Fortunately, Word makes it extremely easy to break your novel manuscript into easily navigable chapters.  This should take fewer than 10 seconds a chapter, once you get the hang of it.

Step 1: Open your navigation pane if it isn’t already.  It’s in the View tab.

Step 2: Apply the style “Header 1″ to your chapter titles.  It’s in the Home tab.  Just highlight your chapter title and click on Heading 1 (or Heading 2, if you prefer).

Optional Step 3: When you’re ready to add a new chapter, I recommend doing a page break so that each chapter will always start on its own page.  To insert a page break, you can either use the short cut Ctrl + Enter or clicking the Page Break button in the Insert tab.

Step 4: Apply Steps 2-3 to each of your chapter titles.  After doing so, your navigation pane is a table of contents with a button that you can click to skip immediately to that chapter.  It’s much easier than having a bajillion documents open at once or figuring out which folder you’ve saved Chapter 10 in or which version of Chapter 10 is the most recent.

1. Photograph yourself in a natural pose.  The most common sort of authorial photograph is a disembodied headshot foloating on a monocolor background, but I’d recommend against that because it is rarely interesting and feels too staged.  In real life, people don’t stare straight ahead and smile very often.  (Unless, perhaps, they’re taking an arrest unusually well).  His head’s on a slight angle, which makes it easier to imagine that he’s having a conversation with you.

2. Please work in some body language and/or setting details to help make the desired impression.  For example, if you were a businessman and publishing guru and were marketing yourself as a keynote speaker, you’d probably want to come across as personable, professional and literary.  Leaning towards the viewer, tilting your head slightly and grinning effectively establishes him as personable.  His clothes and slightly disorganized bookcase (disorganized enough to suggest that he actually uses it and that it isn’t just a stage prop) help establish him as a literary professional.

3.  Please remove anything that might distract viewers from you and what you are doing.  For example, if this picture had been in color, the books (and perhaps the wall and shirt) probably would have distracted viewers from the subject.  Shifting to black-and-white made it easier for viewers to focus on what the photographer wants them to see.

4. It doesn’t have to be symmetrical.  For example, even though the head is in the center of this shot, we see all of one shoulder but only part of the other.  The bookcase and his chair are one side and empty wall is on the other.

5.  Please look excited!  Enthusiasm–believable enthusiasm–is contagious.

A professionally-published novelist usually makes only $1 in royalties per paperback sale.  Typically, I’d guess that a well-tailored cost-per-click Adwords campaign could get the costs per incoming reader to somewhere between $.05-.20.

If you’re selling a single book, you almost certainly can’t break even with ads*. If you spend $20 on cost-per-click advertising, you have something somewhere between 100-400 prospective customers and need to get 20 sales to break even.  That almost certainly will not happen.  If your material is good, I think you’d probably convert 1-3% of your readers into buyers.  So attracting 400 readers would probably generate between 1-12 customers.  You probably couldn’t break even with that.

However, there are several situations that might shift the numbers in your favor.

1. You’re aiming at customers that will buy tens of copies or convince many other people to buy copies.  For example, if a teacher assigns your book for class, you’re probably looking at 25 or 50 sales rather than just one.  If a bookstore employee or librarian falls in love with your book, he might end up recommending it to many people that will go on to buy it on their own.
2. You have written many similar books with a lot of audience overlap.  For example, if you’ve written a fantasy series of seven novels or ten different horror novels, a dedicated reader would probably buy more than a single book from you.
3. You’re self-publishing a book that is good enough to have sold hundreds of copies. (Unless you are absolutely drowning in money, I would not recommend paying for ads until you’ve demonstrated that level of quality and salesmanship). One of the few advantages of self-publishing is that you receive a larger proportion of the proceeds from each sale.  If a person buys a $10 professionally published book in a bookstore, about $1 goes to the author.  If an author prints 250 copies through Lulu, the printing run will cost $6 per copy.  If you sell your copies for $10 + shipping, then you’d be making closer to $4 per sale.

