January 23rd, 2010
Lately, I have been thinking about how much self publishing reminds me of the days of the American Wild West. New technologies (be they the telegraph, the Transcontinental Railroad, the Internet or Print on Demand) opened up a new frontier. People flocked to that new frontier. Out there, the myth went, you can make it big on nothing but grit and gumption. No rules to hold you back. You can make your own way. So, people packed their steamer trunks and their laptops, loaded up on gun powder, back bacon and skim lattes and headed into this wild, uncharted land.
It didn’t take long for the harsh truth to sink in: This may be a land of opportunity, but opportunity does not come with a guarantee. Only a few strike it rich. A few more make good. A whole lot of more end up wiring home for a ticket back to Boston.
But thank goodness for those trail blazers that tried. For good or bad, they changed the world. They created a new culture. They made it possible for the rest of us to whip along Interstate 80 at 75 mph to get to Reno. They paved the way for grandfathers to give bound copies of their memoirs as Christmas presents and for women to turn a passion for the elderly to a business.
How can we make sure you, brave trail blazing writer that you are, make it? How can we increase the odds you will find that golden nugget? Let’s look at a few lessons from the Wild, Wild West.
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December 7th, 2009
Self publishing has a bad rap. Companies that cater to self publishers are called “vanity presses.” People assume writers choose self publishing because their books were too awful to be picked up by a “real” publisher.
I’ll be honest, sometimes that’s true.
But people self publish for a lot of very good reasons. I have found that the more I talk about self publishing, the more passionate about it I become.
Maybe the best way to explain my passion is to start with Once Upon a Time.
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October 28th, 2009
I have to admit, most authors’ eyes glaze over when I ask them what their vision is for their book. My partner, Brian, is amazed by this. “People put all this time and effort into these books,” he says over and over, “and they do it without having any clue what to do once it’s done.”
I think he’s amazed because he’s not a writer. I know what it is to just have a story to tell, to have a burning need to put pen to paper. And that’s all it take to be a writer — to put pen to paper.
Getting published, especially self published, takes a plan.
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September 28th, 2009
Your first step in creating a vision for your self-published book is to answer this question: Am I creating this book to fulfill a burning passion or am I doing it to make a buck? Am I in it for the love or the money?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Or rather, you are the only one who knows what the right answer is for you. But once you know the answer, it guides you through a lot of other questions you’ll be asked (and you will need to ask yourself).
But wait! I can hear you saying, I want to do both. I love what I am writing about, and I want to make money too. Most authors, especially the ones who self publish, are motivated by a combination of love and money. As someone working them, I won’t have it any other way.
Let’s take a trip along the For Love or Money continuum.
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September 1st, 2009
“I always used to think that publishers had to be devilish intelligent fellows, loaded with the grey matter, but I’ve got their number now. All a publisher has to do is write cheques at intervals, while a lot of deserving and industrious chappies rally round and do the real work. I know because I have been one myself. I simply sat tight in the old flat with a fountain pen, and in due season a topping, shiny book came along.”
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