Archive for Our Book Posts
I needed more editing time … just get on with it!
Posted by: | CommentsRepublished from our old blog but still time appropriate:
Yes, the manuscript achieved its first deadline and went to the printer (Friesens in Canada). I mean, we don’t play around, these books are printed for real not POD (print on demand … translated aka one-at-a-time). We tried that with our first book and it wasn’t worth the money etc. We also tried a small POD print run a couple years ago (for our galley copies) and weren’t happy with the quality … a year later when we ran into them and complained, they told us they were having trouble with their printing press. In fairness, they did reprint the copies we had left but their effort was too little too late. POD has come a long way, but we’re not ready for it just yet.
We have always given our readers the best bang for their buck and that’s one reason they are repeat customers. This requires a bit of extra effort and expense. It also means that if you don’t get it right the first time it can add hundreds, perhaps thousands of extra $ onto your next printing costs. That doesn’t count the lost sales due to poor quality and perhaps most important … bad critique from readers. Believe me, that kind of news travels fast these days.
But I digress, the subject is my editing. Actually, the issue was my lack of (time to do the) editing. This is something like the TV show I love to watch … Flip This House … a husband and wife team take a product and under a tight time schedule turn an old house (read unfinished book) into a dream house (read money-making novel)! Hey I like that analogy and, yes, I often get ideas from watching TV!!
Race For A Treasure - our latest (2008) stand-alone co-written novel was planned to arrive for an early November deadline to begin our Christmas Craft Show season – well our plans began going awry as soon as we sent it to the printer. One of those unforeseeable problems arose and after some extra work with the printer, it is finally on track but will be 1-2 weeks late!
I have to hand it to Friesen’s thought, they have done their darndest to keep me on track!
So, the lesson for this issue … you must get it right the first time!! Time wasn’t on my side this year and it’s hard to admit to my husband and our eagerly waiting fans that I am not Super Woman after all!!
During the editing process there is so much to deal with that time can easily get away from you. Your brain can only work so quickly (especially when you’re in that ‘senior’ category). You simply do your best, BUT make sure it produces a book you are proud to put your name on and it hasn’t cost you your last $.
The editing process is so complicated and I have so much to share while it’s still fresh in my mind … let’s make it a separate issue … so until next time.
Happy editing and publishing.
Part 3: Can a self-published author (of fiction) succeed?
Posted by: | Comments
Yes, we made mistakes …
I have only just begun this new blog format on my own website which has been around for many years. I seem to feel a need to share with you my 13+ years worth of experiences, yes, including our mistakes! If this introduces more people to our books in the process then I am doing a good job. The bonus for readers (and us) it that with our books in ebook format, they are now more readily and cheaply available.
I have never joined author’s groups, although I have attended a few. Time has always seemed unavailable and they weren’t really my bag. People wanted to know what we had done to be so successful and although we did talk to groups in the early days, we found it took too much of our time. Besides, my husband was the only author in those early days, even though I had been a ‘writer’ since a teenager. I preferred to work alone and became the home-office workhorse. I end up sitting here day and night filling my time with ‘work’ of one sort or another and love it! A publisher’s life is filled with many things especially when they wear ALL the hats in the company!! So now, through this blog, I am trying to give back more than I have been able to in past years. Now, I trust you will pick up something useful …
Our 1st mistake was the title of our first book. Lizzie: Lethal Innocence … we didn’t think of all the connotations … who would have known so many people would think it was about Lizzie Borden. People make snap judgements without even thinking. It says on the cover the book is set in England and most people know Lizzie Borden lived in the USA. This made us realize we had to ‘talk up’ our books like crazy if we were to get the correct info out there. We even considered changing the title before the next printing but the cover and title were already well known and we still felt it was a good title! Lizzie was ‘lethal’ because she was so smart, as they would find out soon enough, and she was ‘innocence’ because she was so young.
Yes, the word ‘lethal’ compounded this misconception and made people think the book was about violence. How wrong they were and we knew we had to try to explain it quickly to people or we wouldn’t sell many more books beyond the first 500. It worked … but it was very time consuming being at markets, taking Robert away from his writing and me away from editing and office work. So after a few seasons we got into a rhythm and simply made it work for us.
Our 2nd mistake was getting too confident and ordering too many copies!!! Sales were going along so great in those first years that we ordered another print run in 2004. The second and third books, Lizzie’s Secret Angels and Streets of Hope, were doing well and I was editing the fourth and final book.
The problem began when we started writing about local history and readers now had a choice. Now the majority of readers were opting for the Victoria Chronicles’ book, Bound by Loyalty, instead of Lizzie. We still have many boxes of the first three books in our basement. I didn’t order as many for book four, thankfully. Lizzie sales have actually been picking up again in 2011/11 as readers discover how much they like Robert’s style.
Check out our Book SPECIALS Page and get the whole set of 4 Lizzie books for the price of 3!! You could also do what many people are now doing … order the ebooks. At least we do get a commission although it is somewhat smaller than with the paper copy. However, they are more desirous to order all 4 books once they have started the series!
