Today I’m very happy to host my good friend Theresa Ragan, one of my Wet Noodle Posse (Golden Heart class of 2003) buddies and an all-around cool lady. She dipped her toes into the self-publishing world before I did, and she’s having wonderful success and loving her decision. She’s here today to talk about her experience and to provide helpful tips.

Hello, Trish. Thanks for having me. I’ll start off by telling everyone about myself. I have been writing for 19 years. In that time, I joined RWA, finaled in the Golden Heart six times in three different categories, and wrote ten 400-page novels and too many proposals to count. My first love was writing romantic medieval time travels. If I had sold back then, I have a feeling I might still be writing medieval time travels.

Hoping to grab the interest of a NY publisher, though, I went on to write five romantic comedies, two romantic suspense novels, and one thriller. In February 2011, while I was waiting for my agent to read my most recent manuscript, Abducted (to be released soon), I asked my agent for permission to self-publish my two medieval time travels since these books had been gathering dust for far too long. I was given the thumbs up, so off I went to learn basic HTML coding. I began madly researching blogs and books on “how-to-format” for Kindle and Nook. After Return of the Rose and A Knight in Central Park were released on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, I was hoping to sell 10 ebooks, but was astonished to see my $.99 book (A Knight in Central Park) hit #65 on the Bestseller list on Amazon books after being mentioned on Pixel of Ink. For a while there I was selling 550 to 580 books a day! Although sales for that book have since leveled off to about 125 books a day, and AKICP is now ranked in the 300’s and #2 in Time Travel Romance, I am definitely enjoying the ride and I want to share what I have learned with anyone who might be interested in self-publishing.

FYI: In under ten weeks, I have sold 10,000 ebooks. In royalties, that means approximately $6,800.

$6,800 is about what I was hoping for in advance money had I gone the traditional route. I am very happy with my decision to self-publish. I must say that other self-published authors warned me that choosing to self-publish would take over my life.

And they were right.

At the moment I am helping my fourth child set off for college. Like most of you out there, I am BUSY. Who has time for blogging and tweets and writing?! Not me. I gave up television a long time ago. I have nothing left to give up. So I am trying to prioritize. Husband, kids, animals, gym, promotion/marketing, formatting, editing, writing, house cleaning. That’s pretty much the order in which I have prioritized since I self-published in March, 2011.

To keep this blog from becoming another 400-page book, I am going to condense. I hope Trish and visitors will add suggestions because I am very new to this self-publishing world and I don’t know much.

1. FIRST THINGS FIRST: Write a great book! This is the easy part. Ha!

2. I learned basic HTML so I could make sure my ebooks would have smart quotes and wonderful looking m-dashes. If you hire someone to format your books, you can skip this part. I do think it would be helpful to download some ebooks on your PC or Ereader so you can look at various formats that other author’s have used.

3. I learned a lot about self-publishing by reading Joe Konrath’s blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

4. I downloaded Derek Canyon’s, Format Your Ebook for Kindle in One-Hour at http://amzn.to/lKXIWP

If you DO NOT want to spend time formatting, there are lots of people who will do it for you. Here is one place you can go for Kindle and Nook formatting: http://design.lkcampbell.com/

Here is another: http://rikhall.com/

I haven’t worked with either of these people, so I have no idea who you should use to format your ebooks. Do some research before you choose. Send them an email and get a quote.

5. My husband downloaded HomeSite5 on my PC so I could make changes in HTML and see those changes as I made them. He already had this software, so this did not cost me any money. You don’t need to do this. Many people use Notepad or Word to format their books and save as HTML for Kindle and Nook.

6. While your book is being formatted, I suggest you ready your bio, backcover blurb, pricing, etc.

7. Once my book was formatted and ready to go, I registered at KDP (this is where you go to download your ebook on Amazon): https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help

8. I registered at PubIt (this is where you go to download your ebook on Barnes & Noble): http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/

9. I registered at Smashwords.com. Smashwords distributes your ebook to the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony Reader Store, Kobo and the Diesel eBook Store. I have a lot to learn about Smashwords. Formatting was time consuming, so I hired Bryan Coker to format my latest book (bryansformatting@gmail.com), but I haven’t had time to download it yet. Email Bryan and tell him you would like a quote on having your book formatted for Smashwords.

10. Promotion/Marketing: Use your blog! Help other writers! Send out e-mails to your friends and family. READ Zoe Winters’ Becoming an Indie Author at: http://tinyurl.com/5tcqac8 This book is informative and interesting. It does NOT tell you how to format, but Zoe Winters will tell you what to expect when you self-publish.

When you register with KDP, Pubit, and Smashwords, all of these places will provide you with lots of tips and advice on how to market your book.

11. Print on Demand. If you want to hold a book in your hand, you can set up POD books with amazon through CreateSpace. I plan to do this with all of my books before the end of the year. It’s FREE! Or you can go with their pro plan for $39. Read all about it right here: https://www.createspace.com/

That’s it for now. If you decide to self-publish, I wish you TONS of success!

If you have any questions at all, let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

Thanks for having me, Trish.

Here’s some additional, helpful info for people looking to self-publish.

Cover art:

If you’re looking for another option for a good cover artist, try Kim Killion. She’s done covers for, Trish (Living in Color), Colleen Gleason (except Siberian Treasure) and many others as well. www.hotdamndesigns.com

*Dara England for cover art. She makes custom covers and she’s fast: http://mycoverart.wordpress.com/

Miscellaneous:

For lots of informative posts on Ebooks vs. Traditional Publishing: http://kriswrites.com/ Kristine Kathryn Rusch

All About Copyrights by Amanda Brice:  http://bit.ly/k8VRvu

Formatting for Kindle and Nook:

*LK Campbell: http://design.lkcampbell.com/

*Rik Hall:  http://rikhall.com/

We got at least a couple of inches of snow last night. So this is how I got my exercise today.

