Learnt Items

• only sell books to shops COD
• only make exceptions for bookshops who have earned it
• be patient with results
• be patient with reviewers
• ditto with graphic designers but not too patient - check occasionally on their vital signs LOL
• If you plan to launch in a venue that can hold 50 people, don't over-cater with books and food
• cross your i's and dot your t's
• Do your own advertizing - be innovative; and pay for it yourself if you can't get it for free
  
• quality always sells
• excitement sells too
• a cover sells a book; a book sells an author; an author sells a sequel
• don't make promises on time frames when you're dependent on others to deliver on time
• don't forget that you are human, too - running a business does not mean the business runs you
• remember to take your medication!!

Not that I think anyone should actually read this and take it as "advice". It is merely a log of what I've learnt so far...

Hello and welcome

New Novel hits the market


LOL I'm probably writing this first post all for me lonesome. Because I came over from 24.com. While I still have a profile and blog there I'm really disappointed - just as it started cooking, some eejit changed everything about the site and nothing works anymore. I hope nobody is going to tamper with this 'ere place like that.

While I'm still watching 24.com for any improvements, let me get on with blogging here.

To summarize, we (myself and a few friends) are un- and self-published authors. I've just started out on the interesting road of doing a really small print run and learning about marketing; this is after discovering that Lulu.com doesn't ship to SA, and after realizing that most agents and publishers seem to be chronically out of office. I also realized that there are a lot more authors out there than I ever dared to hope. Some of my unpublished friends write absolutely brilliant stuff. Someone thought mine was brilliant, too, so she (a graphic designer) decided to make a professional cover image for my book and help me with that first print run. Here is the result (camera shake and all).

The idea of this blog is to keep others updated about my progress as a self-publishing die-hard. I'm told that Amazon and Lulu.com (my book is on both) don't deliver to South Africa. I'm told South Africa has no reader's market for English general fiction (unless it features South Africa). I'm told that there is no money in publishing; that there are more writers than readers; that one has to write in a very specific way to stand a "chance".

I don't buy any of that. It reminds me of how they used to spread myths such as, if you're over a certain age you're too old to learn violin. (Busted that one personally! I'm a teacher and I have LOTS of "too old" students!) It also reminds me of science: How progress is sometimes blocked by our "best" theories that have become accepted dogma. Example: E=mc2. Some renegade scientists are actually questioning this piece of celestial truth these days, and guess what: They are making new discoveries that were being blocked by that theory!

So I choose to believe instead that:

1. I'm a reader too, I like adventure and fast-paced stuff, I like it funny, witty and romantic. I can't be that unique, therefore there are others like me out there.
2. More South Africans are reading than ever before, thank you MWAAZ!! to J. K. Rowling and her Harry Potter! Ergo, there's a market.
3. South Africans buy a LOT of imported books dealing with Scifi and Fantasy - ergo, there's a market!
4. If I managed to learn to play the violin, which is fairly complex... if I understood molecular genetics, I can learn marketing, too. It can't be all that difficult if that many are doing it!
5. If my book can sell, so can others. That, my friends, is the next step. Hang close and watch this space....