|
Here’s how I wrote my story. You can do it too!
Some of you have unbelievable stories of your own.
But you don't know how to get them published and turn
them into revenue generating properties. Let me show
you how I did it.
After my first-day adventure with one client and four
strippers, I never went anywhere without a pen and a
composition book and eventually my laptop. Every story
idea, useful tip and bits of stupid conversation were
logged in as drafts or bullet points to be fleshed out
later.
Once I had the content laid out in some semblance of
order, I looked into the mechanics of submitting my
work to agents, editors and publishers. Had I known
I was going to waste time and money mailing submission
after submission only to get form letter responses (with
typos in some cases) like "Thank you for your submission.
Your title is not what we're looking for. We are currently
in the market for gripping stories of female rhesus
monkeys who've worked their way to the top of the corporate
ladder, while raising families of developmentally challenged
squirrels. It's the hottest genre out there. Thanks
and Good Luck!
And that's even if they bother sending you get a rejection.
I still can't believe I was turned down by the publisher
of not one, but two books about the creative uses of
duct tape. Shit floats, but I digress.
So after that, I started looking into options to self
publish my story. I'll save you all the agita and pitfalls
of some of the operators out there and just cut to the
chase. The publisher I decided to go with, Booksurge.com
is a division of Amazon.com. That alone is a value add
for any author and depending on your technical skill
and comfort level as they have ala carte packages to
suit any budget.
Pay to get published? Yep, but within reason. If you
want soup to nuts, and you dump a nasty Word doc in
their lap, you're looking at an investment of a couple
of thousand dollars to get you that lifelong dream of
being a published author.
But if go about it like I did, sub-contracting the
cover art and putting the time in to create a tight,
press-ready PDF doc, you too could be a published author
for only $99 dollars and still make upwards of 30% royalties
on every book sold. Sweet huh?
Getting your first copy of the fruits of your talents
is a great feeling, but after that the real work begins.
Just because your book is listed on Amazon, doesn't
mean that the orders for your tome are going to start
pouring in.
If nobody knows about it, how is it supposed to sell?
While you are writing and going about your day, you
should be brainstorming ideas of how to get the word
out about your book.
While I was driving, I pitched the idea to anyone within
speaking distance about my book. Not only the clients
I drove, but also cops, parking lot attendants, flight
crews, other drivers, you name it. If they had a pulse,
they heard my pitch. Out of that, I got over 500 opt-in
e-mail addresses of people interested in buying the
book.
Once the book was published, I printed up 4 x 5 cards
with the book's cover on one side and a synopsis and
url of the site I built to promote it on the other side.
$100 dollars for Kinkos to digitally print 500 sheets
of the cover, four up on the page, letting me customize
the other side by printing the backs on a copier. That
content can change as often as I decide. I can even
use the blanks as mailers.
Those cards go everywhere with me. Not only do I hand
them out to interested parties, I also stuff them in
library books, magazines/paperbacks on the sales rack,
and every paid bill that leaves my house.
So to recap, If I did it, you can too.
Good Luck!
|