I did manage to meet my newest fan because of the snow.

Mary e-mailed me yesterday to tell me the cover for my October book, Elly: Cowgirl Bride, was up on Amazon.com. Squee! Here it is. What do you think?

I’m excited to show my first book trailer, for next month’s release, Winter Longing. Hope you all enjoy it. Feel free to share.

My first-ever online read at eHarlequin.com begins today. You can go here to read the first chapter.

The six authors who are taking part in the continuity series The Codys: The First Family of Rodeo are hosting a contest. Here are the details:

June kicks off the debut of Harlequin American Romance’s first-ever six-book continuity The Codys: First Family of Rodeo. In honor of this exciting occasion we’re running 6 one-day-a-month Social Media Blitz Contests at www.harauthors.blogspot.com

Contest Scoop
Beginning next month in June, an author in the continuity will post a blog at www.harauthors.blogspot.com and discuss her contribution to the The Codys: First Family of Rodeo series. After reading the author’s blog, post the link www.harauthors.blogspot.com, the title of the book and the author’s name to your Facebook, MySpace and or Twitter pages as well as your favorite blogs. The more places you link to and mention the author and her book, the more chances you have to win.

You can earn additional chances to win if you refer a friend and they in turn post a link to their favorite social media websites and blogs. Be sure to return to www.harauthors.blogspot.com and tell us where you’re spreading the word by posting the information in the comment section of the blog–that way we can keep a tally of your activity. Remember, it’s One Day Only Each Month June-November 2010!

Authors will be giving away prizes to several lucky winners. Your name will be entered into a drawing for each social media site you promote The Codys: First Family of Rodeo and for each friend you contact who in turn spreads the word through their favorite networks. You have twenty-four hours to link to us and win! The author will post the winners in the comment section of her blog the next day–be sure to return to see if you’re one of the lucky winners.

On June 5th Senior Editor for American Romance, Kathleen Scheibling will introduce The Codys: First Family of Rodeo to readers and the following day on June 6th Rebecca Winters kicks off the Social Media Blitz Contest with the first book in the series– Walker: The Rodeo Legend!

With the help of our faithful readers we’re hoping that on June 6th the web is buzzing with chatter about The Codys: First Family of Rodeo!

I’m being auctioned off! Okay, not really. But I have donated some critiques and books to be auctioned for good causes.

Up now is a critique of the first 25 pages of an unpublished young adult manuscript and an autographed copy of my first YA novel, Heartbreak River. This is to benefit diabetes research and is sponsored by author Brenda Novak, whose son has diabetes. You can access the auction listing (and bid!) here.

Tomorrow (Sunday, May 9), I’ll have a similar package available on the Do the Write Thing for Nashville auction to benefit flood victims here in Middle Tennessee. While my auction isn’t up yet, you’ll want to go over and look through all the fabulous auctions available now. I’ve bid on a few myself. Books, critiques, phone calls with agents, and all kinds of good stuff is just waiting for your bid.

Since I last posted, I:

* Drove 12 hours from the beach to Kentucky for Christmas
* Took down all the Christmas decorations and shoved them in the attic
* Marked as many things off my to-do list as I could
* Watched Avatar again, this time in 3-D, as well as DVDs of Push (confusing, not as good as I’d hoped) and Knocked Up (okay)

Speaking of movies, I keep a spreadsheet each year of all the movies I see and another of all the books I read. Yes, I’m odd. Anyway, here are my top 5 movies I saw and books I read in 2009:

Movies

Avatar
Star Trek
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Up
Gran Torino

Books

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Graceling by Kristin Cashor
As Shadows Fade by Colleen Gleason
Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward

What were your faves of 2009?

It was beautiful here today, sunny and warmer. I went for another walk and enjoyed the sea breeze and the sound of the palm fronds swaying. Here’s the view out the window about mid-day.

When I returned from my walk, I found hubby chilling and reading on the balcony.

I finished my proofing job and ran it to FedEx, then went to an area Books-a-Million to set up a book signing for March since the book I have coming out then, The Family Man, is the second book I’ve written set in this area. My hope is that since it’ll be spring break all those spring breakers will need a good beach read.

While I was out, I also bought the soundtrack to Avatar. As usual with James Horner’s work, it’s beautiful. I’m listening to it now. Hubby took this shot while I was out and about.

We went to Floyd’s Shrimp House for dinner. We ate there last December and really enjoyed it, so it’s the only place we’ve gone back to for a repeat visit this trip. We played a game of Perquacky, a word game, and have been playing on the Internet since. Hubby is reading the book I got him today as an early Christmas gift, The Art of Avatar.

Santa must really love me this week because I just saw the cover of my March Harlequin American release today on Amazon. And it’s awesome! The art department did a fantastic job of capturing the look of Adam, the hero in The Family Man. I told them he was supposed to look similar to Eric Dane, aka McSteamy from Grey’s Anatomy, and I think they totally nailed what I was looking for.

What do you think?

Considering a recent phone conversation with my father-in-law recently started with him asking, “Have you died?”, I think perhaps it’s time to do a better job blogging.

And as luck would have it, I have something exciting to share — the cover for my second young adult novel, Winter Longing, which is set to come out next August. I really like it, and I’m hoping it will make people pick it up off store shelves and race to the cash register. What do you think?

I just turned in a proposal for a trilogy to my agent, who sent it to my editor at Harlequin American. I’m hopeful she loves it as much as my agent who said she “loved every word!” I heart my agent.

I’ve also got lots of other things out there under submission, so Santa, if you’re listening, I’d like a new contract for Christmas!