How I Am Stunning the World (Not!) with a Self-Published Book!

By Si Dunn

Online sites such as Lulu, CreateSpace and Amazon’s Digital Text Platform for Kindle now make it easy to publish your own book at affordable prices.

What is not easy is figuring out how to sell what you self-publish, particularly if it is fiction, without paying hundreds of dollars—and up--to marketing services.

Case in point: my newest book, Jump, a 110-page novella set in the 1960s and 1970s. Brief summary: "Gage Roberts, ex-sailor, is a man having problems in every port of his life as he jumps from job to job, place to place and relationship to relationship. Can he find love and happiness?"

More specifically, Jump is about a job-hopping newspaper reporter who suffers from bad war flashbacks and is not having much luck at love. The book is set in Denton and Dallas, Texas, as well as Hattiesburg, Miss., Atlanta, Georgia, and the Tonkin Gulf and South China Sea during the Vietnam War. This is not a book that Oprah or Random House or the New York Review of Books likely would leap on.

Indeed, only a few dozen readers so far have jumped on Jump, even though it is now available as a downloadable e-book, a Kindle book and a print-on-demand (POD) paperback book, and I regularly promote it on Twitter and in emails. (Here are links to the various editions: Paperback: http://bit.ly/3cxln / e-book: http://bit.ly/wml2M / Kindle: http://bit.ly/iF8Wo . The paperback edition is $9.95. The e-book PDF version is $1.99, and the Kindle version is about as cheap as a Dunkin Donut: $0.99.)

Jump sprang up from a creative writing assignment that I completed for English E-175, a Southern literature class offered online in spring 2009 by Harvard University’s Extension School. After the course was completed, I spent about a month expanding the 7,500-word short story into a 20,000-word novella.

I then made a few online searches for publishers seeking novellas and got no encouraging responses to queries. So I decided to make Jump my first foray into the world of online self-publishing. Specifically, I wanted to have online books and a paperback edition, but I did not want to carry and keep track of an inventory.

With online books such as PDF files and Kindle editions, there are no physical copies (although copies can be printed.) With a print-on-demand (POD) paperback, there also is no physical book until someone orders a copy or several copies. Then the book is printed and shipped to the purchaser. POD books are very handy, because you can buy one copy to hold and show off and a few extras to give away to friends or potential reviewers.

With my previous books, publishers always have taken care of the editing and printing details, as well as the marketing efforts. So, with Jump, I had to start from scratch. First, I copyrighted my manuscript online for $35 at the U.S. Copyright Office and purchased a single International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for $125 at R.R. Bowker’s isbn.org website. Most bookstores and online sales sites such as Amazon require an ISBN before they will list a book for sale. Some online book-publication sites will issue a “free” ISBN if you do not have one, but I prefer to own the number so I can maintain maximum control over what happens to my book. Jump’s ISBN is 978-0-615-31261-3.

Online book-publishing sites now typically offer free tools for creating and selling a self-published work. They take a percentage of each online sale, and they are more than happy to sell you printing and book marketing services, as well. I used Lulu.com’s free U.S. trade book template (6 inches by 9 inches) to format Jump in Microsoft Word. Then I converted the formatted and (this is vital: carefully proof-read) file into a PDF. I picked a generic cover file available on Lulu and uploaded the materials. Immediately, Jump was available to the world as a $1.99 e-book readable on computers and other devices that can display PDF documents. Each time someone buys it, I earn part of the price and Lulu keeps part of it.

I used a very similar PDF file of the book’s interior to set up a $9.95 paperback version of Jump at Amazon’s CreateSpace.com. Again, I picked a generic, free book cover from the choices online and uploaded my file. That same day, a proof copy of my book was available to order. I paid a small fee and postage and received the book a few days later. According to the return address, it had been printed in North Charleston, S.C.

While proofing the printed copy, I decided to make a few small changes, so I uploaded a new interior file and ordered another proof copy. A few days later, I received it, checked it and approved the book’s publication.

The presses did not immediately roll, of course. A print-on-demand book is only printed when someone orders one or more copies. I bought a few copies at an author’s discount off the cover price and received them a week later. Then I sent them out to some friends, bookstore owners, and possible reviewers.

Next, I used Amazon’s online self-publishing tools to try to generate a Kindle version of Jump. All I got, at first, was a discouraging jumble. Jump is not just straight text. It includes some poetry and a few abstract choices of typography. But things improved after I uploaded an HTML version of the Microsoft Word file. Then I spent a few hours downloading, proofing, correcting and uploading the Kindle file. I never got all of the formatting glitches cleaned up, but I finally decided it was good enough and approved the Kindle edition. It became immediately available.

Visions of a modest but steady trickle of sales quickly evaporated once my book was available at these three different different outlets. Indeed, nothing happened until I started sending out dozens of emails to friends and contacts letting them know how to find and buy my book. A few of them bought it—fewer than I thought.