Generally, my favorite type of promotion is giving out copies to bloggers and/or journalists that have demonstrated an interest in works like yours.  Each promotional copy costs you ~$10-15 to print and mail.  If a smallish blog has something like 2500 or 5000 readers a day, I suspect that a positive review would sell at least 20 copies.  (Plus, there is some hope those 20 customers might end up talking up the book with their friends or blogging about it themselves). Even a negative review can result in sales–some readers will buy the book to see if it’s as bad as the reviewer says.

*There are other types of ads besides online ads, but ads in newspapers, radios, magazines, TV and other media are even less promising for novelists than online ads are. They cost more and have trouble reaching the fairly small proportion of the population that is actually interested in buying books.

However, if you wish to sue somebody for copyright infringement, you’ll probably need to pay a small fee to register your copyright with your national copyright office first ($35 in the United States).  I’d recommend leaving that to your publisher, because suing somebody is almost always impractical before you get published.  There are more cost-effective ways of defending your work and/or dealing with plagiarism than spending thousands of dollars on a lawyer.

2. I haven’t been published yet and can’t afford a lawyer. What should I do if I’m plagiarized?
If the plagiarist has published your work either professionally or with a vanity publisher: Write the editor/publisher and explain that you’ve been plagiarized. If the plagiarist was brazen, copying sentences with few changes, sending the editor an electronic draft from a few years ago or a copy of the notes you gathered while writing the story should be sufficient.  If the plagiarism is subtle (“I worked on a concept just like that!”), it’ll be hard to prove that you got ripped off.  So many books get published every year that a lot of them share similar concepts.  Of all the places the alleged plagiarist could have gotten an idea, an unpublished manuscript is rather low on the list.

If the plagiarist has wrongfully posted your work on a well-trafficked website: Contacting an administrator and/or moderator on the website will probably suffice.  (Most sites have a contact form, and some even specifically list copyright queries on their list of most common topics.  For example, if you’re contacting DeviantArt about plagiarism, file it under “Copyright and Etiquette”).

If the plagiarist has posted your work on a personal website that no one reads: You can contact the web-hosting service, which may remove the offending website.  Failing that, you may wish to contact Google to let them know that your content is the original (because Google’s search algorithms discriminate against duplicated content).  Besides that, I wouldn’t worry about this, because it’s too much work for too little benefit.

3. My professionally published work got plagiarized.  What should I do?
Publishers are usually pretty zealous about protecting their work.  Bring the plagiarism to the attention of your editor. Depending on the publisher’s resources and level of concern, the publisher may threaten (or even file) a lawsuit, which is usually effective.  If the publisher doesn’t care, it’s probably not a problem.

4. I have been self-published.  What should I do if I’m plagiarized?
Your publisher won’t provide any legal assistance because its relationship with you ended as soon as it cashed your check and printed your copies.  See #2.

5. Do I need to worry about patents?

Unless you’re an inventor, no.  Creative works are protected by copyrights.  (Also, titles are covered by trademarks, but you can talk that over with your publisher).

Disclaimer: I am neither a lawyer nor a ninja.  If at all possible, speak to an attorney experienced in publishing law. Or a ninja.

If you have a spare hour from 1-2 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, June 29, register for Dan Zarrella’s free webinar about marketing on Facebook. Here are some of the topics he will discuss.

• The behavior of demographic groups on Facebook
• The sociology of the Facebook community
• The difference between men’s and women’s interactions on Facebook
• How to get your content shared on Facebook

One thing that I find both interesting and scary about Facebook is that its audience isn’t gathered around a single interest (like a political site) or even a group of interests (like DeviantArt).  If you’re interested in marketing a book online but aren’t web-savvy enough to make your own site, I’d highly recommend giving this a look.

Also, one brief note on titles…  When you pick a title for your project, I’d recommend taking something that isn’t already being used as a URL. It’ll make it easier to place high on Google searches for variations on your name.

