A n00b’s guide to e-publishing. No, really. Another one.

So. Yeah. I am bad at blogging.

Part of my problem is that, with the conference and vacation and scrambling to get somethings done, we’ve just been damn busy. The rest of my problem is that I sometimes feel like an idiot when blogging.

No, it’s true. I might seem like I like to talk a lot (okay, I really DO), but I have these moments where I think to myself, “Who the hell could possibly want to read my pointless ramblings?”

The answer, of course, is, “…someone who is right where I was six months ago. Wanting to learn about writing and submitting and networking, and not even knowing where to start.”

I still have my moments of painful embarrassment, but I’ll get over them. Now that we have five contracts signed, sealed, and delivered, I’m going to talk about some of the things Bree and I have done/learned that proved most useful when getting into e-publishing.

1) Do your research before submitting.

I know it’s tempting to Google “e-publishers” and send your newly-minted short story/novella to every single one that pops up. But electronic publishers are a unique breed of business, one familiar to internet vets everywhere: anyone can do it.

You don’t have to have publishing experience to start an e-pub. Hell, you don’t have to have ever even read a romance (which, for purposes of this blog, is mainly what I’m talking about). All you need is a website and some authors desperate enough to sign any contract you hand them.

I know you’re anxious to sell your first story. But being badly published is worse than being unpublished.

2) Join forums and email groups about the genre. Then PARTICIPATE.

A lot of publishers and genre “fansites” have message boards or host chats. These are a great place to meet people and network, while also learning about what other people are writing/selling…or even what publishers want to see and haven’t been!

Email and discussion lists are another great tool. For some reason, in the romance world (e-pub and print), these lists are called “loops.” I have no idea why, and I’d never heard it before, but there you go.

3) Market research is your friend.

Simply put, all this means is that you’re finding out what sells. What people want to buy.

A lot of this information can be gleaned from new releases–but remember that, even though e-publishing generally moves much faster than print, the e-books you are seeing in the New Release section of the publisher’s website were still probably contracted at least six months ago.

So, how do you find out what publishers want? Pay attention to their submission guidelines. A lot of them will post open calls for upcoming special events (like Halloween or Christmas stories) or just certain niches they’d like to fill.

You’ll have to buy some books, too, because that truly is the best way to know if your work is appropriate for a certain publisher or line. But, hopefully, you’re an avid reader as well as a writer, so this won’t be a hardship on anything but your wallet.

4) You’re going to have to compromise your artistic integrity, so start now…

By this, I mean that you are never going to write something that needs no changes. The changes may be small–amounting to mere grammatical edits–or they might include expanding or eliminating entire characters or other elements of the story. You could be asked to do the latter as part of a “revise and resubmit” request before acceptance, or during the course of a comprehensive edit.

With grammatical stuff, you just have to suck it up and adhere to the in-house style guidelines. No ifs, ands, or buts. But you don’t have to do major revisions, especially if an editor or publisher requests them without a contract. However, when you stop frothing at the mouth (and you will, trust me), seriously consider whether the revisions might strengthen the story.

(True story: Bree and I wrote a story and submitted it. Before we sent it off, the very experienced, very good critique partner of a friend looked at the synopsis and pointed out a problem in the middle of it. The hero and heroine almost have sex, but the hero wants to wait. The critiquer called bullshit. I railed against this, attributing it to character and refusing to change it. The story got rejected. I sucked it up, we found a way to change it that still felt true to the character, and we just signed a contract with another publisher.)

If the revisions do nothing for your story, walk away and look elsewhere. But make sure you’re not just butthurt that someone dared ask you to give your baby a facelift.

5) …but don’t write what sells if you hate it. It shows.

This is a corollary to number four. I know, I know. After all I’ve said about thorough research and knowing your market, this might seem counterintuitive, at best. But here goes.

Pandering to the market is only useful if it’s something you’re comfortable with…or comfortable exploring. Adding elements X, Y, and Z to your story just to satisfy a market requirement is easy to do. It’s hard to do well. I can think of only a few authors who can pull it off without it being painfully obvious those things (kinky sex, creatures, BDSM, or whatnot) were wedged in there with a shoehorn.

In other words, it’s not paint-by-numbers. If you try to turn it into that kind of formulaic, calculated thing… Well, chances are it’ll look like you painted by numbers. BUT! If you can get excited about the material and make it work for you, it’s gold. So that’s the key.

Hmm.

Okay. I rambled too much. But that’s all right. Maybe I said something that will help someone. If not…at least Bree won’t beat me for not blogging. LOL