Word Count for Novels and Children’s Books: The Definitive Post

by Chuck Sambuchino

Here's the beginning of a great post by Chuck Sambuchino about the optimal word-count range for novels of various genres, and also includes recommended length for YA, middle grade, and picture books. Click on the link below to read the rest of the article.

    

Word count for novels and books is something I don’t think about too often until I travel to a writers’ conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question: “How long should a book be?” With that in mind, I’ve tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction (novels, young adult, middle grade, children’s books and even memoir).

The most important thing here is to realize that there are always exceptions to these rules. And man, people love to point out exceptions—and they always will. However, if there is one thing I remember from when my wife dragged me kicking and screaming to He’s Just Not That Into You, it’s that you cannot count on being the exception; you must count on being the rule. Aiming to be the exception is setting yourself up for disappointment. What writers fail to see is that for every successful exception to the rule (e.g., a first-time 150,000-word novel), there are at least 100 failures if not 300.

Almost always, high word count means that the writer simply did not edit their work down enough. Or—it means they have two or more books combined into one.

“But what about J.K. Rowling???” asks that man in the back of the room, putting his palms up the air. Well—remember the first Harry Potter book?  It wasn’t that long. After JK made the publishing house oodles and oodles of money, she could do whatever she wanted.  And since most writers haven’t earned oodles, they need to stick to the rules and make sure they work gets read. The other thing that will make you an exception is if your writing is absolutely brilliant. But let’s face it. Most of our work does not classify as “absolutely brilliant” or we’d all have 16 novels at this point.

(Should you sign with a new literary agent? Know the pros and cons.)

ADULT NOVELS: COMMERCIAL & LITERARY

Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for. This is a 100% safe range for literary, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Anything in this word count won’t scare off any agent anywhere.

Now, speaking broadly, you can have as few as 71,000 words and as many as 109,000 words. That is the total range. When it dips below 80K, it might be perceived as too short—not giving the reader enough. It seems as though going over 100K is all right, but not by much. I suggest stopping at 109K because just the mental hurdle to jump concerning 110K is just another thing you don’t want going against you. And, as agent Rachelle Gardner pointed out when discussing word count, over 110K is defined as “epic or saga.” Chances are your cozy mystery or literary novel is not an epic. Rachelle also mentions that passing 100K in word count means it’s a more expensive book to produce—hence agents’ and editors’ aversion to such lengths.

In short:

 80,000 – 89,999:       Totally cool
90,000 – 99,999:       Generally safe
70,000 – 79,999:       Might be too short; probably all right
100,000 – 109,999:    Might be too long; probably all right
Below 70,000:           Too short
110,000 or above       Too long

Chick lit falls into this realm, but chick lit books tend to be a bit shorter and faster. 70-75K is not bad at all.

SCI-FI AND FANTASY

Science fiction and fantasy are the big exceptions because these categories tend to run long. It has to do with all the descriptions and world-building in the writing.

With these genres, I would say 100,000 – 115,000 is an excellent range....

For the rest of this excellent blog post by Chuck Sambuchino, CLICK HERE.
 

STYLE THAT SIZZES becomes FIRE UP YOUR FICTION

I decided to change the title of my award-winning Editor's Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction from Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power to Fire up Your Fiction, so it's more easily evident what the book is about - amping up your prose and making it zing.

I've kept the same cover design and made it clear in the description and title
page that it's the same book, so hopefully nobody who already owns Style That Sizzles will buy this one by mistake.

*16 Great Guides to Writing, Publishing, & Selling Your Book, all $0.99 each on February 28!*

And serendipitously, author Bryan Cohen contacted me recently about participating in a fabulous group promo he's organizing for February 28, when 16 great guides on writing, publishing, and selling your book will all be on sale for 99 cents each.

Click on the title below to find out more about the event and view the list of books offered, with covers and a brief description of each book.

March to a Bestseller - A One-Day Sale on Books for Authors

And join the event on Facebook here.

