Posts Tagged ‘Traditional Publishers’

Holistic Book Reviews

The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors is offering members an opportunity for free publicity. We are starting a section of featured book reviews. These reviews will have a twist. A typical book review includes a cover photo with a content critique. The Red Hen book reviews will go a step further. Since we in the association are convinced that book marketing takes more than good writing, we will include a discussion of the book design also. That is why we are calling it Holistic Book Reviews–your book will be reviewed as a whole, not in parts. Customers choose books to buy based on more than the text.

We also intend to include your ordering information.  Or maybe we can work out some way of funneling orders through the Association for a minimal fee, of course. To become viable the Association will need income streams, but we haven’t quite figured that out yet. If anyone has a suggestion about it please feel free to share it with us. We are open minded.

Avoid The Sure Way of Making a Quick Trip to the Discount Bin

Good cover design, page layout, size, and materials can make a great deal of difference to the marketability of your books. Self-publishers have an advantage over traditional publishers in that they control their own presentation.

Traditionally published authors give up ownership of their children. It must be heartbreaking to send your baby out and when it’s released be shocked and embarrassed by what the publisher did to it. I’ve heard tales of ugly covers, misleading hype, and fractured type. You count on the publisher to polish your work and give it the best possible chance for success, but the truth is that publishing is a business. No business large or small, has unlimited funds, or time.  Traditional publishers concentrate more, as they should, on the known money makers. If you are new or untried, you probably will not get top-drawer attention.

As a self-publisher you can take all the time you need to make sure your book truly represents your message. You control the layout, and cover design. You also incur the costs. Don’t go cheap–first rate graphic designers and editors are worth the added expense. If your book doesn’t sell because you decided to use your neighbor’s fifteen-year-old son who is pretty good on the computer, it will cost you more in the end than if you invest in quality. For example, if the cover doesn’t lure the reader, your book will be ignored. It isn’t just the artwork, the title, cover copy, and choice of materials all must work in harmony.

It is All About You

So, if you want to tell the world about your book, we’ll do what we can to help by publishing a book review. Please send a copy of your book to P.O. Box 521418, Salt Lake City, UT 84152-1418 along with a photograph preferably shot professionally and we will write a review including comments about the book’s presentation. If chosen to appear on our website you will be able to use the review in your other marketing efforts. Your book will not be returned to you and because of time and space not every submitted book will be featured. We intend to choose books that represent the best of the self-published crop. If this description fits your book, by all means send it in and don’t forget to include a cover photo.

Last Saturday I presented a workshop at the Toastmasters District 15 fall convention. I called it Every Speaker Needs a Book. It is the truth; every speaker does need a book. If someone is going to stand before you in the capacity of “expert,” don’t you have the right to know that they are qualified?

We are living in a new age of publishing. We are seeing the rapid rise of the self-publisher. I liken it to the changes in the music business during the 1960’s. It started with Rock and Roll. This new music hit the music industry so quickly and so hard that the entrenched establishment couldn’t wrap their minds around it. Then came the Beatles, and the British Invasion. Every album the Beatles cut redefined the genre. Music experienced an era of creativity pushing up from the grassroots (no pun intended for the band called Grassroots). Every high school in the country had at least two or three starry eyed groups practicing in their parent’s basements or garages.

60's World Shakers

I try to imagine myself in the position of a record executive. Music is flooding in from everywhere. Groups with strange names, strange sounds, and strange behaviors are climbing the charts. What do I do? I can get on-board or try to wait out the insanity. The problem is that I don’t have any point of reference. There isn’t a definition of Rock and Roll. Almost anything goes. So, what do I do? I shrug and open the studios to just about everyone, hoping to find something the boomer kids will buy.

Today the floodgates are open in publishing. Why? Big changes in book print production have created this new era. In the past traditional publishers held all the strings. The cost for an author to go it alone was prohibitive to anyone but the rich. If someone decided to self-publish, their efforts were tagged  with the derogatory title of vanity publishing.

The rise of computer’s word processors and the development of digital printing have made it so reasonably priced that almost anyone could get in the game. Furthermore, there are e-books, and audio books. Finally, the Boomer Generation has grown up and there are millions, upon millions of people that think it would be groovy to write a book. As a boomer myself, I can tell you that our generation loved the spotlight. We marched, we rallied, we protested. We got our pictures in the paper when we did something completely egregious. Boomer was probably the right name because we were loud, intrusive, and obnoxious.

The boomers are the right people to lead the publishing revolution. We have never been satisfied with status quo. We are self-reliant, and don’t really trust the establishment. We know how to organize. The tribe of boomers is enormous and powerful.

If you get the idea that I am in favor of this revolution, you are right. I am in awe of what is transpiring. The Internet, Computers, Alternative Publishing methods, have breached the dam and I’m sure this is just the beginning.

Creating a book is only the first half of the job. It’s like the Yin, the Yang comes with promoting and marketing. TAP (The Author Platform) is a relatively easy program to follow to learn Internet marketing, selling through Amazon, and other methods. Click here for more information.