The old way of getting a book published is still around, and the gatekeepers still difficult to get past. But the Internet has increasingly become the means of authors getting their works published, and many times it's at very profitable terms.
Take for example 56-year-old Elle Newmark, who secured a deal with Simon & Schuster worth reportedly in the 7-figure range.
She got tired of waiting around for her books to get published after several deals fell through with different agents in New York. Saying, "I don't have time for this anymore," she decided to self-publish her newest book through iUniverse, a print-on-demand business. Here's a good interview with iUniverse CEo Kevin Weiss on getting it done.
What's exciting about these print-on-demand companies, is they know their most successful authors will drop the contracts with the company and secure better deals for themselves. Rather than look at this as a negative thing, the companies celebrate the authors and their success, drawing even more potentially successful authors to their folds.
What Newmark understood, and all self-published authors must understand, is getting a book in print is no longer an issue; all barriers-to-entry have been removed. Now the issue is how to market your creation. That means authors need to learn marketing skills in order successfully get their book noticed and read. It's also the key to securing bigger deals from traditional publishers.
The strategy of Newmark was to throw what she dubbed a virtual book launch party, where she sent out email invitations to about 500,000 editors, reviewers and agents. As a result of that effort, she was able to reach one of the pinncles of online success: a best-sell on Amazon.com (AMZN). It happened as quickly as the day she sent out the emails.
As a result, she ended up getting a William Morris agent to help her secure the contract with Simon & Schuster two weeks after her marketing effort.
We still hear of some of the quick success stories some fortunate authors get when they send out their manuscripts and somehow are accepted in a relatively short time. Even so, that's still a very rare circumstance most authors can't afford to count on.
Newmark suggests that authors take more of their destiny into their own hands, and learn ways to use the Internet to promote their works. Once they do that, most of the work is done, and you can use your success as a strong platform to secure deals from.
While it cost Newmark under $10,000 for her self-published book, it by no means costs that much to be successful through online marketing efforts. Much of her cost was in connection to the huge email strategy. Most authors won't want or need to reach out to 500,000 people on their first effort.
Her book named "The Books of Unholy Mischief," will be out on December 30. William Morris has also sold international rights for the book to a dozen countries.
Taking matters more into your own hands, using the Internet to market, self-publishing and having more of an entreprenuerial mindset, will give author hopefuls a much better chance at success than ever before.
Comment Preview