Unnamed.

I’ve realized in the course of this business that names are far more valuable that we attribute them to be, at least in the sense that they are made to convey more words than are actually attributed. I was never any good with them, probably due to a childhood learning disability that eventually led to my love for writing. I have a horrible habit of mixing up my friends’ names. It is literally by conscious efforts that I have yet to mix up my current girlfriends name with my last ones. In the workman sense, I drive myself crazy by forgetting the names of minor characters that are listed near the opening of a narrative and needed toward the end. That alone will send me on a daylong sprawl through notes and printed proof pages.

As a clear demonstration of my lack for these things, the name of this publishing company damn near killed me. When I wrote 357 Press on the applications, it didn’t occur to me that people would consider the caliber of a bullet than a mathematical equation. Only a month back I learned from my mother that somebody had taken things out of context. After that, I realized those putting the name in the Google search engine would find press machines and reloading tools for .357 ammunition.

As for writing itself, I rarely have a name for something when I begin working, and not because I’d rather accept whatever phrase occurs in the book that fits the nature of the story being told, but because I just don’t give a damn. It’s like having to remember your age, after 21 it’s just not important.

There was a three week long discussion and argument within myself concerning Souls of Silica, at one point it was called ‘Ghost of Barnum’. The working titles for me tell me everything I need to know (my own personal logging convention in which Souls of Silica was being made under the title Story-D).

But in the last few weeks especially I realize just how important it is to have the right name. While people probably shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, they do. And one of the biggest items on a cover should be the name (a mistake I made with Souls of Silica and will most definitely repeat). Those who actually read instead of skim are likely to take the name far more seriously than the image of the cover.

Larger companies have entire divisions dedicated to short copywriting that effectively eliminate the demographics down to a few choice words. While this isn’t the most honest route, it does work. When it doesn’t work, it fails to deliver a punch and replaces the initial feelings with something more humorous. Dean Koontz wrote Dragon Tears under another name, and somewhere along the line, somebody signing his paycheck said, ‘we need a name’. They did their crunch and came up with a series of words that didn’t fit the book at all, but fit the projected demographics too well. In the end, Koontz was forced to add a paragraph to his story that made the title Dragon Tears relevant. When I read the book, and find this particular piece buried in the pages, I remember it seeming entirely out of place, out of character, and a bit too fantastical for the particular characters thoughts.

But I suppose it sold, which is the important thing as a business. As an artist I hope Koontz felt as though he were shooting himself in the foot. That old adage about how to make an elephant out of a block of clay applies here: Cut away everything that doesn’t look like the story.

My own inability to name things and get it right has probably cost me some with Souls of Silica, but I think that the name at least suits the book concerning the main characters and the events later on in the story. It, being a character study as well as a narrative, was focused on the people, and (I hope) casually touching on the sometimes vague regions of thought that allow us to be human.

Thankfully the next story already has a name, it’s had one for five years now: Owens Valley. As different as it feels from the first one— thank God —I’m surprised I don’t feel it necessary to change the name, but not at all ungrateful for it.

Report

At this stage we’re well into the end of the trial run. For advertisement, we’ve done reviews from friends (not all of which are back yet), Forum and Social Network advertisement. These are fairly effective, A few more copies sold that we anticipated, but not enough to gain back what we paid for printing, setup, ect.

Before it’s over We’re going to try review blogs, I’m looking into a few personally. We may also try paid advertisement, just to see how big of a mistake it maybe.

More to come soon.

Doing things backwards.

357press.com

finally got the site up and running. From a buisness perspective this hsould have been done long ago, but between delays, technical errors, ect, we had to put it off. Getting the books out there is more important, so we feel.

This just provides a central hub.

They’re all sinners.

There are hundreds of thousands of articles scattered throughout the web concerning publishing. These days the two most prevelent are “ebook versus hardcopy’ and ‘Traditional versus self publication’. but outnumbering both of these catagories, ‘How to sell your book.’

