Are you automatically discounting self-publishing? You might want to think again.
It seems as if almost everyone wants to write a book at some time in their life, but getting published is getting harder and harder. Those authors who do manage to find an agent—and then a publishing house—are in for a rude awakening. As soon as they adjust to the fact that they have just handed over all editorial control, they find that over-worked editors have limited time to actually edit. Worse, the average publicity push these days lasts two months at most and consists of little more than sending out a news release to various media markets. Imagine walking into a bank and saying, “I want a loan for this great new product that I’m going to promote for eight weeks and then put on the shelf.” You’d get laughed right out the door.
When I wrote the first book ever published about the stalking of ordinary people, Warner Books placed it in the True Crime section of the bookstore, even though that would be the last place a stalking victim—or a professional dealing with the escalating crime—would seek information. And though I assembled (at my own expense) the media kits that the publishing company sent out, in hindsight I realize that I should have assumed responsibility for the rest of the marketing as well.
My latest book, Ms. Cahill for Congress—a true story about a Reno teacher who ran for office on a dare from her sixth grade students and had them manage her campaign—should have been a PR slam dunk in an election year. Random House, however, postponed publication for a month. When the book finally came out, there were just two weeks to go before voting and the time for election-related human interest stories had passed. So now it’s an uphill battle to get publicity.
In this kind of climate, self-publishing is sounding better and better. At least you know you have to do all the work. And since you remain in control every step of the way, you dictate how and when your book hits the public eye.
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