LLBR: Hi Judy. Thanks for talking with LLBR today. First, tell us a little about yourself and how you came to write the book, The Therapist’s New Clothes.

JS: I didn’t so much choose to write the book as the book demanded to be written. Years back, as an author at an impasse, I decided to become a therapist. The rational reason was that this way I’d have steady income when I was between projects. However, the truth was that therapy had become my life and framed how I saw the world. After I went through the rabbit hole and came out the other side, I could see the huge ironies in what had happened to me, truths that I knew I would best understand through the process of writing out the story.

The book is only 144 pages long. How long did it take you to write and edit it?

The first draft came very quickly: I wrote it in about six weeks. That 90 or so pages had the basic story, structure, etc. But then I kept going back to it, adding scenes and filling in gaps, kind of a process of layering. Editing-wise, a writer friend and my agent offered suggestions. But mostly it grew over time, as I looked back at the manuscript and saw ways to make it better.

Did you explore other avenues of publishing before ultimately deciding on the use of the Espresso Book Machine?

Goodness, yes! I had a top New York literary agent who strongly believed in the book, and she sent it around. It came excruciatingly close. At one house it went all the way up to the founding editor who finally turned it down, saying he feared it would fall into the “small book syndrome”. I could second-guess this till I made myself crazy, but for whatever reason or no reason it didn’t get placed. Then I started reading analyses of problems in the publishing industry, and it started to dawn on me: hey, if this system is such a mess, why am I letting it determine my fate as a writer? I was mulling this over when I started hearing about the Espresso Book Machine and learned that the only bookstore in the world that had it (at the time) was…my bookstore, the Northshire in Manchester, Vermont.

Now, tell us about the EBM. How did you hear about it? How long was the process from beginning to publication? How much of the formatting did you have to do yourself?

It took a couple of months, but that was because I spent time working with a designer on the cover and, well, getting my bearings. After doing books with traditional publishing it would have felt weird, even disorienting, to have a book come out within days! I mean, I needed a bit of time to get geared up. start my blog, etc.  The folks at the Northshire helped me with the formatting, but because the shifting between formats kicks up some odd tabs and spacing, it took a few rounds of proofing to get it right.

How long does it take to print one copy of the book? Is the Vermont bookstore also handling distribution for you?

It takes minutes—maybe three or four minutes. The Northshire is getting the newer version of the machine (2.0 rather than the 1.5 prototype) this month, which means it will pop out even faster. The bookstore essentially acts as my publisher, selling the book through their website and dealing with Amazon orders. (I had to pay a small fee for them to put it on Amazon.) They also worked with me to have it available via Lightning Source, Ingram’s print-on-demand program. This way someone can order it through any bookstore that uses Ingram as a distributor. I’m not sure if the Northshire does this regularly, or whether I was their guinea pig for this. I’ve also made the book available as an ebook through Smashwords. Just a year ago, when I brought the book out, it seemed you had to choose between doing a print book or an electronic version. No more.

How is the book doing? Where have you gained the most amount of sales?

The book is doing well enough, considered its limited distribution, no marketing, etc.. Most of the sales have come from word-of-mouth, and a few events I’ve done, including one at the Northshire and a signing at a library opening in a town where I knew no one – except the librarian! A few blogposts in the mental health area have also sparked interest (not that I compulsively check my sales stats or anything….)

What kind of feedback are you getting?

The feedback from readers has been amazing – people coming up to me on the street or at concerts and thanking me for writing it, saying that they’ve told everyone they know to buy it. Several readers have blamed me for keeping them up late because they couldn’t stop reading it. Often it’s the people I least expect who respond the most powerfully. I casually mentioned to one woman I interviewed for an article that I had written a book. She liked it so much she bought a copy for everyone on her holiday list!

What’s next for you?

I lead something of a double life. On the one hand, I do my own writing, The Therapist’s New Clothes and a novel I’ve finished that’s a love triangle in Freud’s Vienna (based on my grandmother’s psychoanalyst who was a member of Freud’s inner circle). I’ve also started a second novel, also inspired by my grandmother, who was an artist in Greenwich Village in the 1910s. Then, improbably, I’ve been writing about “new economics”, basically the nexus of economics and the environment. I think my experience with publishing left me primed to question assumptions about we live and do business. When the financial downturn hit in late 2008, I started asking things like “what is money?” and found myself in some pretty fascinating, dynamic terrain. My pieces are published in Time, Miller-McCune, Christian Science Monitor, etc.

Any hobbies outside of writing and publishing? What are you reading these days?

We live a mile up a mountain on a nice stretch of forest/meadow and do a lot outdoors—swimming, walking, biking, gardening. I spend a lot of time with my son (within the bounds of what would be cool for a 15-year-old, of course) and love listening to his music; he writes his own rock songs and sings and plays guitar. As for reading, I just read, and loved, Billy Bathgate, and can recommend Jack London’s “John Barleycorn”, which I would call the ultimate addiction memoir with some surprising insights. And since you raised the subject…please indulge me a shameless plug for my husband, Tony Eprile’s, novel The Persistence of Memory, a beautiful and funny book about South Africa in the waning years of apartheid.

Any advice for our authors and readers who may be considering the EBM or self-publishing in general?

Go in with your eyes open. This is an extremely tough time in the book business and there’s a lot of confusion, frustration, and heartbreak out there. Some of us are killer promoters and some of us aren’t, so don’t go into it thinking you’re going to suddenly change. Better to work with your own style. When I decided to self-publish, the smartest thing I did was to make a deal with myself: I would go ahead and do this if I made it fun for myself. So when I start getting stressed or obsessing about numbers I stop myself and remember that it’s only worth it if it’s fun.

Thanks Judith!

