Thanks to everyone who participated in our previous Self-Publishing Linkups on New Year’s Resolutions/Goal-Setting, Social Media Resources and Self-Publisher/POD Reviews (note: you can still add your link at any time).

For those who missed it, here’s the what, why and how of the Self-Publishing Linkup:

Indie authors share a ton of knowledge and experience through their blogs, and sometimes we feel like we can’t keep up.

Shannon and I were discussing how great it would be to have all of the posts centered around a given topic gathered in one place — voila! The Self-Publishing Linkup was born!

This week’s topic is “Target Markets/Finding Your Readership.” This can be any post that you’ve read or written discussing how to find readers, determine your target market, growing your readership, etc.  Here’s how to participate:

1. Leave a comment on this post with the following information:

• Title: The title of the post
• Description: Tell us (and everyone else) what the post is about — why should your fellow authors check it out?
• Link: Leave the full link to your post (like http://selfpublishingteam.com/2012-new-self-publishing-tools-resources-from-duolit/)

The post can be on any blog – yours or someone else’s. If you find (or write) a great post, share it!

2. Let others know you particpated in the linkup! Share a link to this post (or your post) with the hashtag #selfpublinkup on Twitter. Here’s an example:

• Just shared my post on finding your target market on the #SelfPubLinkup: http://ow.ly/8Zoan

The more authors who participate, the more information and resources that will be shared! Get started by leaving your link in the comments below!

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We want you to take a few moments out of your day to get those creative juices flowing by writing a short story, poem or any other art form you’d like that contains the line, “…she stepped across the threshold and took the first delicious breath of her new life…”

Add your creative writing piece to your blog and link it up in the comments below. We want to see what great work you guys can come up with! To help get the sharing started, I’ve written a little short story of my own featuring this week’s prompt. Check it out and don’t forget to email us your suggestions for next month’s prompts!

Shannon’s short story: “Sail Away”

Every weekday at noon, June Adler drove to the edge of the bay, put her car in park and ate her lunch. She brought the same meal every day—a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly, thank you) cut into four even squares and carefully stored inside a plastic Tupperware container. If she was feeling indulgent, she would buy a coke from the vending machine at work before embarking on her journey, though most days she was content to sip from a bottle of water.

In fact, June was content with just about everything in her life. She was content with her tiny apartment, content with her job, content with her wardrobe and content with her loneliness. She equated a lack of unhappiness with happiness, and assumed that if she had nothing to complain about there was therefore nothing in her life worth changing.

Until the day she saw the yellow boat.

It was a Tuesday, a little overcast and cool. The normally placid bay beyond her windshield was punctuated by the bright yellow hull of a tiny sailboat. June had previously assumed that all sailboats were grand and massive with big, billowing sails—the kind that could carry conquistadors across oceans. But the yellow sailboat was like a child’s toy; bright, compact and fun.

When June came back on Wednesday and spotted the boat still anchored in the bay, she felt an odd sensation. So rare was the feeling of intrigue and anticipation that at first June didn’t even recognize it for what it was—excitement. She conducted an intense visual study of the boat, sweeping her eyes from bow to stern and taking in all the details the little boat had to offer.

But what—she wondered—did it look like inside?

June had never been on a sailboat before. In fact, she’d never been on a boat at all. Her mind rushed through a series of increasingly intoxicating thoughts of what it might be like to set foot on that boat. She was so taken by her daydream that she was late returning to work from lunch, turning back into the parking lot with half a peanut butter sandwich still tucked inside the Tupperware in her passenger seat.

photo by philfromottawa

All afternoon she thought about that boat. She dreamed about it that night. By the time the sun rose on Thursday morning June was certain that she would never be able to think about anything but that boat ever again. She dressed for work in a hurry, forgetting her earrings and watch. She bumbled through her work all morning, watching the clock from the corner of her eye waiting for the two hands to meet.