Here's the list of books that will be offered for $0.99 each on February 28:

- Your First 1000 Copies - Tim Grahl - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DMIWAIC

- Writing Online - Sean Platt - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055LHDQ8/

- Fire Up Your Fiction - Jodie Renner - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00II2773K

- 77 Ways to Find New Readers for Your Self Published Book - Laura Pepper Wu - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00994N0KU/

- 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts, Volume 2 - Bryan Cohen and Jeremiah Jones - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GHXYASM

- How Do I Decide? Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing – Rachelle Gardner - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B4JRNN8

- The Easy Way to Write a Novel That Sells - Rob Parnell - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FR155MU

- Writing Habit Mastery - S.J. Scott - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EORO844/

- How to Write for Kindle: A Non-Fiction Book in 72-Hours or Less - Nancy Hendrickson - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQRMRLW/

- How to Write Dialogue - Marcy Kennedy - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H17HGY8/

- Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View - Jill Elizabeth Nelson - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007PUMQ1O/

- Writing Fight Scenes - Rayne Hall - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MJFVS0/

- Practical Emotional Structure - Jodi Henley - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D0ZI7HU/ -

- Author Publicity Pack - Heather Hart and Shelley Hitz - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BGXAADC/

- The Writer's Tune-Up Manual - Craig Hart - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPEHPR4 -

- Make Money Online - Connie Brentford -  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CXT70VS

 

 

Jodie has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Writing a Killer Thriller and Fire up Your Fiction (Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power), which has won two book awards so far. Look for Immerse the Readers in Your Story World, out soon. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, her blogs, Resources for Writers and The Kill Zone, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. And sign up for her newsletter.

Accolades & New Title for Sizzles, Great Links for Writers

The Okanagan Valley, BC

Just in case you haven't signed up for my occasional newsletter, here's the one I sent out today to my subscribers. Scroll down for new developments for me and my books, plus some links to great blog posts for writers and aspiring authors.

~ JODIE'S UPCOMING BIG MOVE

I’m busy selling my house and packing to move across the country May 1, so am cutting back on my editing until mid-May or June. I’m moving to the beautiful Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada, to be near my family. I know I'm going to love the area, with large lakes, fruit orchards, and vineyards nestled among low mountains!


~ TWO AWARDS FOR SIZZLES

I’m thrilled to report that my writing guide, Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power (soon to be retitled Fire up Your Fiction) has now won two awards, a Silver Medal in Sept. 2013 from the FAPA President’s Book Awards, and recently, Honorable Mention (third) in the 2013 Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-Book Awards. This is significant not only because it’s from the prestigious Writer’s Digest, but also because they only had two categories for this contest, fiction and nonfiction, so only a handful of awards.

Here’s a quote from the all-positive commentary from the Writer’s Digest judge:

“This book should be on the booklist for Master’s Programs in Writing for Publication.” 

Speaking of which, several college creative writing courses have added this book to their list of recommended reading for students. If you know of any college or continuing education courses that would benefit from adding my book to their lists, I’d love it if you could suggest it!

~ UPCOMING TITLE CHANGE 

And I’ve decided to change the title of Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power to Fire up Your Fiction, so it’s instantly apparent what the book is about. And of course I'll make it clear in the description and the first few pages of the book that this is the same book, but with a new title.

                                             

~ THIRD BOOK TO BE RELEASED IN 2014

I’m almost finished the third book in my series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction. This one, called Immerse the Readers in Your Story World, is full of ideas and techniques for engaging your readers and bringing your characters and story to life on the page. Unfortunately, with my big move, the release might be delayed until around mid 2014.                                



~ ONGOING PRESENTATIONS AT WRITERS' CONFERENCES

I’ve also been busy presenting craft-of-writing workshops at writers’ conferences, most recently, the excellent SDSU Writers’ Conference in San Diego, Jan. 24-26, where I gave two presentations, “Engage Your Readers with Deep Point of View” and “Revise for Success.” Feedback from attendees was enthusiastic for both. Here are a few samples, with more coming that will be posted on my website at www.JodieRenner.com/workshops.

“Jodie Renner made my time a huge success at this year’s SDSU Writers’ Conference in San Diego. Her presentation on revision, titled “Revise for Success,” was thorough, informative, and succinct. ... Jodie Renner was a true find at the 2014 San Diego Writers’ Conference. I intend to stay current on whatever future projects include her.” ~ William Patterson, San Diego, Jan. 31, 2014

“Jodie Renner took 15 minutes to knock five years of bad writing habits out of me. Thank you.” ~ Lauren Monahan, Jan. 29, 2014

For a list of my past and future presentations to writers, as well as other comments from attendees, please visit www.JodieRenner.com/workshops 

~ RECENT RELEVANT, USEFUL BLOG POSTS FOR WRITERS:

Writers’ Conferences & Book Festivals in North America in 2014

Book Contests for Indie Authors 

Indie Publishing – Lessons Learned and Still Learning 

Fire up Your Fiction with Foreshadowing 

Using Thought-Reactions to Add Attitude & Immediacy 

Character Descriptions – Learn From the Pros! 