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LLBR: Hi Nick!  First, congratulations on the success of your two books, Strings Attached and Double Bound.  Can you start by telling us how you came to write this story and eventually self-publish it?

NN: Thanks, Shannon. It’s been a wild ride. Quite simply, I self-published ‘Strings Attached’ because I couldn’t get anyone else interested in publishing it. And I’d gone through the required process: re-re-writing my queries; looking online for agents and publishers; rummaging through Jeff Herman’s book on agents—the works. I even took a class at UCLA Writer’s Workshop on query writing. But it still took me over a year before I accepted the fact that if you’re an unpublished niche author, your chances of nabbing a traditional publishing deal are very, very slim—that is, unless you are VERY close to someone who’s been successful in that industry.

What made you decide upon BookSurge as a publisher?

I had a ‘chance’ meeting—arranged by the fates, I’m certain—with author Kathleen McGowan. She had successfully self-published The Expected One with BookSurge (now CreateSpace), and after hearing my woeful tale she encouraged me to do the same. Eventually, her novel was picked up by Simon & Schuster, and became a NY Times Bestseller—as have her subsequent books. And although the experience with BookSurge was far from seamless, looking back I’m very happy I followed Kathleen’s advice. BookSurge/CreateSpace produces a quality project and handles the Amazon order fulfillment. It’s not like I ever had to drive around to bookstores with a carton of my novels rotting in the back of my SUV.

How were sales while the books were with BookSurge?  Did you have a marketing plan or any assistance?

The sales of ‘Strings Attached’ (2006) and ‘Double Bound’ (2008) went far beyond my expectations: 5200 copies for the former and 1500 for the latter before both were picked up last year by AmazonEncore. As for marketing plans, I had none. But I worked every day on marketing: press releases, blog articles, Amazon page descriptions, literary competitions, website development, press reviews, reader’s emails, and placement in bookstores—which was mostly unsuccessful, with the exception of A Different Light in WeHo (sniff!). But these tasks were never ‘work’ for me; it’s something I love. Oh, and the greatest assistance I received was from lesbian author DC Elmore—who also writes a terrific vampire series under the name Drew Silver. She was generous and gracious with her direction; by the time I dipped my toe into the self-published waters, she was already a champion swimmer.

How and when did AmazonEncore get involved?

In June 2009, just as AmazonEncore was forming, their senior acquisitions editor, Terry Goodman, contacted me after reading Strings Attached—perhaps he was drawn to the story because of the volume of my sales or the positive reviews I’d accrued on Amazon. Since signing with them, their unwavering commitment to making these ‘niche’ and ‘unmarketable’ stories successful has been jaw dropping: Strings Attached has been the #1 bestselling LGBT title on Amazon for the past 5 weeks—that includes bios, fiction, etc. Needless to say, I’ve been delighted by what AmazonEncore has done to publish and promote my unapologetically gay, sexy novels.

The new book covers definitely give the series a new look and feel, and completely change the tone the books convey. Are you happy with them? Besides the book covers, what other changes did AmazonEncore make?

AmazonEncore commissioned artist Silja Goetz to create the new covers, and I love them. They positively leap out from the listing queues on Amazon, and they convey both the sensuality and the fairy tale qualities my stories have. But I loved those old covers as well; my partner Jaime—he’s an exceptionally gifted graphic designer—put together those for me. Besides the look of the books, AmazonEncore and Melcher Media meticulously copyedited the stories, and they’ve assembled a terrific marketing team. And am I happy with them? I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

Does AmazonEncore provide distribution of your book through traditional channels such as physical bookstores, or just on the web?

Yes, my books can now be found in some bookstores in the major US metropolitan areas, but the focus and muscle feels like it’s concentrated on Amazon—especially with the Kindle reading device. Each month I’m stunned by how many more books are zapped to Kindles versus how many paperbacks are actually shipped. It’s a new world.

What was the first immediate change you noticed once the books were released with AmazonEncore?  Increase in sales?  Emails from readers?

The increase in both sales and reader’s feedback has been incredible. And the reviews are both touching and entertaining: for one week last month Amazon gave away free Kindle copies of Strings Attached to bolster the coming launch of Double Bound; this giveaway skyrocketed SA into the #2 position for all ‘free Kindle’ contemporary fiction titles—and then the scathing reviews starting coming in. If you want some entertainment, take a look at the reviews from those who downloaded Strings Attached and were shocked by the content. Several who gave the book 1-star ratings actually liked the story, but decried the book as ‘gay porn’…which is ironic for a 320 page novel with only 5 pages of anything explicit. But the really positive aspect of this giveaway is the glowing feedback I continue to receive from readers who would’ve probably never read my books. Strings Attached is opening eyes, and that’s priceless.

Have you gotten any interest from agents or traditional publishers?

I now have two agents; Kevan Lyon for domestic rights and Taryn Fagerness for foreign rights. They’ve been terrific, and they’ve given me some invaluable feedback on book #3. As for other publishers, at this time I have no interest in cheating on AmazonEncore! We are happily married.

AmazonEncore seems to be quite exclusive, meaning not just anyone can query them direct.  So, what advice would you offer for someone considering self-publishing since you started out there?

Write a good story and keep working on it until it’s great—and then work on it some more. The best (and worst!) part about writing a book is it can always be improved. And if your story doesn’t beg reading, it doesn’t matter if you’ve signed with the biggest publisher in the world, or if you’ve self-published and have a very clever marketing plan. If people don’t recommend your stories to friends, you’re not going to sell books to strangers.

What’s next for you?  Another book?  Is it also being released through AE?

Book #3 is nearly finished, and I’m very excited by the story. I find myself working long into the night sometimes, because I can’t wait to find out what the muses have in store for my characters. As for who will release it, I don’t know yet—but I will say that I’m trying my best to have the story meet AmazonEncore’s standards.