When her time finally came, June drove straight to the little park on the bay and parked her car with the nose facing out at the little yellow boat. She had not seen any movement on the deck for three days, nor even the slightest shift in the boat’s position. June was convinced that the boat was abandoned. Left, in fact, for her to discover it, climb aboard and sail away.

June left the keys in the ignition, the peanut butter sandwich in the seat, the coke in her drink holder, and climbed out of the car. Gravel crunched beneath her feet as she approached the edge of the water. In the sand and reeds along the shore she kicked off her heels and waded in up to her knees. And then up to her waist. And then up to her neck.

It was early spring and the water was colder than June had imagined. She lost her breath for a moment, but found it along with her swimming stride. She bent her elbows and rotated her shoulders to make each long stroke through the water. As the cool liquid nipped at the hair tied up in her tight bun, June paused to release her dark mane from its clip, allowing it fan out in the water behind her like a bridal train.

Halfway to the boat, she felt her silk blouse rip across her shoulder blades. June kept swimming. A little further on, a seagull swooped down dangerously close to her head. June kept swimming. When she was close enough to read the letters painted on the back of the hull, she turned her head back to see the distant silver glint of her car. June kept swimming.

At last she arrived at the little yellow boat. She wrapped her fingers around the bottom rung of the ladder and pulled herself out of the water. The bright sun beat down upon her skin and her wet clothes as she climbed up and over the railing. Her bare feet landed on the warm deck and she felt deliciously delirious.

Exhausted from what had been a longer swim than she’d expected, she dropped to her knees and took in the view before her. Her city stretched out like a glittering crescent along the shore. Across the water she heard the faint echoes of car horns and sirens. She was once a part of that world, but no more.

When she finally caught her breath, she stood to explore the little yellow boat she had conquered. June padded along the deck back to the stern where she ran her hands over the wooden helm. Straight ahead she could see the wide open ocean just waiting for her. She was ready. Pull up the anchor, hoist the sails, and she would be gone.

June stepped around the helm and descended the short staircase into the cabin below. She had just started to pick through the cabinets in the galley when she heard the lapping of waves against the hull growing louder and larger in size. It was accompanied by the low moan of a small motor.

“Hello?”

The man’s voice startled June from her daydream. She looked up at the open door to the cabin, her heart racing. The old June would have fallen apart in that moment. She would have cowered in the corner, sobbing and begging forgiveness from whomever was approaching.

But that was not the same June who now stood at the center of this tiny cabin, her blouse ripped, her pantyhose ruined, her hair a wet mess. Chin up and shoulders back, June marched purposefully up the steps one at a time. She would capture her dream at any cost. It was too close, the taste too tantalizing to give up now.

At the top of the stairs, she stepped across the threshold and took the first delicious breath of her new life.

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There was a time when publishing a book was pretty straightforward; you had two courses. One: find an agent to represent you, seek a publisher who in turn will produce and promote your book and pay you for the privilege of doing so. Two: take your manuscript to a vanity press and pay them to produce your book so you could promote and sell it yourself.

Today you still have those choices, but you also have the option of going the route of some form of self-publishing. This choice has been around in the form of vanity presses (they prefer the term “subsidy press”) but that route has always been very expensive. Technology has come to our rescue by making eBooks and Print On Demand (P.O.D.) books available directly to authors. Now we can choose to sidestep the agent, thumb our noses at the publisher and go directly from manuscript to publication, if we want to.

As a result, some agents have decided to embrace the new model by becoming publishers themselves. Some publishing houses are cutting deals directly with successful indie authors. And many new “publishers” are springing up all over the place.

For the author who has been keeping his or her nose to the grindstone… er… I mean the keyboard, and has not taken the time to study the inner workings of self-publication, this array of options may seem bewildering. Where should you start? Who should you trust? It may very well seem like the street vendor who puts a pea under one of three walnut shells, slides them all around, and then says, “OK, where is your path to success?”

D.I.Y.