I am giving you permission to ignore all of them. We are, and it’s actually working out.  We didn’t go into this with some master scheme, but we didn’t just manage a foot in the door to test the waters. Unless you’re going to invest thousands, or have thousands (some of you may have more) to loose, you’re best bet is to let it happen, and when that doesn’t work, make it happen.

All you need, other than to continue writing, is to push, in some way, in some format. Looking at this now you probably don’t have the foggiest idea of what we’re trying to say, and that’s okay. It could be better that you don’t. By no means do we want you to think that you publish and that’s the end. yes, you do need to do some marketing.

So here’s what we’ve done until this point on our trial run, we didn’t really take any ones suggestion, just doing what we feel is obvious, and without spending the cost to print the book.

Facebook: announcing the thing all over the place. Not just us, but family, friends. Through facebook we also asked for a handful that read constantly to write a short review for our book (still in the process, none of the reviews have been published). Those reviews will go on the website and Amazon, as long as our friends have amazon accounts. We gave them signed copies, something we didn’t imagine a constantly reading person would turn away from. All we asked was for the review in exchange. We suggest you do something similar: send them copies, ask them to write a 100-300 word review, honest and precise, ask them to let you see the review before you give them the go ahead and publish the review. All goes well, depending on the amount of copies you pass out, you should get a handful of reviews. Don’t just leave that to Amazon, if you wish. Other retailers can have reviews posted to the book selling site as well. Some websites are built for reviews, so considering that they attract people who can’t stop reading, that’s probably the ideal place for your efforts.

We have done this with ten copies. We’ll let you know the results, and you can decide if it’s for you or not.

To close on the point from the start, there is no one way to success here. There’s no insurance if you don’t. Do what’s obvious first, preferably the things that cost the least and open the book to as many people as possible. When that’s over, sit back and watch a little while. Then, if you feel the itch, and hopefully you’ve gained back what it took to write the book, do the research on marketing.

Obey the golden rule: The obvious came first. You should treat it that way.

Done in Cold Blood.

Like most mere mortals, and warm blooded animals, things eventually loose the hold they once had over you. It’s not to say you’re uninspired, or that the well has run dry, but the drive is certainly gone. This is writing in cold blood.

Dangerous territory.

Consider it something of a desert. You’ve hit a point where there’s nothing but a blazingly bright sun and no rewarding water. Pushing through this area is taxing, and for your writing, potentially dangerous. When you’re shoving forward, and the organic process has all but wilted, you risk loosing the initial feel of your characters, you stop exploring whatever was the unique thing that made the writing your form of writing.

For instance, one character’s interactions throughout an entire book come across as relatively happy, because you’ve long ago established they are friends. They talk like friends, make jokes like friends, ect. Then you hit the dry point, and you’re not joking anymore. Dialogue becomes strict, to the point, and your characters begin to loose flavor.

That’s one of a million possible examples. There’s two critical points I’ve learned from this: It’s not a writers block and shouldn’t be acted upon like a writers block. I won’t explore this now, I’d rather make this short and sweet.

So instead, go back to the start, what made this story appealing? You had a beginning, middle and end in mind, and somewhere you lost the will to continue forward. If it feels like you’ve already said everything that needs to be said, it’s better to just stop the story where you are, make a faux pass ending. Nothing pesters readers more than a story that starts off great and ends badly. When they go on Amazon and write the review, the ending is the fresh part of the story, the most recent event, and the one they still remember.

But, if you’re stuck in the position where ending your story wouldn’t make sense, say where standing just before your finale, you’re in even deeper water. You can stop writing, or push forward. What you do depends on the kind of writer you are. For most people I would suggest stopping (deadly), but for those who have made or intend to make money and already have experience with such issues, keep writing (lethal).

Stopping is deadly because you may never come back to it.

But if you do come back, and we all hope you do, you’re going to have to go back in the timeline. You’re going to have to recognize your characters, see what they said three or four chapters ago that you were planning on expounding on here. Or you might have been inspired to come back to it, which is even better, at least you’re out of that drought. But this transitional point, if you come back, can all too easily stand out to your readers, they may not know you stopped and started writing the story again, but everything goes from being dull and gray to lush and green. A welcome reprise, but generally not the ideal method.

