Tanya Lisle

    1. So, here’s what I’m doing
    2. File preparation
    3. Publishing as a Canadian
    4. Some things to prepare
    5. Distribution: Createspace
    6. Distribution: Amazon
    7. Distribution: Direct Distribution
    8. Distribution: Smashwords
    9. Distribution: Draft2Digital
    10. Distribution: PublishDrive
    11. Marketing: The Numbers, Social Media, and Mailing Lists
    12. Marketing: Paid Services and Free Stuff
    13. Marketing: Getting Reviews

    So in order to get this stuff all online, you’re going to need to get your files ready. I am at this point assuming that you have finished writing and done all of the editing passes until you are happy with the final result. Once you are, then it’s time to format the files.

    Documents

    First of all, you’re going to want to read this the Smashwords guide on this. It is invaluable, even if it is long. It’s also the most restrictive and, honestly, only Smashwords is quite this strict on their formatting guidelines, so keep that in mind. 

    I tend to work out of .doc files. ((Multiple, but we’ll get into that with distribution)) They are the easiest to manage and edit later, plus most places will take them and do your conversions for you. ((Looking at you PublishDrive. We’ll get to you.)) Since I don’t do a lot of custom formatting, it’s the easiest for me to work with.

    And now for actually doing it. Since I write in Google Docs, I copy and paste all of my text into Word. From there, I open up the styles panel and then start murdering any style that isn’t Normal, Italic, Link, Center, Heading 1, or Heading 2. You can do this by selecting one of those custom styles ((Mine are always called Body Text something something something)), and clicking on the little arrow to the right of it. There’s a Select All option to click. Once it’s all highlighted, you can then click on any of the other styles ((Usually Normal)) and it will change all of the styles at once.

    A word of warning about this method, since I write a lot of books with telepathy. This doesn’t always preserve the italics and other formatting. So be careful.

    Once you’ve limited the styles used in the text down to just those few styles, then you’re usually good to go. Although, there’s one more thing for me.

    Front and Back Matter

    I have two specific things I always add.

    The first is a title page. It just has the name of the book, sometimes the name of the series, my name, the name of my imprint ((Scrap Paper Entertainment)) and the year of publication.

    The second is a page with a small bio on me, and a list of links on how to get in touch, including Twitter, Facebook, and the Mailing List. No one, to my knowledge, has ever clicked on them, but I’m in the habit of this now.

    Another common thing to add is a table of contents. I don’t personally recommend this in most cases, because the file will have an internal table of contents that will be more useful to your reader than the one at the front of the book.

    Calibre and ePub

    Now, every once in a while, you will need an ePub version. Of all the types, ePub will be the most versatile. Everything takes it, ((Some will only take it)) and this is the format it will be converted to ((Except Amazon)) so it’s handy to have.

    If you don’t already have it, get Calibre. If you have formatted your book as per the above, it will convert those docs really nicely into any ebook format you want. It will also allow you to edit the files directly, but you’ll need to know some basic HTML ((And have a working knowledge of email HTML because it’s pretty similar with how much of a pain it is)) in order to make it work.

    Personally, I only use this for very specific instances, but we will get into those more a bit later.

    Covers

    I’m hoping you already have your cover done. You’ll want it in .jpg, since that’s what’s actually going to upload to all outlets.

    For most, you will want a .jpg file of about 1563 x 2500 pixels for the cover. It changes by outlet, but 100% of places will at least accept a file of this size without any issue, though one I’ll be talking about will ask for larger.