The first thing you need to know is that producing a standard eBook is simple enough that you can do it yourself. There are no magic spells and no secret insider password is required. You format your manuscript and submit it directly to any or all of KDP.Amazon.com (Kindle), BarnesandNoble.com (Nook) and Smashwords.com. My book, Writing for Profit or Pleasure describes and illustrates these processes in detail. If you can run a blog or format a brochure on your computer, you can format a manuscript for eBook publication. I do recommend that you hire an editor and have cover art produced to give your book its best shot at success. Sloppy work still does not impress anyone.

Amazon’s new enhanced eBook format is more demanding; you will need the ability to code a web page in HTML and CSS to use this format, but it adds many pretty bits that were available only to print books. You may need to hire a designer/coder for this.

Wolves in the Woods

If you choose to focus on your writing and marketing by hiring out the technical stuff, be very careful to seek reliable people. The woods of Publication Land are populated with wolves and skunks who are out to separate you from your hard earned cash. WRITER BEWARE ® is a great resource for avoiding known predators, but you still need to be proactive by checking references on those you are considering. You could start by asking other authors who they have used. Twitter is great for this sort of thing.

Trust only those you know to be reliable. Recommendations from others are a starting point. If you know the author well and trust them, great! If not, check out the recommendation carefully.

When a Press is Not a Press

Because new authors tend to be desperate for publication, receiving an e-mail from a publishing company with an impressive name, offering to produce your book can be thrilling. But before you sign on the dotted line, do two things:

1. Check out the company. Not everyone who includes “Press” in their name can print books. More than likely they are an “author assistance service” which will serve as a middleman. This is not necessarily a bad thing; you may be in need of assistance in the form of text editing, manuscript formatting, cover art, and promotional help. But are they capable of doing a good job of it? Is their pricing reasonable? Again, check references; don’t let the thrill of being accepted by a so-called publisher allow them to suck you in. Sometimes keeping an eye on the shell that covers the pea is tough.
2. If this service checks out as legitimate and reliable, take the contract to someone with legal expertise – preferably someone with experience with the publishing industry – and have it examined. This will probably cost you a few bucks but it is money well spent, especially if the contract is written in legalese. Know what you’re getting into before you commit; you may be signing away rights you should be keeping or accepting responsibilities you don’t want.

Therefore and Whereby

Even if you choose to self-publish and submit directly to the distributor – Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords are distributors not publishers, you or your “press” would be the publisher – always read the user agreement carefully so you understand the rules. There are some things, especially in the realms of pricing and marketing, that may get you into trouble if you break their rules.

Just one example is that if you choose to put your book into the Kindle Lending Library to get your share of the multi-million dollar fund reserved for that program, you may NOT offer your book anywhere else. If you do they can insist that you repay the royalties received and ban you forever from using the Lending Library for any of your titles. Being an Amazon exclusive may work for you, it may not; you need to weigh that decision for yourself.

Parting Shot

You may opt to grab for the brass ring of Legacy Publishing, you may choose to hire a “small press” and go Indie, or you may elect to self-publish. Whatever you choose, do so with eyes open and mind inquiring. In this endeavor, information is your best friend.

About the Author: Allan Douglas has been an author, writer, and prattler since the 1970′s. Published mostly in magazines but has three books to date.  He lives on a mountainside in East Tennessee with his wonderful wife, a genius border collie and a Prima donna hound dog who is queen of the mountain. 

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Recently, with the emergence of one Publish-on-Demand service (POD) after another, there seems to have been an explosion of self-published works. Some might even view this as the being a new way to be published, but they’d be misinformed. Self-publshing has been around for as long as there have been books. In fact, in the field of book creation, professional publshing houses are Johnny-come-latelies.

Instead of traveling all the way back to the birth of books, or even the days of rows and rows of monks, hand-copying texts, we only need to begin with the advent of moveable type. Think Gutenberg and the 15th century.

