Self-Publishing on a Budget

In a perfect world, self-publishers are flush with capital. They invest in professional editing, copyediting, layout, cover design, websites, book trailers, and a publicists from people they know or through a company like Cunning Relations. They pay for a reasonable print run and plenty of promotional materials. After all is said and done, they have a high quality book with an aggressive promotional campaign. As a result of this, their books will sell very well.

Of course, we don't live in a perfect world. Although self-publishing is like any other business that requires investment to produce a quality product, not all self-publishers have extra funds or access to loans. However, with a bit of effort and ingenuity, you can still produce an excellent book. This is what we recommend:

Editing/Copyediting

1. Join and participate in writer's groups. They will help you polish your book to a point.
2. Enlist help from an editor friend. As a writer, there's a good chance you'll know someone with experience in editing who may be willing to help.
3. Although not the same as professional copyediting, anyone with a good sense of grammar can give your manuscript a good once over. A different set of eyes, untrained or not, can be hugely beneficial.

Publicity/Marketing

1. Research, research, research. Becoming an expert book promoter takes experience and training, but the benefit of the internet is that you can gain access to the same resources professional publicists use. Subscribe to sites like PR Daily and book industry newspapers (Galley Cat, Publishers Weekly) to keep updated on current promotional trends.
2. Emulate similar authors. Not sure how to structure your marketing plan? Find an author with a similar target market and do what worked for them.
3. Social network. Seriously! This is one of the best forms of marketing. It's cheap and easy. Yes, it's time consuming, but it's the best way to build your fanbase.

Design/Layout

Cover design, layout, and eBook conversion are a few items you simply cannot skimp on when publishing. If you are a professional designer or know someone who will give you excellent design services for free/cheap, then this is not a problem. Most people, unfortunately, do not know design or many designers. 

Of course, there are still ways to save on design without sacrificing quality:

1. Throw your ellaborate cover ideas out the window. Those will cost you thousands. Instead, think of simple designs. You'll pay less and, right now, simple is in.
2. Find individuals or companies who create quality covers, but don't charge too high of a price. You should expect to pay between $499 and $899, which is right in the range of our designers. You can see some examples of what our team has worked on here.
3. Keep your layout simple. If you have illustrations, complex maps, spot art, or special characters, it will make it a bit more expensive. You can expect to pay $199 to $499 for a good layout and around $299 for quality eBook conversions.

Quality books take more than writing. If you're self-publishing, you cannot even begin to compete with traditionally published authors unless you invest in your book. Whether you pay for it or reach out to your connections and pull in all your favors, your book needs the full suite: editing, publicity/marketing, design/layout, and more. Once you've done that, you're on the right path to become the next bestseller.

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—Kirk Cunningham, principal consultant at Cunning Relations 

& head publicist at Jolly Fish Press.

Tools to Increase Your Productivity

Staying productive is, to say the least, difficult. There’s a myriad of different techniques, courses, and software that claims to make you more productive, but finding the right method for you can be overwhelming. Below are a few options we both suggest and use ourselves.

Toggl

Take a trip to Facebook or Twitter, and you’ll find several authors bragging about writing late into the night or for 10 hours straight. The truth is, if these authors actually timed themselves, many would find that 10 hour writing session was actually 3 hours of browsing, 2 hours of social networking, and only 5 hours of writing.

Timers like Toggl will help you record your actual working hours. This is hugely beneficial for many reasons. Not only can you get an accurate measure of your working schedule, but it can also be motivating. Only worked for 20 hours this week? Let’s try to reach 40! It’s also a great indicator of when to take a break. Already worked for 60 hours? Nice work! Now go spend time with the kids.

StayFocusd*

There’s nothing wrong with falling prey to distractions. It’s simply a part of human nature. However, you should do everything you can to avoid it.

StayFocusd acts as a timer and website blocker. You can block entire sites completely for a certain period (or all day), or you can give yourself a time limit before it’s blocked. Of course, there are always ways around the blocks, but the large reminder to “Stay Focused!” each time you visit a blocked site will hopefully motivate (or guilt) you into getting back to work.

*Only available on the Chrome app store. 

Asana / Wunderlist

Although created with businesses in mind, apps like Asana and Wunderlist can be a productivity lifesaver. You can create, organize, share, and search all of your tasks. Plus, you can easily set up due dates to stay on top.

Although probably not best suited for writing, these task managers are a perfect fit for the publication process, no matter your publishing route. It can also be adapted for life at home, as well.