Social media is supposed to be the hot new way to market books, but Twitter so far has been colder than a frozen mackerel as a marketing tool. Each new “tweet” about the book is like throwing an advertising flyer into a fast-moving river of data. It is quickly swept away and hardly seen by anyone. Meanwhile, post too many messages about your new book, and you will start getting complaints and losing some of your all-important “followers.” For example, someone in Australia recently chewed me out for posting information about Jump too many times, in her view. Then she “unfollowed” me.

Marketing via email also creates the risk of being branded as a spammer. When I have sent out updated emails about my book, I have gotten a few complaints and requests to be removed from email lists. Some of those complaining lately have been friends and professional contacts. Not good.

I have been told by many people that I should get my book information posted on Facebook. However, I do not want my face and details on Facebook. I recently got rid of MySpace and stopped using several other social media sites, because it is just too much work to try to keep up with them all and also keep updating and correcting my information. I would much rather spend the time writing and editing new materials.

Another bit of advice from web marketers is to create a video “trailer” for a new book and post it on YouTube. Allegedly, this is another hot way to sell books. It took a bit of work to slip together some of my old photographs and a few title cards in a manner that seems reasonably coherent. Then, using Windows Movie Maker, I created a movie file and posted it on YouTube. Here is the link. I have not recorded any spike in sales since posting it.

Finally, I keep seeing online messages and blog posts touting novellas as "the new novel” for busy readers. And I keep seeing book publishers setting up e-book divisions and posting e-book versions of hot sellers. At least one of my previous books, published by a conventional publisher, is now online as an e-book, and I do not get a penny from the sales.

About two months after self-publishing my book and entering this brave new, no-inventory world, I have not yet turned a profit on Jump. Numerous people have promised to purchase it, but the sales figures so far do not show much follow-through. A few friends quietly have admitted that the recession is still hurting them and causing them to watch every discretionary cent. That is one of the reasons I made the e-book version of Jump available for just $1.99 and priced the Kindle edition at only 99 cents.

(An amazing number of authors with online books apparently are so desperate to be read that they price their works at $0.00 – free. This, of course, makes it much harder for writers who need income from their works to set any kind of profitable, yet competitive, price. After Amazon’s commissions for the Kindle edition, for example, I would have to sell three million copies of Jump to hit the magic million-dollar mark. Dan Brown might be able to do it, but not Si Dunn.)

Short of hiring Lulu’s or Amazon’s book marketing services and going deeper in the hole, my only recourses are to start sending out news releases and review copies of the book and start buying advertising space, just like the old days of book publicity. Maybe I can even give myself some book-signing parties and offer free chips and dip.

Hey, anybody know Oprah?


Si Dunn is a book author, screenwriter, script doctor, book reviewer and editor.

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Art & Fear: Don't Let Worries Stop Your Creativity

The book Art & Fear is a compact work with only 122 pages. But it lives up to its tagline, "An Artist's Survival Guide," and to its official subtitle: "Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking."

The book's co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, describe it as "a book about making art. Ordinary art." Their work is not aimed at the Mozarts of the world. Instead, it is written for "the rest of us" who strive to create works of art in many different forms on a daily basis.

"We're all subject to a familiar and universal progression of human troubles -- troubles we routinely survive,but which are (oddly enough) routinely fatal to the artmaking process," the co-authors note. The challenge for artists is to learn how to continue working and creating in the face of these unavoidable troubles. We must learn "how to not quit," the writers point out.

"Fear that your next work will fail is a normal, recurring and generally healthy part of the artmaking cycle," they emphasize.

"Artists quit when they convince themselves that their next effort is already doomed to fail. And artists quit when they lose the destination for their work -- for the place their work belongs."

Art & Fear seeks to help artists understand the sources of their fears. And it offers ways to try to overcome those fears and keep working even when an artist has no no clear idea what he or she is trying to create.

The $12.95 paperback is now published by Image Continuum Press, and it has been reprinted at least 19 times since it first appeared in 1994. Clearly, a lot of fearful artists have been reading it and recommending it to others.

-- Si Dunn

Texas Needs to Rework Its Movie, TV and Game Production Incentives

The Austin American-Statesman gets it, and that newspaper doggedly is staying on the Texas Legislature's case, even if many Texas politicians and entertainment people seem to be paying scant attention.

"State officials shouldn't be cast in roles of movie producers, scriptwriters or fact checkers, yet that's exactly where Texas legislators have put them," the Statesman editorialized in its July 3, 2009, edition.

A Republican-ramrodded clause enacted into law in 2007 forbids Texas state incentives to any kind of film, TV or game project that contains "inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion, as determined by the [Texas Film Commission] office, in a moving image project."

