Self-publishing is a necessary evil that I grudgingly enjoy.
The easiest thing in the self-publication process in many ways is writing a book. Getting it out there in front of a critical audience is way harder. Is there a market, does my book fit into its most likely market, is it good enough? How to make it appealing, tempting, attractive when there is no publishing behemoth backing it?
There are numerous steps in the process:
Finishing the product. Having chosen what are hopefully the right words falling in the right order, the Formatting is next on the list. Trying to keep all the words tied down in a reasonable format that allows it to be read without a microscope and is not reminiscent of the equivalent of writing with a quill pen and treacle. Times New Roman, font 11? That’ll normally do nicely.
That is a mere bagatelle when put alongside the Sacred Search For Typos. Having produced letters, emails, opinions and agreements as a lawyer, I am well aware of the need to keep them to an absolute minimum. But THERE IS ALWAYS AT LEAST ONE. In any document of 250-400 pages, there will be glitches. It is impossible to avoid, but still mortifying when one raises its ugly head. The quest for the perfect document…continues.
I have stopped worrying about it so intensely now – OCD-level concentration suffices for me these days, with the accompanying hope that it has been successful enough to be forgiven. Incidentally, I have found this paragraph the most stressful for a while in terms of typos, for obvious reasons… 🙂 I am always delighted to come upon rubbish continuity, anachronisms and typos in professionally edited and published books, and they are surprisingly numerous….
When I was purely on the reading side, I didn’t give much credence to the importance of a cover. It’s the words that matter right? No. It’s the need to stand out, make a first impression in a monsoon of new material.
See what I mean? An intriguing two-faced character. It wowed me when I saw it (thanks, Ellie!)
And thanks, Rose, for the divine divan!
Then, there’s the title.
And the sub-title.
I like them to be multi-layered but, hopefully, not confusing.
Building Memories: a young PI working up through the ranks, creating memories, coupled with places that have their own imprint and echoes.
The subtitle, Bricks and Murder, is of course wordplay on the importance of bricks and mortar and a hint at the path that the book will take.
Divan Inspiration is a more straightforward daft pun. I can’t resist them…
The cover and the title/sub-title preferably match each other.
Raise awareness on social media and everywhere else – that is in itself a mammoth task. How much is too much? But too little is an even bigger problem. Coming up with tag lines and stupid puns and trails of breadcrumbs leading to the new epic: that’s a fun part. And allowing the process to grow and not feel too frantic or rushed? Still working on all that.
Advertising? Don’t think I’ve got the hang of this yet. I’ve followed all the stuff about keyword searches and keyed them into my books, but it doesn’t help…Maybe I’ll give it one more go, but we’ll see. It looks to me more of a way for Amazon and their mates to increase their income stream from independent authors.
Fun, fun, fun.
So this time I decided to do two at once…
2.2.22
The DIVAN INSPIRATION Series: Travels on the Road to Dreamland. Part One: The Good, the Bed and the Snuggly. A non-fiction bedtime story about beds at the movies.
BUILDING MEMORIES: Bricks and Murder. A magical realism, procedural, PI, tormented love story-thriller.
On AMAZON – softback and eBook
Join me on the Road to Dreamland as we build memories…
Cheers,
Alan
Alan Camrose
