The Perils of Self Publishing-Part III

It nearly takes a miracle to get national attention. Unless you have an agent, or a publisher with a marketing department to make the necessary contacts, you are left to your own devices. Self-publishing still carries something of a stigma in the eyes of the national press. Getting reviewers for national magazines or newspapers to look at your product is next to impossible. But not totally. Sometimes the most unlikely sources will actually want to take a look at them. When my stepson read my book, Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row, he interpreted it as a spy novel. I did not write it as one even though it contains spies. He suggested that I contact Eye Spy Magazine, which is circulated internationally, for a review. At first, I passed this off as an impossibility, but when I contacted their website, they wanted to take a look at it. I mailed the book, per their instructions, to England, where the magazine is published. A couple of weeks later, I received a phone message from the editor saying that he liked the book and would recommend it (which he did in the July/August 2011 issue). Whether or not this will mean a boost in book sales is yet to be seen, as it is too early to tell. However, one good magazine review can lead to another, and that is what I hope will happen. The task now is to spread the word of this review to other publications. Other attempts to publicize the work are still ongoing. Attempting to get coverage by local television and radio, doing book talks and personal appearances, and reviewing works by other authors are other ways of getting your name and product into the public eye. Using blogs like this one and social media such as FaceBook and Twitter are other useful ways of spreading the word. If you are a self publisher, you cannot rest on your laurels, you must keep plugging away at every opportunity. If you snooze, you lose, and, if an opportunity is lost, you may never have it again.

The Perils of Self Publishing-Part II

As a self publisher, promoting your book is probably the most difficult thing you're going to have to do once you have put into the final form. How you do that is up to your own ingenuity. Doing personal appearances and book signings is always a good avenue for publicity, especially if you can get it into the newspaper or mentioned on TV or radio. Blogs, like this one, are another good way of spreading the word. Using social media like FaceBook and Twitter give you inexpensive ways to put your message in front of larger crowds. FaceBook, for instance, gives you the possibility of having a fan page that enables you to announce to a larger audience whatever events you wish to publicize. There are, also, many free websites available. They are easy to set up, as most of them provide templates that you can use to design a site that looks fairly professional. I used Microsoft's OfficeLive.com for mine, and to me, it looks pretty good. Making sure that press releases are sent out prior to any personal appearances will ensure that the media is, at the least, informed. I have had relative success using this strategy with several of the smaller local publications. If you can form a relationship with any of the local media people, that will greatly enhance the possibility of having your events publicized. Don't turn down the opportunity to speak to book clubs or any local organization that likes having guest speakers talk to their members. Book clubs are good in that prior to addressing them, their members will buy copies of your book for discussion purposes, and if they like it, the word-of-mouth advertising that comes through them is priceless. The problem with all of these things is they require vast amounts of time. Time away from your major pursuit, which is, hopefully, working on your next writing project. The biggest trick is getting national attention, and if getting the word out locally is difficult, getting it out nationally is damn near impossible. That is the subject for the next post.

The Perils of Self Publishing-Part I

When I started writing my book, Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row, I had no idea that I was creating a monster. Writing and re-writing the story was the easy part. What happened when I finished it came as big surprise. The first thing I learned was that, in general, agents do not want to hear from you. They are only interested in promoting authors they already represent. Many do not even give you the courtesy of a reply to letters or emails asking them to take on your book. Most will direct you to a web page with submission requirements, and these will vary wildly. After wasting several months looking for an agent to no avail, I decided to self publish. The problem with that process is that if you don't have the money to pay for expensive services that most print on demand publishers offer, you are stuck with doing all of those things for yourself. My solution? Publish on CreateSpace.com or Lulu.com. I settled on CreateSpace, as I was only required to purchase one copy: a proof. That would solve my minimal finances problem. After going through numerous file structure changes that were necessary to upload the files, I had a real copy of my work in my hands, but it was flawed. I had somehow uploaded the same chapter twice. With the proof in hand, we, my Darling Judy and I, scoured the pages for other problems and found lots of them. Re-editing the entire book for redundancies, poorly worded passages, and grammatical errors took us to the point where we were ready to upload the changes. Confident that we had corrected all of the problems, we ordered several copies of the proof to give away. The strategy we used for doing this is in the next installment.

A writers work is never done

I have started on a new project in hopes of capturing a new audience. People between say, 10 to 17 years old. I know it is a stretch for a man my age trying to write for youngsters like them, but I have been a storyteller all my life and have had more than a little success making up yarns for kids.
When my friend Richard Reilly would invite me up to his home in the western part of the state, I would tell spooky stories to his kids in the evening. These were 10 through 15 year old's, and to keep them attentive for an hour or more listening to me contrive stories was no mean feat. If they wanted to, they could watch cable TV or play video games. I told my tales in a style reminiscent of old time radio programs like "Lights Out," or "Inner Sanctum" that had engrossed me when I was growing up. I hope this latest endeavor that uses my grand kids as models works the same way.
While writing this one which has a working title of " the Berger Kids Meet Spiny Funkle," I am still promoting my novel "Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row." I have entered Amazon.com's Breakout Novel contest, and set up a second book signing at "Greetings and Readings," a top flight local bookstore. The last one was a roaring success, and they are happy to have me back again. Additionally, I am coaching another old man (like me) who aspires to being an author and passing on some of my experiences. I tried to make clear that promoting one's work is by far the hardest thing for a self published author to do. This blog is proof of the pudding.