Tell us something we don’t already know about you?  Besides a writer, who would you say Nick Nolan is?

I strive to be a nice guy, a considerate man. And I’m very curious about ‘non-traditional’ ideas regarding spirituality; I drive Jaime crazy with my theories and research about life after death, and about those invisible forces in our lives that push people together and make miracles. And the longer I live, the more I’m convinced that creativity and work and appreciating people and animals are all that matter in this life. Those things, and love. Yes, love is the most important thing.

Visit Nick at Amazon.com!

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LLBR: First, tell us who you are and why you decided to create NovelRank.

ML: I’m Mario Lurig and I published my first (and currently only book) over a year and a half ago, “PHP Reference: Beginner to Intermediate PHP5“. I did some of my own marketing on the book, but checking Amazon.com all the time to see if my sales rank was lower (and thus a sale) was just not a good use of my free time. I looked around to see what sales rank tracking sites were out there and I just wasn’t thrilled with any single one (I tested most of them). So for my own benefit I started to track my book and had it email me on a sale, because in the end it’s not the rank but the sales info that you really want. Eventually, I decided to make NovelRank a site for other authors and committed 180+ hours of time in 2009 designing, researching, and creating the site so that other self-publishing authors could get more real-time information about how well their book is selling and how well their marketing is working.

LLBR: What is NovelRank and how does it work?

ML: It’s a pretty simple concept: You add your book to NovelRank by providing the link to your book on Amazon, and it tracks your sales rank on Amazon every hour. It also uses that information to determine if your sales rank has changed in a way that means a book (or more than one) has been sold. It then reflects that data on the site. You can track by visiting the site directly, grabbing the widget for displaying your book’s sales rank on your own website, or grabbing the RSS feed so you can put it into your favorite RSS reader. The best part, and mind you I’m biased, is that you don’t have to create a login, and you can share your book’s link with your readers or friends by just sharing the link.

ML: I couldn’t charge a fee, because I know how it is to sell a handful of books a month ( I average 15 a month), and that was the exact audience I wanted to help, so the site is completely free. Yes, that means that my hourly rate for building and improving NovelRank is currently around $0.01/hour, but if an author is selling a 1000 books or more a month just on Amazon, you probably care a lot less about the details, just the fat check. I want to help the independents, even the authors who market their books but get limited information from their publishing company so they have no idea what works and what doesn’t.

LLBR: So how does NovelRank make money and stay online?

ML: Currently, the hosting for the site is paid for by the income my book generates, barely. However, if you click through to an Amazon domain from your book’s page and end up buying something on that visit to Amazon, I get a small percentage of that item’s price as a kickback from Amazon (around 5%) through their affiliate program. Costs you nothing. I also may run some NPR style ‘support NovelRank’ pledge drives once or twice a year, but this is a while away, if ever. I never intend to put ads on the site or charge. Clean design, useful information, and a supportive community has always been my top priorities.

ML: RSS feeds, spreadsheet downloads of data, twitter searches, sales rank widget, average sales rank for common time periods, some statistical info (best rank, worst rank, etc), and how long it’s been since you made a sale. Oh, and pretty charts as a visual aid for your sales rank (soon I’ll be adding charting for actually sales as well). This is just the beginning, what I considered the basics needed. In 2010 I have a whole list of new goals, including optional user accounts that you can use to track multiple books on one page (and still share that page with others). The complete chart of features is available on NovelRank.com.

ML: The lists are updated hourly, just like the sales rank. I thought of a few criteria that were interesting and tossed them all into a Top 10 Lists page, which feeds the frontpage of NovelRank with 3 lists, the 3 lists randomly changing hourly. I’m personally addicted to the ‘Recently Added’ list for obvious reasons. In the future I may add a few more lists, but I think there are enough for now: Top sellers, recently added, top Lulu.com books, and diamonds in the rough, a category of books that sold a copy recently, but it’s been a few days and they deserve some reader attention.

ML: Hourly, as long as Amazon actually updates. Sometimes an Amazon domain doesn’t provide new sales rank data, so nothing is updated on NovelRank’s site either. At one point I saw that Amazon.com and Amazon.ca were not updating a third of the day, over 8 out of 24 hours! Usually, this won’t effect much, unless your book has a sales rank below 400 where hourly changes make a difference in calculating the number sold. Of course, if your sales rank hangs out below 400, I’m insanely jealous.

ML: Every Amazon domain. I built it with Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk in mind, but I was a little too prepared so switching on Canada, Germany, France, and Japan was actually really simple. I figured there was no harm in offering more information for authors, and it may prove interesting data to analyze later.

ML: Barnes & Noble is tracked by a few other tracking sites, but frankly I don’t see the benefit. Barnes & Noble isn’t as diligent in updating their sales rank, making the final results (estimating sales) difficult to make useful. They also don’t provide a convenient way to get at the data, and I just don’t think it benefits authors enough to warrant putting it above other features I’d like to add. I’d actually like to add back in the ability to track Kindle Edition books, since these are really huge sellers now, but Amazon removed the ability to get their information through the API (how I get the data), thus making it much harder for me get the hourly rankings. I want to resolve this, because it’s a market that is only growing each year.

