Busy Busy – An Update of Sorts

Wow, what an eventful 9 months it has been since my last blog post. Here’s a quick run down:

We bought a house! A cute little shirtwaist in KCMO.

http://instagram.com/p/lTanwEx21h/

 

We went to the West Bottoms looking for a dining room table and instead ended up adopting a kitten!

http://instagram.com/p/marcadR27z/

 

In the span of two weeks, we moved, went to the Kentucky Derby, and went to Melissa’s sister’s wedding in STL.

http://instagram.com/p/oFTBhOx2y4/

 

Oh, and I won a 40 Under 40 Award from an engineering magazine in my industry. Pretty cool.

I’m ramping up production of the book and this blog. The goal is to have a book release party on First Friday here in KC in February, you know, to time it right before Valentine’s Day.

So, expect to see more consistent posts from me.

Stay hopeful, my friends!

Self Publishing Tips from the Author of Cool Tools

As I attempt to wrap up my book, I plan on going the self-publishing route. This blog post from the author of Cool Tools is one of the best write-ups that I have seen. Take a look!

The first benefit of self-publishing was speed. I finished writing and assembling the book in September and by October I had the book listed on Pre-Order status on Amazon. It will be available to customers (in bookstores, too!) the first week of December. If this book was being published by a New York publisher I’d still be in negotiations to maybe have it available next summer.

Second, control. The book is unorthodox. It doesn’t fit the mold for a serious book. It’s kind of a catalog. Even the size was off-putting for pros. A big floppy book doesn’t travel well, doesn’t fit well into bookstore shelves. The publishers want to know can I perhaps change that? Then there’s the commercial aspect. The book is a shopping guide that tells you where to buy things. It points readers to Amazon, a lot. Publishers and bookstores hate that. They perceive Amazon as the enemy and one chain even refused to carry it because of this. My solution was to bypass them.

via Cool Tools – Self Publishing Cool Tools.

Managing Your Brand – DIY Business Cards

For any aspiring author looking to self-publish, you have to become your own brand and learn to market yourself constantly. One of the simplest ways to do that is by having personal business cards.

Now, I’m not talking about the business cards for your 8 to 5 day job. This is for your personal contact – e-mail address, website(s) of your project(s), and cell phone number (if you want to share that). Of course, you can go to Vistaprint.com to get your “free” business cards, you just pay shipping and they get to put Vistaprint.com on the back.

Or, if budget is tight but you still want to make a stellar first impression with a classy business card (that doesn’t scream “I got these free off the internet”), you can try printing your own. Here’s the paper that professional print designers use.

Lettra Letterpress Paper | Business Stationery Paper | Crane.com.

Book Review Magazines

This site is a good resource for magazines to send review copies of your self-published masterpiece. Here’s a sample:

BookForum, 350 Seventh Avenue, New York NY 10001; 212-475-4000; Fax: 212-529-1257. Web: http://www.bookforum.net. A quarterly book review publication with a focus on literary fiction, serious nonfiction, and photo/art books.

• Chris Lehmann and Michael Miller, Editors
• Albert Mobilio, Fiction Editor
• David O’Neill, Assistant Editor
• Alfredo Perez, BookForum.com Editor

Book Links: Connecting Books, Librarys, and Classrooms, Laura Tillotson, Editor, American Library Association, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago IL 60611-2729; 312-944-6780; 800-545-2433; Fax: 312-337-6787. Email: ltillotson@ala.org. Web: http://www.ala.org/BookLinks. This magazine is designed for teachers, librarians, library media specialists, booksellers, parents, and other adults interested in connecting children with books. It publishes bibliographies (book roundups), author profiles, and other articles.

via Book Review Magazines: Editors and Book Reviewers.

How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores

More self-publishing advice…

Bookstore Resources for Self-Published Authors

How To Get Your Book in Barnes & Noble Stores: “Each year, we review more than 100,000 submissions from publishers of every size and background.  Our buyers review publishers’ catalogues, marketing materials and galleys or sample copies to help them make their decisions.”

The Written Word: This Colorado Springs bookstore will take self-published books on consignment: “We usually ask for 5 copies minimum. The percentage is decided by the writer as the cost and percentage varies so much for the author and we don’t want writers to lose money putting books into bookstores. We also set up launch parties, signings, readings, and even speaking engagements at no charge. We’re happy to serve the community how we can. We don’t limit ourselves to Colorado, but will take books from anyone, and if someone with a book out would like to use our venue while traveling to this area they only need ask.”

via How To Sell Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores – GalleyCat.

