Category: Self-Publishing

Experimenting With Writing Via Dictation

Posted July 2, 2018 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Writing / 0 Comments

I’ve toyed with the idea of writing via dictation for a long time, but I finally gave it a shot recently.

Why didn’t I try writing via dictation until now?

The main reason? It was really cost-prohibitive for me. (Which isn’t going to be the case for everyone! And I found a couple of methods that fit my budget. More on the different methods of writing via dictation down below.)

Secondly, I couldn’t imagine writing without physically putting words down on paper or screen. I imagine people felt the same way when shifting from pen and paper to typewriter to computer!

So why try writing via dictation now?

So many reasons!

The first being that my writing progress on Through Fathoms Dark and Deep (Lady Pirates #2) was stalling. Traditionally, what has helped me break out of a writing rut has been to change things up! Well… this was definitely a big change!

And I’ve heard many authors over the years swear by writing via dictation. They’ve said that it majorly upped their writing productivity. And that’s one of my major goals for 2018.

Finally, I’ve been listening to The Creative Penn a great deal. She’s spoken on there and another podcast that I listen to about the research involved in her book, The Healthy Writer. Writing via dictation allows for more movement and less stress on the wrists. Writers are at a huge risk for carpal tunnel–and sedentary lifestyles to boot!

How can I try writing via dictation?

Siri

I wanted to give writing via dictation a shot and wanted to do so in a way that wouldn’t come at a huge shock to my bank account. First, I tried the completely free way. I hooked my headphones into my iPhone, opened an Evernote document, and used Siri’s dictation function to begin speaking.

The first learning curve here: You have to speak your punctuation! And tell it when to start a new line! Before I figured that out, I wasted a lot of extra editing time just making it something other than a big block of text.
But then, I was motoring. In my first go-around, I wrote 2,045 words in about 75 minutes. This is basically unheard of for me.
The major cons of this method:
- I write fantasy. Which means I make up words. And my iPhone could not figure out what a Mordgris was. And even if I figured out how to add it to its “dictionary,” it may not figure out how I was pronouncing it. (More-gree)
- Siri dictation times out fairly often. And if I didn’t remember to check in to see if it was still recording, I sometimes had to dictate entire sections twice
- You know how often you laugh because Siri misunderstands a verbal instruction or text dictation? Yeah… that.
Major pros:
- It’s completely free!
- I was still more productive than I had been, if not as productive as I could have been.

Dragon Anywhere

Having tried writing via dictation enough to be excited about the productivity possibilities, I next moved on to trying the iPhone (and Android!) app, Dragon Anywhere. Dragon Anywhere is a subscription-based app– currently, it runs about $15 per month.

I LOVE DRAGON ANYWHERE.
Having already gotten the hang of speaking my punctuation, I got past my major issues with writing via dictation in Siri:
- Dragon Anywhere let me add words to my dictionary while also allowing me to tell it how I pronounced them by writing them out phonetically.
- Dragon Anywhere did not time out.
Major pros:
- $15 a month is a price that I can swing. And with the ability to cancel at any time, I can switch it on and off when I move to a revision stage.
- I told the app “Send to Evernote” when I was done and my dictation was sent seamlessly.
- Even more productive without all of the stopping and stalling in Siri!
Cons:
- Some commands–for instance the command “scratch that” glitched often for me. That command is meant to erase what I’d just said. Often, Dragon Anywhere transcribed the words instead.
- This wasn’t an issue for me, but Dragon Anywhere does require either wifi or cellular data to work. If you’re planning on dictating while on long walks in an area with a spotty cellular connection, you may want to go another way.

Nuance Dragon

This is the writing via dictation solution that I see mentioned the most often and the one that scared me off of attempting dictation for so long. Disclaimer: I haven’t used Nuance Dragon yet. It continues to be cost-prohibitive for me, but as I understand it:

Pros:
- It’s the most powerful dictation software on the market.
- With Nuance Dragon, you have the ability to record yourself (regardless of data connection), and later, have Dragon transcribe it for you.
- You can directly dictate into Nuance Dragon as well.
Cons:
- The current version of Dragon that is available for a Mac starts at about $200–that’s if your Mac has a CD drive. My laptop does not. If you need the download for Mac, you’re looking at about $300. If you use PCs, you have a bit more flexibility on price (under $100) as there are other versions that are available to you.
- As I understand it, it takes time to “train your Dragon” to your way of speaking. This book with a method for doing so comes highly recommended.