Once it was possible to mass produce books, which meant dozens or hundreds of copies, books could exist in the hands of the average person. Of course, the average person did not know how to read, or if he did read poorly. Details, details.

Still, it was a beginning. At that time, the printer was the publisher, and the marketer, etc. Or, more likely, the author was everything but the printer. Over time, small publishing houses did emerge, but there was still lots and lots of notable books that were “self-published.”

Let’s move forward a few hundred years to my favorite example of self-publishing, Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” That’s right, one of the most famous books of Englsh language poetry was self-published in 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871–72, and 1881. Wait! It was published six times? Yes, it was, in different editions, all created and self-published by Whitman himself.

In fact, poets have often published their own works, often in the form of chapbooks, very small volumes. But scientists often self-published as well. Early on, before the advent of scholarly journals, it was the only way to get their ideas into each other’s hands.

So, why do some see self-publishing as a new phenomena? The answer is visibility. The newest self-publishing channels, along with various social media, allow for an even greater distribution than ever before. Instead of these works staying safely tucked in their niche markets, self-published texts can now share the same distribution channels as those from publishing houses.

So always remember that we who self-publish our works are part of a long, proud tradition.

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If you’d have asked me a year ago about self publishing, I would have given you all sort of persuasive reasons why it wasn’t right for me. A year ago, it wouldn’t have been right, not because of any intrinsic problem with going ‘indi’, but primarily because I hadn’t educated myself about the process.

Technology has driven the incredible rise of the ebook. Author tools, some free, others low cost, have made the barrier to self publishing very low, indeed. That is both a blessing and a curse. It means that the biggest obstacle to publishing isn’t price, knowledge, or equipment; it’s discoverability. When any ordinary Joe or Jane Writer can upload a file and in moments have an ebook for sale in multiple venues, what’s to stop that writer from doing so?

The promise of the author-as-publisher is very alluring, especially with the royalty rates as generous as they are on the self publishing platforms. It’s hard to justify holding out for the brass ring of a book contract when the typical hardcover will earn the author far less than each ebook independently released.

The perils of self publishing are also pretty clear: you have to be willing to wear a lot of hats. Most writers know that just being a writer is no longer an option, no matter what route they travel. But the indi road means needing to know or find: editing, proofreading, cover design, formatting, marketing, distribution, and promotion. Every single one of these skills is essential for a successful book release. Let me tell you–it’s a lot of work. The least of it is the actual formatting of a manuscript and its uploading. But that’s where a lot of writers stop.

Having read quite a few self published books in my genre (YA/fantasy), it is clear to me that many writers have stumbled into a few common pitfalls. The most common is publishing a manuscript before it is ready to be a book. The cold, hard fact about the traditional system of gatekeepers (agents and editors at publishing houses) is that it screened out a lot of books that weren’t ready for prime time. My own, included. When I look back at some of the stories I queried in my very beginning, baby steps six years ago, the form rejections I received were, in fact, a kindness. Had self publishing been a simpler option then, would I have forged ahead and put my work out there? I’m not sure, but I am glad I didn’t.

Another pitfall is lack of knowledge about the process. Authors get tripped up in one of two ways. Some go it alone and self-edit, self-design a cover, and pass a typically formatted word processor file through a conversion program. What emerges is a poorly formatted novel with a generic (or worse, unreadable) cover, and strange symbols peppered through the pages or layout issues. On the other extreme, are authors who fear the process and give up their control over the process and overpay for services they probably don’t need (eg, uploading to digital marketplaces) and lose the ability to easily make changes to their ebook output.

The more you know about the world of epublishing, the more you will be able to make informed choices about which aspects you can manage and which ones you need to outsource. Here is a list of steps and resources that may help you turn pitfalls and perils into promises.