Apparently, only Utah takes a similar, thin-skinned approach to attempting to "protect" how that state and its people are portrayed in movies, TV shows and electronic games. The other 48 states apparently are happy just to encourage any and all entertainment companies to spend money inside their borders and let courts, lawyers and lawsuits handle any controversies arising over "accuracy" or portraying anyone "in a negative fashion."

The July 3 Statesman editorial stated: "Legislation that denies tax incentives to movies that put the state in a negative light puts Texas Film Commissioner Bob Hudgins in a situation that is as uncomfortable as it is untenable."

The Statesman called for the law to be rewritten "to remove the negative ligh criteria that Hudgins used to deny tax breaks to a movie about the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco."

The Waco movie project might have brought an estimated $30 million to the state economy and created dozens of jobs for Texas movie workers who now have to commute to Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico or other states to earn paychecks.

But the project about the disasterous 1993 Branch Davidian standoff in Waco should not be the only focus of opposition to the "negative fashion" clause in Texas' moving-image production incentives.

The bigger issue is how much the restrictions -- and the ongoing controversy over them -- may chill the overall movie, TV and game production business in the state.

Producers looking to spend money on entertainment projects that have Texas subjects or Texas settings may decide to go to other states, just so they can avoid all risk of running afoul of overly protective Texas legislators or a state film commission subject to political pressure and narrow-minded laws.

After all, with current movie, TV and game technology, "Texas" can be created almost anywhere. (Remember the controversy over the Civil War movie Cold Mountain, which partially was shot in Romania, with Romanian army troops serving as "Yanks" and "Rebs" and the Carpathian Mountains doubling as North Carolina?)

Some opponents of the Texas Film Commission ruling, including this writer, have voiced opinions that the Waco movie would be a work of fiction, no matter how truly "based on real events" it is, and the Texas Film Commissioner thus has been tasked by state legislators to censor fiction.

As the Statesman and others have noted before, some of the most successful and enduring movies about Texas, including Giant and The Last Picture Show, have not portrayed Texas and Texans in a positive fashion. Neither have movies such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and TV shows such as Dallas. But Giant and Dallas particularly have brought tons of tourism dollars to Texas and are still infusing cash decades later. And other movies and TV shows, including the definitely inaccurate Walker, Texas Ranger, also will pay tourism and "image" dividends to Texas for many years to come.

"Tax incentives should be given to projects that will have a positive impact on the state's economy," the Stateman declared in its July 3 edition. "The criteria ought be clear, and producers should understand that not everyone is going to get an incentive. Decisions on incentives should be based on the economic benefit to the state -- not on someone's slippery notion of what's negative and what's not."

The Statesman gets it and is keeping the ball rolling. Now, do any of the leading lights within the Texas movie, TV and game industries get it, and are they doing anything to help get the "negative fashion" clause eliminated as soon as possible?

Texas entertainment jobs are on the line at a time when every new job definitely counts.

-- Si Dunn

Fiction Is as Fiction Does: The 'Waco' Movie Controversy Rolls On

One essential point –- fiction -- keeps getting missed as criticisms and free publicity continue for the screenplay for Entertainment 7’s Waco movie project.

No matter how “accurate” anyone thinks it should be, a screenplay –- any screenplay -- is a fabrication, a “play” for presentation on a “screen.” And any movie made from the screenplay will be even more of a fictional representation, once the director, actors, crew and post-production specialists have added their own contributions to the finished product.

The ex-FBI agent who lashed out at the screenplay on the front page of the June 24 Austin American-Statesman certainly is free to criticize the “accuracy” of how he thinks people, places and events are depicted in the script. However, anyone who witnesses or takes part in an event will have his or her own memories, interpretations and opinions of what happened -- or did not happen. Even if a million video cameras had recorded every moment of the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff from all sides and angles, there is absolutely no way to create a screenplay that could get the standoff “right” in every person's view.

A screenplay compresses people, places, things, images and circumstances into a stylized structure with three acts. A screenplay tells a story, and that story always is fiction, even when it is based on “real” events.

Even unscripted “reality” TV shows are unreal. They are just one more form of fiction (bad fiction).

Speaking of “real,” the real result of Texas' controversial "Ogden provision" (ironically named, since Utah is the only other state with a similar, thin-skinned restriction) is that State Sen. Steve Ogden of Bryan, Texas, can take credit for creating new moving-image industry jobs…in Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and elsewhere. Those states, and almost any others including Utah, likely will have no qualms about hosting -- and profiting from -- movie, TV or game projects that portray “Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.”

Sen. Ogden got the "negative fashion" provision added to state law in 2007, the Austin American-Statesman says, "after controversy erupted around the Texas-filmed 2006 sports drama "'Glory Road,' which tells the story of 1966 Texas Western Miners, and, according to school supporters, exaggerated racism at East Texas State University."

