About 8 weeks ago I finished writing my 87.ooo word, Action and Adventure book: "Warrior" The next step was to have it proofread and copy edited, which took a further 2 weeks during which time I was faced with a huge dilemma.
Should I approach a Literary Agent, a daunting thought, or take the cowards way out and go by way of an EBook?
I sat for hours with the: Writers and Artists’ hand book 2012 staring me in the face and, even though I had selected and, book- marked all the likely Literary Agents who may or may not decide to take a look at two years hard work, and I felt convinced or rather; had been convinced by most of the negative material I had read on the subject; that as a new writer, I didn’t stand a chance in Hell, I couldn’t actually come to send off that first letter.
Recently, fellow authors and writers have told me that the reason was; I was suffering from a reasonably new syndrome, associated with writing and publishing known as; “Fear of Slush piles syndrome.” aka F.S.P
So E-Book it was and what an adventure, talk about stress! There was the manuscript to convert to an e-book friendly format, in this case a mobi file for Amazon Kindle and, the web has hundreds of people who will do it for you for around $50, but will it be done right? If it’s not put though all the correct stages of conversion; by someone who knows exactly what they are doing, the results will be disaster! Then there were e-book publishers and distributors to find and study, cover image designers, because contrary to the popular myth that, “
one should never judge a book by its cover…” It’s a lie, they do!
In fact I have spent an enormous amount of time on the internet just learning the basics about self publishing and e-books, the do’s and don'ts, the, who to talk to and, who not to, believe me it’s taken a steady hand to navigate this sea of confusion but finally, on the 8th of August I was published!
The rush didn’t end there either, once you’re up and running you suddenly find out you have a zillion new questions to ask, and it all begins again, but eventually, slowly and quietly and, before you even realize the change in you demeanor; from one of, stressed out writer, to a happy and proud, published author, you wake up one morning and, going to your sales pages on Amazon Kindle only to find that you sold another book last night, and guess what. Your there!
Upon reflection. It’s now three weeks I’ve been on the Amazon book page and to be honest I haven’t sold many books yet; less than 10 in fact. And whilst my over active imagination starts to signal red lights, logic steps in and tells me. Its more than I would have sold had I taken the other option, the one that was causing my F.S.P, at least people know I’m out there now and, It’s me who decides where my book goes on sale,Amazon don't have exclusive rights on my work,and I decide the price to sell it. And best of all; I haven’t rushed to the front door every morning to see if there has been a reply from “Literary Never- land and sons”
My advice to those of you who may also be suffering from F.S.P, is .Do it and whilst you’re at it, get started on book two in case you find the e-publishing thing to not to your liking, although, I doubt it!
I have recently taken steps to place a new cover design on my book, “Warrior” by James S Bresco. Amazon Kindle, reassigned its location to Action and Adventure and changed the genre to Fantasy and, sales are picking up again.
A success story you ask?Only if I work at the advertising,keeping an eye on current market trends and so on.
You can see it here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008UYOBTO/?tag=absowrit-21