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| ** PUBLICATION ** |
By:
Geet Singh |
My goal is to be published in mediums, eBook and print. There are some readers who prefer eBooks, and some who prefer print books. The latter group is much larger, but those publishers are harder to sell your writing to. I want both, because I want all the readers I can get.
Thus, I advocate something of a stepping-stone approach. Publish electronically with a quality place; enjoy the benefits of free editing and almost instant gratification regarding publishing time.
Later, if you think you can sell your book to a traditional print publisher, you have a professionally edited manuscript to submit.
Before you epublish, check the contract to be sure you can publish the edited work in print later.
If you know your book just plain won't ever make it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD) is an option. Some of my books fall into this category. The best epublishers will simultaneously publish your work electronically and in POD format, at no cost to you.
A lot of authors swear by self-publication, but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo, all that self-editing, maybe driving around the countryside with a back seat full of books. I'm a writer, not a salesman. But, maybe you're different.
I self-published once, in the pre-POD days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and broke even. With POD, at least it's cheaper to self-publish than it was in 1989.
If you're flying solo, POD can range anywhere from US$99 to over $1000. Don't pay the higher price! Price shop. Also, remember that POD places publish any author who pays, and do no marketing.
Print Publishing vs. Electronic Publishing
This site provides a comparison of the two mediums. Each has plusses and minuses. Even if you already know what epublishing is, take a look.
Electronic Publishers
A list of the ones I believe are reputable and my criteria for selecting them. Plus, a link to award-winning author Piers Anthony's totally excellent in-depth analysis of many more epublishers than I'll ever list.
How To Break Into Print Publishing
If you're at the beginning of my stepping-stone approach, seeking an epublisher, you'll probably just want to bookmark this one for a year or two. That's fine, because it's not going anywhere. I plan to use it myself in a year or two. If, on the other hand, you're ready for traditional print, use it now and I wish you success!
Print-On-Demand Publishing
What is it? Should you use it? If so, how? What to beware of if you do.
** PROMOTING YOUR PUBLISHED WRITING **
It doesn't matter how you publish your book. Self-published, epublished, POD, or traditional print publishing from an absolute powerhouse. Marketing falls largely on you, and the same things always work. Book signings, interviews in the local newspapers and on radio.
If you write to them all, you're a spammer. Plus, it'll take ages. Look for the ones with a legitimate interest and fire away.
If you find a stale URL, and I think you will, look for the name of that media outlet at some place like Google. Spend some time looking for the right press contacts, spend some time writing your press release, and do what you can.
Most of these sites list email, snail mail, and phone calls. Since I live in China, I've only used email.
Book reviews, author interviews, book listing sites, and book contests are something we can all do, regardless of where we live. Again, I'm going to give you some web pages to visit. Pages where I keep my resources, so I don't lose them. Some of the sites I mention do eBooks, and some do not. The POD option can help e-authors here, but balance cost vs. likelihood of gaining enough readers to offset that.
Some are ezines and some are websites. Some are printed newsletters, some are printed magazines, and some are newspapers. This is just a starting point. If you visit them all, and you have time for more promotion, you can find many more.
Book Reviewers, Author Interviews, Book Listing Sites
Book Contests
Okay, let's get back to my overseas angle. Aside from two radio interviews and a seminar in Hong Kong, and some emailed press releases to the LOCAL media back in the US which may or may not have succeeded in anything, my marketing has come from the Internet.
I have a website. I have a newsletter. I'm giving away a free eBook, the essence of which you're reading now. You found me somehow, right?
Here's the type of message I receive often in email. To be more precise, in spam.
If a million people see your ad, and you get 1% of them, that's 10,000 readers and therefore $15,000 profit and you only paid $1000 for those million addresses.
NO!! It doesn't work that way. Need I use the words dot-com bust?
My website is free. My newsletter is free. I don't buy mailing lists, I don't harvest email addresses, and I don't spam. I want interested traffic, not just sheer numbers.
Do you think the Phoenicians tried to sell sails to people a thousand miles from the water?
Internet marketing isn't a replacement for the methods mentioned above, but a complement to them. And by using it, I got you here.
Your goal in marketing is this. There are certainly people in the world who like what you like. And since you like your book, they probably will too.
But you have to find those readers and make them interested, without spamming them and without just "playing the numbers game."
If you're an e-author, let me state the obvious. Nobody buys ebooks who doesn't have Internet access. Do they? So you definitely need a website.
Traditional print authors need websites too. Even blockbuster authors like J.R. Rowling and Stephen King, who I doubt could garner any more name recognition, have websites. So does every long-established inescapable monstro-business like McDonalds and Coke.
Okay, those folks pay web designers. I'm not doing that. I can't generate those kinds of sales figures. And yes, I've formerly been employed as an HTML programmer. But you can write your own website without even learning HTML if you want. It's no harder than writing a manuscript with a word processor.
It won't be super-flashy like the big boys, but it'll communicate the information. Remember, you can communicate. You're an author! And that's what keeps people coming back to a website after the thrill of the flash wears off. Information. Content. Your specialty.
I consider my website and my newsletter to be successful, and I've created a free email course to analyze how they got that way. Yes, there are legitimate ways to bring traffic to your website and your newsletter. Not massive numbers overnight, but slow steady growth over the long term.
** CLOSING THOUGHTS **
We've been talking about soft sell.
Now, at the end of my free workshop, I'll tell you about 2 URLs that I think will help you and one that won't. You can decide if any are worth a visit.
After that, I'll get back to the lesson.
Books OnLine Directory
You've been to parts of it already and seen that it delivers something you're looking for. (I hope.) Don't forget to go back from time to time.
Mad About Books
My free weekly email newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the latest info as I find it. Plus, it has a certain goofy charm that the website lacks.
Both URLs mention my books, but in the background. I hope you'll look one day out of curiosity or because you really like my generous nature, but it's not mandatory. Soft sell.
From Watha, NC, USA to Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
This site doesn't mention writing at all. I wrote it for my students. I teach English in China, and this is where I tell all about it. Along with a hefty helping of personal history and photos. How I got here, how I quit a job via email to marry a lovely Australian, dog and cat photos, stuff like that. Just for fun. It won't help you a bit.
Now let's get back to your writing. That's why you're here.
Here's something you've heard before. When your manuscript is rejected -- and it will be -- remember that you aren't being rejected. Your manuscript is.
One reader took me to task for that statement, claiming he'd never been rejected in his life. I'm very happy for him. But why, if I may be so bold as to ask, would he need advice on How To Get Published? I'd rather he write some advice so I can hang up my "helper guy" hat and learn from a master.
But I digress. You aren't being rejected, I was saying. Your manuscript is.
Did you ever hang up the phone on a telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face of a salesman? Of course, and yet that salesman just moves on to the next potential customer. He knows you're rejecting his product, not him.
Okay, in my case I'm rejecting both, but I'd never do that to an author. Neither will a publisher or an agent. All authors tell other authors not to take rejection personally, and yet we all do. Consider it a target to shoot for, then. Just keep submitting, and just keep writing.
The best way to cope with waiting times is to "submit and forget," writing or editing other stuff while the time passes. |
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