10 Tips for Attracting a Top-Notch Editor for Your Story 

10 Ways to Add Depth to Your Scenes 

Thanks, Amazon, for Promoting my Books for Free! 

Don’t Stop the Story to Introduce Each Character

Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Writing a Killer Thriller and Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, her blog, Resources for Writers, and find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Jodie also blogs alternate Mondays on The Kill Zone blog. Subscribe to Jodie’s “Resources for Writers” newsletter here.

Dialogue Nuts and Bolts

by Jodie Renner, editor & author 

In another article, Amp up That Dialogue!, I discuss various techniques for writing dialogue that will come alive on the page. Drop over there for some advice on making your dialogue less stilted and more natural-sounding. Also, check out another post of mine, Some Dialogue Don’ts.

This article just provides a reference for the grammatically correct way to write dialogue, as well as some style tips for dialogue tags. Using correct punctuation and form for dialogue will keep your readers from becoming distracted, confused or annoyed, and maintain their focus on your story. So if you want your manuscript to look professional and your story to read smoothly, it’s best to follow these technical guidelines.

THE BASICS:

First of all, start a new paragraph every time the speaker changes. On the other hand, don’t start a new paragraph if it’s still the same speaker, unless you’re doing it for a good reason, like a pause or emphasis.

Punctuation for Dialogue:

1. Put quotation marks around all spoken words.

Although in Britain and Australia, it’s more common to use single quotes around dialogue, in the United States and Canada, the standard is double quotes around dialogue, with single quotes around any quoted words or phrases within the quoted dialogue.

2. In North America, the punctuation always goes inside the end quote, not outside it:

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she replied.

3. If the person is asking a question, the question mark goes inside the quotation mark, and a period goes at the end of the whole sentence. The same goes for exclamations.

“Where were you?” she asked.
“Help!” she screamed.

Note that in the above examples, even though your word processor wants you to put a capital letter for “she” or “he”, these need to be lowercase, as they don’t start a new sentence.

4. If the person speaking is making a statement (or a suggestion or a command), replace the period (which would follow if it weren’t in quotation marks) with a comma. Then put your period at the end of the sentence.

“Let’s go home,” he said.

5. If there’s no attribute (he said, she said), put a period inside the closing quotation mark.

“Turn off the TV.”

6. If you start with the dialogue tag, put a comma after it, before your opening quotation mark and the dialogue:

He said, “But my game is on.”

7. If you want to put your dialogue tag in the middle of a sentence, put a comma inside the first set of closing quotation marks, and also after the dialogue tag:
“I can never understand,” she said, “what you see in him.” (Note no capital for the second part.)

8. If one person is speaking and the dialogue goes on for more than one paragraph (definitely not a great idea to have one person speaking at great length), you leave out the closing quotation marks at the end of the first paragraph, but put opening quotation marks at the beginning of the next one. Use closing quotation marks only when that person is finished speaking.


“…no matter what you do.    
“And another thing, don’t ….”

STYLE TIPS

1. Avoid overusing dialogue tags. Instead of constantly using he said or she said (or the name and said), replace them often with action beats, which will also help bring the scene alive:

He closed the door very quietly. Too late.
She stood there, hands on hips. “Where’ve you been?”
“Don’t start.” He took off his coat and hung it up.
 

The action immediately before or after the words tells us who’s talking.
Or, if it can be done without confusing the readers, just leave out the dialogue tag or action beat. Context often makes it obvious who’s speaking. 

Note that when you use an action tag instead of he/she said, you use a period at the end of the dialogue, not a comma like you would before “he said".

2. The best dialogue tags are the simple he said and she said (or asked), or with the name: John said, Carol said. These simple dialogue tags don’t draw attention to themselves or interrupt the story line, as they’re almost invisible. Avoid fancy or redundant tags like queried, chortled, alleged, proclaimed, conjectured, affirmed, explained, apologized, etc., which can be distracting. 

Don't say “I'm sorry,” she apologized. or “This way,” he explained. Those “explanations” are redundant “telling” and mildly insulting to the reader, who can tell by what they're saying. Just use “said”. Or often, no speech tag is needed. 

