Marketing - to Publishers Subsidy Press Problems

12 October 2011, Marketing - to Publishers Subsidy Press Problems

Introduction: I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little.  I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.  The working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel.  Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing.  In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes.  You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published.  I'll keep you informed along the way.  At this moment, I'm showing you the marketing material I put together for a novel.

Today's Blog:  It might look very inviting to think that all you have to do is pay out a little money (or with some electronic press, no money at all) and have your book published.  It is a great thing and for some authors, if you can't snag a publisher for your works, I suggest you do just that.  There are certain preconditions.

1.  If you haven't written at least one million words of fiction text, don't even think about it.  About one million is the number of words that indicate some degree of skill as a writer.  One million words is about eight to ten novels.  I will give you credit for editing, but if you haven't written about eight novel length works, you really don't have the experience to self publish.

2.  Hire an editor.  If you are disappointed with finding spelling, grammatical, punctuation, time, sense, verb agreement, awkward writing in published novels, how disappointing will it be for your readers to find these errors in your writing.  Editing is a full time job, and I can assure you, no matter how good an editor you think you are, you will have errors of one kind or another.  Do yourself a favor and hire a professional editor to go over your novel.  Two times is a good idea--if you can afford it.

3.  Choose a novel that has little commercial appeal, but that is still fun and interesting to read.  That is, you want a work that is a good read, a good example of your writing, but that later you won't kick yourself that it was self published.

4.  Make sure you have good prepublication readers.  And try to get readers who will tell you the truth about your works.  That's really hard. 
More tomorrow about electronically and subsidy published books.

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples:   http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites:  http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.