Public Service Announcement (or My digital adventure part four) ....

A while back I did a short series of posts on my experience of self-publishing an e-book. I referred to these posts more recently here. In part three I talked about sending your book out for review. Reviews expose your book (whether digital and/or print) to potential buyers, which is highly desirable. Not all reviewers will review self published (or e-book only) books. It is totally up to them whether they do or not, and if they ARE willing, it is up to us not to make the job harder. So when I read this recently

I've been reviewing a few self-published books lately for KidsBooksNZ. Here's a heartfelt request to self-publishers - when sending your books off for review, please supply an information sheet including background details about the book and the author - and particularly important is the price of the book and where it can be bought. I get a bit crabby when I have to surf all over the net looking for the important details to put into the review. You need to make it easy for us reviewers!

on facebook I realised there was some information missing in my post and here was an opportunity to fill in these gaps.

When sending your book (whether print or digital) out to reviewers, please include an information sheet with a small quote from the book, a brief blurb on what it is about, and a paragraph about yourself. Also include the cover image and details about retail price and where it is available, the ISBN number, the age range it is intended for and the number of pages or word count. Last but not least include your contact information. My info sheet for Sally Bangle: Unexpected Detective looked like this (although better laid out cos I am a blunt instrument when it comes to rearranging images on blogspot).

New Title Information/ Review Copy

"She used the end of the pen to push her wispy hair behind her ears. Then she wrote My mother is Felicity Bangle (strict), My Father is Captain William Bangle (lost), she couldn’t bring herself to say ‘dead’ and anyway no one was one hundred percent sure that was true. My brother is a pain in the butt she wrote. She crossed out the last bit after is and put Malcolm Bangle instead. Then she couldn’t help adding, (annoying). She started a new section. Favourite foods: ham and pineapple pizza, salt and vinegar chips, chocolate. Hate: Mum’s Tuna Surprise and asparagus. Best friend - Abigail Fray. Worst enemy - Vanessa Blunt (I wish we’d never met). Greatest wish: to have my Dad back and go to a different school and never ever be bullied again."

Sally Bangle's sea faring dad was lost at sea seven years before. But is he really dead? When Sally is given a school project to research the very strange Professor Angstrom she turns up some interesting information about that fateful sea voyage. What really happened? Is that really the Professor wrapped up in bandages in St Olaf's? Sally won't rest until she has figured out the mystery, dragging her best friend, her best friend's chauffer, her brother and the school bully along on a dangerous mission to discover the truth.

Melinda Szymanik is the author of picture books, short stories and novels for young people. She lives in Auckland with her family, runs a business with her husband, and won the 2009 NZ Post Children’s Choice Award for her picture book The Were-Nana.

Sally Bangle: Unexpected Detective Melinda Szymanik for 8 to 12 year olds December, 2012 35,699 words digital formats only ISBN 978-0-473-23336-5 (epub) ISBN 978-0-473-23337-2 (mobi)

E-book available at Smashwords, Amazon, and other e-book retailers

For further information or interview requests contact Melinda Szymanik

09 000 0000, 021 000 000, melinda@tale-spin.com

Tale-Spin Media, 00 V----- R---, -- ----, Auckland, New Zealand

Other examples can be seen on the Scholastic NZ website here. Make one for each book you publish and send out. Make it easy for the reviewer. They will think fondly of you if you do.

A subsequent commenter on that facebook post had this to add  

While you're at it then can we also ask for professional standard of information in the copyright page. I've had books with no contact info at all, lack of clarity of the name of the publisher, even the year missing. it shouldn't be hard to look at good quality published books and see what they do.

If you want your book to look professionally produced then it pays to provide the same information. These details are not put there to pad the book out, they are important information!

For Sally Bangle: Unexpected Detective my copyright page looks like this:

SALLY BANGLE: UNEXPECTED DETECTIVE

by

MELINDA SZYMANIK

Published by Tale-Spin Media, 2012

ISBN 978-0-473-23336-5

Copyright 2012 Melinda Szymanik

This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Except for the purposes of fair reviewing, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner and the publisher of the book.

Front Cover Design by Cheryl Rowe, Auckland, New Zealand

Now you will spot that the publisher's contact information is missing. As this is my own publishing house I don't want to include my personal address and I don't have a PO Box number. In this case I hope any interested parties would look to contact me as the author and my website and blog addresses are in the back of the book. But this is something I will look to improve on in the future. It is all a learning curve...

Sally Bangle: Unexpected Detective

I seem to have published a book: a junior mystery for confident readers aged 8 to 11. Here it is

It is available to buy at Smashwords and at Amazon. Soon it should also be available for Kobo, ipads, at Barnes and Noble and Sony.

This is what it is about:  

Sally Bangle's sea faring dad was lost at sea seven years before. But is he really dead? When Sally is given a school project to research the very strange Professor Angstrom she turns up some interesting information about that fateful sea voyage. What really happened? Is that really the Professor wrapped up in bandages in St Olafs? Sally won't rest until she has figured out the mystery and she drags her best friend, her best friend's chauffer, her brother and the school bully along on a dangerous mission to discover the truth.

If it were a print book it would probably be about 170 pages long. I am rather pleased cos I did it all myself, except for the cover which I had some professional help with. This was my original picture 

Angst is a life-shortener...

eeek - the days are flying by. Time for a new post methinks. As you will all know if you have been reading along it has been quite a year. When I think back on all the things that have happened this year I have trouble believing that I squeezed all that in to less than 12 months. At times I was chasing my tail, juggling too many balls and feeling stressed. Thank goodness I wasn't juggling chainsaws. My health has been a bit rubbish and I'm not sure if that was a cause or a symptom of other things. Looking back over what I have been up to, after moaning and groaning probably more than I should have, I can't actually help feeling a little bit proud and pretty happy about all the things I achieved. Lots of deadlines, appointments and events mean you get a lot of things done. Now that the pressure has eased off I am feeling guilty that I'm not doing stuff and am wasting heaps more time doing silly pointless things. Of course this week is an exception because we are going away next week and all the things I have been avoiding while I twiddle my thumbs in a decorative fashion now need doing before we go. So I am making lists and working my way through them - suffice to say I will have enough underwear to wear on my holiday and I WILL remember to pack the power cord for my laptop so I can keep writing.

I am also assembling everything I need to upload my junior fiction as an e-book. The manuscript is edited and I am about to start formatting. I have been thinking alot about e-books and print books and the publishing industry and publishers, agents, booksellers and everyone else. If you are agonising about ANY aspect of publishing, know that you are not alone. It is an imperfect science. The best way forward is to keep informed, make decisions you can live with and don't angst over everything. Angst is a life-shortener. My experiment in publishing my junior novel Sally Bangle: Unexpected Detective myself is a terrific opportunity to test it all out. I want to know, so I am finding out. After all, knowledge is power.

And I was extremely thrilled to see this in the post last week.

The latest Magpies magazine. And look who is inside it!!

Yes, it's me!!Thank you to the very lovely Julie Harper who interviewed me and wrote a very nice article about me for the New Zealand section of the magazine. I was most excited (still am).