Writing is only part of the process

When I finished writing my book, Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row, I thought the hard part was over. Boy, was I wrong! Writing it was the easy part. Getting it into print has consumed a good portion of my life since I finished it. Next came trying to get it published. I sent it to what was supposed to be a traditional publisher, but turned out to be a self publishing outfit that wanted up front cash to start the parade. I couldn't do that at the time because I could not come up with the money. My wife had been unemployed for eight months and we were just getting by. One of the reasons for finishing the book was to make money, something that didn't look like it was going to happen. When I told the people at the "publisher" that I had no bucks, they suggested CreateSpace. com and Lulu.com as an alternative. BTW, the "publisher" had reviewed my book, and said they thought it was probable that I could sell 2500 or more copies, if I was prepared to be active in promoting it. They had all kinds of "plans" of which I could partake, but they, too, cost me. Internet radio, a blog tutor, professional editing, et cetera. What I finally did was put the book out on CreateSpace which is part of Amazon.com in both hard copy and Kindle eBook. I have blown my own horn to get publicity, and so far, have two news articles and a book signing upcoming. I have sent out press releases, and done anything I could to promote it. Slowly, but surely, it is beginning to sell. Buy it, please, I need the money!!!

The Aheader I Go; the Behinder I Get

I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last entry. I have been busy trying to get my book to market and setting up my web site. Both are really time consuming. My darling Judy keeps asking me "When are you going to finish this? You've been working on it FOREVER!" That is exactly what it seems like to me. It seems like I have hit every kind of stumbling block imaginable. Since I am putting it on CreateSpace, I have had to make tons of adjustments. I have had to resize the copy to fit book size paper, change the line spacing, change the fonts for the chapter headings and body text, reset all of the margins, and unify the book into a single file. Gadzooks, what a bunch of chores. Not having the proper software only made these things harder to do. Fortunately, I was able to come up with some suitable work-arounds that let me, finally, finish the job. Or so I thought. As it turned out, I still had to convert the files to Adobe's pdf format before uploading it. Then came doing the cover art. Another nightmare. I had to rework it five times before it was okay for their site. At long last, the ball is in their court and, if no more pitfalls occur, the book will be printed.
I was naive to think that all I would have to do is send the book to a publisher, and they would take it from there. I would get an advance, they would do all of the publicizing and advertising, and all I would have to do is appear on TV talk shows and at book signings. My little book, Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row, is not an epic. It is a little story about Jewish identical twins separated at birth. It is not the Corsican Brothers or The Man in the Iron Mask. It would have take a miracle for a major publisher to grab it up like that so I am gambling that by self publishing someone might see it. I still hold out hope that fellow Baltimorean Barry Levinson will learn about it and, maybe, take a look at it. That probably falls under the heading of "still dreaming, aren't you?" Well, if the Wright brothers felt that way, my sister, Jane, would not be working for an airline and a trip to Chicago from the East Coast would take a long ride on a train. If I stop dreaming, I may wake up and find the world really sucks. What then?

Will the dream die with me?

Disillusionment has set in. What I believed was a real publisher was actually just a "come on" for one of those self publishing outfits. Whom can you trust? There are so many bogus entities floating around out there in cyberspace. It is difficult to separate the scams and the shams from the legitimate. I guess the old saw about things too good to be true is right. For now, it is back to square one. I believe in my book, "Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row," and I thought the "publisher" did, too. They played me like a Stradivarius. Now, my greatest fear is that I will die before it ever gets into print. It's a story about identical Jewish twins separated at birth and living dramatically different lives. It is the kind of story Barry Levinson would like because it involves a Baltimore landmark, Lombard Street's Corned Beef Row, a deli owner, and spies fighting over a secret weapon stolen from the Israelis. The way things look now, he will never know it exists.
At 71, diabetic, overweight, and arthritic, I am running out of time. It took me two years to finally get my book into what I believed to be really enjoyable reading. Were those years I could have put to better use? I loved/hated the process. Envisioning the story, I loved. All of the editing, and re-rewriting was a chore. Unfortunately, only the reading public will determine if it was a worthwhile endeavor. If that ever happens. Sometimes, life really sucks.

Much ado about money

What do you do when you need money and you are broke? That's the problem I am facing now. I need $1000 and have no way to get it. I have nothing I can think of valuable enough to sell. Without it, my prospects look far more grim than they did only two days ago. Then, I was upbeat, looking to hear from the publisher that they were going to print my book, Double Trouble on Corned Beef Row. Then came the bombshell. They offered me a contract, but with a different slant to it. They want the money to cover "expenses" in setting up and starting production. I would not be self publishing. They say it would be a joint venture, and the royalties would be split 50/50. Have I been hoodwinked by their "acquisitions team," and lead to believe they were going to publish my work only to wind up as a self publisher? Has anyone else experienced the same sort of thing? They have a couple of large websites, so I think they are not a scam, but I am not sure. I need money and answers.