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Ask the CIA: How Do I Research Historical Fiction?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author, Research, Writing Advice

I’m thinking about writing a story set in the past, but I don’t know how to research historical fiction. How much research I need to do?. Do I need a fact-checker? That could be so intimidating.

I’ve written stories set in the Victorian age featuring Sherlock Holmes and Mark Twain, and the answer to “how much research do I need to do” is “until you feel comfortable writing the story.”

stack of books research historical fiction — stack of Old books on black surface

The first step involves general reading about the time period. Read several books on the subject. This will let you cross-check the major facts and pick up ideas for your story.

Next, find books that focus on the day-to-day details of people’s lives. Think locally. If your story is set in an area with newspapers and magazines, check them out on Google Books. You can find archives on New York Magazine, Life, and more.

If you’re looking for newspaper archives, I recommend the Library of Congress, the now hidden Google newspapers site, and the British Newspaper Archive. I’ve used all of them.

You need to get a general feeling for the times, manners, relationships, but wait until you’re getting the bare bones of the story down to do the specific research in those areas. That way, you don’t fall into the procrastination trap.
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When you’ve read enough, start writing. Don’t worry about getting all the details right. You might have to insert in square brackets notes about what you need to fill in.

When the draft is finished, go back and research whatever you need to flesh it out. Remember that you can’t rewrite a blank page.

Research Historical Fiction Workflow

The process becomes a cycle:

1. General reading

2. Write the story

3. Research what you need to fill in the blanks

4. Run through the cycle again until satisfied

5. Publish

Self-Publishing Mini-Lesson #2: Dealing With Writer Stress

by Bill Peschel • health, mini-lessons

Everyone undergoes periods of stress, but when you’re dealing with writer stress while running your own business, it can be more powerful and come from unexpected directions.

Recently, we’ve been dealing with the health of my wife’s father. Anyone with aging relatives will recognize the slow decline followed by sudden shocks, leading to the end, the funeral, the paperwork to go through and, after a long time, a sense of reaching an equilibrium.

On top of that, after I published “The Complete, Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” Amazon blocked it, claiming that my book didn’t qualify. I pointed out the 30,000 words of footnotes and essays, and that they had published my six previous books.

They rejected it. Then they blocked the print version of “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links.” I appealed, pointing out that not only did it have the same amount of footnotes and material, but it had been copyrighted by the United States government. I sent them a photo of the copyright certificate.

They rejected that.

Then It Got Worse

Then they banned me from KDP and said they’ll take down all the books and keep all the royalties.

That was a bad day to get out of bed.

Worse, I had to tell my wife that our business was kaput.

Now, to give Amazon some credit, they sent an email two hours later (which I would have seen if Google Gmail hadn’t seen fit to send that one to my Promotional list. Thanks, guys! The guy who killed my account apologized, and said the account was restored (which it was).

But I still can’t publish “The Complete, Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd” — the capstone to the whole series of Agatha Christie annotations on Amazon. Plus, I can’t sell the print version of “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links.”

Despite the fact that Amazon is still selling the Kindle version of “Links” — not to mention all of the other books in the Complete, Annotated series. Which shows that depending on who you get there, they may or may not understand Amazon’s policies.

So, what do you do when you’re dealing with writer stress? I have seven suggestions, many of which I used during this crisis:

Dealing With Writer Stress

1. Scenario it out

Come to grips with the problem. Before you act, mindmap the possibilities. List the options without judging whether or not you think it works. The idea is to get all the possibilities on the table before you so an inspired answer can come.

2. Will you care about this a year from now?

Another way to gain perspective about your problem is to ask the above question. Chances are, you might not even remember it.

3. Exercise it out

It doesn’t solve your problem, but it’ll make you feel better. Focusing on your body and the way it moves can focus your mind on a problem that won’t leave you enervated.

4. Walk it out

Another form of exercise, but this has the added benefit of getting you in the sun (valuable Vitamin D), enjoying the sights, and giving you space to think, dream, and plan for the future.

5. Start a new project

If you don’t have anything to work on, start something new. It can be a short story, outlining a novel, or a job that needs to be done around the house.

6. Learn to meditate

Another way to ease stress is to set a timer, sit quietly, focus on your breathing, and let time pass.

