Traditional Publishing vs Self (indie) Publishing

It’s a really tough decision. The publishing industry is changing every day and it’s getting tougher as an unknown to break down the barriers and get that elusive YES from a traditional publishing house – whether they publish physical or e-books.

If you decide to indie publish, then do you go physical or electronic? How much money are you willing to put in? You have to remember, there’s no guarantee you’ll recoup your investment. How much time are you willing to put in to market and promote your product? How aggressively will you do it?

Even with traditional publishing houses, the onus is falling more and more on the author to promote themselves.

On April 1st, Janice Horton launched a successful marketing campaign for her indie published e-book for the Kindle, Bagpipes & Bullshot, on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. While her book had been up on their site for some time, she asked everyone to hold off purchasing it until the official launch day. She built momentum with her blog, facebook posts and asked others to blog and post on facebook, twitter and other social media sites. Throughout the day, she was the guest blogger on a number of other blogs. If you look at my Successful Launch post, you’ll see how things turned out for her.

Decisions, decisions. The only thing that is constant is you need a quality product no matter which road you choose to travel down.

 

Titles…

You pick up a book on the shelves of your local bookstore. Why? There could be a number of reasons behind it. The cover art, the author name or… drum roll, please – the TITLE. Stop and think of the way the book was placed on the shelf. Did you see the entire cover or just the spine? If it was just the spine, I’m willing to bet it was the title that jumped out at you and cried “Pick me! Pick me!”

Coming up with a title for my fiction pieces drives me to distraction. A magic wand or some sort of incantation would be wonderful for conjuring up a title… Hocus Pocus and poof! When the smoke clears, the title is there.

And after you’ve agonized over your title and think you’ve finally hit paydirt with it, there’s still no guarantee your publisher will fall in love with it like you did. Chances are, it will be changed. Why? Maybe they don’t find it catchy enough. Maybe there’s another book out there with a very similar title. They know the markets and what they’re talking about.

So we will continue to agonize, scratch our heads, compile long lists to choose from, enlist the help of others and just maybe, we’ll come up with a winner.

 

 

Wonky “S” problem is solved

You’ve heard of the KISS method? Well, had a known solving my wonky S problem was going to be this easy, I would have done it ages ago.

When I had my nails done yesterday, I finally broke down and had them cut them back a bit. I loved them as long as they were but have to admit, not terribly practical. Anyway, when I fired up the laptop for the first time yesterday with shorter nails, the wonky S was no longer wonky. Looks like before, I wasn’t getting enough fingertip/nail on the key for it to strike.

Life is once again good so I’ll have to watch my language… $hoot.

LOL!!!