If you keep writing, it’s the cold blood effect. Sure, you’ll get the story done, but when the last word is on the last page of the story, you’re going to have that moment to wonder if you’re happy with it. If you’re honest, you probably won’t be, but that’s something you have to experience for yourself. You won’t be happy because there’s that lurking sensation that you may have lost something in there, that what was once living has become mechanical. Reader’s are perceptive.

In either case, whatever you do, remember the readers know. Some of them could likely end up knowing more about your story than you remember. If you’re striving for perfection, you may fall to the last resort: Throw the whole damn thing out and start over.

God help you if you do.

Simple web advertisement

In our trial run of Souls of Silica, we’ve tried to do as much advertisement as we can without spending a dime. Right now there are two relatively obvious avenues you can take to get your book out there, though it’s a long shot from actually selling books.

The first one has to do with social communities, facebook, myspace, twitter, ect. The key here is that you have to be connected to alot of people in order for these to drive your work, and some of these communities, such as Facebook, are slowly going in a direction that makes marketing harder. We’re not buying adds for the websites, but rather through ourselves on our own page, our friends pages, ect, getting the book out there and at least known. The trouble is that Facebook has an inactivity system that most people don’t know about, so don’t bother to chnage the setting. If you’re not interacting with someone on your friends list, the things they post stop appearing on your wall, so you can’t randomly pop out and start posting things, expecting everyone on your friends list to see them. If you’ve built up some hype, this technique works a little better, and generally ends in a few sells. In facebook you can create a page for your work if you want, but you have probably done this yourself already. Done right (which isn’t hard to do, and probably very intuitive) you can generate some attention.

The other means: forums. Every self-published author hates these things, but in the last few days of pushing books, we’re starting to relaize that having at least some interaction with high traffic forums can result in a few clicks. Souls of Silica is a horror site, so we got on a community forum for Silent HIll (a horror video game) and started showing off. It generated some hits, probably amongst those we’re close with on these forums. We haven’t tried this yet, but the idea of a signiture you can click on to link to your site or the sales page of the book would probably be a better advertisement (pictures capture eyes, words don’t have such an immediate effect on the human brain).

These two are typical methods, everybody tries them. The problem is that people have seen this so much already that they’re numb when another amazon sales page is plugged into their social networks. Forums have some strict guidelines concerning spamming advertisement, but often you can get around these with your signiture.

Probably the most important thing to do: don’t make yourself annoying with it. If you’ve become a part of a commmunity, you have an approtunity to meet and talk to people, what you do outside of the community is only of interest for those people who often interact with you. Others mind find your constant sales pitch annoying.

None of these methods are one hit sales, but they are a start. We have some other tricks up our sleeve we’ll get to soon, but those cost a few bucks.

Souls of Silica

In trying to take a different approach, I wrote a book about characters, and not necessarily the monsters. The goal is simple, when the characters hair stands on end, your hair stands on end.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615433642

From the Back Cover:

“Barnum, a small township in Silica County, is wiped out overnight. The corpses of the populace are scattered in the streets, all victims of gunshots to the head. A lone sniper on the roof of the gas station shoots through walls, thick forest, and cars, killing people he can’t possibly see. That he can’t possibly know exist. Captain Layland of the Silica Sheriff’s Department listens as a church bell in the distance signals, one by one, the death of his men. As night falls, the already disturbed sniper fires on the corpses of those he’s already killed, chanting and screaming absurd commands. Layland watches as the corpses begin taking on a life of their own.”

Oh, Yes, there will be plenty of shameless self promotion from me.

Like a child with a gun

Starting your own buisness seems overwhelming, and depending on your outlook, it can be. However, it’s not impossible. It’s not strictly for some buisness elite who are endowed from birth to be successful.

For us, we can’t afford to do anything the easy way. We outsource as little as possible, including advertisement (something at this point in time we have a very weak grasp of). Everything other than the actual printing and acceptance into distribution channels (Nessesary for publishers to sell in many retailers), is done with our own crew.

