When the lovely Charlie Plunkett asked if she could come and visit my website on her blog tour, I was delighted. For those of you who don't know Charlie, she is the very successful self published author of four books. The latest being 100 Little Words on Parenthood - a delightful book on all aspects of parenthood written by parents, grandparents and experts, all neatly wrapped up in 100 word snippets.
My words of wisdom (ah..hem) are featured in the teenagers section.
As many of you are either self publishing or wanting to self publish, I asked Charlie if she would share some of her top tips with us on the secret of her success:-
'Since becoming a mum I have learnt to juggle, not in the circus skill way, the multitude of different things that motherhood entails. So then why did I add to the already huge ‘to do’ list by trying to become a published author?
Well for starters it has always been a childhood ambition of mine to write books and as a mum I am very aware that I can hardly encourage my child to reach for his dreams if I don’t try and fulfil a few of my own. I’m also incredibly sentimental and have kept diaries since I was 13 and when I was deliberating what my first book should be about it was the milestone moment in my life of getting married that prompted me to write The True Diary of a Bride-to-be. I wrote this book when my little boy was around six months old, using the computer whenever he took a nap. Shortly after the book was published I continued with the theme of ‘true diaries’ and charted my pregnancy The True Diary of a Mum-to-be and having a baby The True Diary of Baby’s First Year. My latest book 100 Little Words on Parenthood is a book I have complied with the help of 100 fabulous contributors.
My advice to anyone thinking of writing a book is to simply go for it. Chose a topic that is dear to your heart and just make a start. My books have all been non-fiction but I do have a couple of ideas for fictional novels I’m keen to write. With ebooks becoming the phenomenal success they are you can write and publish a book very easily and if you decide to do it the independent way there is very little cost involved.
So you have an idea and you have a computer with Word that’s all you really need to start your novel, eek how exciting!
Start writing and DO NOT re-read until you have written at least three chapters otherwise you will simply get bogged down with errors and doubts as to whether your writing is any good. This first draft of your manuscript is the framework if you like and you will most likely end up altering and tweaking it once you get into the flow of things, but for now just write. Do not indent your paragraphs, write in arial size 12 font and double spaced as this is the preferred way for publishing houses and agents.
The best piece of advice I would give to you is that once you have finished and are happy with your manuscript get friends, better readers and most importantly an editor to look over this for you. This will be your first cost and the best money you will ever spend. With a good editor on-board they will catch any typos and grammatical errors you have made and offer their professional opinion on the story and other elements of your book. (Take their advice and try not to take any comments as criticism they have the same objective as you, for your book to be the best it can be).
So you have a great book what next? The cover is so important and will be your next little expense. For an ebook you will pay considerably less for your cover design than for a paperback, as there is the spine and back cover to be taken into consideration. Unless you have experience as a designer I would suggest you leave this to the professionals as an unprofessional cover will reflect badly, you wouldn’t turn up for a job interview in ripped jeans would you? You can help your designer by looking through the many excellent royalty free images on places like Dreamstime and iStockphoto. I would highly recommend the designer for my latest book 100 Little Words on Parenthood Bryan Hamilton @ekindled and he also is a whizz at formatting books for any type of ereader.
If you want to test the water without spending too much money then publishing on Amazon kindle for example or Smashwords is a great way to do it. Your book is easy to download, make sure you have formatted it correctly as it can look horrible if you haven’t. It’s easy to set up accounts and royalties will be paid into your account every month.
If you want to have a physical copy of your book then there are lots of companies who offer print on demand and will publish your book for you. I use Grosvenor House Publishing and I know of successful indie authors who use CreateSpace. The other option, if you have plenty of patience and do not want to spend any money yourself, is to send out query letters to agents and publishing houses. I have chosen not to take this route, but my top advice to you would be to spend a lot of time on your query letter. I know for a fact that if your letter is poor or doesn’t engage an agent they will not even read your manuscript.
If you follow all these simple steps you will have become a published author and this is when the hard work begins! Yes believe it or not the writing of your book is the easy bit, promoting and marketing your book is where all the hard will come in. Whatever route you take to getting your book published you will still be the one to whom the bulk of the marketing will fall on. Even established authors in this current climate are being required to go the extra mile in promoting their books and I think this is a good thing. Not unlike the journey towards becoming a mum you have dreamt of and given ‘birth’ to your book and as with your child no one else will understand your book the way you will.
Wishing you lots of luck.
To follow my blog and enter a competition to win 100 Little Word on Parenthood please visit my site www.charlieplunkett.co.uk'
I hope you found that helpful, I certainly did. With LOVE, SUZI x going to be out there soon, I need all the help I can get to market her into your hearts. If there's anything else you'd like to ask Charlie leave a comment here and it will be passed on.