Paper

Oh, good old fashioned paper. There’s plenty of software to help you stay productive, but if it doesn’t work for you, a notebook will work just fine. Sometimes simplicity is the best way to stay on top, so grab yourself a pen and paper and create a to do list. It’s tried, true, and can work for you.

Now, you need more than tools to maintain productivity. Here’s some advice:

1. Take regular breaks—You should take a 3-5 minute break every 40 minutes. No, seriously! Stand up, walk around, use the restroom, talk with someone, take a drink, eat a snack, whatever. Trust us, you’ll be much more productive, and you’ll find that taking a step back will solve most problems better than frustratedly staring at your screen.
2. Write down everything immediately—The last thing you want to do is forget a brilliant idea or an important task. Although using sticky notes is good, save yourself loads of searching (and deskspace) by using software that take advantage of the cloud like iOS Notes, Evernote, Google Docs, and Asana / Wunderlist.
3. Create and follow a schedule—Consistency soon becomes habit. It’s much easier to work when it’s become a habit. In addition, any work you do outside of your normal schedule will feel that much more rewarding.
4. Exercise and eat healthy—If your body is in shape, then your mind is sharper. Even small increases in exercise and healthier foods will cause significant improvements.
5. Don’t stress about being productive—As much as we should strive to be productive, the last thing you should do is stress about it. Everyone works at their own pace. Some days, you simply won't get anything done, and that’s okay. As long as you’re at least trying, you can reach your goals and achieve success.

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—Kirk Cunningham, principal consultant at Cunning Relations 

& head publicist at Jolly Fish Press.

Weekly Social Networking Quota

Curious about how often you should post on your social networks? You’ve come to the right place.

Here's the quota we suggest an author fulfills each week:

Overall:
-3 to 5 posts a day.
-2+ posts on weekends.
-Try to mix it up between a self post, link post, and picture. Use a social media manager like Hootsuite or Plant Social to easily post everything.

Facebook:
-Like several related pages from your author page. Interact with 1 to 2 a day via comment or share.
-Acknowledge all comments. By acknowledge, that doesn’t mean you should reply to every comment. You should only reply to comments you can provide a meaningful response or which the writer put plenty of thought into it. You should, at the very least, like the comment.

Twitter:
-Retweet 1 to 3 times a day.
-Interact 2 or more times a day. There’s no limit on your interaction, although it should always be meaningful.
-If you’re building a following, follow at least 5 people a day. Although there’s nothing wrong with following in large bursts, it’s better to even it out so you can learn more about those you’re following.

Blog:
-Respond to all comments, even if not necessarily worthwhile. Blogs tend to have less interaction, so you want to thank everyone, short and sweet, if they leave a simple comment. If it’s a longer comment, respond to the points they bring up. "Thanking" is not sufficient if they put thought into the comment.
-At least twice a week, interact by commenting on other blogs. On each post, leave a link to your preferred social network to make it worthwhile.

Interaction around the web:
Depending on the time you have, this may be difficult. However, whenever you find an article or post that piques your interest, do not hesitate to respond. You’re establishing yourself on the web, so don’t hold it back. Good examples of sites you can interact on:

1. Blogs
2. News articles (especially from Publishers Weekly, Galley Cat, and other book news sites)
3. LinkedIn
4. Reddit (especially certain subreddits like r/books, r/writing, r/selfpublishing, etc.)

If you follow all of these guidelines, you should have a solid week of at least 19+ posts and 35+ interactions. If you maintain this constant activity, you can easily grow your social networks to an impressive, book-selling level.

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—Kirk Cunningham, principal consultant at Cunning Relations 

& head publicist at Jolly Fish Press.

Intro to Blogging: The 5 Main Blogging Platforms

Today, more than ever, authors need to create and maintain an active blog. With how quickly things move in our society and the varying distractions warring over people’s attention, blogging is a way for authors to stay on their readers’ minds and display their writing prowess.

As important as blogging is, many authors don’t know where to start, which is where this post will help. There are many choices for blogging platforms available to authors with different levels of difficulty. Below are the five most common.

The 5 Most Common Blog Platforms:

Blogger - Formerly BlogSpot, Blogger is owned by Google. It is one of the easiest blogging platforms to use and one of the most popular. One of the benefits include the integration with other Google products.

We recommended blogger for beginners due to its simple functions and no-fuss layout. Because it is owned by Google, the analytics are pretty dang good too. However, if you’re more experienced with websites or blogs, you might feel limited with Blogger.

WordPress - Another top blogging platform is WordPress. WordPress is meant for those who are a little more familiar with blogging or for those up for a challenge. Wordpress has its own varying degrees of difficulty and customizability. You can also create a custom blog domain with relative ease.

