Image by j/k_lolz, via Flickr

That leaves me with quite the conundrum. Anyone who reads this blog regularly or follows me on Twitter or Facebook is probably familiar with my support of indie publishing and authors taking charge of their own careers. You’re probably also familiar with the fact that I’ve already self-published my own non-fiction book, Internet Famous, and have my own publishing company set up.

When I decided to self-publish Internet Famous, I had very set reasons for doing so. First, I wanted to get the book out quickly. I didn’t want to spend six months to a year finding an agent, then another six months or more finding a publisher, and then another year or more getting the book into print. The subject matter was timely, and I was afraid that if I waited that long, there could be a dozen books on virtually the same topic out in the meantime. The other big reason was that non-fiction has an easier time in the self-pub world, as it’s often easier to reach your niche.

So self-publishing Internet Famous was kind of a no-brainer. And while sales have been much slower than I’d hoped for, I consider it an ongoing project, and one that will soon be seeing some big changes. But more on that in another post.

Back to fiction. I love the indie novelist/author/publisher movement. I think it’s wonderful and empowering and a great thing for both writers and readers. There’s so much possibility there, so much room for growth, and I want desperately to be there, to contribute to it, and to challenge the conventions the publishing industry has held dear for generations.

But, and this is a big “but”, I wonder if I wouldn’t be better served by a mainstream publisher. That was a very difficult statement for me to type. As I’ve said, I love indie. I love everything about it. It speaks to the control freak that lurks not-so-deep within me. (Unless you’re an agent reading this; then I’m not a control freak at all and am the easiest writer to work with in the world. Promise.) And my book isn’t particularly niche-focused. It’s contemporary women’s fiction. Pretty mainstream, pretty commercial.

The other drawback to indie publishing for me at this point is time. I don’t have a whole lot of it. I have full-time blogging/editing/writing commitments already, none of which I want to give up. I have one self-published book out there that needs further attention. And I also have a lack of access to large numbers of book buyers. I live in a small town, I’m not particularly involved in my community, and there aren’t any real cities nearby. While I do have a large number of people who are familiar with my blogging (even a few fans, I think, which makes me smile every time I think of them), they’re not really my target market for this book.

So, I think I’ve developed a plan. I’m going to try the traditional route with this one first. I’ve created a list of roughly forty agents who I both admire and who I think might be a good fit for this book. I’m going to start querying them in the next couple of weeks, now that my rewrites are basically done. If I get no bites, then I’ll go through every publisher I think might be interested. If I still have no bites (which will be really depressing, btw), then I’m going to self publish.

What I’m hoping is that by the time I’ve gone through all the agents/publishers/whatever, I’ll have my next women’s fiction book finished (this would be either the sixth or seventh). And then I’ll release this one, the fifth one, for free to build a platform for the sixth. I’m honestly hoping I’ll find an agent, land a decent publishing deal, and start a long career as a novelist. I’m also not holding my breath and realize it’s a tough market out there.

So, while I will continue to support my indie friends, I’m gonna sell out and try my hand at mainstream for the moment. I may rejoin their ranks before long, and I’m sure at some point I’ll have a novel or two that don’t fit into the mainstream and will better fit the indie mindset.

I’m working on international distribution at the moment. The issue I’m running into is shipping costs. For international priority mail, the cost is about $13. But what I’m seeing is that first class mail is nearly that much to most areas (with the exception of Canada) and it can take twice as long. Can international orders be done through Amazon.com? Or through Barnes & Noble’s US website? If anyone knows the answer to this, please let me know!

At some point in the next couple weeks I plan on writing a post outlining the entire publishing process. Until then, feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments here. And thanks to everyone for their support!

At some point in the next few weeks, I plan to write an in-depth post about getting to this point.

You can also become a fan on Facebook (where you can vote in the poll to determine the subtitle of the book) or follow us (me) on Twitter (@internet_famous).

I have to give a giant shout-out to my beta readers (in alphabetical order to be fair): Dan Holloway, author of The Man Who Painted Agniezska’s Shoes (did I spell that right?) and Songs from the Other Side of the Wall and a founding member of Year Zero; Jason Horger, who did a superb job of pointing out the many grammatical and other errors in this book; and George LaCas, author of The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue and founder of Witchy Hat Press.

Editing on the book is basically done, and I’m expecting to release the book (both in print and digital formats) sometime in August.

Tomorrow I’ll reveal the title of the book and give you all the URL for the new site. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the cover (and a hint: the number of question marks corresponds to the number of letters in the title):

Photo by nate steiner, via Flickr

All of those are perfectly acceptable options. But what if you want to do something different? What if you look at the options above and your brain just screams, “BORING!”

I have two more options for you: binding your own books (paperback or hardcover) or writing a “blovel”—a blog novel.

Hamish MacDonald was the first person I heard about who was doing his own book binding for his novels. He currently offers four books for sale, all hand-bound by him. He also offers a series of podcasts for the DIY novelist. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Kvasir House Press is another great resource for learning bookbinding and for other information related to self publishing. The owner, Chad Muller, offers an excellent two-part tutorial on how to bind your own books. The directions are excellent, and I honestly can’t wait to try them out myself.

No Media Kings offers a great comparison of self-publishing options that includes instructions for creating your own book press and for binding your own books. Definitely worth a read, though be aware that not all of the information in the self-pub options is accurate (mainly the assertion that POD books are only sold at retail price, which is false).