ML: Sleep. I worked really hard for a few months to get it where it is now, and currently I’d give it a 7 on its usefulness for as many authors as possible. It can be better, and I want to get there, but I have to make time for it between my full-time job and the articles I post to the NovelRank blog that I think add some fresh information for authors. I really want to build an iPhone application that will make your phone ‘cha-ching’ whenever a sale is made; that idea alone motivated me a lot, and I don’t even have an iPhone. That will be late 2010 I’m sure, though other features will arrive sooner, such as the previously mentioned user ‘accounts’.
The other issue is that I’m a bit over halfway through my next book, a work of fiction about a sentient man trapped in his zombie body. Trust me, it’s awesome. I’m trying to finish that, revise it 2 or 3 times with some help, then get it self-published and in the public eye. I’m intending to donate 50% of the proceeds of that book to Child’s Play Charity, and use the other half to take a handful of friends living around the country on a group trip that none of us would or could do alone. I’ll need a bit of luck and a ton of sales, but I’m hoping the book and marketing will be good enough. Till then, I want to tell as many authors as possible about NovelRank; It’s nothing without them.

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LKG-G: How did the idea come about to turn Minnie into a stage play?

AL: I’ve always been a fan of Steel Magnolias and had on hand the script I bought from Amazon, which I read from time to time. Then it hit me a couple months back that Minnie could be translated to a play like Steel Magnolias. They’re both about real life situations and real reactions, and people always like to be entertained by things they can relate to. I sometimes read the script aloud to myself and edit it that way, to make it as real-sounding as possible. It’s very exciting to see Minnie evolve the way it has been.

LKG-G: What were some of the challenges you faced with writing the play versus the manuscript?

AL: Since plays are mostly dialogue, I had to change a lot of the intrapersonal segments into outward dialogue and remove some of the characters. For example, in the book, Minnie has an angry, paranoid daughter named Marcia and she is softened by Sadey, but in the play, to keep it simple, Marcia is only talked of. Sadey’s toddler sister, Cora, is one of Sadey’s reasons for living in the book, but in the play, she is also only talked of. It was hard to eliminate the positions for actors, but I didn’t want a complicated script. I’m very tidy and linear in everything I do, so I wanted the play to be something I could look at and not wince. I was able to keep a lot of the back story, which the characters discuss (Minnie’s abusive marriage, Sadey’s unfit mother, Gabe’s hand in an abortion).

Note by LKG-G: I’m very sorry to hear that Marcia will not be a part of the stage play. When I first heard you were working on the stage play for Minnie, my mind immediately visualized the off-beat Marcia, and it would be a great part for a character actor.

LKG-G: As a script what do you see as the potential for Minnie?

AL: I see Minnie becoming fairly popular as a play, simply because it’s based on something believable. I’m not trying to sound conceited, but history shows that audiences like things that can sweep them away: Steel Magnolias of course, Titanic, The Sound of Music, Pride & Prejudice, and countless other plays like them. Once Minnie is on stage, I feel that it will slowly but surely gain popularity like it did when it was first published.

LKG-G: When do you anticipate Minnie to be in production?

AL: That’s the funny part. Right now I’m in the middle of turning Minnie into a play for a scriptwriting contest that Loves Street Playhouse is having and I feel that it will be my turn to do something great and to see my characters that I’ve known for a few years to finally take tangible breaths and to live out what has been a vision for so long. As for a timeline, if my script wins the contest, Loves Street Playhouse will have the rights to my script for the 2009-2011 seasons and will be produced once or several times. Worst case scenario, if I do not win the contest, I want to put on my own production of Minnie with friends and community members and work my way up from there!

Thanks to author Ashley Lane for sharing her next steps with Minnie with us.

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Concerning the interview, if you read it you’ll learn of some changes we are making here at LLBR.  But again, if you are reading this post then you are probably already aware of them.  We are indeed adding more publishers to our review list in an attempt to help even more authors out there who are searching for the spotlight.  As we approach June 1st, our official launch date of the new site, you’ll also see some changes to our review policy and to the reviews themselves in an attempt to improve our services for authors and readers.

Read the full interview and visit Publetariat here!

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1. Tell us a little about Theo-Saurus. How did you come up with the name? What inspired this idea?

Several years ago, as a gift for my cousin’s two little boys, I wrote and illustrated a book for each child. Their books were hand written and actual water color and coloring pencil art work. I am not sure what inspired me at the time but I loved being able to give them their very own book featuring them in the written story and art work. From there I started making other books as gifts for the various people in my life. I learned how to use various computer programs and improved my binding skills. This seemed to be a project that stayed with me and the more I enjoyed giving the gift, the more I learned about how to make a better book.

It was shortly after the birth of my daughter that I had the idea to try and make a business that produced custom children’s books. My husband, who is in the marketing field, was able to share his extensive knowledge on getting a product launched. He informed me that branding is important and the first step is the name.

I was looking for a name that would capture the desire to make products that defined the owner’s character. I searched my creative mind. I tried references to favorite childhood items. I was trying to find that perfect simple name that would be cute, childish but sophisticated. It seemed like I spent months of doing research on my laptop. Many evening were spent cuddled up on my couch, googling away on my computer. One evening, my husband leaned over while I was viewing an online thesaurus, looking up words like personalized or individual and he simple said “hmm, what about Theo Saurus. This is why I love him (and the name).

2. Who came up with the idea for your first book?

For my first product, I wanted a way to tell any child that received the book that each unique quality about them is wonderful. I wanted to be able to list the special things that made them exactly who they are. It occurred to me that a recipe is just that, a listing of specific things that make up our favorite food, an exciting product or an idea. A recipe for soup kept coming to mind but a cake seemed much more fun. So from there, two brothers appeared…

3. Tell us about Your Special Recipeep?

The vision behind Your Special Recipeep is to have a book that mom and dad don’t mind reading over and over again. And that a child who was given the gift at age 4 will pick it up at age 12 and have the same warm feeling that comes with someone tell you that think you are special. With a fun rhythm and colorful language we put together a storybook style setting with a whimsical message tailored for each child. We wanted our characters to be fun and slightly odd (as we see ourselves.)

