By Jeffrey Benson
In the technology world that we live in today, self-publishing has become a very real thing due to that technology. There is no more sending in your manuscript to a publishing company and waiting for months or years only to receive a form letter telling you thank you but at this time we cannot accept your book for publishing. That has been the story for the vast majority of writers and Authors for the last 200 years.
Because of that there are many very good writers and Authors that never had the real opportunity to get their story to the people. So much of that was how the publisher felt the market would react as if they really knew that in the first place. If the story fell into a certain category then that may be more true however, many publishers that service many genres narrowed their field so much that only a few Authors were able to make it and the few were those whose books sold well and they focused on those Authors for the major portion of their market and revenue.
The traditional publishers still today do very well in this self-publishing age. However, self-publishing is becoming more powerful, more diversified, and more affective in its ability to market those books and stories. The reason, of course, is the internet.
In the self-publishing space, there print-on-demand companies that can print one book at a time and service thousands of writers and Authors. Because of this new technology boom, it has allowed new Authors and writers to produce their own book for a small amount of money upfront. This has enabled self-publishing companies to open up a new market for those Authors and writers. Today anyone who writes a story or book can have their creative works published through hundreds of platforms around the world reaching millions of people.
There are many companies at this point that will take advantage of these new Authors by offering unrealistic opportunities making the Author think they will make millions. In most cases the Author can get their book on the Amazon platform with KDP, Kindle Direct Printing. There are many others as well with some being free with no royalty taken and others that require a 2-year minimum contract with a monthly or yearly fee. On all these platforms the book will be in their platform however, they really don’t receive any real marketing efforts to push the sales of the book. It is up to the Author to that themselves.
New Authors believe in their book for one reason or another and they are anxious to get moving forward. However, there are many aspects that the novice writer is not aware of and that can be detrimental to the success of their book and can be a disaster when taking the book to literary agents and such for representation. Paying attention to certain aspects will help in the success of the book sales.
Most writers and Authors are new to this so getting started the right way is crucial. First, the book is in manuscript form and it has been through a spelling check and maybe punctuation and some light editing. All three are important to be sure but editing is the most important and editing can be a very detailed process and should be if you want your book to sell. Editing content and proofreading is the key. Every book has a story. It may character driven or it may be a story without the characters as in a screenplay or script. Every book has a flow and readability to it. That is the key to getting larger publishing houses, literary agents, movie producers, TV producers, documentary producers, and cable producers. Most of the movies and films we see today come from new Authors and their story concepts.
With the advent of Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu, and many others the opportunity for writers and Authors has never been so evident. Information and entertainment take up most of our leisure time these days with all the binge watching and limited series coming out it requires a lot of new writing to supply the great demand we have in todays world. All of this means a lot rewriting and such to make the story the best it can be. However, most publishers, agents, and producers want to see something that has been edited extensively so they don’t have to do too much rewriting. Too much and the story can be changed to a great degree and it does not resemble the original story itself. This can cause a reduction in the price offered for the story and possibly the royalty as well.
It is so important for the editing process to take its course and this can cost more money to make the book as good as it can be. This has to be done by a professional and that can be expensive. By going through this process, the book or story may have a much better opportunity to be bought by a company and it is a much better opportunity to be accepted by a representative agent. The agent will get it out to all parties because that is what they do. Being accepted by an agent is your best opportunity in pretty much all cases. This opens your story to be seen by everyone. With all the media out there today, your story could very well be used and bought.
As we pointed out before the demand for entertainment is greater than ever before and it is growing at a steady pace. Writing your story does not have to be with only a book in mind, but it could easily be used for a film or movie. This is the power of what self-publishing can have when you think your way through the process. Slapping a book together is one thing and putting book together the right way is another.
To give your book or your story a chance you must be willing to do it the right way even if that means it going to cost you some money to do it, in most cases it will be to your advantage to do things the right way. The opportunities are endless in this new world.
