Candice: So another lovely author has given us some key tips on how the get going in this tough world of publishing. It seems it’s all about the self publishing.
Right, I’ll just go and pop down to the printers and get 5,000 copies made and then stick them on Amazon then.
Seriously, it’s not as easy as it looks. Years ago this was called ‘Vanity’ Publishing, where you could get your book printed and bound to look like the real thing then hand it round to your mates – “Look I’m a published author“. I met a man once who did this, telling everyone that he was an expert in acting skills off the back of his book. You won’t be surprised to discover he was a con man.
So, how is this different? Well look at Polly’s planning. It’s more like the project management I have to undertake at work – marketing strategy, time line, launch plan – than just sticking a word document on an email and saying “print me some”. The route to distribution compared to the old style of ‘Get agent, get publisher, get published’ might be different but the tools she uses are the same as they will.
What do we do with this information? Well at the moment we are still looking at the conventional route; because we like the idea of being fawned over, taken to lunch and being invited to premieres. But realistically, it looks like self publishing is the way forward.
But we wont be taking this lightly. I refuse to send something out that hasn’t been properly edited, proofed, copy and grammar checked. When it sees the light of day it will be a quality publication that won’t put people off due to its poor spelling.
Taking this route will also solve the pigeon-hole problem. I think we will have the same thing as Polly as we are delving into a genre but not following a well-worn path. “Where do we go in Waterstones?” Is what the marketer will cry – well I don’t know but that doesn’t matter on Amazon.
Now Phil and I just need to find some time to get that editing done!
nolanparker 
Never mind all that stuff about charts (I might have known you’d like that Mrs Organised), we have ANOTHER author who runs. Is the literary world trying to tell me something?
”Where do we go in Waterstones?” Is what the marketer will cry – well I don’t know but that doesn’t matter on Amazon.”
I think it does! People like to know where to find products in a supermarket. We’ve wasted a lot of time in French and Spanish supermarkets and DIY sheds where they don’t stock products where we expect to find them – fresh milk not near the main milk products and light bulbs miles away from lighting products a couple of examples. Our English logic a being a bit different from our continental friends!