But I do suggest using verbs that accurately and quickly describe how the words are delivered, like whispered, shouted, yelled, screamed, or stammered.

3. You can’t use words like laughed or grinned or smiled or grimaced or scowled as dialogue tags.
 

These are both incorrect:
 

“You look great,” he grinned.
“Why, thank you,” she smiled.
 
Why don’t they work? Because smiling is not talking; you can’t “smile” or “grin” words.

Change to:

“You look great,” he said, grinning.

or “You look great.” He grinned. (Note period and capital “He”)

“Why, thank you.” She smiled.  (Period and capital for action tag.)

Or “Why, thank you,” she said, then smiled at him.

4. Use adverbs very sparingly.
 

Avoid:

“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically.
“Come here,” he said imperiously.
“I’m in charge,” she said haughtily.

Instead, make sure the words they’re saying and any actions convey the feelings you wish to express.

 

5. Slightly off-topic: Do not put quotation marks around thoughts. That’s a topic for another post.

 TWO CURRENT STYLE TRENDS (Jodie’s observations):

1. Contemporary North American fiction seems to avoid the reversed form, “said Carol,” in favor of “Carol said.” The reversed form seems to be more British and also considered kind of archaic, which makes it great for historical fiction.

2. Most contemporary North American fiction writers, with the notable exception of Lee Child, seem to put most dialogue tags after the words spoken:

“Let’s go,” Tony said.  

Rather than before:  
Tony said, “Let’s go.”

However, if what they're saying is lengthy, readers want to know immediately who's talking, so I would put the “Jordan said,” before the paragraph of dialogue.

These last two points are of course just my observations of common usage, not rules. But aspiring or debut authors would do well to stick with what seems to be in favor, to give a contemporary feel to your novel. Of course, if you’re writing historical fiction, go for the older “said Elizabeth” form.

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Captivate Your Readers, Fire up Your Fiction, and Writing a Killer Thriller. She has also published two clickable time-saving e-resources to date: Quick Clicks: Spelling List and Quick Clicks: Word Usage. You can find Jodie at www.JodieRenner.com, and on Facebook and Twitter.

30 Excellent Points to Consider as You Revise / Rewrite Your Novel

I just discovered an excellent checklist for revising / rewriting your fiction. I highly recommend you go through these points to see if any of them resonate with you in regards to your current WIP.

I tried to copy just the beginning of the list to give you a taste of it, but it would only let me copy the whole thing. It's on an excellent blog called "Writers Write." Here's the link:  http://writerswrite.co.za/rewriting-a-checklist-for-authors-1 Follow them by clicking on the links at the end.

Rewriting – A Checklist for Authors

30 questions to ask when you're revising / rewriting your novel
      

Taken from Writers Write -How to write a book. Join our Writers Write course from 13-16 January 2014 (more dates available on request). Email news@writerswrite.co.za for details.
Join us on Facebook and Twitter for daily writing tips

Follow @Writers_Write

 AND SCROLL DOWN FOR A LIST OF WRITERS' CONFERENCES & BOOK FESTIVALS IN 2014.

Time for Looking Back and Looking Ahead!

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2014 exceed your expectations in every way!  

First, thank you.
I just want to say, first of all, that I'm so grateful to all the readers of my posts on various blogs and my two fiction-writing guides. And a special thanks to those of you who were kind enough to take the time to write a review of one or both of my books on Amazon! Thanks so much, all of you, for enriching 2013 for me, and I hope my books and blog posts have provided you with lots of helpful tips to make your fiction stronger!

And thank you to the writers I've worked with this year to make your novels and short stories more intriguing. I've enjoyed our interactions and reading your exciting stories!

It's the time for looking back on the past year and looking forward to the next one. How did 2013 go for you? What are you planning and hoping for in 2014?

Considering it has the number 13 in it, the year 2013 wasn't at all unlucky for me. I had a great year, in fact. And I've got some major lifestyle changes coming up in 2014! It promises to be a big year for me! Scroll down for those.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2013 FOR JODIE: "It was a very good year..."

Travel and presentations:
I managed to continue travelling to various places in North America in 2013, starting with a trip to Cuba in January, then Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in February, Colorado in March, Boston in May, NYC in July, Nashville in August, then visiting with my family in various parts of BC, Canada, in September. All stimulating and fun!