Photo from Flickr user Michael  Femia

Tablo lets you create and self-publish eBooks in the cloud

Not an endorsement, as I haven’t used them yet. But worthy of a share.

Tablo Publishing | Create and self-publish eBooks in the cloud.

Want to publish an ebook for iOS?

I’ve been doing some research into self-publishing The Hopeful Romantic onto the iPad. Conclusion? Sell it like a magazine, by creating an app on the iOS store. This company agrees…

The App Store sells way more books than the iBookstore

Open Air sells 10 to 30 times more books through the App Store than through the iBookstore. Open Air started out only publishing its titles as iPad apps and selling them in the App Store. Then, when Apple launched its publishing platform iBooks Author, Open Air decided to adapt its titles for the iBookstore and for Kindle.

via Want to publish an ebook for iOS? Surprising tips from iPad publisher Open Air — paidContent.

I’m Back! With a Vengeance

The cover for my working Hopeful Romantic binder.

After several brainstorming sessions the past few days, I’ve realized I want to give this book the best chance to succeed. Rather than rush things through for a July 4^th, 2013, publication date, I have pushed back publication to early 2014. I plan on finishing the book way before then, but the marketing of the book will be in December to lead up to a media blitz right before Valentine’s Day.

I’m hoping to start a week-long book / art / music tour starting in Kansas City for First Friday on 2/7/14. There are a few music artists I have in mind, and will be reaching out to them shortly. I had also previously broached the idea of asking my favorite local bands to contribute songs to a compilation CD to be released with the book. We’ll see if that can come to pass as well.

In the meantime, I’m in a mad rush to complete the rough draft. When you’ve got a 40+ page typed outline, the chapters almost write themselves! But I’ve still got to put the time in to get the last six chapters onto paper and to my editors.

And then there’s the companion book / mobile app that I have in mind. I’ve got to write the content and develop that once the main book gets finished. All in all, I may have pushed the desired publication date back several months, but I still feel like that may not be enough time.

Oh, and I plan on blogging here more frequently. Please send me interesting articles on love and relationships, as I love to include relevant items either on here or Twitter.

Thanks for all of your support, and continue sharing this site with your friends!
Matt Peterworth
thehopefulromantic.net@gmail.com

Maps in a Self-Help Book about Love and Relationships?

If I ruled the world, or at least a publishing company, all books would contain as much supplementary information as possible. Nonfiction, fiction—doesn’t matter. Every work would have an appendix filled with diagrams, background information, digressions and anecdata. And of course, maps.

Victory Johnson as quoted in boingboing.net

I had planned on having an appendix, but definitely had not planned on including any maps. Certainly something to think about.

Photo from Flickr user davecito

Book Review – To Fall In Love Is Foolish

Written in 2004, To Fall In Love Is Foolish was my first self-published book on love and relationships. It encapsulated my thoughts, experiences, and opinions at the time. It was rather personal in nature, so I retired it long ago, but I review it now to give some background on my current project.

In the first chapter, which the book draws its name, To Fall In Love Is Foolish, I described my understanding of falling in love – a completely one-sided affair that is done before the person falling in love knows anything substantial about the other person. I used to do this all of the time in grade school and high school – before even asking the girl out. Once I did ask the girl out, it wouldn’t work out for one reason or another – and I would be heartbroken.

The second chapter, To Be In Love Is Cute, deals with what can happen when two people fall in love before they hardly know anything about each other. The premise being, that if two people fall in love with each other, then they can just as easily fall out of love with each other. (This would be fairly common in high school relationships.)

The third and final chapter, To Grow In Love Is Gorgeous, was then my “solution” to this problem of falling in and out of love. Instead of falling in love right at the beginning of a relationship as many of us are prone to do, a better course of action is to slowly grow in love.

When I tried to apply this from the start of my next serious relationship, I discovered something – yes, growing in love is the right way to start a relationship, but once you know you’ve found somebody great (based on time together), you can’t be afraid to fall in love with them.

Learning that lesson, I’ve incorporated that concept into Chapter 6 of The Hopeful Romantic – Grow In Love, Then Fall In Love – something I was successfully able to do in my relationship with Melissa.