LOOK! My books are on iBooks!

Okay, so a few blog posts ago, I was trying to sort out where I was going to publish my books. I had settled on Amazon and Kobo because they were both apps I was really comfortable using as a reader. And in the case of Kobo, because I have a device of my own that I love. 

My plan was to use Draft2Digital to distribute to Nook and iTunes, however, two weeks ago I changed my mind. There were a couple of reasons for this. At first, I found the prospect of getting an EIN intimidating. The forms, the calling the IRS, etc. You still have to go through this process with Draft2Digital but I think I tricked myself into believing it would be easier than loading my books onto iTunes directly. But once I launched my books, I realized it made so much sense to have them available on iTunes—especially since virtually everyone in my family has an iPhone and there are millions of iPhones and they come with iBooks preinstalled as an app. So I decided to make having my books available on iTunes a priority.

As with so many things related to independent publishing, there are a lot of great resources out there. The one that helped me the most was this post on Catherine Ryan Howard’s website—in particular, the step-by-step process outlined by David Gaughran. This was the process I followed to get my EIN and it was as quick and painless as it was laid out to be.

I had already started the process of signing up for my iTunes Connect account a few weeks ago and since I’m a Mac user, downloading iTunes Producer (the next step in the process after setting up all your contact, tax and banking information) was also very straightforward. I submitted my books (they had already been formatted as EPUBS by the wonderful Streetlight Graphics) and less than 24 hours later—they were available on the iBooks Store. 

So now I am very happy to share that The Vampire Skeleton and Spirit & Intent are both available as ebooks on iTunes! Very cool, that. Especially because it was something I really struggled with. 

Another factor that helped motivate me was this fantastic interview with Liliana Hart by Joanna Penn.  After I listened to it, it added additional fuel to my fire to have my books available on iTunes. Honestly, a lot of the interviews Joanna does with various guests add fuel to my fire. I’ve been listening to this podcast obsessively because every time I do, I get more and more excited about the possibilities of being an indie published author and creating things that make me happy. If you haven’t listened to her podcast, I highly recommend it!

Anyways, that is my exciting news for the week. Over the next few days I will be learning how to build banners and widgets (like the kind featured above). Very fun! Til next time!

Happy Writing!
S. 

Spirit & Intent

For those of you who don't know, I recently launched a tiny, independent publishing company as well as published three books which can be found on my Books page. (They can also be found on the company website). 

My company is called Spirit & Intent and there are a lot of things we hope to do over next year in addition to publishing books. In the meantime, I'm so happy we can finally share things like our logo and website. We've honestly been working on them for over a year now! 

But even though we've launched and had this really wonderful article shared about us, there is still a lot of work to do. For the first time in my life, I'm essentially running a business and because of that there is a lot of planning I have to do to help the company grow in a positive manner. Right now, the company is only publishing books that I've written because those copyrights are already mine to work with. It will take quite a bit more work and additional resources to branch out and include other writers in the way I would like to and in a way that would create a great situation for them. Hopefully, this is something we can look at in the future. Until then, all of us writers are lucky that the tools to publish are available to us all. More and more, indie publishing seems like the best possible route, at least to me.  

Still, I have to say—though it's been a lot of work and even more work lies ahead, I have never been happier. Writing has always made me happy, but in the past few years it's brought me more joy than I could ever have imagined. I'm so excited about all of the upcoming projects we have planned and the various ways we're going to share them. There's a lot to learn and I'm loving learning it.

One of my big goals with starting a publishing company that I talked about way back in an earlier blog was to help myself learn the Cayuga language. There are a lot of really fantastic resources out there for learning Cayuga but what I know for sure helped me expand my ability to speak & write English—was reading. I hoped that connecting my love of reading with my desire to learn the language would result in some interesting projects & though we haven't shared those projects yet, I really think it will :). 

We've set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a newsletter. In one week, we're going to do a giveaway of a set of our books plus an art print to one of our lucky newsletter subscribers. Interested? Click here to subscribe!

This week I have been listening to the Joanna Penn's Creative Penn podcast pretty much non-stop. It's a super inspiring podcast that I'm very grateful exists and as it's a nice long weekend, I've revised my weekend to-do list to follow-up some of the topics that came up during my listening. This includes:

• Working on copywriting and sales descriptions for my books
• Trying Scrivener again and learning how to set Project Goals
• Contacting an editor to help me set a firm deadline for a project I want to publish in April 
• Creating a pre-order button for another book; and
• Revisiting my publishing schedule for the next year to set the word count targets I need to meet deadlines 

Basically, I'm looking forward to a weekend of reading, writing and editing—the best kind there is!  What about you? What are your plans for the weekend? 

Until next time, happy writing!

S.

Ready. Set. Launch!