I participated in two panels at Left Coast Crime's conference in Colorado Springs in March and enjoyed getting together there with my blog pals at Crime Fiction Collective. In May I attended Grub Street's 2013 conference in Boston, The Muse and the Marketplace. In July, I was off to Craftfest and Thrillerfest in New York City for the fourth time, where I participated in a panel on revision and self-editing and sold a lot of books, especially Writing a Killer Thriller. Then I was on a similar panel in August at Killer Nashville in Nashville, TN, and I also presented a 90-min. workshop on point of view at Killer Nashville - and sold lots of books. Then, during a trip to BC in Canada, I presented to a writers' group and an editors' group. As well, I gave two talks, one on first pages and one on self-publishing, to my local writers' group, the London Writers Society.

Both books out in print, too:

And between traveling, presenting, and editing, I managed to revise and expand both of the books in my Editor's Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction series and publish them both in trade paperback format. Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power came out in print in March, then I published a significantly updated and expanded version of my Writing a Killer Thriller also in paperback in early July, just in time to sell at Thrillerfest in NYC. I love having these books in both e-book and print, and sales indicate that readers do, too!



Book Award:
And one of my books, Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power, won an award! It received a Silver Medal in the Florida Authors & Publishers President's Book Awards, in the reference category.

Magazine Articles:
I was interviewed in Southern Writers Magazine in the Sept./Oct. 2013 issue, and had two of my articles on tips for adding suspense, tension and intrigue published in Suspense Magazine.

Judge for Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards:
I evaluated books again for this contest. I received 25 books to review and was only allowed to choose one to go on to the next level. I submitted written evaluations for all of them, to go on to the authors.

Writing:
I've got about three-quarters of my next book in the editor's guide series, Immerse the Readers in Your Story World. I plan to publish it by April.

Blogging:
I've been busy blogging all year, too. After guest-blogging on the award-winning blog, The Kill Zone, for a year, I was welcomed on Oct. 7 as an official member and biweekly contributor (every 2nd Monday). I've continued to blog on Crime Fiction Collective on the alternate Mondays, and I also guest-blog occasionally on other great blogs for writers, like D.P. Lyle's Writer's Forensics Blog, Elizabeth Craig's blog, Mystery Writing is Murder, Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi's blogs, and others. And of course I still post here whenever I can!

Links to some of my recent blog posts:

The Kill Zone: Using Thought-Reactions to Add Attitude & Immediacy

Writers Helping Writers: Character Descriptions – Learn From the Pros! 

Crime Fiction Collective: 10 Tips for Attracting a Top-Notch Editor for Your Story  

The Kill Zone: 10 Ways to Add Depth to Your Scenes 

The Kill Zone: Don’t Stop the Story to Introduce Each Character 

The Writer’s Forensics Blog: Thrillers vs. Mysteries 

The Kill Zone: Immerse Your Readers with Sensory Details 

The Bookshelf Muse: Let the Characters Tell the Story 

Mystery Writing is Murder: Concrete Tips for Developing an Appealing Voice in Your Fiction 

Editing & Critiquing:
And of course I've been hard at work editing fiction manuscripts and also doing critiques of the first 10-50 pages of novels. I specialize in editing thrillers and other fast-paced fiction and I love my freelance editing, especially since I get to pick and choose the manuscripts I work on! I've had the privilege of working with some very talented writers in the last few years, so I find my work really satisfying and rewarding. And I love the interactions and friendships I've made with the authors whose stories I helped polish up to get ready to successfully publish or submit to agents.

BIG CHANGES FOR JODIE IN 2014:

The big move:

Kelowna, BC

My biggest news is that I'm planning to move across the country in May or June, and am busy decluttering and downsizing a 3-bedroom house with a full (and filled!) basement in preparation for the long-distance
move and setting up an apartment in Kelowna, BC, Canada. So of course every spare moment on the weekends is spent sorting through stuff and deciding what to give away, what to sell, what to toss, and what to take with me. I'm excited because I'll be near family and old friends again, and the area, the Okanagan valley, is gorgeous, with large lakes, low mountains, fruit orchards and vineyards everywhere!

Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada

Presenting at various conferences in 2014:
- January 24-26: SDSU Writers' Conference, in San Diego, CA. Two workshops: Deep Point of View; Revision and Self-Editing.
- May 16-17: Tallahassee Writers' Conference, in Tallahassee, Florida. Two workshops.
- June 18-24, RomCon University, Denver, Colorado. Two workshops: Deep POV; Revision & Editing.
- August - When Words Collide, Calgary, Alberta
- Sept. 25-27 - Florida Heritage Book Festival & Writers Conference, St. Augustine, Florida

Next book out!
I'm excited about my third book in the editor's guide series, Immerse the Readers in Your Story World, which will be out in print in the next few months!

And more editing.
And I'm looking forward to finishing fiction manuscripts I'm editing and collaborating with some new writers in 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 
Here's hoping 2014 will be your most creative, productive, and satisfying year ever!
How was 2013 for you? What are your plans for 2014? Please share in the comments below. 

Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: WRITING A KILLER THRILLER and STYLE THAT SIZZLES & PACING FOR POWER (Silver Medalist in the FAPA Book Awards, 2013). Both titles are available in e-book and paperback. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Jodie also blogs alternate Mondays on The Kill Zone blog and Crime Fiction Collective blog.


To subscribe to Jodie’s “Resources for Writers” newsletter (published about 4-10 times a year), please click on this link: http://eepurl.com/C9dKD

Pros, Cons, & Steps for Publishing Your Own Book on Amazon

by Jodie Renner, fiction editor and author of writing guides      

(updated 2017)

I get a lot of questions from newbie / aspiring authors interested in self-publishing their book. Many don't realize that it's free and relatively easy to publish your book on Amazon as a Kindle e-book. And fast! It takes about 12 hours to appear on amazon.com for sale, and you receive your 70% royalties every month!

I’ve published seven books myself on Amazon since July 2012, as e-books for Kindle, and have published five of them in trade paperback as well. 

Here are some pros, cons, and tips, based on my experience:

ADVANTAGES TO SELF-PUBLISHING ON AMAZON:

- Amazon sells more books than all the other publishers combined.

- It’s free to publish on Amazon.

- You’re in control. You control the whole process from start to finish and retain all the rights to your book.

- It’s fast. You don’t have to wait around for agents to respond. You upload the book and it’s ready to sell in 12 hours or less. You can start earning money right away while you write the next one!

- More and more people are buying e-books. You can take a Kindle or other e-reader anywhere, with more than a thousand books inside it! And e-books are quick and easy to purchase from wherever you/they are – with one-click buying, the e-book appears on your/their Kindle within seconds.

- Readers can also read your e-books on their computer, tablet, or smartphone. Just download the free app from Amazon.

 - You get 70% of the list price of your book (if it’s priced between $2.99 and $9.99; otherwise 35%), as opposed to 10-15% from publishers – IF you can get an agent and publisher to accept your book!

- You don’t need to write a whole book. You can publish a short story or article and sell it for $0.99 (you get 35% if it’s under $2.99)

- You get to control the pricing, so you can raise or lower the price of your e-book whenever you want, to boost sales.

- It’s easy to upload your book to Amazon and you can revise it as frequently as you want and just keep replacing the one that’s there with a better version.

- You can check your sales stats daily (or hourly) and watch them rise. You can also view stats graphs over time (and geographically) to see what’s working and what isn’t to promote sales.

- You receive your royalty payments every month (one month’s delay), as opposed to annually or quarterly from publishers or distributors.

– Amazon helps promote your book, through your book’s Amazon page, emails they send out mentioning it, and their feature, “Customers who bought this item also bought…”

- If you enroll in KDP Select, you earn money when people borrow your book, you can offer it free for up to 5 days out of every 90 as a promotion, and you can take advantage of other great Kindle promo ideas, like their Kindle Countdown Deals, and their Matchbook program, where, if readers buy or have bought the print version of your book, they can buy the e-book for free.

DISADVANTAGES:

- You’re in charge of quality control! So you need to guard against publishing it prematurely. Make sure it’s polished and ready! The competition is fierce out there, and reviewers can be very critical if you publish a book full of typos or otherwise hasty or amateurish writing. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and damage your reputation by publishing a less-than-professional book.

- Although publishing it is free, you’ll still need to pay for editing, a cover design, and probably formatting. And you may decide to hire someone to promote it. You should have a budget of at least $1,500 to spend on all this. $2K or more is more realistic.

- You’ll need to do most of your own marketing and promoting (although Amazon does a lot, too), or hire a publicist. But traditional publishers now expect their authors to do a lot of their own promoting, too. Mid-list published authors basically are expected to do all or most of their own promoting, including paying for it.