]]> http://www.superheronation.com/2010/04/22/superhero-nation-the-documentary/feed/ 0 http://www.superheronation.com/2010/03/04/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-has-a-book-trailer/ http://www.superheronation.com/2010/03/04/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-has-a-book-trailer/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:51:23 +0000 B. McKenzie http://www.superheronation.com/?p=5783

I was sort of expecting Abe to win the fight by staking the vampire with a flagpole, but maybe that would have been too over-the-top.

1.  It reduces the odds that you’ll lose crucial e-mails. Don’t let an agent’s request to see your manuscript get lost in a torrent of spam!

2. It’ll be easier for you to find old e-mails.  For example, you might need to check which agents you’ve already submitted to.  That will be much harder if you have to sift through hundreds of unrelated e-mails.

3.  Your default e-mail address might not be professional enough for business use. No offense, “SuperheroBoi24,” but “JohnBryant” will raise fewer eyebrows in the editor’s office.  Also, it makes it much easier for me to tell at a glance whose email is whose.  As a rule of thumb, your work e-mail address should be based on your first and last name (or possibly your pen-name).

4.  You can give out your writing e-mail address to strangers without compromising your privacy. If you have a website, that will help keep you accessible to your readers without making your default e-mail address public.  For example, you can contact me at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com.

What Worked

• The site is well-edited.  That’s absolutely crucial for a writer’s website. 
• The website generally looks professional. 
• The site conveys ”I write military fiction” at a glance.  
• I like how he used his picture, easily establishing his military background.  You don’t have to wade through the “About the Author” to learn the most compelling part of this author’s bio. 

What Could Have Worked Better

• The site could use a better name than Mike Angley.  That’s not optimized for search-engine performance or memorable.  If you didn’t specifically know who Mike Angley was, you would almost certainly just scroll past “Mike Angley” if it came up in a Google search.  At the very least, I would recommend adding a phrase that suggests what he writes.  Like “Mike Angley: paranormal military fiction with a punch.”
• I am not fond of light text on a dark background for a writer’s website.  Since authors generally have quite a lot of text on their website, the additional eye-strain is particularly noticeable.   
• I’d recommend placing a one-sentence synopsis of the book/series above the fold (ie easily visible from the first screen that someone sees after coming to his website).  
• The site felt very laggy.  I’m not sure if it was an issue on my end or his, but I haven’t been having any problems with other writing websites today.   
• I feel like it’s pretty important to know whether his books are religious in nature.  I’m getting some mixed messages on that front.  For example, he has “At Home with Christian Fiction” in his blogroll and the booktrailer includes a religious image and a vague reference to the character’s faith.  Generally, I wouldn’t recommend leaving any doubt as to which niche you’re writing for. 
• I don’t think that the site answers “what’s in it for me?” very well.  For example, the first item on his sidebar is Mike’s Profiles.  That’s not very interactive.  I’d recommend leading with something more interactive, like writing advice (if you have any), personal interviews, or information about how to interact with Mike.  For example, if the author does promotional events, I think that a blurb about his next event should be displayed very prominently. 
• I would recommend shortening the “About the Author” section.  Some of these details, like the five professional organizations he belongs to, are probably irrelevant to prospective readers.  Also, his bio focuses too much on his work experience and not enough about his writing.  He’s worked with OSI for 25 years, including five tours as a unit commander.  That tells us pretty much all we need to know about his (impressive) credentials, I think.  Right now, he spends about 275 words (3 long paragraphs) describing his military background.  Too much.  Also, I’d recommend cutting out the detail about the dog and family or inserting a detail or two that are really interesting. 
• The image of his Military Writers Society of America badge has a white background, which looks garish on his otherwise black page.  I would recommend Photoshopping it so that the color blends in better.  (Just replace the white border with a black one).   
• The book trailer looks cheap.  It probably would have been more effective to buy a digital recorder and narrate it by voice rather than do a slideshow with text captions and music.  Alternatively, use a font/color combination that look good on the background.  Finally, the words themselves are not yet interesting enough to intrigue prospective readers, I suspect.  
• Generally, I would recommend making the book trailer more prominent than it is here.  However, I don’t think that this book trailer is particularly compelling, so I would leave it where it is. 
• I would recommend removing the comments feature until the author has enough readers to regularly generate comments.  This is social proof: if you have a lot of comments, people will get the impression that the author is popular, which will encourage them to see what they’re missing.  Conversely, if a reader sees ”0 Comments” after the end of every post, he may wonder if he’s the first person to ever view this website.  As a rule of thumb, I would recommend against enabling comments until you get about 100 viewers a day. 
• I don’t feel like I know what the author’s style of writing is like.  One of the tabs at the top of the website reads “Bloggy News,” which sounds a lot more casual and whimsical than the rest of the website. 