There are a handful of things that come with buisness: Actually obtaining a buisness liscence, taxes, expenses, inventory, marketing, demographics, putting the right tools in the right place for those demographics to notice, ect, ect.

Here, I just want to focus on the fact that it is possible to learn the trade and techniques of any industry. You may be going up against some well established companies who practically pioneered your respective industry, but even they started out as a small, simple idea. It’s not out of reach to compete with these companies. It may seem like laws and taxes and paper work rule the world, but when those things start to feel like some beast hiding in the white house basement (on legal matters) or some creature made entirely of ink and paper (your competitors) endowed with all knowledge of the respective area, you have to realize they are really just other people. Once you can get that into your mind, you’re far more likely to act, and if you keep that in mind, you’re far more likely to succeed.

Starting a buisness is relatively easy. You can run down to the local courthouse yourself and file, or you can get some third party co. to do the dirty work for you. Legal Zoom was recommended to me several times, unfortunately, I chose to do it the hard way. Just so it’s said, I saved money that way too. There’s an ocean of other services out there, and if you chose to use one good for you. At least you’ll know that if something goes wrong in setting up the buisness, you’re not to blame (lawyers may see this otherwise, just so you’re warned).

So we’ll focuse on one or two things concerning opening a buisness. I know it’s probably funny to see that on a publishing blog, but we might as well start at the begining.

Before you commit, take a few days and start surfing the web. You essentially need to know three things: Where to obtain a license, How to file taxes, and the laws involved. Unfortunately, I cannot speak much on any of these three, but I can point you in the right direction. Start with your states IRS site, This will introduce to you the taxes and various licenses you may need. For instance, in Georgia, you need a barber license to cut hair. God only knows why it’s illegal to cut hair without a license, but it is. The same thing goes for an electrician, which is much more understandable. Your hair grows back, but a burning house doesn’t. I say that because you might be surprised what your state requires from you before you open a business. Some of these things require some formal education. These sites should show you how to obtain one, and give you the option to file the paperwork online. Even if you’re not ready to get your license, it doesn’t hurt to click the link and start thumbing through the pages. Don’t file yet, but get an idea of what’s involved.

Another great way to obtain this needed information, after visiting your IRS website, is to start google searching. I know it’s probably frowned upon, but the majority of people who have businesses did not start their own ‘HOW TO’ site concerning their industry. They do sometimes talk about it in forums, though. I probably don’t need to say that you should take some of those things with a grain of salt, but you should. Make sure what you’re reading pertains to your state, and the same industry.

Obtaining the license is usually easier. The best way to start is by visiting your county’s website and start searching for their business license section, or home office section, or whatever looks business related. You may have to actually look for this, in GA, a sole proprietorship is actually just a tax form you file quarterly, and as we have come to understand it, either by mistake or in order to save some money, you do not have to file for a home office license (this raises a few unanswered questions in our company, in which case we gave the gov’t the benefit of the doubt and went ahead and obtain this home office liscence, but this is only a starting point). Be prepared to pay a filing charge.

Your county/state may approach the subject differently, and is also something to requires some research.

Taxes? Do we even want to go there? No we don’t. If I start talking to you about it here, you might die a little on the inside. Do your own research on this, because states and counties are different, the paper work is different, the requirements are different. As I understand it, you typically get involved with a schedule C with your normal annual taxes, and also report quarterly. That’s all I will say here, because anymore and you may get lulled into a state of “oh, it works this way for him, it’ll work this way for me’. Which it very well may not. And suddenly you’re in a world of trouble. The key element here, as much as I hate to be this simple and seemingly insincere, is to do your own research. Remember how I said we can’t afford to do anything the easy way? Neither can you.

Whatever you do, don’t loose hope; don’t let your dream fall to the side. It really is as simple of filing for a business license, making sure you have the occupational license (which you may not need at all, it depends on your state given your industry), and one or two additional tax forms. If you can take two hours to get the license, and spend an hour every three months to handle taxes (provided you can do some book keeping, which is basically what you’ve been doing with your checkbook), you have it in you to start a business.