    1. So, here’s what I’m doing
    2. File preparation
    3. Publishing as a Canadian
    4. Some things to prepare
    5. Distribution: Createspace
    6. Distribution: Amazon
    7. Distribution: Direct Distribution
    8. Distribution: Smashwords
    9. Distribution: Draft2Digital
    10. Distribution: PublishDrive
    11. Marketing: The Numbers, Social Media, and Mailing Lists
    12. Marketing: Paid Services and Free Stuff
    13. Marketing: Getting Reviews

    NaNoWriMo is over and I now have two more drafts! But now that the month is done, it’s time for me to start getting Hero Complex ready for publication, and working out just what I’ll be doing for next year. ((Probably the White Noise sequels and another Wonderland book)) However, there have been a few people from the Vancouver region who have been curious about self publishing and were asking how they were to go about doing it.

    Self publishing is my jam, so I have been having a few conversations about what my process is and the specifics of what I’m doing. And now I am going to go through it all over the next few weeks with you.

    I’m not going to be going through things like how to write or edit your book. Those are very different processes that vary wildly between people, so I am not the one to go to in order to figure out what’s best for you. This series is just going to be how I personally go through the process of formatting and publishing my novels. But first, a small preamble to get us started.

    Why am I doing self publishing?

    People have a lot of different reasons for getting into it, so I can only speak for why I’m doing it. I ended up getting very quickly disillusioned with traditional publishing after going to a writer’s convention and actually talking to industry professionals and other authors. My assumptions about what I could get published were cast aside and my belief that interesting ideas would win out were largely proven to be untrue and that marketability and the ability to sell were much more important.

    I was very idealistic back then. Very.

    Worse, after talking to a lot of other people who actually had books published, I found that some of these people were having to start from scratch to get their next books published, back t the conference to pitch to agents fresh despite already having a book published. Some were looking to expand into other genres, some had their books go out of print and were unable to get their rights back, and none of this was something I wanted to hear at the time.

    And the final nail in the coffin for me, the main reason I wanted to go the traditional publishing route, was finding out that many of these smaller authors had to do their own marketing. As some of you may already be aware, I am absolute garbage at marketing.

    In the end, I figured that I might as well just start publishing them myself. At least that way I could publish whatever I wanted on my own schedule, and I wouldn’t have to re-pitch every time I had a new project that targeted a slightly different demographic. I also wouldn’t have to rebrand myself every time I wanted to expand into new genres.

    It’s a much more time-consuming route, to be sure, and takes up a lot more resources. I need to come up with my own cover art, need to find my own editor, and still have to do my own marketing, but in the end it’s been rewarding on its own. Even if only now, five years later, I’m only really starting to hammer down a process.

    So, if you want to know what my process for getting a book published is, stay tuned. First up is file preparation.

  • Thank you to everyone who voted in the novel poll this year! The race was close this year, but the victory by a single vote goes to Genetically Impaired!

    And while I have you, City Without Heroes is out now!

    Whitten was just what Indira hoped for. It was a city that had banned heroes and villains, which meant no more rebuilding her home after a disaster, no more texts from her mother about how her father had been kidnapped, and no more worrying that she might be forced to become a hero herself one day.

    Indira soon finds out that the city holds a dangerous secret. Keeping superheroes and supervillains out of the city comes at a cost and, if she isn’t careful, she may disappear with the others.

    Check it out!

  • It’s that time again, folks! As every year, I’m running a poll to decide what book I’m going to be writing for NaNoWriMo this year. I ended up writing a couple of the options for last year over the course of 2017, so there’s a few new options for this year to check out.

    You may choose up to two book options. Poll closes midnight on October 24th, so get voting!

    Looking Glass Saga: Beauty Sleep
    With the end of middle school approaching, Alice is getting ready to deal with her bet with the Bandersnatch. She’s done everything she can, but when her roommate, Adrianna, falls into a deep sleep and no one can wake her up, Alice has to put the bet aside. She hopes the answer to waking her up lies somewhere in Wonderland, but time is running out and if she doesn’t find it Adrianna may never wake up.

    Cloned Evil: First Steps
    Fredrika and Beatrice know their mother is in prison and they need to get her out, but Auntie Jezebel insists that they are too young. They haven’t even been alive a year yet, and there is still too much they have to learn. If they are very good and finish all their studies, however, she might let them join her in the breakout. Unfortunately, Auntie Jezebel is hearing nothing but trouble from the one daycare she could find that would take them.

