Nobility Among Us Comment Thread

[Ben Zwycky]

I don't even have that much money to spare (right now I have the equivalent of just less than $200, and I'd prefer to not have to use all of that), If I can't find a publisher or agent, I'd have to go the free e-book route, going for some sort of print self-publishing arrangement from the proceeds from that, and even then I'd need to spend something on marketing and the book cover art to start with, though I might be able to get a talented person I know to do the cover art for free or very cheap. I'm still exploring other avenues, if nothing comes of those in the next few months I'll put my self-publishing plan into action.

[One Bad Pig]

I don't even have that much money to spare (right now I have the equivalent of just less than $200, and I'd prefer to not have to use all of that), If I can't find a publisher or agent, I'd have to go the free e-book route, going for some sort of print self-publishing arrangement from the proceeds from that, and even then I'd need to spend something on marketing and the book cover art to start with, though I might be able to get a talented person I know to do the cover art for free or very cheap. I'm still exploring other avenues, if nothing comes of those in the next few months I'll put my self-publishing plan into action.

Be patient. Even the best writers tend to be rejected quite a bit before their first sale. I would recommend trying to write and sell some short fiction first, and see if you can get your foot in the door that way.

[Debbaux]

Ben, just trying to generate more possibilities here. Recently a singer came to Australia (wish I could remember who it was) who had presold heaps of music CDs to fund the recording of her new album. This sort of thing involves record keeping and some work gathering up the money, and could only be done once a definite commitment to self publishing had been made by you.

For example, I would be happy to pre-purchase two copies of your book for $50 ($AUS) if I knew it would arrive in say a year. I deposit $50 into your account and wait, having been guaranteed by you that it will arrive in a certain time. Of course if your timelines stretch, you would just let everyone know by email that there has been a revised delivery date. There is no risk to my money because you wouldn't embark on a presale program till you'd properly costed and worked it all out. The singer had made some sales to shops as well as individuals, but her studio recording and pressing costs were much greater than for your book, so you could possibly do it with just private sales.

Incidentally, part of the way she got a lot of publicity and interviews about her new CD was by using her method of prepayment as a marketing tool and talking point at interviews. So it could help get you a foot in the door for publicity too. Just an idea.

[Debbaux]

I see your new signature "Waiting for a response from publishers". So you're keeping at it, good.

[Ben Zwycky]

That's been my signature for a long time now, I've joined a forum of published and unpublished writers run by a major publishing house as a talent-spotting enterprise, the writers give feedback on each others' work and back stories they especially like, the 5 most popular ones at the end of each month get shown to the publishing house's editors. I've been making some contacts and learning a lot about the industry there, as well as the flaws in my work and aspects of it that are preventing prospective publishers from picking it up (or even giving it a look), so I've been making some changes in response to that. The more I learn, the less likely it's looking that I'm going to find a conventional publisher, so I've got someone working on the cover and artwork (hierarchy chart and two maps) ready to self-publish as an e-book to begin with.

[Debbaux]

Well you've sure moved along with it. You'll be an expert at all this by the time you're done. Changing it too much to suit others may not even result in it being accepted by publishers as they get so many. So it sounds like you're on the right path by keeping it pretty much as you like and going for an e-book. And getting the maps and artwork done for an e-book will mean it's also ready to print if you do a small print run later, so that's good too.