4. Who writes the story? Who draws the illustrations?

I write the stories. I usually shape the concept that I want and then pass them on to my husband to edit and tell me what is lacking or needs to be developed. He is a brave man. My brother-in-law, Jay Herde, took a special liking to the characters of Your Special Recipeep and added a lot of wonderful touches to the writing. The illustrations for Your Special Recipeep were done by Jay, who is an incredibly talented artist and a big kid at heart.

5. Are you currently working on another book that can also be specialized? If so, can you tell us about it?

Our current project is customized coloring books for a child’s birthday party. And our next book will be another personalized book for children that are expecting a new addition to their family soon. I am writing and illustrating it myself. Since I have had a second child I am able to pull from personal experience but, as you might expect, am also slowed down just a little bit.

6. How many more books to you plan to offer?

We have two more books in the works after the coloring books. It seems that we are always coming up with ideas for other projects. In the future we hope to collaborate with other writers and continue to grow the Theo-Saurus collection.

7. How has your experience working with Lulu been so far?

We have enjoyed working with Lulu and have been impressed with the quality of the finished product. The customer service has been wonderful with any questions or concerns that we have had. Around the busy holiday season we had a printing issue with an order and they were right on top of getting out a corrected book.

8. How long does it take for a customer to receive their book after ordering through your website? Tell us what specifications you have to receive from the customer to create their book.

With the help of Lulu we are meeting a 4 to 6 week window for someone to have the book in their hands. Our website allows us to capture the child’s name, any dedication that is requested in the front of the book, and then an attribute for each letter of the name. The positive attributes are listed on the website and they are used to create the “recipeep” for the child. Our customers have had a lot of fun using the words to describe their son, daughter, grandchild, friend, niece or nephew.

9. What process do you go through to specialize the book once an order is placed?

Once we receive the order, we change the text on the first page for the dedication. The child’s name is then added to the story. Finally, we change the art work for each letter of the child’s name. So for a name like Kim, she will have three full-color pages for each letter of her name and the corresponding attribute is incorporated into the art work. We are capable of names up to 10 characters and welcome specific orders if more letters are needed.

10. What’s next for you and for Theo-Saurus?

We are enjoying completing our current products and meeting lots of wonderful people along the way. We are launching a new website soon and will be ready to offer the custom coloring books for birthday parties.

Theo-Saurus donates a portion of the proceeds to help find a cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). This is a strong motivating factor in making Theo-Saurus a successful business as I have watched my life long friend’s daughter, Chloe, live with SMA. Currently there is not a cure, but this 5 year old little girl is a tremendous inspiration in my life. It has always been a factor in planning for Theo-Saurus that we would donate a portion of our profits to help Chloe and other children with SMA. So on the immediate horizon for Theo-Saurus, is to be a successful business, that has wonderful books for children and can help financially in the search for a cure for SMA

Visit Theo-Saurus to learn more or to place an order today!

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1. First, tell us a little about who you are and how you became an artist.

I think that most professional artists will tell you that the talent that they have is inborn, and unless they fight their natural inclinations they end up doing what they were always meant to do. That’s the way it was with me, and, through additional schooling in high school and college, I fine-tuned my artistic abilities to the point where I could make a living by creating artwork professionally. I spent a long time in the field of advertising, but in the last 6 years I’ve gotten back to what I’ve always loved to do, and that’s illustrate children’s books. When I’m not illustrating, I enjoy spending my time with my wife and our two young children. My kids have been quite instrumental in a number of ways to whatever success that I’ve had illustrating children’s books. When they were younger I read children’s picture books to them every night before bed, which exposed me to the work of other illustrators. They’ve also acted as character models in some of the books that I’ve illustrated, and through day-to-day experience they allow me to see first hand into the mind of a child, which is the group that I’m creating children’s books for in the first place.

2. Tell us about the services you offer for authors.

I supply authors with illustrations for their children’s stories. These illustrations are created specifically for their story and are based not only upon the words in the story, but direct input from the author as to what the author had envisioned the illustrations to look like. The end result is that the author has illustrations for their story that are exactly what they had envisioned or, in the author’s own words, even better.

3. Do you have a one time service fee the author pays up front or do you expect to collect royalties over time? What does your fee entail?

All illustrations are created on a work-for-hire basis and are priced on a set price per illustration. Once all the illustrations have been completed and approved by the author, they are mailed to the author on CD. The author then takes this CD of illustrations and packages it along with their book manuscript and mails it to their chosen publisher. There is a section on my website that describes the different publishing methods available to the author so that they can choose the method that would work best for them.

4. How many books have you illustrated? Do you work on other projects as well or just books?

I’ve personally illustrated over 25 children’s books and have overseen the artwork production of over 80 additional children’s books by the illustrators that work for me. The complete list of all the books is on the “Children’s Books” page of my website, with all the books being created by self-publishing authors like your readers. Also, over the years I’ve illustrated for advertising campaigns/products that have required children’s book style illustrations.

5. Your website has an excellent sample page of the different styles of artwork you offer. Describe some of those to us and what types of books use the different styles.

There isn’t really a “type” of book that uses any particular style. The selection of an illustration style is usually based upon an author’s style preference for their story. Some authors prefer an airbrushed style, some prefer a charcoal style, some prefer a very simplified cartoon style, while others prefer a realistic style. In my opinion, I offer illustration styles to suit just about every author’s taste.

6. Although different stories have different needs for illustrations, is there a more favored selection of illustration type among those that you offer?

Most authors that I work with prefer a cartoon (for lack of a better word) style, that is why the majority of styles on my website are in that vein.

7. How many illustrators work with you?

Currently, I have 16 wonderful illustrators that I work with. Being an illustrator myself (I’m style #9 on my website) allows me to be the perfect liaison between authors and my illustrators. I understand the “language” that both sides speak.

