Shannon Duffy – Author

Here’s a piece I wrote for another website, but thought I’d post it here, too:

My new book is set to release next month and it seems like it was ions ago that I sat down and started working on it. I remember running into the occasional “minor” writer’s block here and there. Then of course, there was the editing and editing and yes, more editing that took place between my publisher, my co-author and myself. Months of that. Now that the book comes out soon, it seems like all that was the calm before the storm. It’s all about getting the word out about the book and getting it into as many stores as possible; doing interviews – rinse and repeat. Everything has kicked into high gear. Most nights I’m not going to bed until 1AM and even then, my body is physically wiped out, but my brain won’t shut off and relax for a while longer. Then… like clockwork, back up at 5:30 AM – answer emails that came in throughout the night, then get the kids ready for school and work twice as hard as I did the day before.

When you break it down to what authors actually make per book sale… it’s quite literally pennies on the dollar – unless you are one of the lucky, chosen few, that go bigtime and land a huge publishing contract with one of the big New York houses. Those deals are out there, but they are few and far between. So, in the meantime, authors such as myself, with a publishing contract with a smaller publishing house must come up with random ways to both entertan and amuse myself in this world of book promotion while hopefully entertaining and amusing a kid or two along the way enough to make them want to read my new book. With that in mind, I came up with an idea to commission a recording artist and music producer to go into the studio and record a catchy, kid-friendly song that tells the basic story of my book. It’s a hip-hop beat with a little bit of rhyme, so be forewarned if that isn’t your cup of tea. However, if you’d like to humor me for a moment, feel free to watch the new (cough, cough) ‘world premiere’ of my latest book trailer in a post, below. I have others being released in the coming weeks.

A recent review, “A quirky support cast, a reluctant heroine and a spell caster who doesn’t know the consequences of his actions makes this a character driven charmer.” – Harriet Klausner, Alternative Worlds

So, I have to ask – for the other fellow authors out there, how involved were you with the actual promotion of your book(s)? Is that something you left up to the publisher to handle, or did you roll up your sleeves and dig right in?

Written By Shannon Duffy and John Zakour

Synopsis:

With a dash of wit here and there–and more than a splash of truth serum throughout–The Couples Guide to Pregnancy & Beyond (He Says, She Says) offers hip, gender-specific perspectives on the blessed event from both the male and female point of view.

Also included is a sprinkling of sage medical advice from Dr. Joanne Hessney who hosts the yearly 1000 Woman Baby Shower in Rochester, NY.

Due for release: Early 2012

My next book is due for release around this time next year and will be published by Blue Leaf Publications! It’s a non-fiction book tentatively titled, “The Couples Guide to Pregnancy & Beyond (He Says, She Says)” and is written by myself and the same co-writer (John Zakour) on my other book Stormy Knight with a sprinkling of real medical advice by Dr. Joanne Hessney. More details to follow in the coming months. As of right now, the release date is aimed between the February-April time-frame.

There is a new article making the rounds online that talks about the publishing business today. Actually, there are many articles making the rounds, but the one I’m referring to is over at The Huffington Post today. With so many outlets allowing authors to ‘independently publish’ their work, one can only wonder what the next plan of action from the big publishing houses will be. Most are now offering e-books to coincide with the traditional print release of titles, but one has to wonder if it’s arrogance or cluelessness on the part of the publishers for their reasoning in being so ‘behind with the times’ when it comes to author payment. Case in point – contracts aren’t changing. Authors are still only making a 10% cut from each print sale and slightly more than that for each e-book sale. Granted, the large publishing houses have mass overhead to tend to as well as salaries for their marketing team, the cost of printing and somewhere along the line – paying in some way for those relationships they have with booksellers to stock their products. However, e-books are a different monster. There is no major investment past the editing and marketing. E-books don’t take up warehouse storage space. They offer instant gratification for the consumer and they ‘can’ be priced much cheaper than a physical hard copy. This is where things get dicey. The author still isn’t seeing much of the profit. Publishers – at least the bigger publishers, are prancing around with a bigger portion of the pie at the end of the day because they have less money they are shelling out. The author on the other hand, is still doing the same amount of work – if not more, yet they aren’t seeing much of an increase in their royalty checks from the publishers.

Authors are becoming wiser and realizing that going the indie publishing route is looking more and more appealing. Authors can now take the bull by the proverbial horns and call the shots. They can and are setting their own prices. They are getting the e-books into consumer hands quickly – as opposed to waiting for 18+ months for their publisher to release the book. Authors are walking away with sometimes up to 70% of the profits now, compared to 30% or less being offered by the publishing houses.