ISBN

If you are planning on a print and an ebook edition, you will need at least 2 ISBNs. These are the official identification numbers attached to books. (International Standard Book Number) While some publishing platforms will offer to give you an ISBN for free, that means they not you become the defacto publisher. If you want the option of distributing your book widely and under your own power, you will need to purchase ISBNs. Currently, for US authors, a single ISBN is $150. A block of 10 costs $250. via Bowker. (http://www.bowker.com/index.php/supportfaq-isbn)

Editing

Finding a good editor is crucial to take a manuscript and make it shine. There are different kinds of edits: copyediting and developmental. Good editing services can be expensive, so make sure your manuscript is as clean and as polished as you can make it, using peer critique or workshopping as a minimum. The Editorial Freelancers Assocation has good information here: http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.php

Cover design

Unless you have art training or are an expert in using photoshop type programs, it is best to hire a cover designer. I was extremely fortunate to discover that a former critique partner of mine was also an artist and she wanted a chance to branch out into cover design. At the very least, make sure your cover looks good at icon sizes. The Book Designer Blog has a whole section on cover design here: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/category/cover_design/

Formatting/typography

There are different issues in formatting and typography for print versus ebook editions, but what they both have in common is ease of readability. You actually have fewer choices to make in ebook format, as the ereaders take much of the responsibility in how the material is displayed. It doesn’t mean you have no choices to make. Here is a list of excellent web resources in how to format ebooks for style and readability:

• The Book Designer: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/
• Guido Henkel’s Guide: http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting/
• HTML for the Kindle: http://gbenthien.net/Kindle/html_for_kindle.html
• CJs Easy as Pie Tutorials: http://www.cjs-easy-as-pie.com/search?q=indent
• Natasha Fondren’s ebook Formatting Posts: http://www.natashafondren.com/writing/category/ebook-formatting-2/

Conversion

An essential piece of software any ebook creator will need is Calibre, a free, open source program that is also an ebook library organizer. It’s creator is extremely responsive in updating the program and it has a very active and supportive user group. http://calibre-ebook.com/

The world of independent publishing is changing so rapidly, that even these resources may be outdated by the time you are ready to dip your toes in the pool, so keep yourself educated and be your best advocate. And good luck!

About the Author: LJ Cohen is the writing persona of Lisa Janice Cohen, poet, novelist, blogger, local food enthusiast, Doctor Who fan, and relentless optimist. Lisa lives just outside of Boston with her family, two dogs (only one of which actually ever listens to her) and the occasional international student. 

Lisa is represented by Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency. THE BETWEEN, a YA fantasy, is her publishing debut.

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Self-publishing has its up and downs — just ask any aspiring writer.  Like those authors I also been through the process for three books now and I am happy with the results. The middle parts can and will test your nerve and patience. I spent months writing, editing, and polishing my work. Only when I thought I had finished – I realised you never are when you self-publish.

Marketing should always have been on your list of to-dos even while you’re writing the first draft. It sounds strange but once you build up momentum with readers through blogging, forums or general face to face conversation from the beginning you are on the right track. With that in mind, I would like to share my experiences of a marketing tool that could help measure if people are taking an interest in your work.

The tool I am talking about is the website www.bitly.com. Its primary purpose is to shrink down web links. This in turn, makes ‘bit.ly’ links easier and cleaner to put into whatever media you want. I fell I should also mention that this site is free to sign up and use – maybe I should have mentioned that earlier.

So, once you’ve signed up, you can put the sometimes long links from amazon, lulu, createspace in and reduce them down. The added advantage of this from my experience comes into its own when using twitter. It helps your 140 max tweets go that little bit further and look a little cleaner on the eye. Once you’ve put you link and message out into the world of twitter, Facebook then the bit.ly site comes into its own.

Under the hood, there is a whole wealth of information just waiting for you to digest and build upon. This is because the when the link gets created it is also tracked. So with every click, it records the number of clicks, if it was re-tweeted or shared on Facebook with comments and ‘likes’. In addition, it will display the location that the clicker was from, it also has a copy of the original tweet / status update at the foot of the page.