I will say this though, and I won’t get into it here, but there is a different between a business and a hobby. I suggest googling ‘buisness or a hobby’. You’ll get millions of pages, all of which say the same thing. Don’t bother filing for a business if you’re not making more than lunch money. 

Before you commit, take a few days and start surfing the web. You essentially need to know three things: Where to obtain a license, How to file taxes, and the laws involved. Unfortunately, I cannot speak much on any of these three, but I can point you in the right direction. Start with your states IRS site, This will introduce to you the taxes and various licenses you may need. For instance, in Georgia, you need a barber license to cut hair. God only knows why it’s illegal to cut hair without a license, but it is. The same thing goes for an electrician, which is much more understandable. Your hair grows back, but a burning house doesn’t. I say that because you might be surprised what your state requires from you before you open a business. Some of these things require some formal education. These sites should show you how to obtain one, and give you the option to file the paperwork online. Even if you’re not ready to get your license, it doesn’t hurt to click the link and start thumbing through the pages. Don’t file yet, but get an idea of what’s involved.

 

Another great way to obtain this needed information, after visiting your IRS website, is to start google searching. I know it’s probably frowned upon, but the majority of people who have businesses did not start their own ‘HOW TO’ site concerning their industry. They do sometimes talk about it in forums, though. I probably don’t need to say that you should take some of those things with a grain of salt, but you should. Make sure what you’re reading pertains to your state, and the same industry.

 

Obtaining the license is usually easier. The best way to start is by visiting your county’s website and start searching for their business license section, or home office section, or whatever looks business related. You may have to actually look for this, in GA, a sole proprietorship is actually just a tax form you file quarterly, and as we have come to understand it, either by mistake or in order to save some money, you do not have to file for a home office license (this raises a few unanswered questions in our company, in which case we gave the gov’t the benefit of the doubt and went ahead and obtain this home office liscence, but this is only a starting point). Be prepared to pay a filing charge.

Your county/state may approach the subject differently, and is also something to requires some research.

 

Taxes? Do we even want to go there? No we don’t. If I start talking to you about it here, you might die a little on the inside. Do your own research on this, because states and counties are different, the paper work is different, the requirements are different. As I understand it, you typically get involved with a schedule C with your normal annual taxes, and also report quarterly. That’s all I will say here, because anymore and you may get lulled into a state of “oh, it works this way for him, it’ll work this way for me’. Which it very well may not. And suddenly you’re in a world of trouble. The key element here, as much as I hate to be this simple and seemingly insincere, is to do your own research. Remember how I said we can’t afford to do anything the easy way? Neither can you.

 

Whatever you do, don’t loose hope; don’t let your dream fall to the side. It really is as simple of filing for a business license, making sure you have the occupational license (which you may not need at all, it depends on your state given your industry), and one or two additional tax forms. If you can take two hours to get the license, and spend an hour every three months to handle taxes (provided you can do some book keeping, which is basically what you’ve been doing with your checkbook), you have it in you to start a business.

 

I will say this though, and I won’t get into it here, but there is a different between a business and a hobby. I suggest googling ‘buisness or a hobby’. You’ll get millions of pages, all of which say the same thing. Don’t bother filing for a business if you’re not making more than lunch money.

 

*For the record, this is a part of what we at 357 press have gone through to get here now. We felt it nessesary to share this much with you, because it is one of the more important parts. But don’t take our word for anything, we encourage you to research, and have posted this little piece hoping to point you in the right direction, and to help you realize it’s not as daunting as you may think. Stay inspired.*

Mass Market and paperbacks.

Before we begin with anything else, there seems to be one pressing issue that must be faced. When you’re aspiring to have a physical copy of your book in print, you have alot of options. Everybody understands what a hardcover is: those big, ridged looking tomes that scream an authors name and somehow, just by looking at them, induces either intmidation or admiration.

But there’s two other common physical forms.

Paperbacks and Mass Market Paperbacks.

Is there really a difference? And does it matter?

