What No-One tells you about Self-Publishing

What No-one Tells You About Self-publishing

When people hear that I am an author they asked me if I am 'properly published'. In this day and age that question actually makes me laugh. What is it that makes people believe that if you don’t have a huge publisher behind you then you are not a real author? Erm let’s look at the likes of Amanda Hocking and E.L. James. Did they have ‘proper’ publishers behind them when they started out? Erm no. It was word of mouth that sold their work and then the publishers heard of them. Their sales demonstrated they were 'worthy'. So with the question are you properly published in mind: I would like to tell you what no one tells you about self-publishing and actually why self-publishing is so beneficial.

Once upon a time... I started writing with conviction. Actually it was around fifteen years ago and at the time I was naïve in my aspirations. I thought you sent a nice friendly  letter to a publisher about an idea and they would reply really quickly with 'wow that is a good idea' and instantly offered a book deal. Yep I was wrong. Instead I learned the art of being rejected. It is quite a humbling experience to receive endless rejection letters. It is more fun to burn them. Rejection could stop many people  and cause them give up because they think – you know what people think my writing is shit! I thought if my writing was shit then it is actually quite amusing really to want to keep writing. The thing is I was compelled to write. I just couldn’t help it. It was something that kept coming and coming. I liken it to vomiting. You just can’t hold it in… It has to come out! I then came to conclusion that REJECTION IS NOT FAILURE IT IS RE-DIRECTION.

Over the next year I took a different tactic - I learned that you send to agents. So I sent to agents and a couple of times I was in the running for representation only to be dropped for someone who had been recommended by a friend. Nepotism and recommendations was the way forward. So I learned the best way to ‘befriend’ and attended literary events and fairs. While at one literary event, and after sculpting a double-helix structure from cocktail sausages, I was taken on instantly by an agent. However, they had spotted my artistic talent rather than my literary talents, he represented my photography. At the time I wish I had sculpted the equivalent in literature. I guess I could have chewed up my manuscript and made a paper-gobby-mush sculpture of a squirrel or the like to capture attention. Anyway after being rejected more than one hundred times I came to the conclusion that I must have been deluded. Something in my writing must have been causing rejection – so I had my work evaluated by a ‘professional’ service. At the same time I was offered a place on a Master’s degree in creative writing. The Masters people told me I had talent and that I was destined for great things. Great, until a series of events stopped me being able to take the course. After that I came to the conclusion that there had to be a better way. So I met an editor in real life and a series of circumstances resulted in meeting my proof-reader who works for ‘real’ publishers. I came to the conclusion that it was time to go it alone and do things my way… You know that blooming song…MYYYYYYY WAYYYYYYYYYYY! which is often accompanied by another ‘I get knocked down but I get up again…’ Rocky would have real competition if this was boxing and not writing.

After forming my own team, I began to self-publish. The first attempts were okay; however, there was a real learning in formatting and designing book covers. The biggest learning is providing absolute quality. My proof-reader is a professional who advised me there are always details missed in any book. When she works with the big publishers she finds mistakes in books that are already on the shelves… The thing is everyone is human and everyone has a certain attention span. With this in mind, it is really worth focusing on quality and making sure you have grammatical geniuses read your books. There is always that pedantic aunt who was a secretary... Or that uncle that spouts Latin. If you can get them involved great, although, if you are writing erotica... actually who cares. If they can spot a grammatical error amongst eroticism then they are on your journey for the long-term!

Now it is time to publish and discover Kindle or one of the other platforms. Make a great cover, filled with refined content and hit PUBLISH!!! YEY! Once you have self-published your book, I guess you might be sitting rubbing your hands together expecting the New York Times to call. The reality is that thousands of people are releasing self-published books each day. Unfortunately each self-published book sits amongst a crowd of other self-published books. In addition, you are competing against published authors who are listed before you. So how do you compete against million pound/dollar marketing campaigns and a crowd of other authors? This is where you need to find your own unique way and your own unique voice.

What no one tells you is that you are going to have to learn how to market yourself!

This is it – it is time to make yourself into a brand. That brand has to be such that people are impressed by it. The thing with brands is they have an identity and my advice, whether you choose to take it, is to be absolutely authentic. You will never be able to please everyone and you will definitely discover there are some right dickheads out there. Some of those dickheads purposely go and put one star reviews on new author books (that is something that no one ever tells you or prepares you for).