With all of this information, it makes tracking anything from a competition update to a discount code that you have on a blog post an effortless process. I cannot stress the importance of getting data from your postings, in a world where hits and rankings dominate this will help you to no-end. On the other hand, if you are putting your content out there and are not getting any clicks, ask yourself have you completed the following:

• Do you have an author domain for yourself?
• Created an informative bio and have it on a site?
• Have you created a media kit?
• Have you created a press release?

Remember, tracking links is only part of a decent marketing plan, enjoy writing but as you are self-publishing it is up to you to do the leg work. Trust me once you start it will become second nature and you never know – you might meet some influential friends along the way.

About the Author: Barry Skelhorn is a full time IT techy from the South of England. He lives with his wife Louise and has a cat named Panda. Over the years he has fallen in love with the works of M.R James, Mary Shelly, H.G Wells and too many Victorian ghost stories to mention.

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If there’s one thing every author can use, it’s more readers!

We know that it’s always helpful, however, to hear the experience and advice of other indie authors who have already been through the process and have begun to establish their readership.

To those authors: help out your brethren! We want to know:

• Who is your primary target market? What process did you use to decide on this group?
• Do you have any secondary or tertiary target markets?
• What genre do you write?
• What marketing/promotion methods work best with your market? Which are least effective?
• What advice do you have for other authors attempting to narrow down a target market?

To join the discussion, please leave a comment below addressing any (or all) of the above questions. Also, mention the discussion to your indie author friends — we’d love to get varied input!

What do you think?

We LOVE hearing your thoughts via our discussion posts! To keep up with all future installments (in addition to the great content from the rest of the month), subscribe to our RSS feed. 

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Thanks to everyone who participated in our previous Self-Publishing Linkups on New Year’s Resolutions/Goal-Setting and Social Media Resources (note: you can still add your link at any time).

For those who missed it, here’s the what, why and how of the Self-Publishing Linkup:

Indie authors share a ton of knowledge and experience through their blogs, and sometimes we feel like we can’t keep up.

Shannon and I were discussing how great it would be to have all of the posts centered around a given topic gathered in one place — voila! The Self-Publishing Linkup was born!

This week’s topic is “Print On Demand/Self-Publishing Service Reviews.” This can be any post that you’ve read or written reviewing an experience with any Print on Demand/Self-Publishing Service (such as Smashwords, iUniverse, Lulu, Lightning Source, CreateSpace, etc). Here’s how to participate:

1. Leave a comment on this post with the following information:

• Title: The title of the post
• Description: Tell us (and everyone else) what the post is about — why should your fellow authors check it out?
• Link: Leave the full link to your post (like http://selfpublishingteam.com/2012-new-self-publishing-tools-resources-from-duolit/)

The post can be on any blog – yours or someone else’s. If you find (or write) a great post, share it!

2. Let others know you particpated in the linkup! Share a link to this post (or your post) with the hashtag #selfpublinkup on Twitter. Here’s an example:

• Just shared my review of CreateSpace on the #SelfPubLinkup: http://ow.ly/8K9Ev

The more authors who participate, the more information and resources that will be shared! Get started by leaving your link in the comments below!

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(Quick sidenote: Not all of his stories are about sports, in fact the first few stories of his that I read and fell in love with discussed bourbon, William Faulkner’s niece and a hot dog joint Birmingham, Ala.)

A quick Google search turned up several interesting interviews with Thompson. In every interview I could find, Thompson found a way to work in a note about how he was first inspired to write by Willie Morris’ North Toward Home which Thompson read while recovering from a bout with mono as a kid. Here’s how Thompson describes the life-altering experience:

“Aha’ moments only really happen in movies, except that was an actual ‘aha’ moment. I started a book and didn’t know what I wanted to do, and finished a book and did. Almost every decision I’ve made since then has been toward that end.”