7. Just grind it out

If you can’t figure out a solution just yet, do anything. Don’t think about it, if it’s productive, do it anyway. At the end of the day, you’ll be glad you’ve accomplished something. This is also the difference between a hobbyist and a professional.

Can I make money self-publishing books?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author, business, mini-lessons

I’m working on my first book and want to know if I can make money self-publishing it. I’ve seen people claim they’ve earned tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars with their books, and at the same time stories about how few people make even a thousand dollars at it. And can you make money self-publishing your books after you pay all the expenses?

This question pops up frequently online, and the true answer is “it depends,” and we’ll get into that later in the post.

First, if someone says they know a way for you to earn a lot of money self-publishing books, beware. They’re selling you something.

Speaking of which, did you know about my book, “Career Indie Author,” that can help you get off on the right foot for your author journey? (Yes, I see the contradiction. But at least I don’t promise you’ll get rich.)

One Path to Self-Publishing Success

Authors getting rich self-publishing books tend to follow the same path (it’s possible to not do this, but it’s harder):

* They’re writing and releasing multiple books in a series. Some write the first three or four books and use the “rapid release” technique. They publish every month, and if the initial sales are good, Amazon will put this book in front of more customers, generating more sales.

* These books are in one genre and embrace its tropes.

* The author is active online. Typically, they’ll have a newsletter which they build up using advertising and a reader magnet. They may also be a member of a Facebook group or two open to that genre’s fans.

* The author also advertises through Facebook and/or Amazon (I’ve seen authors succeed with either platform). He doesn’t it well enough to have a positive ROI (return on investment). Spend 50 cents and earn a dollar, that’s a 50 percent ROI, which is good. Spend a dollar and earn a dollar, that’s 100 percent ROI, which is bad.

* Some authors have an advantage. They have deep ties in their community, so they can hold a launch party. Their friends can mention the book on their social media. They can get news coverage.

* Finally, the novels are great reads.

As for expenses, it can vary from nothing to the sky’s the limit. One figure I’ve seen is about $2,000. This covers the cost of the cover ($400), professional editing ($1,500), and ebook formatting ($100). Print formatting could cost $300.

These are estimates only, and the quality of the work varies widely as well. As the boss, you’re responsible for hiring good workers and rebounding after the bad ones take your money and give you a substandard product. But that’s a another post.

Campbell Soup of Authoring

So a great many authors pump out books as fast as once a month. They’ve figured out the genre they’re working in, how many words to write, and are highly organized. Think of them as the Campbell Soups of the business. For their income, they’re relying on attracting a whale reader to book #1, and hoping they’ll go on to #2, #3, #4, etc. Their books are in Kindle Unlimited, and they can afford to spend more money on popular keywords, hoping to make it up in page reads.
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Mark Dawson is a good example of this strategy with his John Milton series (except for writing a book a month; he takes more time). He also writes books so good a publisher cut a deal with him to distribute his novels to bookstores.
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There are many writers who follow the same path with varying results. Their books are good enough to attract readers. Some of them may become fans. Many readers will not.

How well you do will depend on the quality of your storytelling, your marketing and promotional strategies, your alliances, and your luck.

Self-Publishing Workflows: Business Mini-Lesson #2

by Bill Peschel • business, mini-lessons

The major difference between a self-publishing author and a traditional author is the amount of work that has to be done on the business side. Self-publishing workflows can help.

The traditional author doesn’t have to worry about filing for copyright, advertising campaigns, discount promotions, editing your book and getting a cover for it. That’s the publisher’s job.

The self-publishing author, however, does all those jobs, plus more. The more part varies from author to author, depending on their personal circumstances, their inclinations, and their ideas for promoting their books. It could mean visiting schools to talk about writing, offering classes online, attending cat shows to sell their cat-themed books, offering editorial and consulting services, or visiting bookstores and secretly inserting their books on the shelves (don’t do this, by the way).

Handling the business side of your self-publishing empire demands developing a new set of skills to perform those tasks efficiently. Even if you have an obliging spouse, child, or personal assistant, it’s still important to develop procedures to perform these tasks. These are jobs that will be done regularly, so it’s important to do them consistently, correctly, and leave behind enough data to judge the success of that task and figure out how to do it more efficiently next time.