In addition, there are the vultures… These are the people who are sitting up in the tree watching you flail away to literary death. They then want to come and pick off the bones. This analogy comes from all those people who will offer you their services. There are promoters, marketing people and…. so many others who are all ready to take your money. My friend, who is an author, learned the hard way. She invested in paying people to market her and nothing came from it… In the end she used friends to recommend her to a literary agent and that was her way forwards…

That was not my way forwards because I am a little bit headstrong and can write and write… I also work with trending analysis, social media and business. While doing that I was also teaching creative writing classes. I like to be busy and teach creative writing was a joy. What'smore, I had written numerous books including LOVE HUNT 1 & 2 and my most powerful book MONEY FARM. They were selling at a steady pace, so I felt that I had the right to teach what I had already learned. That is quite lucky really. By teaching you certainly have the chance to evaluate and look at new angles.

So, with my business head on, I considered what was it that people needed or wanted? I then wrote books that filled those gaps – one of them was A Short Course in Creative Writing. That was written because my students asked me to write it. I then had that turned into audio so that people could be prompted and write. Guess what? That sold and sold well. Guess how I sold it? I advised students that I had put the whole ten week course onto audio so they could download it. Guess what happened? They told their friends and they told their writing friends. Word of mouth again!

So what else does no one tell you?

If you want to make money from writing then write what people need. That is entrepreneurialism.

The thing is sometimes there is no fun in that. Admittedly I loved writing the creative writing book because I could imagine students sitting and developing their writing with a teacher at their side whenever they needed it. I likened it to an 'on call' audio teacher. That made me feel nice. Although we write because we have other aspects to express too...

After understanding how to initiate word of mouth I thought: I know, I am going to get a little bit cocky… I want to see if I write the books that I want to write then can I create the market? I was applying the theory of post-modernism. What did I want to write? Some short fun kids’ books.  So I wrote The Hairy-Legged Mystery. That was quickly followed by Tingle Dingle and The Little Mischiefs. Now, there is nothing like a bedtime story being read to you. Yet sometimes parents don’t feel like reading. So I thought – actually why not have it made into audio too? That way the story can be read aloud and the parents can be present while it is being read. Also the story can be stored on the phone and played on car journeys. It just made sense to me. So I posted the books on ACX.COM (this is a place where authors can invite audio producers to produce their work) and both were picked up. The books were produced and went on sale on Audible and ITunes.

What no one tells you: how easy it is to get your book produced professionally on audio! Those books began to sell due to a few blogs, a number of tweets and a being lucky enough to have attracted a producer who works with children as a ‘reader’ of books.  I could go on and on but I won’t. So this is what I have learned about self-publishing that no-one tells you:

·        There are loads of people who want to make money from vulnerable authors. There are vanity companies, book promotional companies and agencies all looking for you to pay them to validate you. I say steer clear! None of my author friends have achieved anything that way.

·       Before you do anything test you work on people who are honest. None of the ‘nice’ friends. It is better to find out where you are going wrong or right. Also remember everyone has an opinion and you will have to learn discernment of opinion. That is a huge learning in itself.

·         Find yourself a good editor and proof-reader to make your books the highest quality.

·         The truth is you are going to have to spend some money if you want to create quality.

·        Decide on being in the spotlight or anonymity. I went for the latter because I would rather not be accosted in a supermarket or toilet (I had that happen when I won a big award for photography – it seriously put me off being recognised. Imagine a head poking under the toilet cubicle door to ask you a question... Oh yes!)

·         Build yourself a brand. Look at the people you like and look at what works. Decide what makes you special and build your brand accordingly.

·       Marketing – promote your books. There needs to be time and effort put into this. Ask friends to tell friends. Post that you have published on Facebook. Write a blog. Make a film. Do what your gut tells you to do but do intend to tell as many people as possible. Pod casting and YouTube enable people to engage with you. The strange thing is when people like you they buy your books. Weird eh?

·         Publishers are looking for easy sales. If a book establishes itself on a market then the publishers will come to you. At this point you then get to ask yourself the question – do you stay indie? After doing all that work and going on that journey – why do you actually need a publisher and an agent? My answer is negotiation. However, there is a benefit of doing it your way and that is no pressure. You can write. Release. Repeat. That is liberating and seems to be a remedy to writer’s block! To be in this position is a beautiful thing...