My experience with writing via dictation

At first, I felt undeniably awkward. I mean– I was basically talking to myself! While trying to speak decent prose into existence! And capture the essence of my lady pirates! What if someone were to hear me?!

But once I got past that, the results were undeniable. It broke me from my writer’s block was extremely productive. I wrote 10,000 words in a week. That’s really good for me. I completed the draft of Through Fathoms Dark and Deep faster than I’ve ever drafted a book before.

And I did it while being upright! I paced around the house and got some steps in. I multitasked, by dictating while I did some laundry and some cleaning. I actually think the multi-tasking helped because I didn’t focus as much with my “internal editor.”

I’ve currently paused my subscription to Dragon Anywhere as I’ve moved into the revision stages with Through Fathoms Dark and Deep. But I fully expect to renew it when I have something new to draft!

You may want to try writing via dictation if:

You’re trying to increase your writing speed/productivity.
You want to up your healthy habits. Dictation can help with being sedentary, the harmful effects of your computer screen, your posture and repetitive stress injuries that you incur from mouse and keyboard use.
You have writer’s block and think that changing it up may help you get past this hurdle.

Do you have questions about writing via dictation? I’ll do my best to answer them! Have you tried it? What did you think?

Organizing a Bookstagram Tour to Promote Your Book

Posted June 25, 2018 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing / 2 Comments

When I first saw the stunning cover for Over Raging Tides, I knew that I wanted it to be seen. What’s more, I knew that it had “Bookstagram tour” potential. The cover is indiscernible from many traditionally published covers, so I knew that a Bookstagram tour for it would pop on Instagram.

To reach some readers, I needed Over Raging Tides to be seen on visual platforms. Engaged readers are increasingly visually oriented. Well–they likely always have been. We’re visual creatures, us humans! We enjoy beautiful things. We judge on cover appeal.

In the case of Bookstagram, if the visual appeal of a cover is enough, a “Bookstagrammer” may be motivated enough to create a visually stunning Bookstagram post of your book. But I wanted to ensure that my book was seen by those avid readers. So I decided to pursue a Bookstagram tour.

Organizing your Bookstagram tour:

Decide on your budget. Some considerations:

You may find some Bookstagrammers open to taking photographs of an ebook, but the majority prefer physical copies. This means you’ll need to either have physical copies already on hand, or order some stock. You’ll be sending the Bookstagrammers your book at no cost to them. Remember: they’re doing you a favor!
If you hire a company to coordinate the Bookstagram tour for you, you’ll save time, but you’ll have to pay them their (well-deserved!) fee.
Are you open to International Bookstagrammers? Keep in mind that international shipping costs a pretty penny, while the U.S. media mail option for books is very affordable.
Are you offering a giveaway? U.S. or international? The same stock and shipping considerations apply here.

Decide on your goals

This is important in deciding who will coordinate the Bookstagram tour! Which is more important to you?

Measurable, positive ROI
- You might get closer coordinating a tour yourself if you have both the time and reader connections ready
Spreading awareness about your book
- A company with a set Bookstagrammer base may have a larger reach than you do

Who will coordinate the tour?

With your budget and goal considerations in mind, you can hire a company like Storygram Tours, which is who I worked with. I can’t say enough nice things about them! (I previously posted a recap of my Over Raging Tides Bookstagram Tour, if you’d like to see the photos and results!)
- There are also other companies out there that offer a Bookstagram Tour service. I can’t personally vouch for any company besides Storygram, so make sure you check into who you’re hiring!
If your budget is a little less flexible, consider organizing your Bookstagram tour yourself.
- I’d begin by browsing the #bookstagram hashtag and so that you can see which Bookstagrammers are open to working with titles that reflect your method of publishing.
  - If you have time, start making Bookstagram connections a long way out from when you’ll be publishing or “touring.”
  - I recommend sincerely engaging for a length of time before hitting them up in an attempt to “get something out of them.”
- Make your “dream team” list and several alternates.
- Then, start reaching out! Make sure you have plenty of lead time on when you want to have your Bookstagram tour. They’ll need to make their schedule, you’ll need time to send them the book, etc., etc.

