Many who visit here are soon-to-be self-published novelists — me too! Fortunately for us, Peni Jo Renner (who lives in Maryland) has three self-published historical novels worth of experience to share with us…
da-AL: What advice can you give to writers who want to self-publish? And who’d like to get their books into public libraries?
Peni Jo Renner: Advice? Well, in 2012, I hadn’t written in like 25 years, and I felt I needed a refresher, so I took a class at our local community college. A fellow student told me that she had published HER book with iUniverse, so I went with them. But due to the measly 20% royalties iUniverse offered, I looked into other self-publishing companies and settled on Lulu with its 80% royalty rate. LuLu took care of all the copyrights and stuff. Self-publishing with companies like this can be expensive, so if money is an issue, Amazon’s Createspace is free.
I’m not big on self-promotion. I didn’t write my trilogy to make money, more to fulfill a lifelong dream. However, I do ask new Facebook friends to “Like” my author page, and I participate in #SharingIsCaring on Facebook. #SharingIsCaring is this campaign on Facebook (and I suppose Twitter and Instagram) that authors list their FB author pages on other authors’ pages. Everyone Likes everyone else’s pages. Usually, the campaigns begin on Sundays.
In the past, I have participated in local book-signing events, but they are few and far between. However, I like to keep a supply of “The Puritan Chronicles” bookmarks, and I’ll ask people, “Do you enjoy reading historical fiction?” If they reply in the affirmative, I give them a bookmark.
As to libraries; I know my trilogy is at my local library, but that may be due to the fact I used to work there! However, a cousin in Texas did show me a photo of my book, “Puritan Witch,” that she found at HER library!
My books are POD (Print on Demand), so the best way to purchase them is online. I wrote Puritan Witch; The Redemption of Rebecca Eames. This multi-award-winning novel was quickly followed by its sequel, Letters to Kezia. A third novel, Raid on Cochecho, completed the trilogy and I had accomplished my task of writing historical fiction.
Dear Happiness Between Tails friends: Check back soon for the follow-up to this Happiness Between Tails blog post, when in “Animals in Fiction: Part 2 of 2” about novelist Peni Jo Renner, she gives us a peek at her writing process.
Are you writing, or planning to write, a novel?
I’m new at writing really. Something just made me want to write my two books. Both of them are science fiction and are nice for older children and adults. My grandson that is thirteen did a book report on it. I tried to put nature and history in it. I looked up the dates so it would be a learning read. I also made sure to put a lot of plants in there that the Native Americans used for medicine and food. Yes, it’s about UFO’s too. People are interested in that subject. Me too! I am just having fun. I don’t like a lot of the fighting, so I just try to write how I would like things to be.
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lovely, Marsha – wishing you all the best with it – & how sweet of your grandson 🙂
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Thank you, Penni Jo Renner, for sharing your story here, and thank you, Daal, for welcoming her. You gave some interesting insight into self-pubbing. I’m still on the fence about this but ultimately I have no illusions and realize I will someday self-pub or not be published at all. So your experiences are helpful.
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I’m taking heart in the fact that self-publishing no longer has the stigma it once had, neither to readers nor to those in the publishing industry
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In my experience, promoting and marketing are the hardest part of writing.
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same here, Antoinette – it is a whole other sort of career…
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Thanks, da-AL and Peni Jo Renner for an insightful interview and excellent information. I publish through a small indie press, and many of the publicity challenges are the same. Looking forward to part 2!
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I am looking forward to part II.
Things are so different in countries. In tiny Denmark we have a central State Library that contains every book that is published in Danish. Their lectors read new books and then recommend them (or not) to the public libraries. The authors get royalties from the libraries.
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That’s wonderful!
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