Chasing the dream: publishing
It's been a few months. I decided against joining the Reserves: I don't think I'm in good enough physical condition, and in no position to improve to an acceptable point.
However, I have decided to finally try to get myself published.
JF Dubeau, whom I met at NaNoWriMo a few years back, has been going on about Inkshares, a new publisher with a new take on the manuscript submission process. What they do is that they crowdfund that process: instead of having your manuscript evaluated by a single person (and risk having to contend with someone who just is Not In The Mood the day they pick up your work) they would have you sell pre-orders for your book. Sell enough pre-orders, and they publish, market and distribute--all that good stuff that a traditional publisher does and which I couldn't deal with on my own. Otherwise, everyone gets their money back. There's no risk except to the author's ego.
It's been noted that a lot of publishers these days want writers to demonstrate saleability first. That is, you're far more likely to get published if you can show that you've got a following on Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal or where-absolutely-ever that would snap up a copy as soon as it hits the bookshelves. I think Inkshares' pre-order model does something like that. It proves saleability. Of course, they *say* it's to help pay for some of the publishing expenses, and maybe there's some truth in that; but I know what it's really all about.
So! I am going to try to get a book published by Inkshares: "Murder at the Veterans' Club", a classic "golden age" detective story set in 1924.
The plan is to spend some time lining up my ducks, and begin the pre-order campaign at Easter. I've brushed off my Twitter account and now I make all my Facebook posts through that: saves a bit of trouble. I'm getting involved on Goodreads. I'm investigating Wattpad. I'm ... spending a lot of time on social media. Good thing I don't have to worry about a day job at the moment, or I might never have time to actually write.
The suggested pre-order campaign length is 90 days, but I think I should go for a much longer campaign length than that. I think I should set the ending date for the end of January 2017. While that seems to imply that anyone ordering now would have to wait that long before the publication process even begins, I believe that hitting the pre-order goal before that time would mean beginning the publication process early. This isn't Kickstarter, where you want to get as much funding as possible. Who cares when the projected end date is, if you reach your goal in a few weeks? The alternative is to spend more time building up a following, and begin a shorter campaign later; but it seems to me that this would be no different from starting a long campaign now.
But I'm going to need a lot of help.
I'm going to need friends to sell to friends-of-friends.
I'm going to need people who believe in me and my writing, and who believe enough to overcome the rather hefty price tag attached to the pre-orders--which I cannot change. Trust me, I tried. (There again, some people seem to have no trouble with the prices, so maybe that's just my perspective?) So much of my ego is built up on what people have been telling me about my writing since I was in school, I'm terrified of failing here.
However, I have decided to finally try to get myself published.
JF Dubeau, whom I met at NaNoWriMo a few years back, has been going on about Inkshares, a new publisher with a new take on the manuscript submission process. What they do is that they crowdfund that process: instead of having your manuscript evaluated by a single person (and risk having to contend with someone who just is Not In The Mood the day they pick up your work) they would have you sell pre-orders for your book. Sell enough pre-orders, and they publish, market and distribute--all that good stuff that a traditional publisher does and which I couldn't deal with on my own. Otherwise, everyone gets their money back. There's no risk except to the author's ego.
It's been noted that a lot of publishers these days want writers to demonstrate saleability first. That is, you're far more likely to get published if you can show that you've got a following on Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal or where-absolutely-ever that would snap up a copy as soon as it hits the bookshelves. I think Inkshares' pre-order model does something like that. It proves saleability. Of course, they *say* it's to help pay for some of the publishing expenses, and maybe there's some truth in that; but I know what it's really all about.
So! I am going to try to get a book published by Inkshares: "Murder at the Veterans' Club", a classic "golden age" detective story set in 1924.
The plan is to spend some time lining up my ducks, and begin the pre-order campaign at Easter. I've brushed off my Twitter account and now I make all my Facebook posts through that: saves a bit of trouble. I'm getting involved on Goodreads. I'm investigating Wattpad. I'm ... spending a lot of time on social media. Good thing I don't have to worry about a day job at the moment, or I might never have time to actually write.
The suggested pre-order campaign length is 90 days, but I think I should go for a much longer campaign length than that. I think I should set the ending date for the end of January 2017. While that seems to imply that anyone ordering now would have to wait that long before the publication process even begins, I believe that hitting the pre-order goal before that time would mean beginning the publication process early. This isn't Kickstarter, where you want to get as much funding as possible. Who cares when the projected end date is, if you reach your goal in a few weeks? The alternative is to spend more time building up a following, and begin a shorter campaign later; but it seems to me that this would be no different from starting a long campaign now.
But I'm going to need a lot of help.
I'm going to need friends to sell to friends-of-friends.
I'm going to need people who believe in me and my writing, and who believe enough to overcome the rather hefty price tag attached to the pre-orders--which I cannot change. Trust me, I tried. (There again, some people seem to have no trouble with the prices, so maybe that's just my perspective?) So much of my ego is built up on what people have been telling me about my writing since I was in school, I'm terrified of failing here.