• Traffic tends to drop considerably.  In summer, the weather is really nice and people have things to do besides sit inside with a computer.  So don’t get depressed if your numbers drop during the summer; it happens to pretty much everyone.
• Regular readers will probably comprise a larger share of your readership than they do outside of summer. In non-summer months, about 30% of our readers are returning visitors.  In the summer, that jumped to 51%.
• Because it’s harder to lure in new readers, direct traffic will probably become more prominent. In a non-summer month, our audience split 16-52-32% in terms of how they got to our website: direct traffic, referral and search engine.  Over the summer, it’s been 33-30-37%.

Here are a few tricks you can try to make the most of the summer slowdown.

1. It’s a great time to experiment with site-design and content. Generally, new readers are the most likely to leave forever if they encounter something they don’t like.  Summer is probably the safest time to experiment because fewer new readers are at stake.  For example, this summer I’d like to try posting some reader-written material.
2. In particular, I’d recommend trying out some new content aimed at long-time readers. For example, we do a lot of writing contests over the summer.
3. Think long-term. Fewer readers are at stake in the summer.  So what can you do that will help you when traffic picks up in the fall?  One possible answer is writing “evergreen” content that will lure in readers months and months down the road.  For example, our List of Superpowers is still one of our most-frequented pages.

2.  Stay away from adspeak and flowery language. For example, our title includes the phrase “how to write superhero novels and comic books.”  That’s much more user-friendly than something like “superhero writing insights.”  What’s an insight?  Don’t make readers struggle to translate what you’ve written.

3.  Make it clear what you want readers to do. In most cases, this should be pretty self-explanatory (read our content, buy our book, sign up for our mailing list, etc).  However, it’s not always that simple.  For example, here’s the front page of ChangeThis:

There are a lot of problems with this page, but the main one is that it’s not clear what it wants you to do.  Notice that their goal is “creating a new kind of media… that uses existing tools to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.”   Uhh, what does that have to do with me?

4.  Introduce the reader to your content in a way that will make him want to read more. You have three main tools here.  First, write titles that make it clear what the reader will get out of the post.  For example, if you saw a post called “How to Do Superhero Gadgets Well,” it’s clear what the article is about and why you should read it.  In contrast, I have no idea what “The Recognition Microscope:  Fuel for Human Acceleration” is about.   It sounds trippy as hell.  Second, you can use your sidebar to present your best content and reinforce your site’s theme.  If you want superhero writing advice, our sidebar makes it pretty obvious that we offer a ton of it.   Finally, I recommend using opening sentences that smoothly introduce the material.  ChangeThis has a poor grasp on this.  For one, it doesn’t even let itself complete all of its opening sentences.  “I am convinced that a good deal of the ‘survival strategies’ that organizations are adopting are…”  Umm, yeah.  That sentence is absolutely meaningless without the missing content.  I’d change this to “Many of the ‘survival strategies’ that organizations are adopting are disastrous because of [main reason].”

1.  Select moderators that have the personal skills to represent your site well. Have they been mature, respectful and friendly?  I recommend against hiring moderators based on intelligence and topical knowledge.  Those can be useful, particularly if your website is highly technical, but an unfriendly moderator will probably cause more damage than an unknowledgeable one will.

2. Pick moderators that have a history of being welcoming and helpful to new users. These individuals will help you grow your website.  Petty and insular moderators will make new users feel unwelcome.

3.  Make sure that your moderators can handle disagreement well, particularly if your website deals with controversial issues.  Someone that says “I disagree with you for reasons X and Y” rather than “you’re wrong!” or “that’s stupid!” is far more likely to serve as a mature and professional moderator.