8. What is the best selling children’s book that has been illustrated by MikeMotz.com? Do you have a favorite book, or series of books that have been illustrated?

I don’t keep track of sales numbers for books unless an author decides to send me those numbers. As someone that works-for-hire those sales numbers don’t really effect me, and let’s not forget that while most people that I speak to believe that a book’s illustrations is the most important factor in the success of a children’s book, that’s simply not true. The book illustrations are very important but no more so than the way a book is promoted. You can have a beautifully illustrated children’s book, but if it’s not properly promoted then no one will ever learn of it, which would result in poor sales for the book. Since there might be a client or two of mine reading this interview, I’d have to say that my personal favorite of the books that I’ve illustrated is the one that I just finished as a gift for my daughter’s tenth birthday, in which she stars as Alice in Wonderland.

9. Do you offer layout advice for the placement of the words for the print ready artwork?

A big part of creating an illustration is designing where the text will be placed either in or around an illustration. For instance, if the author would like to have one or more full-bleed double page spreads (one illustration that “spreads” across two facing pages of the book right to the very edge of the page) in their book then the text has to fall on top of the illustration, which now makes it a very important element in the design of that illustration. In these situations I supply direction to the individual that is creating the print-ready artwork to let them know where to place the text.

10. Any tips or suggestions for authors who might be considering you for an upcoming project?

Please read the “Publishing Methods” and “Project Steps” sections of my website (www.mikemotz.com). The Publishing Methods section has been written in simple layperson’s terms explaining the publishing methods that are available to the self-publishing author. The Project Steps section describes the step-by-step process of how the illustrations are created for your book. Most of my clients are first-time authors, so I have a lot of experience answering questions, but the more questions that I can have answered on my website the better. Authors that contact me after reviewing the information on my website find that they are less intimidated because they have some education to the process of getting their book produced. In fact, once the illustrations for their book begin they quickly forget that they were ever intimidated at all because they’re having too much fun watching the illustrations come to life and seeing their dream become a reality.

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Read an E-Book Week

Wanna broaden your options though? Check out Smashwords!  It’s a new online bookstore specializing in Ebooks and offering readers 9 different formats to download their books.  The good news is that it’s free to authors and will pay you up to 85% in royalties for each sale. To learn more, we recently interviewed Smashwords CEO Mark Coker:

1. Tell us a little about Smashwords. What is it? When and how did it get started? And how does it help authors?

Smashwords is a free digital publishing platform and online bookstore for self-published authors and their readers. Authors upload their finished manuscripts as a Microsoft Word .doc file and then we instantly convert it into nine DRM-free ebook formats, ready for immediate sale online. The author sets the price, retains all rights to the book, and receives up to 85 percent of the net sales proceeds.

I came up with the idea for Smashwords a few years ago after own unsuccessful, multi-year attempt to find a publisher for Boob Tube, a novel my wife and I co-wrote. The book explores the dark side of Hollywood celebrity from the viewpoint of characters on a fictional daytime television soap opera. Even though we were represented by one of the top New York City literary agencies, our agent was unable to sell the book. Publishers told us they didn’t believe the market was large enough for the book – they questioned whether soap opera fans read books.

It struck me as wrong that a publisher could serve as the ultimate arbiter and censor of what was worthy and what was not, and effectively deny an author a chance to connect with their audience. I thought about the hundreds of thousands and millions of authors around the world who probably have rejected manuscripts tucked away in dresser drawers and attics, and I pondered the travesty of these authors’ works never seeing the light of day.

So I came up with the idea for Smashwords, a new online publisher that gives independent authors the freedom to publish, promote and sell their books online. My goal is to unleash a torrent of creative talent upon the world that heretofore was dammed up behind an archaic publishing industry.

Smashwords puts the authors in control of what’s published, and puts the readers in control to determine what’s worth reading.

We launched the service in May, 2008 and have been growing steadily since then.

2. Tell us about Read an E-Book Week.

RAEW is an international week-long celebration of ebooks. The event is designed to help educate readers, educators, literacy advocates and media about the joys of reading ebooks. The non-profit event is organized by Rita Toews, a Canadian author and ebook advocate. During the week-long event, participating authors and publishers will make some of their ebooks available for free, or at deep discounts.

3. Tell us about Wordclay and your partnership. If authors publish with Smashwords, do they have to publish with Wordclay as well?

Wordclay is the do-it-yourself print on demand publishing service arm of Author Solutions, one of the largest self-publishing service providers. Although we’re huge advocates for ebooks, we also recognize that ebook sales today represent less than one percent of the overall market for book sales. This means if authors want to serve their readers, they need to publish in both print and ebook formats. Through our relationship with Wordclay, authors can publish in print with Wordclay and then promote their print book alongside their ebook on Smashwords. Our authors are under no obligation to publish with Wordclay. They’re welcome to use any print publishing service they desire.

4. How many publications do you currently have on Smashwords? What types of genres?

We currently publish about 750 books from 360 authors. I should note that I’m using the “book” label loosely, because some of these ebooks are short stories or even single poems, and some are 200,000 + word novels. Most are full length novels. Virtually every genre is represented. Fiction is most popular, though we have a lot of non-fiction and poetry as well

5. What are readers downloading the most?

In the fiction category, romance, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, paranormal, action/adventure and erotica are all popular. In non-fiction, self-help, spiritual/self discovery, religion and personal memoirs are popular. Given that we still publish a relatively small number of authors and titles, it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions of what sells best. Our best-seller lists shift constantly, usually driven by authors who are doing the most innovative self-marketing.

6. What other services do you offer authors?

When an author publishes with us, we put them in complete control of their publishing, promotion and sales, and we provide a range of free tools to help support their effort. I wrote a free ebook, The Smashwords Guide to Book Marketing, that provides authors a good overview of what we do for them, and what they can do for themselves.