It has been noted in the Statesman and elsewhere that classic “Texas” movies such as Giant and The Last Picture Show and TV shows such as Dallas probably could not qualify for current production incentives, because they sometimes depict Texas and Texans “in a negative fashion.” Yet those productions continue to bring tourism dollars to Texas and expand the state’s aura around the world many years after they disappeared from theaters and networks.

The Ogden provision puts the Texas Film Commissioner in the unenviable position of trying to verify the “accuracy” of fiction, a writing form in which anything goes, and to use that "accuracy" as one of the criteria for judging “negative fashion.” Some call this censorship or a state legislative attempt to override free speech provisions in the U.S. Constitution. Others just call it "dumb" and "bad business." Texas has had dubious reputations since at least 1835, yet it has managed to do quite well for itself, thank you very much.

Any movie version of the Branch Davidian standoff would be fiction. The standoff could even be staged in a parallel universe on the planet Yargon in the year 3456. But if the script portrayed “Texas or Texans in a negative fashion,” the project still might not qualify for state production incentives.

At the very least, the continuing controversy over Waco may cause many movie producers to consider spending their money and shooting their “Texas” movies anywhere but Texas, so they won't run afoul of state restrictions and state lawmakers.

As long as the 2007 “negative fashion” restrictions stay in place, perhaps the state’s famous “Don’t Mess with Texas…” slogan should be expanded. It could now include “…or We’ll Diss Your Screenplay and Keep Making Our Moving-Image Workers Cross State Lines to Find Jobs.”

-- Si Dunn

Tips for Screenplay Beginners

Do not be fooled by how simple a screenplay appears on the printed page. You may spend up to a year or more writing and rewriting a feature-length script.

Be prepared to rework each new screenplay several times. And get feedback from others -- friends, relatives, strangers, actors, script readers -- before attempting to submit it to production companies, literary managers or agents. Most producers or managers or agents who agree to look at a script often will only give a writer one chance to impress them with that screenplay. You are competing with thousands of other writers in a very crowded marketplace.

Be very careful. There are many good script services and many good producers, managers and agents. And, there are some really bad ones with clever schemes to get your money. Check out everyone and every offer before writing any checks or giving up any credit card information. (Indeed, consider using PayPal.com instead of a credit card, for more protection.)

Consider writing short screenplays first. There is a steady market for screenplays in the range of five to 15 or 20 pages. Often, these are sought by first-time moviemakers. You may be paid little or nothing for your script, but getting a script produced and seeing it on a screen (movie, TV, mobile device, etc.) with your name after "Screenplay by..." is the Holy Grail for screenwriters.

Educated perseverance is a strong key to getting a screenplay sold or optioned. Keep learning as you keep trying. And be prepared to spend years on the process of writing and marketing screenplays.

DO NOT give up your day job thinking you are going to get fabulously rich from screenplays. Sometimes, it can take 10 years or longer to make any money at all from screenwriting.

After you finish your first screenplay, start revising it. And get started on your second script, third, fourth, and so on. Producers, agents and managers may not like your first script, but they often will ask: "What else do you have?" If you don't have another screenplay to offer, you may have missed a golden opportunity.

-- Si Dunn

Waco and Branch Davidians Cited by Iran's Supreme Leader

According to "The Lede," the New York Times blog, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has cited the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas, as a reason for rejecting American criticism of Iran's response to opposition protests.

In a translation posted by Iran's Press TV, Ayatollah Khamenei stated at the end of a recent speech:

"During the term of a previous US government, eighty people affiliated with the Davidian sect were burnt alive in their compound in Waco, Texas. For some reason these people were disliked by the then US administration. Eighty people were burnt in that building, how dare you talk of human rights?"

Clearly, the Ayatollah doesn't know much about the circumstances behind the Waco standoff and its tragic outcome, just as he doesn't seem to understand much about why so many of his own people keep clammoring for fair elections and greater freedoms.

Many Americans, of course, don't know or remember much about the Waco standoff, either. One recent attempt in Texas to make a movie about the events apparently was stalled when it ran afoul of a particular clause in Texas' state incentives for moving image productions. That clause does not allow awarding state production incentives to projects that depict "Texas or Texans in a negative fashion..."

Recent rumors were that Waco would be shot in Louisiana, Oklahoma or New Mexico, where there would be no restrictions against depicting "Texas or Texans in a negative fashion...."

-- Si Dunn

Poetry Book "Anchoring" Now Available from Lulu.com

Anchoring, my second book of poetry, is now available through Lulu.com. Anchoring is a collection of poems that previously appeared in a wide range of publications, such as Rolling Stone, the Texas Observer, the Denver Post and several literary magazines. My first book of poetry, Waiting for Water, is still available on Amazon.com.

-- Si Dunn