The other viable option for publishing your own books is to go the ebook route. But instead of going through SmashWords or the Kindle store, why not publish your novel on a blog? Serialized novels used to be quite popular in newspapers and magazines decades ago. Why not due the same thing on your blog? With one chapter released per week (or day), it gives readers a chance to come back to your blog on a regular basis. If you pair this with releasing a print copy of your book, you’re likely to see more sales than you would otherwise. And don’t forget to put a donation button on your blog so readers can support your work!

JungleG has a wonderful post titled “Procrastinating on that novel? Write a Blovel instead.” It gives a basic outline of what their approach to a blovel would be, though there’s plenty of room for customization.

We CAN! Promote Our Books has a great article on experimenting with the whole blovel idea (this time with a YA novel written entirely in poetry).

This idea has become so popular that there’s now a site dedicated entirely to providing authors with a space to write their blovel: Blovel Spot.

I’m sure there are plenty of other unique ways authors are self publishing their books. If you know of any, please share them in the comments below.

Publishing Renaissance had a great post about how indie authors need to take some cues from the indie music and movie industries, titled Finding Our Defiance. Mentioned in that article is an article by Henry Baum titled The Last Stigmas of Self-Publishing, which I thought deserved it’s own mention here.

Wil Wheaton was featured in an article in The Washington Times on self-publishing, Self-publishing finds commercial niche in digital age. Definitely worth a read.

I had another article on authors who tweet (this time it’s nonfiction authors) go up on Mashable today. Go check it out and please retweet it if you find it interesting.

And, last but not least, Nathan Bransford has his usual roundup of even more publishing news on his blog.

Hope everyone in the U.S. has a great Memorial Day weekend! And I hope everyone not in the U.S. has a wonderful regular weekend!

Dan Holloway wrote a great article on the future of books over at the Streamwriting site (which is run by Hannah Davis). It’s a great article. Dan is really on top of new technology coming out in the publishing world and is taking advantage of a lot of it himself (have you seen the interactive novel he’s writing in a Facebook group?) At some point in the future I’m supposed to have an article going up on the same site. Stay tuned for that.

I am almost finished with the website for the new book. It’s currently in the hands of it’s first beta readers and I’ll be starting some edits this weekend on the first few chapters. I’m forever greatful to those who are taking the time to read it and they’ll all be mentioned in the acknowledgements and possibly get a case of champagne if the book does really well…

Nathan Bransford has his usual excellent round up of other publishing news. My favorite of the stories he mentions is the one from the New York Times addressing piracy concerns over ebooks. Very interesting read.

Photo by YuvalH, via Flickr

Book trailers are done by self published and mainstream published authors alike. Some trailers use humor; others are very serious. Some are directly related to the plot of the book while others are only loosely related.

Here are some examples of book trailers from mainstream, well-known authors (I think each of these are either by the author or their publishing company, but I’m not positive):

Neil Gaiman’s Blueberry Girl, narrated by Gaimain himself:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4lyJWa_84

Stephen King’s Duma Key:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7WGD8PaP4

Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bVZQvy0vN8

Notice how Stephen King’s trailer is very short (around 30 seconds), while the other two are around 2 minutes and 20 seconds long. There’s no “right” length for a book trailer.

And here are some examples of book trailers from authors who aren’t working with mainstream publishers (one book is indie published, the other isn’t available yet). These trailers use unique angles to draw interest, instead of the typical “this is what the book’s about” kind of trailer.

A Year in the Life of Some Guy by Oliver Ross. This is literally one of the funniest books I’ve ever read:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frnFeRJHOvc

A series of trailers promoting The Legend of Jimmy Gollihue by George LaCas:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r3Yh51zbXs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2TMTCMs-q4

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SeT5x3zqlU

Creating your own book trailer isn’t that hard. You’ll need some video editing software and probably a video camera (though there are methods you can use that don’t require one).

Start out by creating a rough storyboard or outline for your video. What do you want to express? What kind of image are you trying to portray for your book? This is largely dependent on the kind of book you’ve written. If it’s nonfiction, you might want to go more along the lines of a commercial. For a novel you might treat it like a movie trailer and film parts of different scenes.

If your budget is limited, consider doing something a bit off the wall or unique. A unique video is much more likely to go viral than the same old stuff everyone else is doing.

Another option is to hire a professional production company. If you’ve got the money and don’t know your way around video editing software and a video camera, it can be a good idea. Just realize that a professional video could run you a few thousand dollars.

Since I’ve never actually created a book trailer, I’ll offer up these two resources for creating your own:

• Making a Book Trailer with Photo Story 3
• Book Trailers lens on Squidoo

And a couple of articles on the subject:

• Seeking Readers via “Book Trailer” from SFGate.com
• On a Screen Near You… from Guardian.co.uk

In the next month or two I’m hoping to produce a book trailer for the nonfiction book I’m working on. If I do end up making one, I’ll try to post a more in-depth tutorial about the process. If you’ve created a book trailer or know of a good one, please post in the comments. Feel free to post any other resources for building book trailers, too!

Publishing Renaissance has put out a piece on becoming an indie publisher. It’s a three part series (part 1, part 2, and part 3) and is a great look at the ins and outs of starting your own publishing company. [via Publetariat]

The Elements of Style turns 50 this year and they’re releasing a 50th anniversary edition. I have a confession to make: I do not own a copy of The Elements of Style; I’ve never even opened a copy. Am I the only writer out there who hasn’t? I do, however, own a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style. [via New York Times]

Nathan Bransford has a great roundup of some other news in publishing this week, as always. A couple of my favorites: Dan Brown’s new book is getting a 5 million copy first printing (from what I understand, a first-time author generally gets a 10,000-20,000 copy first print run) and this royalty statement from NYT bestselling author Lynn Veihl.