Fran Macilvey

What do we mean by success?

Authors tend to be a species driven to succeed. So what do we mean by success? Here are my current top five ideas about what ‘success’ means.

~ A successful person does not compete with others, but pushes themselves to do the best they can with what they have available to them – time, money, opportunities, energy, inspiration – at any one time. When we know we have done the best we could, there is no room for regret.

~ A successful person first sets goals that are achievable and easy to reach. Two small goals are better than one big one. Once we meet our small goals, we can set bigger ones, until goal setting becomes our favourite game. Set the goal, believe in it, and watch the outcome!

~ Success embraces ‘failure’ as an essential part of what it means to succeed. Without ‘failure’ – maybe we could redefine that as ‘investing in alternatives’ – how can we decide what we prefer?

~ Success as a concept is surprisingly subjective, so we need never get upset when other people have different ideas about what it means for us; instead, we focus on what we enjoy, and what we can do, and we take ourselves forward tenderly, hopefully and with deliberate intention, not overly concerned with other people’s opinions.

~ Success means nothing if we are unhappy. To be happy – content, peaceful, at rest with oneself – is one of the highest aims in life, and however we define it, our success should serve that end. If first, we can be happy whatever we are doing, success is already agreed, and nothing further then depends on any goal we have in mind. Instead, our happiness gives us energy to move forward more easily and confidently, whatever we are doing.

Thanks for reading!

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For the love of passwords

There are a few accounts to set up if we are venturing into indie publishing. Again, using my choices as a model – which can only be a rough guide, since we each must make our own choices, which are multiple and varied and constantly changing – this is a summary of the accounts I have to help me with publishing. For this, it does help if you have a love of passwords…

~ An Amazon account from which I can publish my book as a paperback with its own ISBN, (which I have bought and paid for). Known as CreateSpace, this platform is the traditional way to publish POD on Amazon.

~ Another Amazon account which allows me to publish my book in kindle. Kindle is the e-book format that Amazon uses, exclusive to that company. It is now possible to publish both kindle and POD format books on the same platform – KDP – which stands for Kindle Direct Publishing, and if you are new to publishing, I recommend you do this.

~ An IngramSpark Account, which enables me to publish both POD books and e-books for all distribution outside Amazon. There are four possibilities you can select from when setting up your account, and it is possible to ask IS to publish for you to all other platforms. I use IngramSpark because I like their distribution list, and I love having a UK base from where I can order copies of my POD quickly.

~ An account with Nielsen UK ISBN store – from whom we purchase ISBNs.

~ An account with Nielsen’s Title Editor – where we register details of our book(s) so that they can be added to a national database and found easily.

There are other platforms and publishing models to consider, and the markets are constantly evolving, so what I have noted here is only a very rough outline of what is required. Please do your own research and make your own choices. It takes time, and once set up, the publishing of books becomes easier.

Best of luck, and thanks for reading!

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A bit more about ISBN numbers

I should like to say a bit more about ISBN numbers, though let us be clear that a book can be published without an ISBN, which stands for International Standard Book Number.

However, if you are aiming to publish and want people to find your books, I strongly recommend buying your own ISBNs and allocating them to your book(s). An ISBN is a cataloguing tool that many libraries and public search facilities insist on. Once allocated to a book, an ISBN lasts a lifetime, ensuring that a book need never get lost.

I think the best way to elucidate on the workings of ISBNs (they are not complicated, but the way they work together can be) is to take examples from my own publishing choices. So, briefly, I publish on Amazon, to their internal market only (that is, within the Amazon group of companies only).

I also publish with IngramSpark, which gives me a UK base for sourcing copies of my books at affordable prices. I find that if I rely solely on sourcing books through Amazon alone, they may come from the US, in which case the costs of postage are prohibitive and the waiting times are frustrating.

The key to making this work, is to have no overlaps in the markets among your different distributors. So therefore, I publish on the Amazon internal market only – I avoid their extended distribution option – and publish with Ingram Spark, with the result that IngramSpark are my source for all copies outwith the Amazon network. No overlaps.

In this scheme, I use two ISBNs – which we can purchase singly, or in batches of ten – and allocate the numbers as follows:-

First ISBN – is for the paperback POD on both Amazon and on Ingram Spark.

Second ISBN – is for the e-book available outside the Amazon network though Ingram Spark.

To be clear, Amazon, always allocates a unique ASIN number to all e-books they publish in their kindle format on their platforms. There is no other option for Amazon e-books. But Amazon does allow publishers to use their own ISBNs for their print on demand paperbacks. Which is the same ISBN used for POD books on all other platforms, in my case, Ingram Spark.

I can run Ingram Spark and Amazon alongside each other because I opt for restricted distribution of Amazon products to the Amazon group of companies only, where the other distributors have no remit to venture. For sales outwith Amazon, Ingram Spark is my preferred distributor.

My next post will be my last before the long vacation, when I shall be taking time off to be with family. Thanks so much for reading, commenting and sharing.

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What we need when we publish our own books

What follows is a brief summary of points to be remembered when we are publishing our own books.  And I suppose the most obvious question to start with is, are we going to publish with only one platform – we all know, I think, which platform I am alluding to here – or are we going to go with multiple platforms?

The basic requirements for an indie publisher are:-

~ A decent enough book which we want to publish. By which I mean, a book that we are prepared to write, publish and let go into the public domain. If we can’t handle the thought that, once published, our book ceases to be our private concern, the chances are, it is not ready to publish yet.

~ A good, empathic editor who can find the flaws in your manuscript – it’s safe to assume that an independent editor will find some room for improvements which we will then be pleased to work on.

~ A wonderful typesetter and formatter to take our manuscript and turn it into something resembling a wonderful book.

~ A wonderful book cover designer. Unless we would like to do this for ourselves. There are some good programmes available that make this possible.

~ A look, design or set of ideas that we can give to our book, so that it stands out from the crowd.  Photos, images, such as those available from Shutterstock, are a useful archive of ideas to look through. Consider landscape, portrait, thumbnail images…

~ ISBN numbers to give our books a unique ID number. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. A book does not need an ISBN to be published, but if it has one, it will always be easier to find, than if it is published on multiple platforms, each allocating the book an e-ID number or the publishers own ISBN.

~ A little cash to make the dream a reality, and to help us decide which of the tasks of publishing we will do for ourselves and which we are happy to delegate. No point feeling overwhelmed before we even begin.

~ A love of passwords and on-line accounts, because there will be a few to set up.

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