    Thornbrooke 
    It seemed like perfect timing. Bree was accepted into an accelerated program to accomplish her dreams of becoming a doctor, and her mother took a long standing offer to relocate to Iverson. Though they are both hoping for the best, the city is a hotspot for superhero activity, and it’s very hard not to get caught up in it all. Making it even harder for Bree is the parting gift from her friends: A secret identity of her own.

    Genetically Impaired
    They were looking for a test subject. It was fortunate that one drove right in and died on their floor. Seeing this as an opportunity, they took it upon themselves to see if they could reanimate the corpse. The young man didn’t have a name, so they called him Damon and decided to keep him, whether he wanted to stay or not. After all, they had many more things they wanted to try with their newly reanimated cadaver.

    NaNoWriMo 2017

    • Genetically Impaired (31%, 26 Votes)
    • Thornbrooke (30%, 25 Votes)
    • Looking Glass Saga: Beauty Sleep (25%, 21 Votes)
    • Cloned Evil: First Steps (14%, 12 Votes)

    Total Voters: 66

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  • Apparently a lot of people in my own region don’t even know this story, so it’s time to gather round to answer one of the questions of NaNoWriMo. What is with Timmy and those fridges?

    The short version: It’s my fault.

    For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo has many avenues to connect with people during the month, and one of those is via the IRC Chat rooms. In these chat rooms, there is a bot named Timmy ((His full name is There Are Some Who Call Me Tim, if I’m remembering right)) and the bot was originally created right here in the Vancouver region by a user who… I don’t know if they want to be named. ((If you’re reading this, let me know))

    I believe the year was 2012, and I wanted to be ambitious and decided that writing two books in a month was a good idea. I may have gone a touch loopy. It all started at a New West write in about mid-month during a lot of people’s two week slumps. I was just starting book number two and someone was having problems with their book, and I, being the helpful genius that I am, asked if they had tried throwing a fridge at it. This suggestion went over very well and we all ran with it. But I wasn’t done with it.

    Two things you should know about me: I am very annoying when I get an idea in my head and I don’t know how to let a joke die. Ever.

    This advice continued for the month, to the point where it is now if one of my own books as a recurring plot point throughout the series. ((Different coloured fridges and everything. That’s how you know if a fridge is ripe!)) For the month ((What was left of it)) it was sort of an in joke within Vancouver, and it was added to Timmy so we could continue to throw fridges at each other.

    And that is how I ended up making my mark on NaNoWriMo. You’re welcome.

  • Thank you everyone for voting! It looks like we have a book for the year to write, and that book is…

    I've been playing around with the cover a little. Let me know what you think!
    I’ve been playing around with the cover a little. Let me know what you think!

    Arcleo! It’s been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with the story. Stay tuned for some excerpts.

    But we’re not done yet, because I also have to mention that I have a book out today as well! I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for it ((Because I’m just that good at marketing and scheduling…)) and now the fourth part of the Looking Glass Saga is finally out!

    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00002]

    Looking Glass Saga: Wandering Hearts

    After an unsettling Christmas with Adrianna’s family, Alice returns to school and a much more normal problem than she’d ever had to deal with before. Adrianna likes a boy and needs a date for his friend if she wants to spend more time with him. Alice agrees, but soon finds she’s not ready for what that means.

    The other side of the mirror and searching for Adrianna’s brothers becomes an escape from the life she’d dreamed of, even as she gains a new shadow while exploring Wonderland. She gains a shadow in a boy named Peter who has taken an interest in her and the things she can do. He is definitely not from around here and learns that where Wonderland ends, another world begins.

    Check it out now on Amazon!

