On Saturday, the Geneva’s Writers Group hosted the annual Meet & Greet the agents. As usual, this created much anticipation for writers who feel like agents and publishers are the missing links to their publication dreams.
What did I get out of it?
A strong sense that the tables have shifted. Good writers don’t need agents or publishers anymore; agents and publishers need good writers.
I’d already gotten this feeling at the Writer’s Digest Conference last summer. Just look at how many competitions and crowd funding events are happening in the writing world. Publishers aren’t taking chances anymore; they’re making safe bets. They’re selecting authors who’ve already proved themselves on their own.
FACT: Once you’ve put in the work, the money, and the time, once your book begins to gain traction with five star reviews on Amazon, the big houses start tracking you. Offers often follow suit.
Here are some numbers you should be aware of: the writer’s cut.
– Traditional publishing: 8-15%
– Partner publishing: 40%
– Self-publishing: 70%
Intrigued by self-publishing now?
If you are, here are the 3 best platforms for it:
– CreateSpace (Amazon)
– KDP (Amazon)
– Lulu
Convinced yet? No… then read on. During the Meet & Greet, someone asked: what do agents do?
One of them depicted themselves as a creative midwife. They are the author’s link to the editors, the book-cover designers, the publishers, and the marketers.
FACT: Most books are not allotted marketing, which means the author has to put his book out there on his own.
Do you still want to share your meager proceeds with a middleman? I wouldn’t.
You don’t know how to find a good editor?
Well, here are two amazing editors:
You don’t know where to find a good book-cover designer?
Here’s the designer I’m using and a few others I discovered during my search:
– Christian Fuenfhausen (mine)
Be your own coordinator. It’s fun and really not that difficult!
If you choose the DIY approach, your greatest challenge will be discoverability. Here are some tips I’d jotted down during the Writer’s Digest Conference and during the Geneva Conference.
Best ways to find the right audience for your book:
– Goodreads and Amazon reviews & giveaways
– Social media (Facebook, blogging, vlogging)
– Pop-up bookstores (coffee shops, readings at wineries)
– Send your book to bloggers for early reviews! More reviews are better than 1 well-placed one.
– BookBub ($0.99 is the highest amount of books sold)
– Wattpad (free reading platform)
– Crowd-funding (Unbound in the UK & SwoonReads in the US)
– Guest blogging
– Writing contests
– Good old word of mouth
The last question I asked the panel was, what constitutes high sales?
Their answers were jumbled. Some spoke of 20,000 books, others of 100,000 and yet another one said 1,000.
That didn’t reassure me much, or rather it assured me that doing it myself was the only way to go. I live in a family of businessmen and women, and let me tell you, when you ask about numbers and profit, you get an informed response, not a hodgepodge of numbers.
All in all, to turn our passion into a profession, we must become entrepreneurs. Breaking even will be our first step of course (1,000 books should do it), but then we’ll have to set goals for ourselves.
My goal : 20 000 books in 1 year. Will I make it? Follow my blog and find out…
I hope this blog post will set some of you onto the path of the future.
Invest in yourself! Your dreams are worth it.