So be very careful how many copies you order if you are doing POD (Print on Demand) or ordering large runs from a traditional printer (Friesens) like we did.
As self or indie publishing becomes even more popular due to ebooks, everyone seems to want to or is told they should ‘write a book’ so the competition has grown fierce. We continue as in the past with no plan to now stop in the near future. We now tell people of our exciting new option of ebooks at Amazon.kindle, Kobo.com, Sony.com, Smashwords.com (all formats) etc. If you want to help us out … especially if you are NOT a USA citizen, we actually get double the commission if Kindle books are purchased through Smashwords! Thanks.
We’re hoping Kindle will make some changes to their format (so other ereaders (kobos, ipods, ipads etc.) can ‘read’ kindle ebooks) and also to their payment standards for international authors, in the near future.
Part 2: Can a self-published author (of fiction) succeed?
Posted by: | Comments
Publishing our first book, Lizzie: Lethal Innocence
Our first book was ‘Lizzie‘ and the print run was 500 copies (Dec 1998). This was the recommended ‘test’ print run in those days and was the only printing we have ever had to borrow money for … and it was our own!! “Part 1″ explained the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing via a large publisher, today referred to as ‘professional publishers.’ I don’t give them capitals because I, myself, am also a ‘professional publisher and feel I have earned the title too!’
The loan lasted only 3 months … the time it took Robert to gain the confidence to sell 500 copies of our first novel at coffee shops, grocery store lineups, the recycling depot etc.. We even had money in the bank at this point and printed our next run of 1,500 copies of the same book! The following year we printed a further 4,000 copies (they were selling like hotcakes as word-of-mouth spread!).
The sequel to ‘Lizzie,’ Lizzie’s Secret Angels was launched on April 1st with a big party at the Victoria Art Gallery. 
This was the only ‘book launch’ we ever planned – there simply was never enough time. Besides which, one of the things we did for marketing was to collect their contact information and this was before the Internet! We began by phoning and sending snail mail to our customers and then later, used email. Our launches happened regularly after that, each year at a market or Christmas Show. It worked well enough for us.
I was early on to receive the math lesson from my husband that graduating to larger print runs meant less money paid up front and more in our pockets with each book sold. We began selling from our booth at markets (1999), craft fairs (1999), and the ferry terminal (2000). We have never looked back!!! Of course, the icing on the cake was when we reached 5,000 copies in the first 2 years (Canadian standards for a bestseller).
I hear there are not many indie-publishers that can boast about this kind of success and it has continued for us for 13 years. Oh yes, it has been hard work for both of us, especially with the economic upheavals of recent years.
As an aside here, I should admit that we made a few mistakes along the way. If you are a new writer and ‘wannabee’ an author, you can learn from these mistakes. That would prove that I am doing a good job with this blog! Read about our Mistakes in Part 3.
Note: In case you happened on it, I had an earlier blog called: Of Books, Marketing and Self-Publishing … but it’s now closed and some of the posts will eventually show up here, along with a couple blogs on my hobbies.
Great website for YA readers
Posted by: | CommentsSome years ago I discovered a fabulous website for young adults, referred to as YAs. The site is YA Books Central http://www.yabookscentral.com It’s also a great place for authors of children’s andyoung adult books because you can add your own name to this website. If you are a reader, you can add your favourite YA book all by yourself.
Talk about independence, this is a great innovation. Not seeing our books, I added them myself. I admit, in the scheme of things having 20-30,000 (known) readers is a drop in the bucket when we’re talking ‘worldwide’ with the influence of the internet and online stores like Amazon and ABE Books. We know many of our readers loan our books freely – perhaps too freely for our liking but we’ve learned to live with it!!
It’s fun being a grandma and an author. I love to see the excited expression on the young faces when I tell them I had written the book the Moonbeam book they had read and really enjoyed. Our adult books, on the other hand, are so refreshingly clean our readers began to pass them on to their grandchildren. We know of many 9 and 10 year-olds who loved them, and many more YAs and Teens. Our Victoria Chronicles Trilogy has become so beloved by our fans that they have dubbed it the “Saga of Nancy and Dan.” Many of them rave about our refreshingly different books to all their friends and acquaintances proving that word of mouth is an amazing marketing tool! Our fans are very special people 
Family Novels by J. Robert Whittle
Posted by: | CommentsI seem to have been forgetting that my focus here is to sell books, so this post is for you if you haven’t discovered our fabulous books, which are amazingly read by all ages. Now, you might say that is a rather unique idea … novels that can be read by old and young alike, when did that last happen
? Well, there once were the classics which are making a comeback due to ebooks. I think our series will be classics one day, especially Lizzie.
A few years ago the idea caught on again and someone came up with the unique slogan “family-friendly” books and movies. We were ahead of our time we found, but we made a success of it beginning in 1998. We have 3 Canadian Bestsellers and 2 Gold-Medal IPPY winners and many thousands of copies/per book (paper) sales to show for it.
