Lance Oren's Blog - Posts Tagged "my-first-novel"
You've written a novel...now what?
I've been told that creating a novel is like having a baby, it's so true. You have the thrill of conceiving the idea, plot and characters. Next, you carrying the blossoming storyline for a minimal of nine months, unless your exceptional or deprive yourself a lot of sleep creating your baby and then delivering it "tada" for everyone to see. This is my first novel...now what?
Well...first and foremost I would not waste your time seeking out a reputable publisher to purchase your baby. Why? your an unknown author and they bank on proven winners, like the Kentucky Derby. You can try but unless your work is exceptional, your baby will wind up in a mountain of rejects or slush piles. The positive side is you'll keep the postal service from going bankrupt by buying all the stamps. Alas, there is a back door though and its wide open to you.
First, polish your novel to perfection and when your satisfied, your ready for the second stage, publishing.
There are a lot of self publishing companies on the Internet but I chose the free one's willing to take a chance on me. First and simplest is to promote your work as an eBook or ePub on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Google Books and goodreads. I suggest in keeping your asking price very modest or even lower, consider selling it by volume, not high end where you will sell a few. I ask $2.99 for my novels, a fare price for all the hard work and late night candles I burnt in writing them. Lulu.com will self publish your work in either form, epub or printed format with a multiple of choices to fit your fancy. It's a very pleasant website, highly intuitive and you'll have a finished product within an hour or two. They provide almost everything you need, the creativity you provide or for a price they will do it for you. I usually purchase my own ISBN's where I want to maintain all the copyrights and have my own illustrator do the cover layouts from my designs. You can purchase ISBN's online from $35 to $65 and they are sent to your email where you use the tools of copying and pasting. If you are very creative, many self publishing firms have the tools to design your own covers. The neat thing about designing your own cover is, you can save your work and come back to it later. I do both, but when I run into trouble I call on my illustrator getreadygraphics.com and presto it's done.
Now here is the bonus or the back door into industry I was telling you about. If your novel as an eBook is really great, you make a lot of sales and get the public blogging and buzzing. Guess whose listening? Yep! The big publishing houses and now they want you with an advance royalty check in hand, and it didn't cost you a fortune. If your baby doesn't make it big, don't be depressed, you'll make a modest income for a Starbucks coffee or latte now and then. Always remember you'll have the pride of becoming an author even if you only sell one copy, it was your baby.
Well...first and foremost I would not waste your time seeking out a reputable publisher to purchase your baby. Why? your an unknown author and they bank on proven winners, like the Kentucky Derby. You can try but unless your work is exceptional, your baby will wind up in a mountain of rejects or slush piles. The positive side is you'll keep the postal service from going bankrupt by buying all the stamps. Alas, there is a back door though and its wide open to you.
First, polish your novel to perfection and when your satisfied, your ready for the second stage, publishing.
There are a lot of self publishing companies on the Internet but I chose the free one's willing to take a chance on me. First and simplest is to promote your work as an eBook or ePub on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Google Books and goodreads. I suggest in keeping your asking price very modest or even lower, consider selling it by volume, not high end where you will sell a few. I ask $2.99 for my novels, a fare price for all the hard work and late night candles I burnt in writing them. Lulu.com will self publish your work in either form, epub or printed format with a multiple of choices to fit your fancy. It's a very pleasant website, highly intuitive and you'll have a finished product within an hour or two. They provide almost everything you need, the creativity you provide or for a price they will do it for you. I usually purchase my own ISBN's where I want to maintain all the copyrights and have my own illustrator do the cover layouts from my designs. You can purchase ISBN's online from $35 to $65 and they are sent to your email where you use the tools of copying and pasting. If you are very creative, many self publishing firms have the tools to design your own covers. The neat thing about designing your own cover is, you can save your work and come back to it later. I do both, but when I run into trouble I call on my illustrator getreadygraphics.com and presto it's done.
Now here is the bonus or the back door into industry I was telling you about. If your novel as an eBook is really great, you make a lot of sales and get the public blogging and buzzing. Guess whose listening? Yep! The big publishing houses and now they want you with an advance royalty check in hand, and it didn't cost you a fortune. If your baby doesn't make it big, don't be depressed, you'll make a modest income for a Starbucks coffee or latte now and then. Always remember you'll have the pride of becoming an author even if you only sell one copy, it was your baby.
