Posted on 11/16/2014 9:21:04 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
By the time John Kennedy Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for his great American novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, he had been dead for 12 years.
Toole reportedly killed himself in part due to years of frustration over unsuccessful attempts to get his outrageously funny book about New Orleans published. It was only after his mother browbeat author Walker Percy into taking up the cause that Louisiana State University Press published the book in 1980. The following year, it won the Pulitzer for fiction. It went from being considered a cult classic to a must-read: More than 1.5 million copies of Toole’s book have been printed, and it has been translated into 18 languages.
“I think if he were alive today, he might not have been so despondent,” says Mitchell Kaplan, president of Books & Books and co-founder of Miami Book Fair International, which this year will feature a discussion panel on the monopoly of publishing. These are exciting and challenging times for authors both emerging and established. Many of them are blazing their own way, creating a brave new world for authors who will not be denied. The old “publish or perish” mantra may eventually have more application to the existing publishing houses than the authors, who are seeking innovative ways to get their books to readers.
Toole or his mother may have found a way to bring his book to press, were he writing today, Kaplan speculates....
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Amazon Kindle.
Definitely Amazon Kindle it’s the biggest outlet. You can also use Smashwords to get books out in epub like iBooks. I’ve done it and it’s really pretty easy to get your book out there.
Self-publishing has opened the door to dissolve the big-name publishing houses and harm their profitability model. The publishing houses used their charm and pressure to lure decent writers in and publish their books....taking the profits to help them pay off political hacks who wrote marginal books but they were paying them several million dollars for that deal.
I can sit there and develop fifty essays.....get a decent title....save in the right format....and easily publish on Amazon. I admit, getting the book advertised and actually bought is a tough chore....but good books still sell. The day of the book shop in your local town is coming to an end....I’ll predict by 2030...it’s just major cities with book shops.
I have sold books and made the best seller list in sales and selling when the book came out a few years ago in 2012. I was working on my next book when I posted. I used Fiver for the cover and was extremely happy with my artist. He also did the cover for the book I’m working on now. As regards marketing, I would recommend using social media - depending on the type of books you’re doing but it’s a great way to attract readers and let your network know you’re writing a book. I’ve bought several from authors on Freerepublic btw.
And of course, there’s no obligation to buy my book for answering questions. Freepers aren’t like libs that always want something. But if you are interested, it’s called The Five Keys To Hypnotic Selling.
Thanks so much for the pointers and detail.
Need cover art and will check out your recomendation.
Will also check your book out
thx
Anytime, let me know if I can be of any help. BTW I had a typo, Fiverr. I would suggest you take a look at the samples artists put up along with their reviews. I spent about $25 in total to test out a couple of different ones and found the best one for me.
Many thanks for the advice. I spent a couple bills at CreateSpace for a nothingburger of a cover. Still irritated. What their graphics design people came up with was pathetically amateur and cost them five minutes, tops.
I’ll look at Fiverr and get back to you if you dont mind.
appreciate the help
my wife and several other people who’ve read my book are upset I don’t have it out there yet. I’ve already done several rewrites and then paid a professional editor who’s encouraged me to send it to a publishing company.... but I like the Kindle idea
spending 25 bucks to get a cover done makes me think I’m getting closer to the finish line.......then I’ll get a house next to yours at the beach and we’ll drink some gin and tonics together
I’ve read two self-published books. Both were virtually unreadable. Grammar, spelling, and a smooth flow from one idea to the next were sorely missing.
Nobody reads the Miami Herald, maybe they should take a lesson from Toole.
ping
My wife's business model revolves around making such sow's ears into silk purses....
There are some stories of good books that the publishing industry rejected, and there are stories of self-published books that made it big. But the invisible hand of the book market tends to bring the best books to our attention. They’re in it for the profit, so they do everything like a pro.
I had trouble working with volunteer groups after several decades in the corporate world. I kept thinking, “These people would have been fired on Day 1.” Even such things as their personal behavior showed their absence from the corporate milieu. As far as keeping a commitment, forget it.
The profit motive keeps the standards up and gives you the best product.
Some links on how to. The hard part is the writing....
How to sell ebooks
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-sell-ebooks.html
5 Rules to sell thousands of copies of your ebook
http://mir.aculo.us/2012/10/20/5-rules-to-sell-thousands-of-copies-of-your-ebook/
Amazon Kindle Publish
http://tinyurl.com/olb4ag4
Self-publishing a book
http://www.cnet.com/news/self-publishing-a-book-25-things-you-need-to-know/
Book Publishing help
http://publishing.about.com/arts/publishing/library/blquicklink.htm?PM=453_1026
48hrbooks
http://www.48hrbooks.com/?gclid=CP6W-NXxtKACFSZHagodOiouTw
Selfpublishing
http://www.selfpublishing.com/
If I were serious about getting a book published, I would self-publish and rake in all the profits myself. Publishing houses take all the money and leave the author, the one who does the actual work, with near nothing and you won’t even be able to promote it successfully on your own terms. There are tons of ways to promote a book or any other product and I am certain that publishing houses are worthless anyway.
There is also Elderberry Press (http://elderberrypress.com/) and has various levels of promotion.
Thank you for posting thus article.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.