    And now I’m going to go drown in Facebook notifications…

  • It’s getting close to NaNoWriMo ((National Novel Writing Month)) again, which means it’s time to make the internet choose my novel once more! This is my eleventh year participating ((Is it actually eleven? That seems like a ridiculously long time…)) and another year where I cannot decide for myself what to write, so I’m leaving it up to everyone else. Because there’s only four options, you can pick your favourite two.

    Looking Glass Saga: Beauty Sleep (Book 6)
    With the end of Middle School approaching, Alice is getting ready to deal with her bet with the Bandersnatch. She’s done everything she can, but when her roommate, Adrianna, falls into a deep sleep and no one can wake her up, Alice has to put the bet aside. She hopes the answer to waking her up lies somewhere in Wonderland, but time is running out and if she doesn’t find it, Adrianna may never wake up.
    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]Arcleo
    Mirabella knows she is a princess. She knows because she doesn’t want to be an innkeeper’s daughter. When a group of people come through the inn looking for the real princess of a conquered kingdom, Mirabella sneaks out to join them on their quest to fulfill the prophesy to retake the kingdom. The journey isn’t quite what she had hoped, full of danger and uncertainty, and she is not the only potential princess they’ve picked up in their travels.
    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000032_00032]Sky of Butterflies
    Deciding to try their luck on their own, Mateo and Serafina venture out of their orphanage and into the wide world outside, only to be swept up in a revolution. The robots have caught their world up in a tyrannical rule while the rich remain safe behind gilded gates. The kids, however, soon learn that the resistance is not all that it seems to be… and neither are they.
    Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00002]Static
    Roughly a year after the events of White Noise, Willow suddenly recovers from her vegetative state and takes Max with her, provoking H&R to try and deal with the situation. Harrison is not a fan of what that means and starts to learn just what H&R have been up to, the real reason of their research, and how far they will go to keep their research private. He still doesn’t know what Willow wants and still can’t quite remember what happened the last time he went into H&R.

    NaNoWriMo 2016

    • Arcleo (50%, 36 Votes)
    • Sky of Butterflies (19%, 14 Votes)
    • Static (17%, 12 Votes)
    • Beauty Sleep (14%, 10 Votes)

    Total Voters: 61

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    Poll closes on my birthday, October 25th. Happy voting!

  • Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors…and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize–one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for 72 hours!
    Green Team

    Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are NINE contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the GREEN TEAM–but there are also RED, BLUE, GOLD, ORANGE, TEAL, PURPLE, SILVER, and PINK teams for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

    If you’d like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

    SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

     
    Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the green team, and then add them up (don’t worry, you can use a calculator!).
     
    Entry Form: Once you’ve added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.
    Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian’s permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 3, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

    SCAVENGER HUNT POST

    I am hosting Lisa T. Cresswell for the YA Scavenger Hunt!

    Tanya Lisle
    Lisa T. Cresswell is an archaeologist by day, young adult writer by night. She has a healthy addiction to books, coffee, and drama-free zones.

    Find out more information by checking out her website or in the following places:

    Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

    Everyone’s heard of Blackbeard, right? The terrible pirate? Hollywood staple pirate character? But did you know that Blackbeard was a real person named Edward Teach? I remember as a kid thinking he was just a cartoon-ish character and being amazed to learn he was real. You can read all about him on Wikipedia.  Born in 1680, he only lived to be about 35 or 40 years old because he was finally captured and beheaded in 1718. Perhaps because it was so long ago, he’s become the stuff of legends? Even his flag is kinda creepy.

    The ghost of Blackbeard is the main baddie in my new novella The Color of Water. He was such delicious fun to write, re-imagined as a modern day biker. Here’s a sneak peek of my heroine, Samantha, unexpectedly seeing Blackbeard, aka Teach, on the streets of Beaufort ~

    The summer sun was still hot enough to make me sweat, but it was cooling down as the shadows got longer. The rain had left steamy puddles along the sidewalks, but the sky was clearing just like Matt said it would. Seeing nothing unusual at the Queen Ann’s, I kept walking, turning down an alley to avoid all the tourists on Front Street. That’s where I saw them – a man and a woman having a hella fight in the alley. My heart jumped up into my throat when I realized it was Harley man – Teach.