My Bookstagram tour results:

What can you expect from a Bookstagram tour? Obviously, everyone’s experience will vary. My goal here was to spread awareness of the Lady Pirates series and I think I accomplished that. It’s my hope that more awareness will lead to more books in the series sold overall.

The Bookstagram tour ran for 7 days and the posts got a total of 7,157 likes during the tour.
Even if I assume that people liked multiple posts, the highest ranking post in the tour garnered 2,049 likes. Which is likely around 2,000 people who never heard of the book before.
- It would be hard to measure as not everyone who sees a posts likes it, but the potential reach and impressions of the Bookstagram tour hosts is something I also consider. They had a total of 216,000 followers.
There was a small, but noticeable uptick in e-book sales, but also in paperback sales! I wasn’t currently running any other marketing on the book, so it’s all that I can attribute it to.
- Time will tell, but I theorize that at least a couple are Bookstagrammers and hope to see the book pop up once or twice more in Bookstagram posts
Financially, the book did not come close to earning out the amount of money invested in the tour. For me, that was all right. It wasn’t my goal. But if ROI is your goal, please consider that! And I didn’t have the connections or time to organize it myself. With just shipping costs and ordered books to consider, the ROI (Return on Investment) might have been closer.

Have you already organized or are you considering organizing a Bookstagram tour to promote your book? Can I answer any of your other questions about it?

A Letter to Over Raging Tides on its Release Day

Posted March 20, 2018 by Jennifer Ellision in Books, Lady Pirates, Self-Publishing / 0 Comments

It’s the release day of Over Raging Tides, book 1 in the Lady Pirates series! I have a bit of a tradition on this blog wherein I write a letter to my new book and characters on the day of a book release. I’m pretty fond of it at this point. I spend so long trying to get IN their heads, it’s not often that I get to talk TO them.

So.

Dear Grace– and Over Raging Tides,

You guys and Over Raging Tides have lived quietly in the back of my mind for a while now. While the first scene of Over Raging Tides that I wrote burst into my mind with a bang, you were pretty content to wait your turn while I finished Elementals: The Threats of Sky and Sea series.

That’s incredible to me in some ways. You’re a crew of pirates. You take what you want. But in other ways, it makes perfect sense. Everyone on board the Lady Luck has their own secrets. Their own motivations. You weren’t always willing to reveal that to someone new–even me.

What you were willing to reveal: that you were as annoyed as I was about the fact that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl is comprised of an almost entirely male cast. That a large part of pirate canon in general, in fact, is comprised of a male cast.

We’re ready to change that with Over Raging Tides, you told me. We’re waiting.

…And, as I well know, woe betide anyone who gets in your way.

Now that you’ve revealed your story in Over Raging Tides, I’m so proud to be the one who got to tell it. In many ways, this is only the beginning. I can’t wait to tell the rest.

Love,

Your Author,

Jen

Over Raging Tides is available now

Free for Kindle Unlimited members

Buy it now on Amazon

Want to order a signed copy directly from me? You can do that here

Do you use a different e-reader? Not a problem. While Over Raging Tides is exclusive to Kindle, just e-mail your Amazon proof of purchase to jenniferellision@gmail.com and I’ll send you a “read anywhere” download.

If you enjoy Over Raging Tides (and hey, even if you don’t!), please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Reviews help more readers discover the book and they’re invaluable to an author.

A note if you pre-ordered: some users are experiencing an issue where they are seeing repeated/missing chapters. I’ve communicated with Amazon and they should be pushing the corrected file to you, but if you don’t want to wait, just e-mail me your proof of pre-order and I’ll send you a link so you can download Over Raging Tides and get started reading ASAP!

February 2018 Writing and Self-publishing in Review

Posted March 2, 2018 by Jennifer Ellision in Self-Publishing, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

February 2018 Writing and Self-publishing in Review In the February 2018 Writing and Self-publishing in review report, there is not much writing to report! This month, with the release of Over Raging Tides about a month away, I focused on release prep and some marketing: Over Raging Tides: Early review copies sent to blog tour hosts Received edits from editor Made changes based on editor feedback Book sent to formatter Worked on interviews and guest posts for blog tour Reached out to Netgalley co-op to inquire about availability My other books: I’ve also made it a goal to get Threats of Sky and Sea to 100 Amazon reviews by the year’s end! So I contacted Xpresso Book Tours to set up a review query to reach out to her network of potential reviewers. And reached out also to the Netgalley co-op to inquire […]