It’s finally happened! Two of my books are available for purchase today! They both appear on the brand new Books section of my website. There are previews there as well. The first one, Spirit & Intent: A Collection of Short Stories & Other Writings, is a collection of illustrated short stories that I worked on with my sister, Alyssa. Alyssa is an awesomely talented artist and she’s been illustrating my work for years. It means a lot to me to finally be able to share our project. The art from the book will be available as prints on our website in a week or so. I love the paintings she did and how they took shape the more we researched and talked about the stories. At least half of the stories and writings in the collection focus on Jikonsaseh, a woman from the Story of the Peacemaker and also, a Haudenosuanee clanmother title. Working on this book created a lot of interesting discussion amongst my family and friends. It also helped me think about what it meant to be someone who was working towards peace—and how much personal growth was required to create peaceful relationships. It’s an area where I still have a great deal of work to do but I am definitely willing to go on the journey.

The second book available today, is called The Vampire Skeleton. It’s a fast paced Young Adult fantasy with hints of romance and a dose of magic.  I’ve written about it in previous blogs here and here and here. It was the book I never planned to write. I started it right before my daughter was born and the story took on a life of its own. I decided to publish it first because it was another story that carried a lot of meaning for me and my little family—especially since I finished it when my baby was just a few months old and my husband illustrated the back cover. (Definitely a lot of sentimentality in these publishing choices). You can preview The Vampire Skeleton on my Books page and over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing chapters of it over at my Wattpad site, as well.

So there they are. The first two books I am publishing this year. I dearly love them both. And I totally understand that not everyone may love them the same way I do. That’s okay. Even if no one likes them as much as I do, it’s been 100% worth it to come this far. To have written them, edited them, toiled over them and shared them. It’s better than okay. It’s amazing!

When I first realized I wanted to be a writer, there was only one pathway to sharing your work—the traditional path. And while I think that is an absolutely fine path, I am extremely grateful there are other ways. I am grateful to share something that I love, inspired by the people and stories that I love. Truly, it is such a great time to be a writer!

The books are available on Amazon and Kobo. In the next few days, they will also be available on my sister and I's website, along with her art prints. I so look forward to sharing!

Happy Thursday Everyone! And as always—happy writing,

S.  

Where Am I Going To Publish My Books?

I am this close *squeezes fingers together* to publishing two of my books. And while I'm happily immersed in writing my next book, The Wall of Bones, I'm doing a lot of reading and decision-making about when and where I will be publishing. But even though I'm doing all of this reading and research, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and since I can't hold onto these books forever, this is what I plan to do and I'll just see how things go and if there's any changes I have to make in the future, I'll make them. 

I'm going to publish my book in three different places. On Amazon. On Kobo. And on my website. Print versions will be available through Amazon and my website. Electronic versions will be available on Amazon and Kobo. And previews of my books will be available on my website and Wattpad. In a few short weeks, my print books and previews will also be available on my company's website, along with prints of original artwork by my sister Alyssa. (I'm super excited about that. Her artwork is amazing). 

Now why have I chosen to release my books on these few platforms only? It's simple. While I'm definitely interested in having my books available through the iTunes Store and Barnes & Noble, I'm having some difficulty figuring out the best way to go about making that happen. As you all know, living on Turtle Island (whether in Canada or the United States) means there are taxation rules/regimes we all have to work in order to conduct our business. That being said, no one wants their royalties or earnings to be taxed twice by either state which is why there are agreements in place that allow for people from either country to apply to be exempted from the withholding tax (which companies are required to withhold if you do not provide proper tax identification). I'm oversimplifying here obviously, and since I'm not a tax lawyer, please take my comments with a grain of salt. 

Now, Amazon has made this process very simple by allowing you to enter your SIN number in the tax interview and reference the tax treaty between Canada and the U.S. But Apple has yet to do the same and requests that you submit an ITIN. There's a whole process involved in this and I have read in a few places that it's relatively simple to go about doing. (To be fair, I've also read that it's difficult). You just have to be patient and different tax lawyers/advisors will have different advice about how to handle this.

Because my work is intensely busy and I have to focus on my doctorate for the next few months and I’m expecting a baby in June (YAY!), the route I'm going to try is this:

•      I am going to fill out the W8-BEN form 

•      I am going to submit the completed form to Draft2Digital; and 

•      I am going to select iTunes and Barnes & Noble for the distribution channel

I'll post an update and let you know how I make out with this. In the meantime, I'm going to upload direct to Amazon and Kobo. Kobo because I love Chapters and I have a Kobo e-reader and I LOVE it. It actually took me awhile to come around to ebooks but now that I have, I couldn't imagine life without them. I always hear people say that it's a great time to be a writer (and it is) but it's also a great time to be a reader. 

So there you have it. My very tentative plan about where I am going to upload my books. I have no idea how it will all turn out but what I like about my plan is that I feel really comfortable and excited about it and for right now, that seems like a good place to be. 

What about you? Where did you upload your books and how? Please feel free to share your wisdom in the comments & as always, happy writing!