The Way Forward
This weekend I attended a seminar on Marketing and Promotion for Indie Publishers.
As a part of New Zealand Bookweek the Tauranga Writers in association with Ocean Books www.oceanbooks.co.nz hosted this seminar with guest speakers New Zealand author James George and his Storybridge partner Jocelyn Watkin… https://thestorybridge.blogspot.co.nz
I came away from this seminar greatly inspired with my belief in my decision to Indie Publish affirmed.
- This is a great time to be an Indie Author
- Once the question used to be “How do I get a publisher to PUBLISH my book?”
- This morphed into “How can I get a publisher to READ my book?”
- Now the question is… Why would I BOTHER? What can a publisher do for me that I can’t do for myself?
Ocean Books is a collective of local writers who felt they were seriously disadvantaged by the big multi-national publishing companies.
There are those who think Indie Publishing is something new. It’s not…some of the biggest names in literature self-published their works. Charles Dickens; Mark Twain; Oscar Wilde: Beatrix Potter to name a few.
The power has shifted back where it belongs… to the author… the creator…the person whose work publishers have built empires on. Never forget that all the high priced bricks and mortar bookstores and New York real estate have been built from the works of authors… and yet these authors have been the poorest paid members of this alliance.
I can hear the cry…
Publishers promote my work.
Wrong….publishers expect authors to do the majority of the promotion, to do blog tours, maintain websites, blog and have a strong social media presence on Twitter, Facebook and the like. Indie Author’s are doing this every day.
Publishers edit my work
Wrong.
Publishers won’t touch a project that needs serious editorial work as it is not cost effective. I have read some shocking work put out by mainstream publishers. Most Indie Authors take pride in the books they produce and pay good editors so they are offering the reading public a superior reading experience.
Publishers get great cover art.
Wrong. Indie authors have equal access to the same cover artists that the big publishers have.
So the question now is : What do I need to do to publish this book?
Tags: featured, indie publishing, OceanBooks, The Story Bridge
Published on Monday, March 11th, 2013, under book list, Latest News