·       Finally write your next book and the next and love the writing. If it sells great. If it doesn’t it is not failure. The fact that you hatched an imagined idea into reality is success in itself. The truth is writing will take you on a blooming journey – much like a narrative. The monster in your narrative are the parts of your self – the self-doubt, the inner critic and the idealist. Everyone wants their book to touch another’s soul… Yet it might not. The biggest thing that no one ever told me is that the purest pleasure is in the creation… You may sell a lot of books; however, the joy really is in being in that creative space and imagining as the words flow onto the page.  I hope this inspires you… Go for it my literary friend because there are seven billion people in this world and a large enough market for everyone…

You can find my books at the following link: Ruby Allure books on Audible:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

AUDIBLE BOOK AVAILABLE HERE:

LINK TO BUY ON AUDIBLE:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Self-Development/A-Short-Course-In-Creative-Writing-Audiobook/B012OVUKE8/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1443260320&sr=1-1

LINK TO PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.COM

A Short Course in Creative Writing
by Ms Ruby Allure
Link: http://amzn.com/1517234832

LINK TO THE HAIRY LEGGED MYSTERY ON AUDIO:http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Audiobook/B01H2HF0XU/ref=a_search_c4_1_9_srTtl?qid=1466104902&sr=1-9

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AMAZON.COM - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Ruby+Allure&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Ruby+Allure&sort=relevancerank

Ruby Allure BOOKS ON AUDIBLE.COM
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_mt_ano_tseft__galileo?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+Allure&x=0&y=0 

NEW RELEASE: TINGLE DINGLE AND THE LITTLE MISCHIEFS

 https://www.amazon.com/Tingle-Dingle-Little-Mischiefs-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G9C0XC2?ie=UTF8&keywords=Ruby%20Allure&qid=1465049617&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

NEW RELEASE: THE HAIRY-LEGGED MYSTERY

https://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Legged-Mystery-Ruby-Allure-ebook/dp/B01G2C0Y9Q?ie=UTF8&qid=1465049724&ref_=sr_1_2&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

Writing for Healing

Writing For Healing

 

This week I have taken the week off because quite frankly it was time for a holiday. What’s more, I completed The Ocean Callings edits on audio and one needs to celebrate with a little time away. So how does this relate to writing and healing then? Well when I complete work I take time off and I make sure that I make space for healing and personal writing. One has to make the space to re-consider, re-evaluate and re-direct. It is so easy to be busy all the time jumping from one goal to the next. Yet there is time for relaxation and there is time for action. These are all necessary parts of growth. What’s more, there is time for progression and time for reflection. I feel it is necessary to take the time to notice how you have progressed and learn from what you have achieved. Is there a better way? What worked? What wouldn’t you do again? This applies to life too and that is why a journal is a powerful tool. Do you have a journal? Do you ever ask yourself how you really feel or what you really want? Do you ever consider how you have done? What in your life works? What can you do to increase what works? Or are you spending your time dwelling on what life is lacking or on the shyte? I have mentioned before, in a couple of my books, if you shine your torch on a turd then that is what you will see fully illuminated. I look at the mind as a light house and where you rotate that light beam is what becomes illuminated. Where would you choose to focus a spotlight in your life if you had the choice? Which parts of your life would you want the world to see and which other parts would you prefer remained private? Now, that is why one can use writing for healing. You can purge yourself of what you really think, what you dislike and what you love. How else do you find out what is going on in the unconscious when the conscious mind is full of mental tittle tattle?

 

Anyway today is the day where I would like to share with you three prompts that may or may not catalyse healing. This is up to you to do and the results can only come from you. The prompts are just suggestions and you can tailor them to the areas of your life you would like to work on. In my opinion it is only when you write something out then you learn what is really going on in the churning mental background.

 

·         I feel that I have achieved…. And this is what worked… And this is how I would do it differently.

