Publishing and Promotion....

OK, so you have completed your book

Naturally you want to see it in print

In times past the manuscript would have been produced on a type writer, or even hand written

The cheapest way of producing a ‘book’ was to run off copies and staple them together

A much better, but more expensive way, was to have a professionally produced book, created by a printing company and run off batches

The best way would be to have a publishing company decide to publish your work, but this has always been a very long shot

The vast majority of writers ended up in the ‘written an unpublished book’ category, and that was that

Conversation

A “What’s happening with your manuscript“

B “What manuscript”

A “The one you showed me“

B “It’s gone”

A “What, you had a creative meltdown and burnt it or something”

B “No, I sent it to some publishers who rejected it and returned it”

A “OK”

B “Then I sent it to a publisher who didn’t return it”

In the digital age it is no longer like that

Anyone with a reasonable product can self-publish on Amazon and it will cost them nothing

except the time and effort, plus the ability to understand and action the process

Some call this vanity publishing, and I will be writing about that another time

The book can then be ordered in any quantity, from one copy upwards

With the help of a collaborator this is situation I am now in

So what next

I could leave it at that, mention it to family, friends, and acquaintances, who perhaps buy it, or perhaps not

With this approach there is always a possibility that it will go viral, or be picked up by an agent or a publisher, but realistically most likely not

Or do I look at how to promote it

I want to promote it and see where the project can go

I have two books and have sent them off to a couple of agents

Done a little research on promotion

It has been suggested to me that Fitzroy may go down well in America, and I like the idea of working with a small independent publisher

All well and good, but my thinking now is to wait until I have all seven books finished

Make sure the product is as good as I can make it, probably a year or more off

Then my energies can be devoted to promotion

That is how I see the journey now

Things can change of course…