Try to find a literary agent these days—let alone a publisher—and you’ll probably agree that the state of publishing has never been worse. On the other hand, opportunities to share your work has never been greater.
I have a number of clients who decided to take publishing into their own hands instead of going the more traditional route.
Nita Belles just self-published In Our Backyard: A Christian Perspective on Human Trafficking in the United States. The book, which has been heralded by people like Marc Klaas and the former director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), has triggered public speaking opportunities as well as media. Nita has even been invited to pen guest columns for the Washington Post and The Huffington Post. Go Nita! Way to spread the word.
Taking her cue form serialized novels of yesteryear that were published a chapter at a time, Leslie Absher is sharing Siren’s Daughter, a memoir which describes her childhood in Greece, piece by piece on her blog. Writing as beautiful as hers deserves an audience. Check it out. You’ll be hooked.
Tara-Nicholle Nelson self-published her book, The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook, which made Amazon’s top ten financial books list. She followed that up with Trillion Dollar Women: Use Your Power to Make Buying and Remodeling Decisions. Both books helped her launch her Rethink Real Estate platform. Subsequent national media has ranged from CNN and the Today Show to The New York Times. The books also spawned an ongoing syndicated column, a column in Time magazine and an upcoming column in Forbes. HGTV eventually licensed the content from The Savvy Woman’s Homebuying Handbook as seed content for a start-up website. As Tara says, “It’s been good, baby.”
Fred Swisher’s self-published books about landscaping in Central Oregon—55 Myths, Tips & Secrets and Ultimate, Simple Landscaping—make him the local landscaper with a book (make that two books). That’s a calling card with credibility.
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