·         The thing I would most like to change… With all resources were available to me then this is how I would go about it…

·         The strongest feeling I experience is…. And I would like to…

I hope this inspires you…

If you have any prompts that work for you or may work for others then please share in the comments below…

 

You can find my books at the following link: Ruby Allure books on Audible:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

 

 

 

AUDIBLE BOOK AVAILABLE HERE:

 

LINK TO BUY ON AUDIBLE:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Self-Development/A-Short-Course-In-Creative-Writing-Audiobook/B012OVUKE8/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1443260320&sr=1-1

 

LINK TO PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.COM

A Short Course in Creative Writing
by Ms Ruby Allure
Link: http://amzn.com/1517234832

 

 

That feeling...

 

That feeling...

Oh there is such a sense of euphoria when you complete the editing of an audiobook. Honestly I can't tell you how amazing it is when you have worked with a wonderful producer for months and finally finish over 100,000 words in voice. We worked week by week and chapter by chapter on the audio version of The Ocean Callings.

The Ocean Callings, a teen book about love, the heart and the people of the sea. I have to say I have really loved working on the audio creation. This particular book is very close to my heart because this was my very first book that I drafted over 12 years ago. It emerged into life after having one of those monumental days that change everything. That evening I was walking home from university and a young person was run over on a bike and died. The shock of what happened made me re-evaluate my life and forced me to ask questions about what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be. I reflected on my childhood and of course I wanted to be a mermaid (as you do). That evening, whilst still in a state of shock, I researched mermaid sightings around Britain. Since it was unusual to lock myself in a room, my housemate, who was also a student, asked me what I was up to. I said I was looking up mermaid sightings in Scotland... Yes how normal does that sound? Well it just so happened that her aunty owned a cottage at one of the locations where there had been sightings. That was it... two weeks later we were in Scotland interviewing people about the mermaid sightings and the stories of women who swam out to save pirates from ship wrecks. It was an amazing experience and was the beginning of my authorial career. With that in mind, today is quite monumental because it was in January in 2004 that the writing adventure began... And today is the finalisation of a sequence of events that began on a very dark evening when a person re-evaluated their life because of a death.

It is fascinating how one can transform the bad into good with the right intention. The Ocean Callings will be released at the end of February on Audible, Amazon and iTunes.


You can find my books at the following link: Ruby Allure books on Audible:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

 

 

 

Insights and Wisdom from 2015

 

Insights and Wisdom from 2015

Every year has its own flavour. Some years are as if you have accidentally eaten a whole chilli whereas other years have a sense of an ornate desert. This year has the flavour of a healthy smoothy with spinach, avocado and raspberry written all over it for me. It has been a year of plodding and slow and healthy insight. With this in mind here are five insights which may well inspire you or touch a chord within you.

 

·         There are amazing people out there. I often forget how amazing some people are and how humble they are with it. It is easy to be distracted by the endless idiots and aggressive types fixated on doing stupid things. Yet behind the scenes the amazing people, who are full of passion for creativity and their works/arts, simply contribute their brilliance to the world. Some gain recognition yet many others contribute in a small way and expect nothing. The point is there are amazing people who want to help others. I have attracted numerous editors, producers and great friends this year who have all demonstrated phenomenal talents and the fact they are great people. It gives me a sense of hope for humanity because if I shifted my focus to the idiots I have observed then I would wonder about the point of existence– especially with the likes of the chap that got his penis jammed in a diet coke bottle. Really!

 

 

·         Trust is a major thing for me: trust in life and trust in people. In my life I have met so many liars, con artists and those who misconstrue the truth to take advantage of people. Yet, back to the point above, there are genuine people out there who can be trusted and will openly demonstrate their trust. I always viewed them as vulnerable, yet that vulnerability is actually openness. They have dropped their defensive Armor to fully engage in life no matter what.  Those wonderful people have helped me develop my own trust in them, in my life and in my self. The more I trust in the process of life, the more the process astounds me and reveals new avenues that I would never have expected. You begin to realise that life has a process of unfolding that you will never be in control of and that unfolding has to run in a certain sequence. By trusting it you allow it. When you do not trust it – it is as if you get in the way of you.

 

·         Nutrition and how you effective you are according to the food in your system, has been a massive learning. It was simple – increase water, take flax oil, eat blended veg in smoothies and get rid of sugar and coffee. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well when you have a migraine for a week when you don’t have coffee and another for two weeks when you stop the sugar then that is when you realise how sugar and coffee have saturated your system. The big learning this year is that when I shifted my nutrition to fresh veg, clean protein and no sugar my whole attitude shifted. I felt happy, I felt everything was possible and stopped getting colds. I had the energy to work full time, write books, work on the audio books and reach my ultimate fitness. Nutrition is now paramount for me and this year I will refine further to find a way to be energised and relaxed.

