I'm rather enjoying the continuing work on Lords of Sargoff. Right in the middle of a few bigger plothole-fixing changes right now. Then I'll put together the notes I've received from those who have read through it and fix any errors they pointed out. Then its time for a thorough read-through and edit session, adding detail and further description.
I would absolutely love it if I could publish the book (or anything else I've written or will write). It'll be interesting when I get to the point where I may actually be submitting in places. I've done some basic research, and have this understanding of my options. I have considered Tate Publishing, a company that (if they accept your manuscript) will do everything in-house (editing, illustrations, selling, and will market it). Would cost a good $4000 to get started, but after that investment, everything is covered. And if the book sells a certain amount of copies, you get your investment back.
One of the cool things about Tate, I think, is that they accept unsolicited manuscripts. A lot of the big traditional publishing houses (Random House, Tyndale, for example) only accept manuscripts that are solicited by literary agents (and that costs an extra chunk of change). So who knows. There is also self publishing, but that may be a little crazy, not sure. Tate is also a Christian-based company, which is good.
Still a lot of work to do on the story, of course, before I get to that point (though Tate does allow you to submit unfinished manuscripts, so they can get an idea of your story and your writing style).
LotD: Fear the Gnome. Just read it.
4 comments:
Perhaps my lack of business acumen make me unqualified to offer an opinion here, but that hasn't stopped me in the past. If it was me, I would start small and try to build from there. I wouldn't want to have to front $4,000, hand my work to someone else, and then hope something works out.
The internet model has been working for a lot of small bands to reach out to a potential market. If you intend to go commercial, that would be my suggestion. I don't see why it wouldn't work for an aspiring author as well. If it doesn't work, then hey, you aren't out $4,000. If it does, then sweet! You still have complete control over your work instead of someone else.
Just some crazy thoughts from a Macman...
Totally crazy! Your total lack of buisness acumen makes you utterly un qualified to offer your opinion!
;-)
That gnome thing is really funny!
Musical bands are able to make a profit giving away free music online through selling concert tickets (and some CDs). For an author, the primary revenue source is selling books - I doubt there is much of a market for selling tickets to listen to you read the book. Some people may pay for a physical copy of the book (as it is easier to read) but I would think that an author giving away free copies of the book online is giving up a large portion of the potential income associated with the book. I would think you would not make much money that way, but may be able to gain a fan base. Who ever thought that Joel would have a fan base?
I don't know what you really get for $4000 - how much marketing, editing, etc. I do think that at some point you will need some professional editing help - you won't be able to get the book to a publication-ready state without it. It would be interesting to talk to other authors who have used their service to see if they would recommend it. To me, $4k sounds reasonable if they do a good job. Also, what cut do they take from the purchase price of the book? How many books do you have to sell to make a profit?
To expand on my comment a bit, I meant using the internet as a cheap means of making your work available to a wide audience, not in the audio book sense. My thought was that four grand is not likely to get you much in the way of marketing or advertising, but perhaps just some editing and printing. But if nobody knows about it, then that doesn't help you much anyway.
You could go the route of putting Lords of Sargoff out there for free (since it already is) and then charging for the next book. You could also put a couple of chapters of each story out there for free so people could sample and decide if they want to buy the rest. Or you could charge for the whole thing. In any case, you have lots of options and complete control over how you want to present and distribute your work.
The tricky part is how to get the word out about your work without going broke. My analogy with bands putting their stuff online is that you can control costs, start small, and build from there. If it doesn't work, you aren't out much. If it does, you are not dependent on a publisher who has control of your work, although you could certainly go that route in the future.
Another way to look at it.... If you wanted to start a photography business you could go buy land, build a new studio, buy expensive cameras, lighting, backgrounds, advertising, etc. If it works, and customers come flying in, you're already setup to do well. If customers don't come in, you're out a lot of money.
On the other hand, you could do something similar to what my sister did. She started with one wedding for a friend and that paid for her first nice camera. She used the pictures from that first wedding to help land her second and third weddings. Those provided the funds to purchase 2 expensive cameras (one main and one backup). The next wedding helped pay for a new lens and flash and the next couple will pay for a nice lighting system. Each small step paid for the next, and she could increase what she charges as she went along as well. Now she has the entire summer booked with weddings and she never really had to ever front any of her own money along the way.
It's not a perfect analogy (the turn around time on a book is longer than shooting a wedding on the weekend), I know, but it's not a bad business model. And hey, if you get 20 people to buy your first book online at $10 each (just picking numbers out of the air), you just made $200 pure profit off something you enjoyed doing. That might not be much, but how many books would you have to sell through a publisher to even break even? And once you sell the first 20, if each leads leads to 2 more through word of mouth or advertising, it has the potential to grow exponentially. And again, no out-of-pocket expenses if you don't want to.
And now my comment is officially almost novel-length.
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