Secrets of Self-publishing and eBook promotion – Part 1

This is the first of a 2-part article. In part 2 I will share the results of my Author Survey, posted 2 weeks ago. So, for many months if not years, you pour your heart and soul into a book, edit it to the point where you feel you have a winner, and then what? The Old Way. Unless you have connections in the publishing industry, you soon realise that finding a publisher willing even to look at the first page is about as likely as winning the Euro-millions lottery. So you borrow or purchase a recent copy of the Writers & Artists Yearbook and begin the laborious process of targeting literary agents. Having exhausted the relatively small fraction of these modern enough to accept email submissions, you reluctantly move on to the laggards. From these you try to select those representing authors of a similar genre to yourself and begin posting off printed samples (with strict adherence to each one’s specific submission guidelines). And then you wait… And you wait… And then, assuming you enclosed a stamped addressed envelope, you receive back the beautiful, pristine, unread pages of your manuscript with a small post-it note onto which the words, “No thanks!” or some other equally disheartening message has been hastily scribbled. After a dozen or so such responses, I imagine this is where many aspiring authors, until quite recently, would have given up. Of course there has always been the option of vanity publishing and no shortage of companies willing to relieve desperate writers...