 

·         Intuition has upped her game. How many times have you ignored that little voice or that weird feeling in your gut to find out later on that it was right? Well this year I allowed myself to listen to my intuition and so far it has been spot on. It has resulted in meeting the right people and knowing when to leave the wrong people to it. Intuition is something that our rapid-paced culture overlooks but the point is intuition works faster than the conscious mind and figures things out at a greater rate. So why would we ignore it? Intuition is something I now embrace because it is a fundamental part of us and it strangely enables us to ‘know’ what to do without endlessly thinking. Intuition saves me time and energy.

 

·         Love has been a fascinating insight this year. A lot of my external world, like most people, has always been validated by approval in the form of praise, results, relationships and rewards. Many have the inner dialogue that does this ‘I will only be good enough when I am… or when I have… or when I have achieved…’ Yet when you shift into your own internal world and ask yourself why do you need someone to love you – then the answer comes back because you aren’t loving yourself enough. I learned that expecting others to love you is hypocritical if you are not demonstrating love to yourself.

 

It might sound vain or wafty but loving your self can be demonstrated to your self by doing the simplest of things like nurturing the self, looking after the self and allowing yourself time to be with yourself. Back to this high-paced, high pressured world that want us to appear as though everything is okay… Well all the ‘doing’ is pointless if it means that you ‘break’ your self.  All the chasing of ideals is pointless because they are in the future. We only actually exist in the now and loving yourself now – ‘no matter what’ is liberating. Try saying this to yourself and see what happens ‘I love my self no matter what…’ That is a true declaration of self love because we often will only allow ourselves to love ourselves when we have achieved something or received approval for something. These small insights have resulted in a wonderful, yet quite gentle year. I hope by sharing these that you too may have some insights to share. If so then please comment below.

 

Link to Ruby Allure books on Audible:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Ruby+allure&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

 

LINK TO SOUNDCLOUD

https://soundcloud.com/ruby-allure/creativewriting-edit-99-retail-sample-mastered

 

 

LINK TO BUY ON AUDIBLE:

http://www.audible.com/pd/Self-Development/A-Short-Course-In-Creative-Writing-Audiobook/B012OVUKE8/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1443260320&sr=1-1

 

LINK TO PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.COM

A Short Course in Creative Writing
by Ms Ruby Allure
Link: http://amzn.com/1517234832

 

 

http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Love-Hunt-Dating-Game-Audiobook/B015G4ICYA/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srImg?qid=1448187651&sr=1-1

 

Come on admit it - as much as we deny it - we ladies like a good love hunt.

 

We have tick lists, ideals, and we hunt in high-heeled packs. Of course, we're all hunting for that elusive right man who ticks every box and even has tidy nostril hair. Okay maybe not you, but you know other ladies who love the hunt.

 

Well, it's time for Eva and Gracie to love hunt, and their "targets" are rich men - the golden sperm. Such exciting escapades would provide the pair with entertaining discussions during their dull office hours - or so they thought. What they did not anticipate was the discovery of the "booby man"; humorous but very hard truths about wealth, themselves, power; and the RichIdiot.com phenomenon.

 

The question remains: can love really be hunted?

 

 

 

http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Love-Hunt-II-The-Love-Game-Audiobook/B0176Z9Y08/ref=a_search_c4_1_7_srImg?qid=1448187651&sr=1-7

 

The Love Hunt has returned. Gracie is back on the dating horse after a huge fall in her first tick-list-tastic love hunt.

 

Her new dating adventures take her and Eva into the depths of "the love game".

 

In the meantime, Eva, the ultimate Russian gold digger, has come to the conclusion that her poor "village idiot boyfriend" will never be enough. He will certainly not pay off her accumulating debts. She needs a rich man, and that means rich idiot dating.

 

In The Love Game, Eva and Gracie travel the journey of extreme love learning. On the way, they will discover their love and lust lists, their intrinsic issues, and experience some hilarious and jaw-dropping dates in pursuit of the wealthy ideal.

 

All of this in the pursuit of love.

 

The Love Hunt II is on!