former barista, and amateur publisher. --S]

About Bleeding Gut Blues:

Ellis O’Neill, a young drifter withdrawn from the world, is subsisting at the base of the Pyramid of Needs. He wakes up on a lawn in southern Illinois with just enough recollection of the night before to get him to a bus station, Cincinnati, and Danny, his last friend and makeshift brother, waiting with a sedan pointed two thousand, two hundred miles west.

Officially, they’re checking on Danny’s sister, Angie, missing in action for months, her whereabouts finally verified by a vague letter postmarked California. The two have cause to be worried about her safety sans chaperone, but the knights-in-armor motive is a front. For Danny, the trip is an excuse to get his friend back, to pull Ellis back into the world. Ellis isn’t sure about the world, but he’s sure about Angie, his only proven solution to a life shaped by alienation and neglect.

Find more about S. Fitts and Bleeding Gut Blues:

• Bleeding Gut Blues site
• Follow on Twitter
• Like on Facebook
• You can purchase the book through Amazon or the Bleeding Gut Blues site.