Guest Post: 5 Promotional Tips from a PR Professional

Posted June 17, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in Self-Publishing / 0 Comments

What follows is a guest post from a PR professional–and a friend of mine. I’ve known Cash Graner since college and, as I embark upon my author career and try to learn the ways of book marketing and promotion, I’ve found her pep talks, promotional tips, and “unsolicited advice,” as she puts it, uplifting and buoying. I hope it does the same for you. When sitting down to compile a few promotional tips, I was ecstatic. Not only because it’s something that I love to share, but I consider it an honor to have Jen trust me enough to deliver some advice to her wonderful followers. With recent events and knowing the world is becoming more turbulent, I wanted to take this opportunity to applaud you for investing in your passion and pursuing your goals within the realm of writing. […]

Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Could Do Today

Posted June 6, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in Self-Publishing / 0 Comments

Mark Twain once penned an attribution for Benjamin Franklin for a quote along the lines of “Never put off until tomorrow what you could do day after tomorrow.” Twain was working off of the advice that the Earl of Chesterfield once wrote– “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” Well. No offense to the Earl of Chesterfield, but I’m going to have to side with Franklin (by way of Twain) in this case. When it comes to blogging and publishing, I’d indeed advise that you “put off until tomorrow what you could do today.” Put off until tomorrow what you could do today. It’s been a hard lesson for me to learn. Since high school, one of my favorite quotes has always been “I’m an American and I want instant gratification!” (-Jude Deveraux) When I write something, […]

Choosing to write under a pen name

Posted May 27, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Writing / 2 Comments

“You wrote a book? Where can I find it?” It’s one of the top questions I receive when people that I meet face-to-face learn that I’m an author. I tell them a couple of titles and that they’d be sure to find the books on Amazon as e-books, paperbacks, and audiobooks, depending on their preferences. “Oh,” I add, “And don’t be put off when the last name is different. Ellision is my pen name.” Their blinking is as loud as a record screech. They ask, “Wait. Why did you write under a pen name?” Why did I write under a pen name? (By the way, this is another one of the most common questions I get.) There are a lot of reasons, actually. I think of my pen name as the name of my business. I wanted a slight degree of separation […]

My Writing and Publishing Toolkit: The Electronic Edition

Posted May 23, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing / 2 Comments

Hello, friends! Today, I thought I’d share some of my favorite programs and website for my publishing journey, as well as talk about how I use them in my self-publishing journey. This is my publishing toolkit, y’all. These are my must-haves. My software Ride or Die BFFs. Writing: Scrivener First in the publishing toolkit, is Scrivener. I tried Scrivener during one of my first go-arounds with NaNoWriMo. There was a little bit of a learning curve, but Literature and Latte, the company that makes Scrivener provides helpful video tutorials that helped me quickly grasp the basics so that I could get to writing the way that I wanted to. I write in almost nothing but Scrivener. The ability to easily move from chapter to chapter, rather than scrolling through a hefty document to find what I’m looking for, is invaluable. It’s not just a writing tool, […]

Letting Your Characters Go

Posted May 20, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Writing / 2 Comments

Writing Now and Again was a new experience for me in a lot of ways. I was publishing in a new genre, for a new audience, brushing the dust off of an old project that I hadn’t touched in years. But it was different in another way. Let me explain. When I published Threats of Sky and Sea, I was nervous. I mean, of course, I was nervous. I’m nervous with the publication of every book and this was my very first. I knew more people were going to read my work than ever before. More than my fanfic, more than my creative writing workshops, more than small literary magazines I’d submitted to in the past. I worried about whether readers would respond to my writing, the world I’d created, would they like the plot…? My God, the worries went on and on. But one […]

Talk About Your Books

Posted May 16, 2016 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing / 0 Comments

I have a tendency to downplay my accomplishments to acquaintances in the real world. Yeah, I wrote a few books, but what do they care about that? I’m always so sure that if I bring it up, it will sound like I’m just #humblebragging, you know? It took me a long time even to answer that I was an author when people asked what I “do.” “Talk about your books!” my friends would urge. I’d hem and haw and generally get a little awkward about it. But the universe keeps reminding me that I need to stop that. Here’s how I was reminded this weekend: I went to a wedding this past weekend. I’d say I knew roughly half the guests there–both the bride and groom are friends from college. Some of my friends there have read– if not all, then at […]