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Modern Papyrus

Tag Archives: blogging

Is Having a Blog Worth It?

03 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in Self-Publishing, Thoughts

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blogging, thoughts


Salve! Welcome to all my new readers! Glad to have you here! Today I want to talk about my thoughts on whether having a blog is ‘worth it.’ Continue reading →

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New Poem – Belief

08 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in NaNoWriMo2017, poetry, Self-Publishing, Website

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Tags

blog, blogging, poems, poetry


Salve! Congratulations to the blog, and major thanks to you, the readers of this blog, for your inspiration! To celebrate, here’s a poem called Belief. I wrote it and planned to share it later, but now seems an apt choice for this to be shared. Remember to subscribe and follow along on my writing journey! C&C always welcome!

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How to Trim Costs for a Self-Published Author

06 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in How to, Self-Publishing

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Tags

blogging, Books, how to, Self publishing, self-publishing


Hi everyone,

Finally, back into the swing of things. I promised myself I’d get going by March. Well, it’s March! My post today isn’t too long, but it focuses on one of the biggest challenges facing a new author – one without prior book sales or a person who (like me) sees bumps from new books but not earth shattering sales numbers.

So how do you budget for a new book? If you’ve published books previously, you’ll already have your guidelines. For me, an average ‘budget’ for a new book looks something like this…

Editing ~$2000

Formatting/Cover Art/Illustrations ~$750*

Publishing/Proofreading/Copyright Fees, etc ~$100

Advertisements, Giveaways, Shipping ~$150

So as you can see, nearly $3,000. Definitely a long term haul. Obviously, your experiences may vary based on editor, cover art/illustrators (or lack thereof), and how much advertisements/giveaways, etc that you do.

Editing – Your costs for editing can vary based on how much of a book you have, and how good of a writer you are. Most editors will be nice, and lower their price slightly (in my experience) the better the initial writing is. The less work they have to do, the faster they can do it in, and the more jobs they can complete, so they’re happy too.

I wouldn’t suggest skimping on editing, but you could easily save yourself some money through extensive use of beta-readers and friends/family who have skills (Also, it helps to bake brownies).

Formatting/Cover Art/Illustrations – All this can easily be trimmed in most aspects. Formatting – you can learn this, especially considering that most of the big companies use only a handful of formats – The catch is if you get it wrong, your work will look super unprofessional.

Cover Art – Shop around! You can check out a variety of people and places – look up some books whose covers your like and email the authors to ask where they got theirs done. Unless you’re a really good artist, I recommend you not do them yourself – Online, people really DO judge a book by it’s cover.

Illustrations/Maps – Perhaps the easiest one – If you don’t need them, you don’t have to pay for them!

Advertisements – Here, your own readers and social media accounts can really help you. Although, it can be hard to cut through the chaff and find the perfect groove. Networking, like this recent Facebook group I’ve joined, can really help here. You don’t have to pay for readers/likes, etc. I’ve already shared how I felt Facebook advertising, but both Amazon, Google, Goodreads, and others have more targeted (and, personally speaking, more useful) advertisement abilities).

Publishing Fees – Especially if you’re publishing a print book, you can’t really get around theses. But be smart – make sure to check the physical proof copies before buying a big order, otherwise you could be out some serious money for books with errors that are glaring! Also, there’s something to be said for getting that sweet, sweet Copyright letter from the Library of Congress!

Hope that helps everyone! Whew – this post turned out to be longer than I thought! Let me know – what other ways do you have to trim costs?

Brass Legionnaire Ship Diagrams

Tactical Layout of the H.M.A.S. Scioparto

 

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My Month-Long Blogging Experiment

02 Friday Dec 2016

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in NaNoWriMo2016, Self-Publishing, Steel Praetorian

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

blogging, NaNoWriMo2016, steampunk, Steel Praetorian


Or – How to double your readership in 30 days.

Salve! As I sit here, basking in the computer-screen glow of Steel Praetorian finally being out and available for you all to read in a single day, I’m reflecting on the month long journey that brought us here. One of my personal promises to myself this month was two fold- write every day for Laurel Emperor, and blog every day for Modern Papyrus (also called this blog – ha!)

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Day 14 – Almost Halfway There

14 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by Daniel Ottalini in How to, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo2016, Questions, Self-Publishing, Thoughts

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blogging, NaNoWriMo, NaNoWriMo2016


Salve!

For today’s post, I’m going to actually ask a question of my readers. What would be something you’d like to read an article about? As I’ve discussed before, my two most popular articles are those written about how to kill characters in novels. Gruesome (and highly entertaining) to write about – especially since I don’t take myself seriously in this regard. But what would be some articles you’d like to see? I can’t profess to being an expert at the craft of writing, but I do have experience and some thoughts/opinions about certain things.

Read more beyond the break

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