What we do for them: We offer distribution on Stanza (the most popular e-reading app on the iPhone and iPod Touch – downloaded by over 1.3 million people), author pages with bios, headshots and lists of works; the industry’s broadest range of sampling options (authors determine what percentage of the book is available as a free sample); embedded YouTube videos for video book trailers and virtual author events; reviews from readers; ebook downloads in multiple ebook formats; a coupon code generator for custom promotions; and more tools in the works. For example, in the weeks ahead, we’ll launch an affiliate program that gives third party websites, blogs and online bookstores incentive to promote our authors’ books.

The coupon generator is especially exciting. In the last few weeks, I’ve seen several Smashwords authors use coupons as a tool to build excitement for their books in message forums, online social networks, websites and personal blogs.

7. What are the different formats an E-book can be downloaded in from Smashwords? Who sets the list price? How much royalty does the author earn from each sale?

The author sets the price and retains 85% of the net sales proceeds. Net = (sales price – PayPal fee) * 85. After we launch the affiliate program, the net to author will drop a little, for affiliate sales only, so that affiliates can earn a cut.

We currently convert the books into nine DRM-free ebook formats, readable on any e-reading device. These formats include .EPUB, .LRF, .PDF, .TXT (two forms), .RTF, online HTML, online Javascript, and .MOBI. Novels, and other straight form narrative works best on Smashwords. Books that contain overly complex formatting and page layout, or that contain lots of images, are more challenging for us to work with (obviously, you can’t convert and image into a .TXT file). We wrote The Smashwords Style Guide to help authors simplify their formatting and prepare their books for digital publishing.

8. What are some of the advantages of E-publishing for readers and for authors?

For readers, the advantage is having a broad selection of quality, low cost and free books that are easily sampled prior to purchase, and easy to read on a wide variety of devices. Readers have a chance to discover new voices in fiction and non-fiction.

For authors, and e-publishing tool such as Smashwords means authors can now publish a new book in seconds as opposed to years, and they can make their books available at low cost to readers around the world.

Dan Poynter, the godfather of self-publishing and a vocal advocate for authors, recently published his new Self Publishing Manual Volume 2 on Smashwords, and he published it on Smashwords first. I did a Q&A interview with Dan on the Smashwords blog in which he had some choice words about the traditional book publishing industry, and the future of ebooks. He said the large New York publishers haven’t appreciably changed their business practices since 1947, and he predicted brick-and-mortar store sales would continue to decrease and authors will see smaller advances from the traditional publishers. In contrast, he said ebook sales are rising and with new tools such as Smashwords he could publish at the speed of light.

Another advantage of ebook publishing is that authors can price their books low but earn a much larger per-book royalty than they would if they were publishing in print. The author of a mass market paperback, for example, makes about 5 percent royalty on a $6.95 paperback from a commercial publisher, or about $.35. The same book published on Smashwords would earn the author $5.48, or about 15 times more. The author could price the same book on Smashwords for only $3.00 and make $2.22 per copy, still six times more than they would with a traditionally published mass market paperback. As everyone knows, when you lower the cost of a product, you expand the potential audience for that product. It’s a virtuous cycle, and it’s a win win for authors and their readers.

9. How quickly do you think the E-book trend will grow over the next few years? What factors will determine its success?

I think within five years ebooks will account for 10 percent of all book sales, and I think my estimate is conservative. Some industry watchers predict we’ll hit that number in the next two years. Amazon just announced earlier this month that of the books they sell in both ebook form and print form, ebook sales already account for 10% of revenues. This is huge. It means the faster authors and publishers get their books in ebook form, the faster this market will grow because readers are hungry for ebooks.

Book selling has always been about word of mouth. If readers love your book, they talk it up to their friends and the book starts selling. In the online realm, word of mouth can go viral in a matter of seconds, whereas in the past such virality was more constrained. Today, if someone on Twitter with 25,000 followers tweets that they love such and such book over at Smashwords, within minutes thousands of people can learn about a new book.

At Smashwords, we have a distribution deal with Lexcycle, the makers of the Stanza ebook reading app. Within seconds of publishing a novel on Smashwords, our authors and their books appear instantly within the Smashwords store in the native online catalog of Stanza. Before today, indie authors didn’t have such great publicity, promotion and selling opportunities. Physical bookstore shelves are being replaced by digital shelves.

10. Any advice for indie authors considering E-publishing?

The best advice I can offer is that indie authors need to jump in now with both feet. We’re at the early stage with ebooks today that bloggers were just 10 years ago. Authors who start experimenting with digital publishing today are the authors who will be most successful in the next few years as ebooks go mainstream.

I would also advise authors to remain realistic about sales opportunities. As we caution all over the Smashwords web site, authors should not expect to sell a lot of ebooks, at least in the short term. This is because the ebook market is still in its infancy, and in the case of Smashwords, we’re still at an embryonic stage in our development compared to the plans we have for the future. The authors who sell the most books on Smashwords are those who are deliberate about their own online marketing. They’re on Twitter, Facebook, they maintain fan email mailing lists and newsletters, they blog and they have web sites.

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We’ve got lots in store this month and the interview was a great way to kick off our one year anniversary.  Looking back, I never imagined we’d review over 60 books the first year and receive over 20,000 hits by now.  I also never expected to have three wonderful Lulu authors join me in making this happen.  This blog never would be as successful without them, so a huge amount of gratitude goes out to LK, Dan, and Julie.

This month the reviewers have worked hard to bring you over 8 reviews.  That’s twice our usual average, plus we have two interviews in store: one with Smashwords CEO Mark Coker and the other with children’s book illustrator Mike Motz.

