The Romance of Independent Publishing

Independent Publishing

Have you written your novel, and is the manuscript ready to be sent out to your agents? Congratulations on having completed your masterpiece!

Also, hearty congratulations to you for having an agent to represent you and present your work to publishers.

Self-publishing

However, if you are like me and without any literary agent or publisher waiting to grab your manuscript from your hands, then think about self-publishing. I have been self-publishing my work from 2010 on Lulu, Smashwords, and Amazon. I have also sent my manuscripts to literary agents without any real success.

If you enjoy writing, you will also enjoy publishing your work. It helps to have at hand a small group who will read and review your writing before it is published. A book review group will give you the critical analysis which you will need as an author. This vital exercise will help you to ensure that you satisfy the readers’ needs of your target market.

Marketing Your Book

When writing your fiction or non-fiction, it helps to have your target readers in mind. It will enable you to craft, mold, and create your material to quench a reader’s appetite and expectations. A good book will remain in the minds of your readers for a long time. Every reader who enjoys your book will become a willing salesperson to market it.

A book cover is so essential for getting readers and good sales figures for your fiction or non-fiction book. You can always find freelance cover designers to create a selection of good and great book covers for you. If you are part of a writers group or book club, you can request your members to vote on the best book cover. You can later choose the cover with the highest ratings and make it the cover for your latest book.

Book Cover

For a while now, I create my book covers on Canva, have them reviewed and voted on before I use the cover to self-publish my book. Canva is a great website with remarkable tools to create great book covers. A large number of book designers also use Canva. I have been using the website for over a decade now. An interesting alternative is PosterMyWall.

Social Media Marketing of Your Book

Every book you publish may not be a success. You need to do the marketing of your book once it is published. It is essential that you create an Author’s website and blog. Join the several social media sites present today, like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and others, to create a platform for you as an Author.

Contemporary Printing and Publishing

I have been in a romance with self-publishing for several decades now. My most significant influence has been my Dad, who has worked in writing and publishing for many years. I remember visiting newspaper offices and print rooms with vast reams of paper for printing newspapers. I can clearly remember the traditional printers working on conventional printing machines with metallic types on the device. That was the time of vintage letterpress printing when they used linocut blocks and images on zinc blocks for printing. Today, we have images saved and then transferred to computers for printing. Printing and publishing have come a long way.

Artificial Intelligence

What if there was a program that could evaluate any given manuscript and accept it or reject it using all the necessary elements of a bestseller? In my fiction thriller novel, “Impostor Assassin”, the main character Richard Foxxen creates a computer program, which can make any book a Bestseller. Using Artificial Intelligence technology, Richard and his wife can publish books from a variety of situations almost immediately.

The novel focusses on the future of writing and Independent publishing and the quantum leaps in the field of publishing technology. Richard’s innovative publishing faces the wrath of SWAMP Publishing. The mega-corporation SWAMP controls the world of publishing and crushes independent authors, bloggers, and publishers. Will Richard win the battle against SWAMP and its deadly impostor assassins?

If you enjoy working in the fields of writing and book publishing, you need to be brave and publish your own writings. You could also go down the conventional route, get an agent, a traditional publisher, and write your bestsellers.

Start with Short Stories

My romance with independent publishing will continue as long as I have something interesting to write about and share with the world. I would encourage you to develop your skill and talent for writing by keeping an online literary blog as a start. If you like poetry, then write and publish your verse, for better or for worse. If you have a talent for writing stories, start with short stories, then move onto novellas and novels. Keep writing because the world is hungry to read and listen to your stories. Everywhere you look, stories are waiting to be told.

Develop your literary voice, by writing and publishing your work, before the world is overtaken by Artificial Intelligence robots that write and publish fiction and non-fiction bestsellers. Predictions suggest that the time is near when artificial intelligence will invade the fields of publishing. The literary bots are coming, are you ready?