Now, I’m not encouraging everyone to run out and publish their work as an e-book and skip the traditional publishing route. It does take a special type of person to independently publish. You have to be fully committed to marketing and public relations in general. You have to pound the pavement (or invest in highering a public relations firm to do this for you). I highly recommend that you have your manuscript professionally edited. I also recommend you hire someone to design a professional looking cover for your book. Even for an e-book? Yes! If you want to see sales, there is a level of investment that does need to go into your book. The upside is – the author is in control.

I have a book coming out in May that I went the traditional publisher route with. Why? Because I really liked the level of commitment my publisher has to promoting the titles they release. It’s a small publishing house, which offered me the opportunity to work closely with the publisher instead of feeling like I was just one lone fish in a giant pond of clients. It’s a YA fiction title – something that I also didn’t feel completely confident in promoting without a traditional publishing house behind me. I also have several other projects I am working on, and feel that if I were trying to spend so much time figuring out how to get the word out and promote this book on my own – then it’d be taking time away from my other projects. So, for me – going the traditional publishing route fit with my life for right now. Sure, someone else gets a portion of the pie from sales, but that’s okay in this situation because I feel that their expertise is well worth the money forfeited on my side of the table. They handled setting up the ISBN number, the formatting, the professional editing and preparing the media kit as well as all the printing and none of that cost me anything out of pocket! If I were to independently publish – I would already be in the red because all of that would have to be complete and paid for before the book would be for sale.

So, as you can see – there are positives and negatives to both sides of the coin. The list can go on and on for either point. It really just comes down to the author and their capabilities and what they feel is a pro verses a con. I do have another project that is a non-fiction piece that I am considering independently publishing because I feel very confident in my marketing skills for the topic. I also feel I now have momentum set forth to build upon after the YA fiction book comes out in May.

I have more to say on the topic of the independent author revolution, but will save it for another day. Right now, I have some book writing to tend to. I love writing when it’s raining!

Have you ever independently published a book in either digital or hardcopy form? If so, what was your experience like?

The box from my publisher just arrived with copies of Stormy Knight: Prom Queen of the Undead!

Dehanna, the publisher for Stormy Knight just sent over a few shots of the review copy. The release date is getting closer!

Stormy Knight is a little bit tomboy, so when it comes to her clothes, this would be a typical outfit I could see her wearing.

Stormy Knight by writelocation featuring

Here’s the synopsis for the forthcoming book Stormy Knight: Prom Queen of the Undead.

High school is never easy—homework, peer pressure, dating—and that is no exception for the students at Littleton High; especially one student in particular named Stormy Knight who’s a half vampire queen and half mortal being struggling to find her place in the human world.

Overall, Stormy thinks she’s doing a pretty decent job of fitting in, at least until the undead begin popping up around her school and her mom, Candi the Vampire Queen (who enjoys eating ghosts way too much), suddenly decides to start dropping into her life too.

With all of the chaos that ensues, Stormy soon realizes that it’s up to her and her friends, Marco and Corey, to figure out who’s bringing back the dead—but will Stormy, blessed with super-human powers, be able to decide between what’s morally right and what she’s willing to sacrifice soon enough to stop the ghosts before they take over the world?!

Here’s the cover of the Young Adult book I co-wrote with my writing buddy John Zakour. The book is Stormy Knight: Prom Queen of the Undead and is due out April 22, 2011. The e-book version will be released a few weeks before that. Pre-order info will be made available soon for those interested.

Book #1 I am venturing off on my own to write it. It’s another middle grade age range target with a boy as the main character. Last week I jotted down a few different ideas for new books and this one is a combination of a couple of those.

Book #2 is a sci-fi middle grade book I’m working on with my co-writer buddy, John. We hashed out some ideas for it yesterday and have started the opening scene. John is a great sci-fi writer. A couple sci-fi books he’s written are: Illusia and The Flaxen Femme Fatale

A book I co-authored with sci-fi writer John Zakour will be out in April 2011! It’s a middle-grade novel about a girl that’s half vampire queen and half mortal. More details and the cover of the book to follow soon. The process has been a fun one! I live on the West Coast and John lives on the East Coast. We collaborated on the book together last summer through email and Skype. We work well together and have a good time bouncing ideas off of one another. We’ve made it through all the re-writes, signed off on the cover of the book and are awaiting one last read-through before it goes off to the typesetter. The hardest part has been the wait for it to be on bookshelves.