✨Mary Kubica on the thrill of domestic suspense✨
We have our usual Books with Hooks, and then Bianca interviews NYT bestselling author, Mary Kubica. Raspberry Press answers all your self-publishing questions
Hello wonderful sh*theads 😉 April has just begun, making it the perfect time to get those writing goals set, and to look your WIP in the face and remind it who’s boss 😉
In this week’s episode, Bianca, Carly, and CeCe share their usual wisdom in Books with Hooks. After which, Bianca interviews NYT bestselling author, Mary Kubica to chat about her novel, She’s Not Sorry 😍 Finally, Raspberry Press shares an article highlighting some of the benefits of self-publishing, and we share links to Carly and CeCe’s latest seminars.
As usual, we are continuing our TSNOTYAW Membership Program so you can get even more The Shit No One Tells You About Writing goodness! Our podcast episodes and Friday newsletter issues will continue to go out free of charge (we *love* sharing all this amazing content with writers like you). But as TSNOTYAW has grown, so too have the many, many hours our team pours into it, and in order to be able to keep showing up for our lovely listeners, we decided to launch this exciting new venture.
For just $8USD a month or $80USD a year, you can receive our paid newsletter on Tuesdays which features weekly bonus author Q&As, exclusive content from industry experts, weekly access to Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra’s written notes on queries from the podcast’s Books With Hooks feature, monthly bonus podcast episodes, AND regular Ask Me Anythings / Q&As with Carly, CeCe, and Bianca Marais. If that doesn’t kickstart your writing journey, we don’t know what will!
Thanks for reading ❤️
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
This Week’s Podcast✨🎙️✨
In this week’s 📕Books with Hooks🪝, Bianca, Carly, and CeCe discuss:
Choosing a unique title for your work
Having a strong plot connection between your main characters in a multi POV novel
Avoiding situations where the agent has to make too many assumptions in a query
Choosing between italics and dialogue tags when having a character talk to themselves
Balancing interiority so as not to leak tension
Framing your story in a way that is accurate to your work
Connecting external stakes to plot points
Centering the reader in a memoir query, and
CeCe's tension song!
After which, Bianca interviews NYT bestselling author, Mary Kubica, about her latest novel, She's Not Sorry. The two discuss the thriller genre; readers’ fascination with the domestic suspense genre; how Mary approaches structure and the creation of tension; how personal universal elements can connect readers to characters; tackling the 50% chunk of Act II; writing an 'authentic' twist that doesn't make the reader feel manipulated; strategies for hiding clues in plain sight; and advice for thriller and domestic suspense writers
More information about Mary can be found here, or you can connect with her on Twitter!
You can purchase She’s Not Sorry on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. Buying books through this link supports a local indie bookstore, as well as The Shit No One Tells You About Writing 📚❤️
Sign up for Bianca’s webinar 😍🌟
Join Bianca on the 11th of May from 10am-5pm ET as she hosts a one-day virtual retreat specifically for memoirists!
Speakers include:
Catherine Gildiner – Author of Too Close to the Falls, After the Falls, Coming Ashore and Good Morning, Monster: Five Heroic Journeys to Recovery.
Chelsea Devantez - Emmy-nominated writer, comedian, and filmmaker. Author of the upcoming memoir, I Shouldn't Be Telling You This (But I'm Going to Anyway).
Courtney Maum - Author of five books, including the game changing publishing guide, Before and After the Book Deal, and the memoir, The Year of the Horses.
Bonny Reichert – Award-winning journalist, chef, and author of the upcoming memoir, How to Share an Egg: A True Story of Hunger, Love and Plenty.
Abby Maslin – Bestselling author of the memoir, Love You Hard, and a contributing essayist in Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids.
Ronit Plank - Award-winning writer, teacher, and podcaster who hosts Let's Talk Memoir. Author of the memoir, When She Comes Back.
Each 40-minute session will be followed by a 20-minute Q & A in which delegates get to ask the presenters all their burning questions.
The retreat will be taped, and the recording will be sent out the next day.
The registration fee is US $ 149.00
For more information and to register, click below!
Be part of Carly’s masterclass 😍📝
Have you heard?! Carly’s new course is available! Is her course for you? Watch her video below. Over 100 of you grabbed it this past weekend and, if you haven’t yet, be sure to get it now. (If you didn’t bag the early bird pricing, Substack subscribers can claim it now with a discount for the month of April! Use code SUBSTACK15.)
Choosing a self-publishing journey to publication
By: Raspberry Press
For all you writers out there who are looking to publish your book, there are various avenues to publishing, as well as pros and cons to each.
More and more, traditionally published authors are choosing to self-publish to maintain control of their work and maximize the royalties they earn.
People who choose self-publishing are usually motivated by the following benefits:
• You maintain full creative control of your book
• You can get your publication out when you want it out
• You get to choose who edits, designs, and illustrates your book and cover
• You maintain full ownership of your book and future editions
• You earn higher royalty rates per book sold
The steps to self-publishing are the same ones a traditional publisher would take. However, when you self-publish, you are not only the author, but also the publisher. You are the person who hires the people to do the steps for you, or you do some of the steps yourself:
Editing
There are various stages of editing, which include developmental edits, copy-editing and proofreading, and it’s recommended that your manuscript gets edited multiple times before it goes to print, either by yourself or a professional.
