Support for Indie Authors discussion

I’m conducting research for a major new project and I’d appreciate it if you would answer a few questions. The questions are in three groups, and all of them may not apply to you.
Please answer as many as you can to describe your experiences.

Writing
1) If you're writing fiction or memoirs, what is the hardest part of the process for you? (i.e. charactr building, plot development etc)

2) If you could get experienced help on one aspect of writing, which one would it be?

Publishing
1) If you’re thinking of self-publishing, what do you consider the most daunting task you face?

2) If you could get experienced help on one part of the self-publishing process, what would it be?

3) If you have self-published a book what one thing did you do that you would never do a second time?

Marketing
1) If you have published a book, either traditional or self-published, what part of marketing is the most confusing?

2) If you could get experienced help on one aspect of marketing, what would it be?

3) What one marketing tactic that you have used would you consider a waste of time and /or money?

Writing:
1)The hardest part is not to excessively edit content, especially when I've done so a few times and I'm just supposed to focusing on grammar and structure etc.
2)Using description. I'm not a big fan of it when I'm reading, so I don't like to put too much in, so I struggle with finding the line of what is enough.
Publishing:
1&2). The most daunting and the one I would want the experienced help with is the formatting. It's time consuming and getting it to come out right is a guess and check process for me.
3) I would do a larger book size for createspace as the cost per page adds up.
Marketing:
1)Knowing what exactly is having the most effect.
2)It would be in using all the different social media platforms. Beyond facebook and a webpage, I don't use twitter, intstagram, etc (never have) so even if I did start using them, I wouldn't really be sure what to put up, etc ( I have enough trouble figuring that out for my blog and facebook).
3)I've been very careful and selective, so far I'm happy with all I've used.

Hope that helped.

L.W. wrote: "Writing:
1)The hardest part is not to excessively edit content, especially when I've done so a few times and I'm just supposed to focusing on grammar and structure etc.
2)Using description. I'm not..."

Thanks. As to formatting, if you're referring to ebooks, the best reference work there is Mark Corker's style guide:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52. it's a free download

awesome, thanks!

Writing
1) The hardest part of the process for us are working out all the details of the plot some highly complicated plot situations to keep them plausible and account of all the potential consequences (including "unintended" ones). This can take us years of work to get those to a point where we are satisfied.

2) Probably none. We consider feedback from select people to get a new perspective at times and to catch things we missed, but beyond that we've not sought help with the writing process.

Publishing
1-3) We are self-published and we find it an easy and painless process.

Marketing
1) We don't find marketing confusing, but (in our case) there is a lack of meaningful stats which would complicate any marketing efforts we would try to make. (See #3.)

2) None.

3) We don't market our work in any meaningful sense. In our case, marketing by the author yields no benefit, and can be harmful. I'll note that we have not yet tried any paid marketing (such as purchasing an ad with any of the various service that email book promos to readers). We do hope to try this in the near future.

I hope that info is of some use to you.

Thanks, Owen . You've been a big help

BTW, Owen. I solved the plot problem you mentioned by mind-mapping the story.

Hank wrote: "BTW, Owen. I solved the plot problem you mentioned by mind-mapping the story."

Thanks. We do "mind-map" the story, though probably not in quite the sense you mean, I suspect. Some things just take time -- and some much more than others.

Recently, I posted a series of questions on a number of web and blog sites. The questionnaire covered Writing, Publishing and Marketing. So far, I’ve gotten over forty responses and that means I have a lot of data to sort through.
I want to share the most prevalent answers for each of the three categories, but I plan to do that in pieces. This initial piece covers the responses on writing.
Writing Question One read: If you’re writing fiction or memoirs, what is the hardest part of the process for you? (i.e. character building, plot development etc)
The top answers were: plot development (9 responses), getting organized (4), descriptions (3) and developing a storyline (3) and pacing (2). Eight other responses were mentioned once.
Writing Question Two read: If you could get experienced help on one aspect of writing, which one would it be?
The top answers for this one were: editing (9 responses), dialog, character development, plotting, description and getting organized all had 2 response. Eight other responses were mentioned once each.
I’ll report on publishing and marketing shortly.

Hank wrote: "Recently, I posted a series of questions on a number of web and blog sites. The questionnaire covered Writing, Publishing and Marketing. So far, I’ve gotten over forty responses and that means I ha..."

Hello, Hank. I missed your questionnaire and earlier posts, but was fascinated by the responses. One writing group I belong to (about 40 members, a mix of self-published writers and traditional writers) would be very interested in the responses and questions about publishing and marketing. Thank you for posting the questions at the top of this thread.

Re question one, I would have a hard time sorting out the data because so many writers have different styles/approaches to writing. But plot development sounds like a great way to dive into developing helpful materials targeted to an interested audience.

Re question two, do you think respondents meant structural editing or copy editing?

Looking forward to the rest of the survey results. Thank YOU for posting!

Beth wrote: "Hank wrote: "Recently, I posted a series of questions on a number of web and blog sites. The questionnaire covered Writing, Publishing and Marketing. So far, I’ve gotten over forty responses and th..."
Hi Beth

Some mentioned content editing, some mentioned line/copy editing, but most replied with a simple "editing". Of necessity, a number of responses were vague and subject to interpretation

Continuing my report on the responses to my questionnaire, here are the publishing questions and the top responses.
Question 1: If you’re thinking of self-publishing, what do you consider the most daunting task you face?
Most mentioned answers:
Marketing was mentioned 10 times
Formatting received 4 mentions
Nine other topics were mentioned once each

Question 2: If you could get experienced help on one part of the self-publishing process, what would it be?
Most mentioned answers:
Marketing effectively got 7 responses
Formatting 5 responses
Book layout and covers each received 3 responses
Five other issues received one mention each

Question 3: If you have self-published a book what one thing did you do that you would never do a second time?
Three answers received two responses each: generic covers, KDP Select and delaying marketing plans.
Seven other issues got one response each.

What to make of this data? Self-publishing authors biggest worry is marketing. It was mentioned in one form or another 23 times in one guise or another. Formatting was mentioned more than 10 times. If you have any experience in self-publishing these major issue will come as no surprise.

Denise wrote: "Writing
1) For me, the hardest part writing fiction is the revisions stage. That’s where I add meat to the bones of the story—build character and plot. It’s tedious going through every line of the ..."

Thans for your help, Denise