I thought it was so interesting to think that a single book could set someone’s path in life, yet when I looked back at my own path I found there was a book marking the point at which I decided to become a writer way back in the third grade. For me, it was The Lion’s Paw by Rob White. My teacher at the time, Mrs. Baldauff, read the book aloud to the class over several weeks (it was one of those unthinkably long chapter books!) detailing the journey of Penny, Ben and Nick as they traversed the state of Florida in a sailboat via narrow canals and one exciting trip across Lake Okeechobee. By the end of the book I knew that I wanted to use words create worlds where people could experience fantastic adventures.

So that leads us to this week’s prompt–the first in our series of weekly blog prompts. Take a moment to write about a book that turned you on to the world of writing and post a link to your blog in the comments below so we can all take a peek!

Don’t forget that next week’s topic is a creative writing piece inspired by this line, “…she stepped across the threshold and took the first breath of her new life…”

Later days,

- Shannon

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It’s November 1st, 2010 when I sit down to write my first novel. I open Scrivener, pop a can of Diet Coke, crack my knuckles, and start typing.

I pound out 10,000 words the first day.

The next day I decide to reread what I’d written. You know, to get a running start. I notice some things that need tweaking, so I take a second to fix them. In the process of fixing them, I realize that chapter two doesn’t quite make sense. I go back and … and end day two with a net -2300 words. Yes, minus. In the days that follow, I soldier on. But I keep going backwards, or sideways, writing a lot but making no real progress.

Flash ahead a few months. I’m in Salt Lake City at the Superstars Writing Seminar, put on by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. One day, Kevin does a little segment on productivity. And there it is, the revelation of the century: you can dictate prose!

I have the same reaction that many others in the audience have: “That would never work for me.” And yet … it intrigues me.

When I return home, I buy a cheap digital recorder, print out a section of my outline, and go for a walk on a nearby bike path. Dictating feels weird at first. I’m self conscious, very aware of my voice, aware of long pauses as I try to figure out what is going on in my story. But after a half-hour or so I’ve forgotten all that. I’m deep into my story. I’m moving forward. I’m acting out the dialogue and having fun. I walk for two hours and come home with the first draft of four chapters done. Somewhere between 4000-6000 words. Yes, in two hours. (The six miles I covered also burned a bunch of calories, BTW.)

I’m a convert. From a productivity standpoint dictating can’t be beat. And speaking my story gives it energy and helps me capture my true voice. There’s less friction because the story doesn’t have to pass through my fingers on the way out.

If you want to try dictating fiction, here are some tips:

1. Make sure your recording device is on and in record mode. Check to see the seconds ticking by. If there is a red light that’s supposed to be on, make sure it’s on. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve got a chapter in the can and finding out you’ve got nothing.
2. To get over self-consciousness, dictate where no one can hear you. I like to go for a walk. If it feels silly, make it sillier by doing a funny voice.
3. Don’t worry about grammar, passive voice, dialogue tags, or any other stylistic concern. Just tell the story. You’ll likely be surprised by how readable your dictation turns out to be.
4. If you think you’ve committed a continuity problem, just say “Note to self, check that one chapter where he sees the gun on the mantle. I can’t remember what kind it was.”
5. Don’t transcribe the recordings yourself. Have your spouse, your aunt or that lady from church who used to be a teacher do it. You can also a hire transcription services on the web. I use wescribeit.com, but I know there are others.
6. Walk while you talk. It’s good exercise and it gives the dictation more energy.
7. Go ahead and make up different voices for your characters. Just make sure your words are clear enough for the transcriptionist to understand.
8. If you’re writing science fiction or fantasy where you have a lot of unusual names, create a document for the transcriptionist to refer to. If you remember, you can spell it out right there on the spot.
9. Don’t listen to the recordings.
10. If you’re outside, consider getting a wearable mic (like a hands free device). Keeping the mic closer to your mouth will provide clearer recording and less background noise.

About the Author: Eric is the author of Undermountain, a YA adventure. He’s also a songwriter and guitar player. He lives in Wisconsin with his daughter, wife and his wife’s feeble cat.

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