This is best accomplished using workflows.

What are self-publishing workflows?

In the business world, there are processes and workflows. Processes or procedures defines a particular task that you want to accomplish. Workflows are the steps that you take to perform that task. It’s that simple.

So a process can be mail the monthly newsletter. The workflow for that process can be:

1. Write the newsletter in Word. List art you need between “***”.
2. Create the art, no larger than 700 pixels and 96 dots per inch.
3. Open MailerLite.
4. Use the saved template to create the newsletter.
5. Test-send the newsletter to your publishing partner for comments.
6. If approved, schedule the newsletter to run at 9 a.m. EST the next day.
7. Save newsletter in Business / Newsletter / 2021 folder.
8. Go to website, schedule publishing newsletter for next month.
9. Revise page “Newsletter Archive” with URL for next month’s newsletter. Scheduling updating for same time as newsletter post next month.
Now, I’m not saying that you should do it this way, but it is the way we do it at Peschel Press in a truncated form.

That’s It?

If this is so simple, you may ask, why do it at all? Why take the trouble to laboriously type it out?

It is a simple process, but your business is made up of many simple processes. Rather than keep all of them in your head, write them down and you won’t have to try to remember the details of this process. If you know you won’t have to remember the details of the process, your brain will be able to focus on remembering the things that are really important to you, such as that important plot twist you want to introduce in the next chapter. Or the names of your children. Whatever is important to you.

Does every process need a self-publishing workflow?

No. Only the ones that you feel need a workflow.

I don’t use one for publishing books online. The forms are easy to find and fill out.

I do use a metadata form for each book. This form, one for each book, is my central storehouse of information about that books life online. It contains all the metadata needed to fill out the forms: title, subtitle, series name, series number, book description, keywords, price, cost of book, etc. It also keeps track of where and when we publish that book, and any problems we encountered.

As you work on your business from day-to-day, you’ll see when you need to work up a workflow and when not to. Generally, any process that you use regularly will end up needing a self-publishing workflow.

(Ad alert: In our book Career Indie Author, we provide a metadata form that you can modify and use.)

Self-Publishing Mini-Lesson #1: The Business Mindset

by Bill Peschel • business, mini-lessons

Welcome to the new series of mini-lessons about the business of self-publishing. The first one is on the business mindset, because that is the foundation of everything which will follow.

These mini-lessons consist of ideas and concepts which have occurred to me in the 12 years that I have been writing, selling, and publishing books. I’ll also be posting mini-lessons in writing fiction and nonfiction, but I want to focus here on everything else apart from the creation of works.

Many of us spend our lives working for somebody else, but when you start your writing journey – if you have an ambition to make money at this – you need to change your way of thinking.

No matter what emotional attachment you may have to your story, whether it’s a memoir or an essay or a full-length book, at the end you holding your hand a product that must be packaged and sold.

If you intend to make money at this, especially if you’re going to deduct your business expenses on your tax return, you have to start thinking like a business owner and less like an artist.

Even if you intend to turn over the business decisions to a partner, a spouse, or a publisher, keep an eye on what they’re doing. There are way too many object lessons of artists who have signed away their rights and their money to unscrupulous people. Just ask Chuck Palahniuk.

Elements of the business mindset

Here’s what I mean the business mindset:

1. Keep track of your work. File your stories where you can find them. File away any contracts you signed where you can find them. Make backups of your work, preferably multiple backups on paper or CD.

2. Keep track of your expenses. Open a separate business checking account. Get a credit card that you use only for business expenses. Record your expenses, whether on paper or on Excel.

3. Keep track of your daily tasks. You need to prove to the IRS you are operating a business. If they’re not convinced, they’ll classify what you’re doing as a hobby and disallow your business expenses, and you’ll be left with a whopping tax bill to pay.

4. Adopt a cold unemotional eye. No matter how much you love your book cover, if it doesn’t catch your readers’ attention, if it’s not genre-appropriate, if it’s not what readers in that genre are seeing RIGHT NOW, consider replacing it. No matter how much you love your prose, if readers disagree, consider ways of improving your writing.

Why we resist change

Recognize that people default to doubling down on their decisions and beliefs. We resist reconsidering them in light of new information. When it comes to your favorite sports team, author, or movies, this is not necessarily harmful.