STEPS FOR SELF-PUBLISHING ON AMAZON: 

1. Write with wild abandon.

2. Revise. See my articles “Revising, Editing, and Polishing Your Novel,” “How to Save a Bundle on Editing Costs,” and “How to Slash Your Word Count by 20-50% – and tighten up your story without losing any of the good stuff!”

3. Run it past a critique group or “beta” (volunteer) readers (smart people who read in your genre – don’t need to be writers themselves).

4. Revise again, based on feedback you’ve received from your critique group or beta readers (using your own judgment on what advice to accept and what to ignore, of course).

5. Find and hire a reputable freelance editor who specializes in fiction (if that’s what you write) and reads your genre.

6. Revise, based on the editor’s suggestions.

7. Hire a formatter (or do it yourself if you know a lot about formatting). See my article, “Basic Formatting of Your Manuscript (Formatting 101)”.

8. Hire someone to design an eye-catching, professional looking book cover. Be sure the title and author can be read on the thumbnail size posted on Amazon. Google “book cover designers.” or check the list of Resources on The Kill Zone blog.

9. Publish on Amazon.com, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).

- Decide on two categories, add a great book description, think of 7 keyword phrases (search words), and write an interesting author bio, with links and a photo.

- Once it's been up for a while as an e-book and you've had a chance to tweak it if it needs it, consider publishing it in print as well. That's basically free, too. It's Print on Demand, so the books aren't printed until people (or you) order some. But it's surprisingly quick when they/you do!

10. In the meantime, you’ll have already been building up a social network and platform:

- Facebook, Twitter, author website, blog, guest blog posts for others

- Writers’ groups and organizations, Goodreads – lists, giveaways

I suggest, as a minimum, a Facebook page and either a website or a blog. If you don’t have time to blog regularly, create an author website instead.

11. Start actively promoting your book – but don’t be annoying. By the way, Amazon does an excellent job of promoting your book for you, for free, especially if you enroll in KDP Select. See my article on Crime Fiction Collective, "Thanks, Amazon, for Promoting my Book for Free!"

12. Start writing the next one. Or publish a short story based on characters from your book and price it at $0.99. Your second book will help sell your first one.

Good luck with all this! I look forward to seeing your book on sale!

Jodie Renner is a freelance fiction editor and the award-winning author of three craft-of-writing guides in her series An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: FIRE UP YOUR FICTION,  CAPTIVATE YOUR READERS, and WRITING A KILLER THRILLER, as well as two clickable time-saving e-resources, QUICK CLICKS: Spelling List and QUICK CLICKS: Word Usage. She has also organized two anthologies for charity: VOICES FROM THE VALLEYS – Stories and Poems about Life in BC’s Interior, and CHILDHOOD REGAINED – Stories of Hope for Asian Child Workers. Website: www.JodieRenner.com;  Facebook. Amazon Author Page.

Checklist for Before You Submit or Publish Your Novel

I recently discovered an excellent article by James Scott Bell, published on The Kill Zone blog in 2010. Here's the beginning of Bell's post, with a link to the rest.

Before You Submit

by James Scott Bell

The May/June issue of Writer's Digest has a sidebar from YA editor Anica Morse Rissi, wherein she gives nine things you can do to elevate your manuscript before submission.

The list is right on, not only for getting a manuscript ready to submit to agents or editors, but also if you're considering self-publishing. So I'm going to give you the tips with my own commentary on them.

1. Revise, revise, revise.

As the author of a whole book on the revision process, I'm not going to quibble with this one. You can, however, become "revision obsessed" and spend way too long on a project. In my book I give a process for getting over that, but you can just as well come up with one of your own, so long as you eventually send your work out. Not too soon, but not too late, either.

2. Start with conflict and tension.

This is perhaps the most important tip of all. Some of our highest traffic here at TKZ has come from posts on what to do -- and what not to do -- on first pages, as well as the numerous first page critiques we've done. Search those out in the archives. Now, conflict or tension does not have to be "big." It can really be any sort of disturbance to the Lead's ordinary world.

3. Don't start with backstory.

An obvious corollary to #2. Backstory is best when it is delayed, although little sprinkles can be added to the first pages for depth. Just make the action primary up front.

4. Give the readers something to wonder about.

...

For the rest of these great tips, with Bell's commentary, click HERE.