    I ducked behind a dumpster and tried to blend into the back of a building. It didn’t seem to matter to Teach and his lady friend because their screaming argument suddenly dissolved into a groping, kissing thing. I couldn’t stop staring at them. Teach’s beefy, tattooed arms wrapped the woman like an octopus’s tentacles, his fingers snaking through her God-awful, red-orange dye job. She didn’t seem to mind. She kissed him like she was starving and he was a steak dinner. After coming up for air, they stumbled back inside the building.

    I saw the door was printed with ‘No one under 21 admitted’ as I hurried past. If he was going to kill her, he would have done it right there, wouldn’t he? I resolved not to tell Matt about it, since he obviously didn’t want me anywhere near Teach. I didn’t want to risk making him mad again. I picked up my pace, running a few blocks so I wouldn’t be late.

    You can find The Color of Water in print and ebook on Amazon and Goodreads! Enjoy~

     

    And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by me, Lisa T. Cresswell, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 35. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the green team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

    CONTINUE THE HUNT

     
    To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Jessie Costin!

  • Since Legacy is coming out and I am very excited about it, I wanted to show off the cover a little. Because it is beautiful and it needs to be seen. And because it’s the last cover in the series, which means I won’t be getting any more of these!

    It’s bittersweet, is what I’m saying.

    legacy

    Not all magic is equal. Even hard work and determination is no match for skills passed on from generation to generation, each time being built upon and growing stronger. These old magic families have hoarded their secrets with every generation, using them to get ahead where they could – or leaving a mess for their progeny to deal with as soon as they have passed.

    Legacy delves into the people who have had the responsibility of generations passed down to them and how they use their family’s magic with the time they have left. This generation knows that eventually the End will eventually come for them and that they might not have much time to stop it. If they want to stop it at all.

    Pretty awesome, right? But, I’m nothing if not generous, so I won’t just be showing off the cover today. Here is a brief glimpse of all of the short stories that appear in the story as well:

    Foundations

    With the school nearly built, it’s time to start teaching the first students.

    Nostra

    John decides that just because his father is out of jail doesn’t mean he has to let his father revert business back to the way things were.

    As You Wish

    Breaking up is hard enough. When one person decides that the relationship isn’t going to end, sometimes it calls for drastic measures.

    Presently

    All of time keeps passing over Dawn in waves and she cannot quite figure out where or when she is anymore.

    Fair Warning

    Ciara knows that things are going to change, but she has no idea how much.

    Paperwork

    Thea knows that the Sibyl is working for the Syndicate now and she doesn’t like it. She likes going out to lunch with her even less.

    Teenage Exorcist

    Bree thought she was good at this whole dealing with ghosts thing. And then she moved to Vancouver.

    To Kill a Vampire

    At last, Victoria has found the man she must kill in order to be free of her curse.

    Mirror, Mirror

    Gabe finally heads home for a shower and some sleep to find his brother has commandeered his couch and brought their childhood nightmares with him.

    Absence of Answers

    Jason tried not to think too much about where he came from, but Dawn has the answers to everything he could ever ask. If he can just figure out the right questions.

     

    Don’t forget that there’s still a contest going to get this and the rest of the series for free! Enter now and you might get your hands on this before it’s released on April 4th!

    Twisted Eden Sector Giveaway

  • In honour of the last book in Tales from the Twisted Eden Sector coming out, I’m having a contest and I wanted to let you guys know first! I’ll be giving away all seven books in the series, including a signed paperback copy of Syndicate and the currently unreleased final book, Legacy.
    larger2

     

    Think of it as an easy way to get it a week early! Good luck to all who enter!


    Twisted Eden Sector Giveaway

    Contest closes March 25th.

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