4.  Before selecting a moderator, make sure he can take criticism well. If you need to pull him aside later and explain that you’d like him to moderate in a different way, will he go nuts?  We did our selection process based on a proofreading contest graded by Cadet Davis.  One of the main factors we considered was how people responded to Davis’ exhaustive feedback.  The applicants that thanked him for his time and feedback helped establish that they could take the heat.  The applicant that challenged his proofreading competence was quickly removed from consideration.

5.  Stay away from very competitive people. Competitive instincts are helpful for many careers, but definitely not moderating. Someone that is heavily competitive is more likely to pick arguments with you, your guests and other moderators.

6.  Avoid egotistical moderators. An egotistical moderator is far more likely to let his position go to his head.  Don’t let his power issues get in the way of your business and community-building.

7.  Ragged Boy makes a good point that it may be helpful to select moderators from a wide range of time-zones. That will help ensure that you provide prompt service to users around the world.  Even on this website, which is explicitly American, 30% of our traffic is international.

8.  I mistakenly thought that it was a good idea to make the hiring process transparent, so I did a proofreading tryout.  Bad move!   That forced us to actively reject people that had declared their interest.  I think a few people felt snubbed that we didn’t choose them.

9.  Make sure that your moderators have a healthy respect for what you’re trying to achieve. It’s impossible to offer guidance for every situation that might arise.  Moderators that share your goals will make the right call in 9 out of 10 situations.

10.  Ideally, your moderators will be brave enough to advise you but deferential enough to respect your business decisions. For example, earlier today we received a request for a review forum from someone who wanted to write about a homosexual character.   I decided that the story didn’t sound pornographic, so I approved the request.  (We don’t accept pornographic and/or fetish stories).  But hopefully at least one moderator would be brave enough to privately tell me something like “accepting this story would put us on a slippery slope into DeviantArt-esque levels of creepiness”.   I share those concerns.  However, as soon as I’ve made my decision, I need moderators that will enforce my decision even if they don’t agree with it.

11.  Do not even consider making a moderator out of someone that has a history of drama.  If someone is prone to whining, overreacting, complaining, snottiness, griping and/or petty grudges, they are obviously not mature enough to handle the responsibilities of being a moderator.

1.  Establish a niche, ideally one that appeals to readers that are interested in what you plan to sell. I started this blog as a superhero comedy, given that I wanted to market a humorous superhero novel.  But there are already many solid superhero comedy sites (such as ISS and Evil, Inc).  We had much more success attracting readers after we rebranded ourselves as a superhero writing site.  As far as I can tell, we don’t have any competitors.

How is your writing blog unique?  Do you have a different style?  A different audience?  A different genre, subgenre or focus?  Etc.

2.  Make it clear what you offer.  Why will a stranger want to read what you have to say?  The worst writing blogs are usually loosely organized around a theme like “the random thoughts and ruminations of [Author X].”  Ick.  That’s far less effective than something like “how to write romance” or “so you want to be a sports writer.”

3.  Organize! The typical online reader will leave instantly unless you make him see that you offer quality content that fits their interests.   The best way to do that is to organize.  If you’re the sort of person that wants to IMPROVE YOUR WRITING or read SUPERHERO WRITING ARTICLES, it’s pretty clear that this is the right site for you. Just check our sidebar!

4.  Organize redundantly. If you absolutely need readers to see something, include it in several places.  For example, let’s say that you’re a first-time visitor to SN and you’re not sure what we offer.  You could find this information by reading our title, clicking either prominent link to our site explanation, or by reading our very prominent header.  When you’re designing your site, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

5.  Make everything on your site accessible within two clicks. One easy way to accomplish that is to use indexes of popular articles.  For example, if you like our writing articles, it’s pretty easy to navigate our list of writing guides or our list of superhero writing articles. From there, it’s just one more click to any of our writing advice.

6.  Post regularly. Ideally, at least a few times a week.  Depending on your niche and target audience, I recommend focusing on 200-400 word posts.