Author-publishing with Completely Novel, and How it Changed the Course of my Book.
Completely Novel's One Big Book Launch
With a number of dubious options out there for author-publishers, when a platform gets it right, it's worth sharing.
Stumbling upon the Completely Novel website was one of the most serendipitous turns the fate of my debut novel took. Despite being slightly longer in the literary tooth now, and learning of the myriad of other choices available, I can’t say I’ve been particularly motivated to have a serious look at the competitors.
When I first took the plunge and registered, I really didn’t have much of a clue about author-publishing. Not that I was completely reckless. I’d done enough homework to realise many self-pubbing sites were something of a rip-off (ahem Lulu). I was on a tight budget, but nonetheless determined to produce a professional book that I could potentially live off. The scheme wasn’t entirely woven from candyfloss. I had created a sales plan for my locality in Turkey, and with a thriving blog, I knew I had a platform from which to market. Yet I have to admit, Completely Novel turned out to be the clincher in Ayse’s Trail’s success, for a number of reasons.
Completely Novel is relatively new. It’s also young which makes it dynamic, current, and (the crunch-point for me) a lot less cynical than a large tranche of the online marketing world. One thing I hope to God they maintain is their helpful and personal customer service. Unlike a few other book sites I could mention, the 72 hours response time doesn’t refer to some vague temporal unit in the region of a week. It usually means a few hours on a week day. And if for any reason the team can’t get back to you promptly, they inform you (as opposed to leaving you hanging on the end of your internet connection wondering whether your mail was sucked into the same anti-matter void as odd socks).
Another aspect of the company that has won me over is the support. The Completely Novel team want you and your book to succeed and actively promote books on their site, tweet for you, post relevant promotions on their Facebook page and offer author/guest blog spots. This is where the ‘less cynical’ aspect of the company is exciting. They are something of a hybrid platform; they connect authors to literary agents, are passionate about quality books and organise literary events, such as the One Big Book Launch which by some stroke of divine good fortune I won.
Being chosen for the OBBL made my year, and I advise anyone to enter if they can. Ayşe’s Trail had only been released a week before, and up until that point I’d considered it very much a niche novel for Turkey. I can quite honestly say, the event was one of the most thrilling public nights of my life with the opportunity to speak in front of an audience of 200 or so bookish folk, press and bloggers.
Completely Novel has an excellent bank of tips and strategies for authors which I strongly advise members to use. From the cover to typesetting to marketing, there are easy-to-access articles all over their site. I followed them avidly. It is thanks to one of their training videos (How to Get Your Novel in Shape) that I was able to produce an attractive, well-edited book, and one reason Ayşe’s Trail was readily stocked by bookshops (including Stanfords in London).
Don’t I have any criticisms? The one area Completely Novel could improve on, is the site, which can be glitchy at times. Though as I said, at least you know you’ve got someone friendly on the other end of an email who will explain straight away what’s happened and try and fix it.
Finally, how does Completely Novel work financially? They have three different pay schemes; free, professional and business. I’m on the middle tier rate and pay a fee of £7.99 a month to publish with them, which includes ISBN. In return, I pay no commission on sales. This means it’s almost as profitable for me to sell hard copies of my novel as ebooks. Yes, really. As one of a dying breed of print-copy romantics, this is a major boon.
Stumbling upon the Completely Novel website was one of the most serendipitous turns the fate of my debut novel took. Despite being slightly longer in the literary tooth now, and learning of the myriad of other choices available, I can’t say I’ve been particularly motivated to have a serious look at the competitors.
When I first took the plunge and registered, I really didn’t have much of a clue about author-publishing. Not that I was completely reckless. I’d done enough homework to realise many self-pubbing sites were something of a rip-off (ahem Lulu). I was on a tight budget, but nonetheless determined to produce a professional book that I could potentially live off. The scheme wasn’t entirely woven from candyfloss. I had created a sales plan for my locality in Turkey, and with a thriving blog, I knew I had a platform from which to market. Yet I have to admit, Completely Novel turned out to be the clincher in Ayse’s Trail’s success, for a number of reasons.
Completely Novel is relatively new. It’s also young which makes it dynamic, current, and (the crunch-point for me) a lot less cynical than a large tranche of the online marketing world. One thing I hope to God they maintain is their helpful and personal customer service. Unlike a few other book sites I could mention, the 72 hours response time doesn’t refer to some vague temporal unit in the region of a week. It usually means a few hours on a week day. And if for any reason the team can’t get back to you promptly, they inform you (as opposed to leaving you hanging on the end of your internet connection wondering whether your mail was sucked into the same anti-matter void as odd socks).
Another aspect of the company that has won me over is the support. The Completely Novel team want you and your book to succeed and actively promote books on their site, tweet for you, post relevant promotions on their Facebook page and offer author/guest blog spots. This is where the ‘less cynical’ aspect of the company is exciting. They are something of a hybrid platform; they connect authors to literary agents, are passionate about quality books and organise literary events, such as the One Big Book Launch which by some stroke of divine good fortune I won.
Being chosen for the OBBL made my year, and I advise anyone to enter if they can. Ayşe’s Trail had only been released a week before, and up until that point I’d considered it very much a niche novel for Turkey. I can quite honestly say, the event was one of the most thrilling public nights of my life with the opportunity to speak in front of an audience of 200 or so bookish folk, press and bloggers.
Completely Novel has an excellent bank of tips and strategies for authors which I strongly advise members to use. From the cover to typesetting to marketing, there are easy-to-access articles all over their site. I followed them avidly. It is thanks to one of their training videos (How to Get Your Novel in Shape) that I was able to produce an attractive, well-edited book, and one reason Ayşe’s Trail was readily stocked by bookshops (including Stanfords in London).
Don’t I have any criticisms? The one area Completely Novel could improve on, is the site, which can be glitchy at times. Though as I said, at least you know you’ve got someone friendly on the other end of an email who will explain straight away what’s happened and try and fix it.
Finally, how does Completely Novel work financially? They have three different pay schemes; free, professional and business. I’m on the middle tier rate and pay a fee of £7.99 a month to publish with them, which includes ISBN. In return, I pay no commission on sales. This means it’s almost as profitable for me to sell hard copies of my novel as ebooks. Yes, really. As one of a dying breed of print-copy romantics, this is a major boon.