Believing that you’re writing career is on the right course despite low sales and negative reviews, however, will hurt you financially and emotionally.

(At the same time, don’t let one person’s opinion sway you. Or even everyone’s. History is full of examples. Did you know “Casablanca” was a B-movie potboiler that no one thought would work? Or that “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was a box office bomb? Or that J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter was rejected by multiple publishers, and it was the publisher’s daughter who recommended acquiring it?)

It boils down to that line from “The Godfather”: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.” When bad things happen to you, you need to bounce back emotionally. Adopting the business mindset lets you distance yourself from other people’s decisions and opinions will help safeguard your ego and give you the mental energy to push on.

We’ll go into bouncing back from adversity in a future mini-lesson. But when you’re not neck deep in your next story, look at your business like a boss, not an employee.

should i finish my novel author drinking heavily

Ask the CIA: Should I Finish Writing My Novel?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author

I’m at the beginning of my writer’s journey, but I’ve run into a problem with motivation. Not my characters’ but my own: Should I finish writing my novel I’ve lost passion for?

I have one published novel and a couple of stories and two serials, and they are doing well. But I’m bogged down in the middle of my second novel — part of a three-book series — and I’m not in love with it. As a result, my writing has slowed down considerably, and it’s hard to get started on the day’s work.

My goal is to be making a consistent four figures a month within a few years, so my question boils down to this: Should I finish writing my novel by pushing through, or start something new? There are advantages to both, so far as I can tell.

RELUCTANT WRITER

I consulted my magic 8-ball containing the trapped spirit of Charles Dickens, and he says, “How much are you making?”

There’s no one right answer, because much of it depends on what’s going on in your head. Instead, here are a couple of observations to consider:

1. You are halfway through your three-book series. Deep enough in that the novelty of the new project has worn off, and far enough from the end so you’re not encouraged to go on. A horse returning to the home stable will pick up speed when it is in sight. The same may be happening to you.

2. Do you have a habit of abandoning projects? If so, this could be your self-defense mechanism kicking in. It’s intentions are good, to protect you from criticism and failure, but it is misguided. In fact, it is working against you. If you keep giving up on finishing, you’re learning not to finish projects.

3. By offering the first book in a series, you’ve made a promise to those readers that you’ll finish it. Literature is filled with abandoned series, leaving behind disappointed readers (*cough* G.R.R. Martin *cough*).

4. I wonder: Do you have an outline for the series or are you writing into the dark? Phrases like “bogged down” signals a flabby middle. Either the story needs tightening, or you need to rethink it.

5. Could you turn the trilogy into a duology? This gets you out of the project earlier, and at the same time leave behind a completed story?

The answers depend on how you planned this project, your work habits, and personal stuff you may be reluctant to reveal in public.

If you need bucking up, consider Agatha Christie, who ran into this trouble early in her career. She had separated from her husband, went missing for 11 days, became a national media sensation, and had a deadline to finish a book she cared nothing about (“The Mystery of the Blue Train”).

As she wrote in her autobiography:

“I was driven desperately on by the desire, indeed the necessity, to write another book and make some money. That was the moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well. I have always hated ‘The Mystery of the Blue Train,’ but I got it written, and sent off to the publishers.”

It could be, in the end, you should try and finish the book. If you want to make money at this, you can’t afford to quit just because you’re going through a rough patch. Even if you push through and discover you have a bad book on your hands, you can always revise it (you can’t edit a blank page), or abandon it, but at least you’ll do it with a finished book, not the equivalent of a junked car on cinder blocks.

An Easy To Use Excel Spreadsheet to Record Writers Expenses

by Bill Peschel • Business and money

This is a quick short post offering an Excel spreadsheet to record writers expenses. I use it to track my business expenses for the year.

It’s a very basic one, but I added a few features to help me. For example, at the far right, it compares the amount you enter to the right of the name with the one you put in the particular category. If you did it right, it tells you immediately (“equal”). If it doesn’t, it’ll show “not equal”).

On the next tab can be found where to put your year-end income and expenses such as taxes.

On the third tab is a simple roster to keep track of what festivals and appearances you want to go to and if you paid and rented a hotel room for it.