The cost of an editor depends on various factors like the editor’s level of experience, the length of the manuscript, and the type of service.
A copy editor may charge $0.020 per word. A proofreader’s rates are generally slightly lower, and a developmental editor’s rates would be higher. Longer manuscripts are obviously more expensive to edit, so if you’re writing historical fiction or fantasy, for example, your editorial costs will be significantly higher than if you’re writing middle grade fiction.
If you can’t afford professional editors, ensure that you’ve had plenty of beta readers to help catch those pesky mistakes.
Before sending your draft to the designer, always do a final spelling and grammar check. Note: Microsoft Word does not check titles and subtitles if you have used the design features in the software to write your manuscript. Double-check these manually.
Design
Book design is how the book is laid out. Software used for design can be as simple as Microsoft Word; Pages for Mac Users; or Adobe Indesign (our favourite at Raspberry Press).
If you are writing a children’s book you will need illustrations. If you are able to do both writing and illustrations, lucky you. Hiring an illustrator can be quite the investment. However, there are places to find more affordable art such as Fiverr, a company which connects people with freelancers. No matter what illustrator you go with, it is important they know to leave space for the text, and be mindful of what art would end up in the gutter.
Cover Design
It’s recommended that you have your book professionally designed. Your cover is your sales pitch! This is the first impression. As the old saying goes “Never judge a book by its cover”, but the reality is people do.
A professional book cover designer typically costs about $400-$800. However, a less-experienced designer would cost less, while a more elaborate cover from a bigger name designer would cost a lot more. It’s important to do your research to budget accordingly. Check out the covers of other self-published books that you like to see who designed them for referrals.
The AI market is also changing the way book covers are designed.
ISBN
Your book will need an ISBN.
If you are planning an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover book of the same title, you will need a different ISBN for each type of book.
Potential Royalty Earnings Per Book Sold
Your typical royalties when self-publishing vary depending on the type of book, page count, paper, and where you choose to sell your book.
When using online distributors, such as Amazon or Ingram Spark, a 150-page non-fiction paperback book listed for $20.00 can expect an approximately $8.50 royalty payment per book sold. A 350-page fiction book with a list cost of $25.00, can expect an approximately $8.25 royalty payment. For a 36-page children’s picture paperback book, in full premium color and with a list price of $14.99, you can expect a royalty of $3.75 because premium color paper is at a premium! Online distributors utilize print-on-demand services; these royalty earnings already take into account the printing costs.
If you negotiate to have your book physically placed in a bookstore, the retailer usually requests a 40-55% discount off the cover price. For example, if your list price is $20.00, and your printing costs are $6.00, and your agreement with the retailer is for them to have 40% royalty, this equates to $8.00 going to the bookstore, and $6.00 to the author, per book sold.
Another avenue for selling books is directly to the customer by attending book fairs, book signings, or other events. This is where the author gets 100% of the royalty less the printing costs.
Raspberry Press is a boutique publishing company that helps people self-publish. We see the value of the work put in front of us and provide consultation and services to help people turn their manuscripts into publications.
Our goal at Raspberry Press is to provide people with the steps and services to publish their books and to make their publishing journeys enjoyable and rewarding. We understand publishing a book is your dream, and understand the courage and self-belief it takes to publish a book. Making publishing a positive experience is important to us and that is why we developed Raspberry Press!
We are grateful for the opportunity to share a bit about ourselves in this newsletter and the introductory steps to self-publishing provided above.
If you are looking to self-publish and want support along the way please reach out to us at: info@raspberrypress.ca
We are happy to help no matter what stage your book is at!
Please also look us up on our socials and like our pages:
Facebook: Raspberry Press
Instagram: @raspberrypress
Website: www.raspberrypress.ca
A Seminar With Our Very Own CeCe Lyra 😍🌟
Join CeCe for her popular online course Writing Tension: Creating Tension, Conflict, and Stakes in a Story — this time in an all-new 2-day format with an interactive component. Keep in mind this new format has limited spots, so sign up early if you’d like to secure yours!
That’s all for this week’s news! If you enjoyed it, why not share the love? 🥰
Until next week, happy writing! Tune in again then for more invaluable wisdom from our wonderful hosts! 😍
❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
Our work takes place on land now known as Toronto and Ottawa and we acknowledge that these are the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples as well as the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Toronto is covered under Treaty 13 and the Williams Treaties. We respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures, languages, and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada. We invite you to learn more about the land you inhabit, the history of that land, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together at Native Land or Whose Land.
Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra are literary agents at P.S. Literary Agency, but their work in this newsletter is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly and CeCe in this newsletter are solely that of themselves and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.
"situations where the agent has to make too many assumptions in a query" That's assuming they looked at the query : )
This was a fantastic episode!