You have stories to tell and fantastic ideas floating around in your imagination that deserve to be communicated to a vast army of readers. Hell, you can imagine and create stories that are as good as any of them out there, can’t you?
How Hard Can It Be?
Who wouldn’t be excited? You know in your heart you can be the next Hemingway, Faulkner or Rowling and your talent deserves the celebrity and prestige of authordom … and a shot at immortality.
Why? Because you’ve been validated by your friends.
Now, all you have to do is follow a formula to find a good agent to get your work published. If you don’t know one, you can sign on to the abundance of places on the internet claiming to locate them.
Easy, right?
Maybe you’ve already tried the traditional route. You’ve submitted your ideas to agents, or maybe you actually found a publisher, but your work didn’t sell very well. You’re certain the only problem was no one was promoting it properly.
What do you do now?
Self Publish?
Perhaps you’re thinking about doing it yourself and going indie. People have told you the traditional publishing business is faltering anyhow. Retailers like Waldenbooks and Borders are already out of business. From what you hear, Barnes & Noble is in danger, too.
Every day, advice for the self-published author is coming at you from people who tout their expertise. Many claim to offer you a magic ladder that will get you into the stratosphere. All I can say, if you decide to do it yourself, be careful who you use to assist you.
You’ll find services that say they were created expressly to get you discovered, increase your book sales, get your work on television, into the movies, or adapted for the stage.
Their come-ons are great. If you’ve dreamed that far, it’s easy to imagine lots of money rolling in, being lionized at book parties and having people line up for your autograph.
Why not?
Just remember, nearly everyone who tells you this comes at a price, and most guarantee nothing at all. All I can do is say good luck … and remind you: A fool and his money are soon parted.
Writers’ Conferences
You could decide to attend a good writers’ conference, which I actually do recommend – (see Rochester Writers).
Many occasionally offer speakers who can tell you how to find a good agent and make it in the business (but remember, many don’t tell you how they made it … because many of them didn’t).
You have to choose wisely.
CreateSpace
You decide to take the plunge and use CreateSpace to get your work listed on Amazon (it’s what I’d recommend, if you asked me).
Amazon welcomes you into their book-selling machine and, for all intents and purposes, you are finally what you always dreamed you’d be … a published author. Your friends and family are proud of you. Amazon has come to your rescue.
Except …
Okay, so you probably don’t get to quit your day job.
For some, that really doesn’t matter. Just being published is worth the journey. You are officially an author, sainted by experience, up there with Dickens, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Asimov, et al.
But readers aren’t stampeding to the cash register to buy your book, and those dismal sales are discouraging. So now what?
You try lowering the price to $9.99; then $5.99; then $2.99; then to .99 cents. Finally, you offer it for free (imagine the irony of becoming a best seller for a book that’s free). Nothing happens.
You can’t blame Amazon. You’re in a very crowded pond, in the company of a multitude of authors and literally thousands of books. How can readers find you? Oh, they might take a chance for free, or pack you into their Kindle to read some day.
Maybe.
Hard, Time-Consuming Work
This is when the “How-to-Succeed” boys will come after you again, trying to drag you into their podcasts and how-to subscriptions (always for a price), to show you how to stand-out from the mix.
They’ll dangle in front of you the possibility of speaking gigs, publicity and discoverability. Then (again for a price), they will tell you to get off your butt and blog like all-get-out, social network like crazy, create a massive circle of “friends” and cultivate those new “friends” like hell.
They’ll admonish you to personalize yourself. Tell folks your life story. Bond with them. Keep them engaged. After all, maybe some of them are actually readers. Finally, they’ll try to get you to push these new “friends” to buy your books and, above all, leave a review.
Promote Yourself
You might think that I’m putting you on, satirizing the indie author’s dilemma, but I’m not. I’ve been at this for many years, analyzing the process, studying it, experimenting.
Call this little exercise a cautionary tale. Better yet, a reality check.
Because there is no magic bullet.
You don’t realize it yet, but I just saved you a ton of money. I told you essentially what you’ll discover in all those “How-to-Succeed” sites.
You can promote yourself.
Just don’t go around screaming “Buy my book!” That will only succeed in turning people off entirely.
Getting your name burned into the public consciousness without a huge cash expenditure is a task requiring all your ingenuity and time. The net is like a bullet train, passing at warp speed. Getting the public’s attention is paramount. Keeping it is a small miracle.
Go For It
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to dampen your enthusiasm for becoming an author, because with social networking skills, optimism and energy, you might develop a following. If you stay the course, the sales, recognition, celebrity and fame you crave could be yours.
In the end, however, remember it’s really all about your work. Is your dialogue believable? Are your characters and your stories worth the reader’s effort? Do they engage, connect and inspire? Make certain they do, and you might get lucky.
After all, someone does win the lottery.
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My books have all garnered some terrific reviews, and you can see the ones I have available by using the Amazon link below. Look for them. Better yet, buy one and read it. You just might like it.
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I’ll be at the Rochester Writers’ Meeting this week. See you there!
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You’re invited to visit my website, BROKEN GLASS, or
like my Book of Face page. You can find me on Goodreads, or follow some of my shorter ramblings on The Twitter.
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Visit my web site to hear the remarkable radio interview about my novel “Blood Lake” by The Authors Show.
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Comments posted below will be read, greatly appreciated and perhaps even answered.
Painting With Light 