That’s it. At the end of the year, I make sure all the figures are correct (compared to the 1099s I get from the sellers), and email it to my accountant, who turns it into tax returns.

I hope you find this useful.

Can I Use QR Codes for My Author Business?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author, Marketing

It’s useful to create QR codes for your author business. It’s surprisingly easy, takes little time, and offers another way for people (with smartphones and an app that scans QRs) to learn more about you and your books anywhere.

What Is A QR Code?

A Quick-Response code (hence, QR), operates like those barcodes you see on products in the grocery store and the ISBN code on the back of books. It contains a piece of information, but instead of long black lines of varying thicknesses, a QR code consists of black and white blocks.

What Can I Use It For?

A QR code can contain your website’s URL. It can be your home page, but how about this? Create a special page offering a free ebook or an invite to sign up for your newsletter. Directing traffic to a page that can’t be reached in any other way means that you can keep track of how many people use that code. If, later, you run a Facebook promotion or a social media blitz, you can gauge its effectiveness by looking at your website’s statistics.
Here are some other ideas:
* Send them to a page where they can read a short story
* Send them to your Amazon page where they can buy your book, or your favorite bookstore so they can pre-order a signed copy of your next book.

Where Can I Use My VR Code?

Anywhere! We have it on the front and back page of our printed catalog. We’ll put it on our next set of bookmarks. I’m thinking about putting it in our books as well.

Why Use QR Codes? Can’t I Just Print My Website Name?

You can still do that, but don’t judge people’s behavior by your own. With a smartphone, it’s easier to use a QR scanner app to reach a website than typing it in, especially if your name is difficult to spell. It’s certain a lot faster to reach pages inside the website, like “https://www.peschelpress.com / special offers” than typing it in and remember to use the right slash and the proper number of w’s.
Plus, don’t neglect the coolness factor. People like using their smartphones, and giving them a way to use their scanner is so Star Trekkie that it’s fun.

How Do I Make A QR Code?

Search for “QR Code generator” and you’ll find plenty of sites that’ll do it for free. If you can, find one that’ll let you drop in your logo for added coolness points!

Business Diary 9/8/2021

by Bill Peschel • Business Diary, Murder She Watched

Another diary post! This WorkFlow list is wonderful, so long as the fool on the receiving end follows it.

Today, I have to add “Write cast list for ‘The Adventure of the Western Star’ and ‘Sleuth (1972)’” to the list. This is part of the “Murder, She Watched” project, in which Teresa watches and reviews 200 movies based on or inspired by Agatha Christie. Currently, we’re watching an episode of Poirot on Wednesday, and an AC movie on Friday.

The cast list performs two functions: it’ll appear in the book, and also lets us keep track of the story and decide who will be featured in one of the six cast slots.

We’re also building the trade paperback version along the way, so that early in 2023, we’ll publish the book soon after finishing the last movie. This meant a lot of preplanning and trial and error, but the result looks pretty fabulous.

Here’s an example:

murder she watched test page — Test page for “Murder, She Watched”

I’ll also be working down the list of items mentioned in the last post, so let’s get started!

Business Diary 9/6/2021

by Bill Peschel • Business Diary

This is Labor Day Monday. Teresa and I have been married for 28 years. More than 10,000 days. But it’s all numbers to me. Still, it’s an accomplishment. We’ve had our ups and downs, but the ups far outweigh the downs. If I had known being married was so much fun, I would have done it a long time ago.

I have a long list of chores to do. This is where prioritizing comes into play. Following the daily workflow. Next comes “Post Promo” then “5-minute tasks” then “Write 3 hours.” If I do that, without thinking, I get stuff done. If I don’t, it’s much harder.

So this week, I have, according to my list, in no particular order:

* Input edits to Blue Ploermell.

* Post the rest of the week’s social media

* Process the “10 Little Indians” (1965) review and place on the page.

* Edit Tuesday’s “The Adventure of the Cheap Flat” and Friday’s “Endless Night” reviews

* Update the “Cornish Mystery” and “Alphabet Murders” reviews for the upcoming “Murder, She Watched” book.

* Release last month’s newsletter on the website and place this one’s newsletter in Draft status.

This is what a business looks like.

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