We’ve also just joined the Twittering nation.  You can follow us at @LLBR.  We’re using Twitter mainly to answer your questions quicker, provide quick blog updates, and to share other information and links you might find informative and interesting.

So follow us…. it’s going to be a great month!

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I had the pleasure of reading Robert Toonkel’s book, Chappaqua, in August as part of our Back to School focus.  Just yesterday, I noticed Robert’s book had gone live on Amazon since the review.  I decided to cross post our review to his Amazon page and also noticed the book had a new cover.

I was so impressed by it I decided to email Robert to let him know about the review and to congratulate him on the new cover.  Robert quickly replied to let me know what’s happened to Chappaqua since it was reviewed here at LLBR.  His news immediately put a smile on my face and is a quick reminder of what POD and this blog is all about.  I’d like to share Robert’s email with you now…

Shannon:

I keep meaning to e-mail you to update you and other Lulu Book Review readers on where Chappaqua has gone since you so kindly reviewed it. I’m not sure how you find the time to do your regular job, publicize Stealing Wishes, write, and review all those books. I can barely find the hours to handle the first two of those.

There have been so many times where I’ve just wanted to put Chappaqua away with the publisher rejection letters it received, but as I know you felt with your book, I couldn’t let go of the time and effort I had put into it. So I’ve been self-promoting like crazy, borrowing some ideas from your blog (Thanks!), adding some of my own. I don’t know where Katie Fitzpatrick is going to go from this point, but regardless, I can say that I’ve basically done everything I could for her.

Just some of the things I’ve done – you’ve done a bunch of these – but in that case, I just want to reiterate how helpful they are:

Lulu – Sure, Lulu doesn’t have the reach of Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but it isn’t a dead end either. Chappaqua went from the 30,000th best selling book in September to the top 3,000th in December, placing in the top 100 one week. I’m not going to get rich off the royalties, but people are buying it. And more than a dozen people (more than half of them unknown to me) were kind enough to write reviews.
Cover – You have a brilliant idea with helping to design covers. I paid a college girl $200 to design Chappaqua’s current cover and it says so much more than the quick one I did “just to put a cover on it.” No one has to pay a “professional designer” thousands of dollars to make a cover. But a small investment will go a very, very long way.
Amazon Kindle – I haven’t sold a single copy in the ten days it has been on the site, but having it out there offers potential (and also makes it more legitimate). Telling someone your book is on Amazon is instant recognition.
Facebook – In August, I gave Chappaqua a Facebook page – which has gathered more than 100 fans and 2,000 views. A great way to keep people in the loop about the latest developments, and also to publicize events and happenings.
A “Trailer” – Not as hard as it seems. Download Google’s “Picasa 3,” arrange a series of photos with text, put it to music and put it up on the web. It can be done in under two hours, even by someone as design-impaired as me. It’s on the Facebook page. Several hundred people have viewed it.
A “Baby Book” – Photos of Chappaqua’s development from the original idea to the current edition. Posted as an album on Facebook. People love to see the nuts and bolts behind the finished product, and understand that a book, like Rome, wasn’t built in a day.
A Website – I bought a domain for less than $10 a year, use a simple web-building tool, and gave Chappaqua a website (www.chappaquanovel.com). Everything you need to know about the book, with a sample, pictures, reviews (including a link back to you), and thanks to PayPal, an easy way for people to order the book directly. I set it all up in less than a day. More legitimacy.
Publicity – I’ve used a printing company for Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards in the past, so I turned to them to make postcards, bookmarks and small (11×17) posters for Chappaqua. They turned out to be very valuable for…
Local Bookstores – I went to the local bookstore in Chappaqua and offered them a chance to be the only storefront to carry the book. I told them I would put their name on the postcards and bookmarks. They grudgingly agreed to take 5 copies on consignment for 60 days. Those sold in 59 days. They asked for 5 more. Those sold in 6 days. They asked for 13 more. Those sold out in a weekend. They have the postcards and bookmarks at the checkout counter and people become interested. Recently, they expanded the “few books on a shelf” into a complete display. (A side note: I had offered the book to a second local bookstore and was told that they did not accept POD books under any circumstances. Three months later, they called me to ask for a dozen books because people kept coming in and asking for it to the point that they had created a waiting list).
Libraries – My local library scheduled a book talk about Chappaqua for 19 December. Unfortunately, New York was hit with a massive snowstorm that day, so it was postponed until 19 March. According to the program director at the library, a few members of the media had called to make arrangements. The library is another place where I left postcards and bookmarks.
“A Press Kit” – Bio, press release and one-pager on the book. As a communications person by trade, I can vouch for the importance of this.
A Unique Angle – It goes without saying that you have to explain what makes your book different/special than anything out there. I’ve come up with a unique way of talking about Chappaqua to people who don’t read books or who lie well beyond my target audience. When my fourth grade teacher invited me to speak to her class, I brought up some of the facts from this section of the Chappaqua page (http://mysite.verizon.net/res11mw5h/id71.html) to their attention. They might not be interested in the subject, but they’re always amazed that I know how many times I used certain words, which leads to creative exercises like trying to write a paragraph without using “the” or avoiding words that begin with “s.” Then they go home and tell their parents about this interesting lesson they had. It also gives adults an interesting fact to remember. In the long run it might be worthless, but I think it’s fun.

That’s where Chappaqua stands as of now. Who knows what will happen in 2009?

Thanks again for your e-mail, your review and all your efforts to promote books such as Chappaqua. I hope 2009 brings you all kinds of good things for Stealing Wishes and for the new novel that you’ve been mentioning from time to time.

Rob

When I read the part about what happened in the bookstores, a smile came across my face!  It just goes to show what word of mouth can do for your book right in your own community.  Congratulations to Rob on his success!

Visit Chappaqua on the web!

Become a fan of Chappaqua on Facebook!

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