Teresa x
My words of wisdom (ah..hem) are featured in the teenagers section.
As many of you are either self publishing or wanting to self publish, I asked Charlie if she would share some of her top tips with us on the secret of her success:-
'Since becoming a mum I have learnt to juggle, not in the circus skill way, the multitude of different things that motherhood entails. So then why did I add to the already huge ‘to do’ list by trying to become a published author?
Well for starters it has always been a childhood ambition of mine to write books and as a mum I am very aware that I can hardly encourage my child to reach for his dreams if I don’t try and fulfil a few of my own. I’m also incredibly sentimental and have kept diaries since I was 13 and when I was deliberating what my first book should be about it was the milestone moment in my life of getting married that prompted me to write The True Diary of a Bride-to-be. I wrote this book when my little boy was around six months old, using the computer whenever he took a nap. Shortly after the book was published I continued with the theme of ‘true diaries’ and charted my pregnancy The True Diary of a Mum-to-be and having a baby The True Diary of Baby’s First Year. My latest book 100 Little Words on Parenthood is a book I have complied with the help of 100 fabulous contributors.
My advice to anyone thinking of writing a book is to simply go for it. Chose a topic that is dear to your heart and just make a start. My books have all been non-fiction but I do have a couple of ideas for fictional novels I’m keen to write. With ebooks becoming the phenomenal success they are you can write and publish a book very easily and if you decide to do it the independent way there is very little cost involved.
So you have an idea and you have a computer with Word that’s all you really need to start your novel, eek how exciting!
Start writing and DO NOT re-read until you have written at least three chapters otherwise you will simply get bogged down with errors and doubts as to whether your writing is any good. This first draft of your manuscript is the framework if you like and you will most likely end up altering and tweaking it once you get into the flow of things, but for now just write. Do not indent your paragraphs, write in arial size 12 font and double spaced as this is the preferred way for publishing houses and agents.
The best piece of advice I would give to you is that once you have finished and are happy with your manuscript get friends, better readers and most importantly an editor to look over this for you. This will be your first cost and the best money you will ever spend. With a good editor on-board they will catch any typos and grammatical errors you have made and offer their professional opinion on the story and other elements of your book. (Take their advice and try not to take any comments as criticism they have the same objective as you, for your book to be the best it can be).
So you have a great book what next? The cover is so important and will be your next little expense. For an ebook you will pay considerably less for your cover design than for a paperback, as there is the spine and back cover to be taken into consideration. Unless you have experience as a designer I would suggest you leave this to the professionals as an unprofessional cover will reflect badly, you wouldn’t turn up for a job interview in ripped jeans would you? You can help your designer by looking through the many excellent royalty free images on places like Dreamstime and iStockphoto. I would highly recommend the designer for my latest book 100 Little Words on Parenthood Bryan Hamilton @ekindled and he also is a whizz at formatting books for any type of ereader.
If you want to test the water without spending too much money then publishing on Amazon kindle for example or Smashwords is a great way to do it. Your book is easy to download, make sure you have formatted it correctly as it can look horrible if you haven’t. It’s easy to set up accounts and royalties will be paid into your account every month.
If you want to have a physical copy of your book then there are lots of companies who offer print on demand and will publish your book for you. I use Grosvenor House Publishing and I know of successful indie authors who use CreateSpace. The other option, if you have plenty of patience and do not want to spend any money yourself, is to send out query letters to agents and publishing houses. I have chosen not to take this route, but my top advice to you would be to spend a lot of time on your query letter. I know for a fact that if your letter is poor or doesn’t engage an agent they will not even read your manuscript.
If you follow all these simple steps you will have become a published author and this is when the hard work begins! Yes believe it or not the writing of your book is the easy bit, promoting and marketing your book is where all the hard will come in. Whatever route you take to getting your book published you will still be the one to whom the bulk of the marketing will fall on. Even established authors in this current climate are being required to go the extra mile in promoting their books and I think this is a good thing. Not unlike the journey towards becoming a mum you have dreamt of and given ‘birth’ to your book and as with your child no one else will understand your book the way you will.
Wishing you lots of luck.
To follow my blog and enter a competition to win 100 Little Word on Parenthood please visit my site www.charlieplunkett.co.uk'
I hope you found that helpful, I certainly did. With LOVE, SUZI x going to be out there soon, I need all the help I can get to market her into your hearts. If there's anything else you'd like to ask Charlie leave a comment here and it will be passed on.
Teresa x