Our novels keep almost everyone entranced save for a few people who require blood to be running in the street and children being molested to keep their interest. The oldies (parents/teachers and older) are extremely happy with our stories as they have NO sex, NO gratuitous violence and NO swearing (in Victoria Chronicles); only 1800′s-style sailors’ cursing in Lizzie Series, and certainly no horrid ‘modern’ cursing in any of them.
My husband has a remarkable imagination but he doesn’t swear so why should he add it to his books? (My first husband only cursed when he watched hockey on TV but this husband doesn’t watch much hockey, thank goodness! I warned him I would divorce him if he did!!) He comes from a family of 10 kids and he was the oldest guy. So, for the record, Robert also hates hearing news of terrible things happening to kids, hence he doesn’t write in that style either.
You just have to experience one of his books to see how great they are (that’s what our fans say in their reviews) … and they are now available as ebooks, so no excuse not to be able to find them or afford them anymore!!
‘Leprechaun Magic’ gets a new cover
Posted by: | Comments
I decided in my wisdom to update the Leprechaun Magic cover for the next printing. We have sold a couple thousand copies and I felt it needed a new more modern look, especially as I considered my crude moonbeam just that rather crude! So, the new print run arrived early this summer just in time for the main onslaught? of tourists.
Simone Padur, our wonderfully talented illustrator on Book 2, ’3 On A Moonbeam’ came to our rescue once again and has produced a cute and colourful new Paddy sliding down the moonbeam and arriving on our Earth-child’s windowsill. We love it … thanks Simone!
It’s actually been on our market stands for three months and causing a lot of interest including …
I have to read this right now!
… this cute little 3-year-old fan whose identity shall remain anonymous. She and her grandmother, one of our biggest fans, visited me most weeks out in Sidney at the street market. One day in August, this cute-as-a-button granddaughter, decided to make herself comfortable!! Yes, she’s lying on the street ‘reading’ aloud and carefully turning the pages. Then she goes and gets another book, even the novels; her Grandma says she has favourites among them, too!
I can’t wait until she gets older and can review and tell all her friends about our books! Grandma took this photo and has allowed us to use it.
Thanks Grandma!!
Play fair with your book reviews
Posted by: | CommentsI’m steaming with frustration … why? … because of a person who wrote a ’1 Star,’ obviously negative review, about one of our books … but then, was it really a negative review?! If not, why is it only 1 Star? You decide. Now that I have my own blog, on my own website, I think I am entitled to post my own opinion!!
This person starts her review with … “Started off really well, but the main problem I had was with the Lead Character” … she goes on to say that nothing bad/negative happens to this character clarifying later that it is after a certain point in the story. Perhaps she isn’t aware that some people don’t buck the system and are positive thinkers especially when they’ve already had some rough experiences. I would have hoped that she would have given the rest of the series (only 2 more books) an opportunity to change her mind before possibly damaging our reputation.
I appreciate the other reviewers who have added their more kinder comments by way of trying to negate the other with a higher number of ‘stars.’ If a reader wishes to read a book where horrid things happen to the characters … THEN FIND ANOTHER AUTHOR, Robert is not for you!
You have to appreciate our books for the stories of the characters, not the bad things that happen to them (and yes, there are bad/challenging events which do take place in our books). Robert writes adventure novels though, not horror stories.
I suppose this reviewer will judge all our books by her misguided opinion of one book and never try another of our 10 novels! Oh well, you can’t win them all and thank goodness we have thousands of fans that love our books. I can’t help but wonder if she even paid for this book (we recently had a promo giveaway).
Does this person realize, or even care, how much damage she can do by writing such a review? I wonder how many readers have/will pass up our books because of this review? I felt she could have at least given us ’3 stars’ seeing as she admitted she liked it at first … and after all she was only complaining about one character. Dare I surmise that she might possibly have enjoyed the other characters and their stories (many of which are true) but didn’t bother to mention that in her critique!
I happen to know that fortunately there are still a large number of readers out there who like to read about a variety of characters, some of them ‘nice,’ or this series and, our books in general, couldn’t have been so popular. Just because a large portion of the characters and, all of the history, locations, events and businesses are real, this series is still fiction.
‘Whispers’ delights a reader
Posted by: | CommentsJanuary 13, 2009 (transferred from our former Whitlands Publishing blog)
What a thoughtful phone call we just received … a local fan (who calls herself our ‘biggest fan’) holidaying in Ontario, just had to phone to tell us she had finished reading ‘Whispers Across Time’ and had to immediately tell us her reaction. Rather more amazing, instead of emailing us, she felt it deserved a personal conversation. Cindy said she didn’t normally like mystery novels (which was one word Robert had used to describe it to her), but loving his other books, she allowed him to persuade her to buy our latest novel last summer at the Bastion Square Market in Victoria.
To quote Cindy, “This is a book you desperately want to know how it’s going to end, but yet you don’t want it to be finished!” Such an interesting statement and one that almost takes our breath away in its startling appraisal. She couldn’t say enough about it and says that even thought she has read all but one of our earlier books, this one was very special. When we told her it had won a Gold IPPY Award, she said, “And so it should have!” Thank you Cindy