Another benefit to using Wordpress is the option to host your blog with someone else. For more advanced bloggers, this opens up a lot of possibilities with ads and the types of widgets that can be used on the blog. Research of what authors can do with the platform is highly recommended to those who choose WordPress.

Tumblr - This platform is meant more for quickly sharing content (primarily images) found on other Tumblr blogs or online. Growing rapidly in popularity, Tumblr is an attractive option for authors who don’t really want to write lengthy blogs.

Depending on an author’s audience, Tumblr could be the way to go. Be warned—bloggers have been known to be shut down for copyright infringement because of images on their Tumblr accounts.

LiveJournal - Possibly the most versatile blogging platform, LiveJournal is flexible with how people use it. Customization is easy and users can set different security levels for individual posts. It also has an appealing close knit social aspect.  

LiveJournal allows users to have a ‘friends’ list and load ‘avatars’ that appear next to their pen names. Users can join communities (essentially groups) and post entries under those communities’ topics. Users can also create and monitor communities of their own.

Custom Website - A custom website is the most complicated and expensive type of blogging platform. Unless you’re design savvy or have a crowded wallet, this is probably not for you. However, a custom website gives you complete control over the look and feel of your blog, which can be a major plus if you’re willing to put in the extra work.

Know What You Need

One of the keys to picking the right blog for you is to know what you need it for. With all the different platforms out there, authors can find one that matches with their blogging goals. All it takes is a little research and knowing what to look for.

What blogging platform do you prefer to use?

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—Jessica Winn, publicist at Cunning Relations & Jolly Fish Press.

Cunning Relations #AuthorTips Giveaway

In celebration of the grand opening of Cunning Relations on 9/9/2013, we be holding a giveaway from Monday, 9/9 to Saturday, 9/21. On 9/23, we will announce 3 randomly chosen winners who will receive 4 weeks of our Social Media Support service and a consultation session for free.

For this giveaway, we wanted to do prepare something that will directly benefit authors all over Twitter and Facebook. We wanted to create a campaign that will spread useful advice, #authortips, in each post.

To enter, include each of the following in a tweet or Facebook post:

1. #authortips
2. @CunningRelation for Twitter, or @Cunning Relations for Facebook
3. A tip, piece of advice, picture, video, or link relating to social networking, publishing, self-publishing, writing, etc.
4. Optional: link to our website, www.cunningrelations.com, so others can join the giveaway.

Each post will count as one entry. The more posts you create, the higher likelihood you'll win, and the more authors and aspiring authors you'll help.

You can also subscribe to our mailing list for an extra entry.

Press Release: Author Services Firm Starts in Utah, Aims to Give Power to Writers

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kirk Cunningham, (801) 380-4503 | kirk@cunningrelations.com

UTAH—With constant demand and increased availability, the book, whether printed or digital, is made to last. The author, on the other hand, has a much more tenuous existence. Cunning Relations, a consultant firm specialized in book publicity, editing, and design, intends to change that.

To those outside of the book industry, book publishing may seem a simple step-by-step process: an author writes a book, a publisher prints and distributes the book, and the bookstore sells the book—everyone profits. The reality is far from that. Most authors are stuck on one of these steps with little hope of moving forward, and even if their books become available in bookstores, there’s only a small chance they’ll profit from it.

One of the main reasons for this lack of author progress and profit, besides pure luck, is weaknesses in the book outside the author’s control. These weaknesses apply to both traditionally published and self-published authors, and includes, but is not limited to, little to no professional editing, cheap cover design, limited publicity and marketing efforts, restricted industry knowledge and guidance, and, worst of all, dishonesty from publishers and author service companies.

Cunning Relations attempts to solve most of these problems by providing quality services for an affordable price. Cunning Relations boasts an eclectic team of experienced book professionals, including key team members from Jolly Fish Press, successful authors, prominent journalists and book reviewers, and award-winning designers.

Kirk Cunningham, the head of Cunning Relations and the co-founder and head publicist of Jolly Fish Press, notes the difference between Cunning Relations and other author services companies, “We decided to take a different approach from our competitors—instead of acting as a vendor where you pick and choose expensive services with questionable results, we want to act as a consultant firm containing professionals with proven experience and success in the book world. Cunning Relations is not a company intended to leech off desperate authors—it’s an affordable platform for promising authors and industry professionals to refine and sell a desired product.”

Cunning Relations will officially open its doors September 9th, 2013. For more information, visit www.cunningrelations.com or email Kirk Cunningham at kirk@cunningrelations.com.

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Press release available for download here.