To the reader/buyer: yes and no. To a publisher: Yes. I want to explain the difference as I understand it, and as I have come to accept it, and as a publisher plan to utilize it.

Paperback: These are typically a little larger in size. Namely in how tall and wide the paperback is. This form is typically found in your local Borders or Barnes&Noble. These pieces are usually built to last, made from better quality paperstock. In pricing, they are useually higher than normal, often ranging over $10.00. People who buy these books are often specifically looking for these books, or are a constant reader of the genre or author.

Mass Market Paperbacks are a little different. They are designed not out of poor quality material, but generally cheaper. This is important as a publisher, because you save money in your expenses. Typically, these versions have a unique cover, that’s designed to by eye catching in color and design. That’s because you’ll put these on racks near the cash register, and hope that as a customer waiting in the checkout line happen to glance by it, and if you did your job, it catches their eye. They stare for a second. If your cover was a successful hook (remember, this is done without giving little more than a picture, author name and title of the book), they may pick it up and search for a the reviews on the back or inside cover, or the synopsis. These books are typically smaller than the above mentioned paperbacks, and are meant to be carried with the person and read in waiting rooms, or on long car rides while the spouce drives, or at the diner table when nobody has anything interesting to say. They are portable, and that’s a key to what separates them from regular paperbacks. As the consumer and reader, they are cheaper than what you pick up at Barnes & Noble, and this is because the publisher wants you to pay for the book, of course, but in this case, this particular model book is designed to be cheap and easily bought on impulse.

So what does this matter to the person writing the actual book? Maybe alot, maybe very little. It’s been popular for a while that romance novels are typically found near the checkout counter (there could be a demographic here, often women are the ones shopping for this weeks meals). So this might apply to the romance section of writing. I wouldn’t dare say that romance is a weak point in writing; that’s not the point here, but from a buisness standpoint, these are the things one must consider to maximize profits, and if your publisher knows it, it doesn’t hurt that you know it as well.

Other sections are not unknown to the cash register rack, but then you begin talking about what kind of store you’re in. Books about music would be found in a music store. Books on auto-care are found in your local repair shops. It’s obvious once you think about it (if you’ve been writing, self publishing or publisher through a respected agency, you’ve no doubt contemplated these things). Though sometimes these are not intended to be mass market (in fact, the majority of what could have been examples for this paragraph would never turn a profit as Mass Market Paperback, it seems that this particular form is typical of fiction), the mechanics books often being a long drawn out cardstock cover version of a text book, you’ll find them in the same scenerio only in much more specialized stores.

If you’re interested in your publishing buisness, and hoping to put paperbacks on the shelves or mass market paperbacks on the cashier racks, this is an area you may want to study in depth. It is a lesson we are slowly learning.

If you’re the writer, it doesn’t hurt to understand these things, and if you like to imagine your book in print form, something to possibly consider while working on your book.

As an afterthought, if you go to Amazon.com and start looking at popular paperbacks, you’ll often see options in the middle of the page after it loads including hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback, and ebook. Try looking up some of the more famed and established authors, you’ll see these things for yourself. And the next time you’re wondering around your local grocery store, take a glance around, you might catch the meaning of the long-winded drivel I’ve been spewing at you in this post.

The idea.

Printed media has been falling to the wayside for decades now. As an older generation that had little more than a static saturated radio broadcast and dime-back novel slowly dissapears, the new media industries are pushing in. These new industries are primarily music, movies and video games. All of these have a similar appeal, young people.

And it’s this particular generation that’s putting down the paperbacks and picking up the controller. It’s been said by many people that the art of writing is a dying on, and based on the actions and attractions of the youthful, probably so.

However, we as a small, unknown, and lacking group of writers believe there maybe a handful left scattered across the world that still believe in the art. It’s those people we hope to attract. While all serious writers aspire to attract an audience rival to Stephen King’s ‘Constant Reader’, we understand that doesn’t happen overnight.

But they have the opportunity.

That’s where 357press resides. In an untapped opportunity.

The rest is up to anyone who reads this blog.