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Adventures In The Writing Game

May 28 2008

For almost three years now, I've been trying my hand at fiction writing and I've even sold a few books. Along the way, I've found that many things about being a writer are very different from what I expected they would be. For the benefit of anyone who is considering taking the plunge into a writing career, here are some of my insights. They reflect only my own experiences and other writers may give you different advice.

1. Agents And Publishers

The best way to get your work published is to find an agent and ask him or her to find a suitable publisher for you. Unfortunately, reputable agents are buried in requests for representation and they can afford to be very picky about the writers with whom they work. Publishing houses will sometimes deal directly with writers, but they have large slush piles of unsolicited manuscripts. If I wrote books with titles like "Sex Secrets Of The Stars" or "Lose Weight By Eating Chocolate", I would have had an easier time, but I write mysteries and science fiction. Both genres are very overcrowded.

After being turned down by dozens of agents and publishers who didn't even read my stuff, I decided to self publish my books. If you want to try this route, consider either Lulu (www.lulu.com) or CreateSpace (www.createspace.com). I find Lulu to be friendlier to writers, but CreateSpace will put your books onto Amazon, so you may want to use both. Avoid those self publishing houses that charge you several hundred dollars for a "package" that you can build for yourself for free on Lulu or CreateSpace.

2. Marketing & Sales

One of the biggest surprises for a new writer is finding out that writing the book represents only about 30% of the total work. The other 70% involves finding an agent/publisher (or self publishing), then trying to get people to notice and (you hope) buy your book. There are many marketing channels and you may be surprised to find out how well or how badly each one works:

The Internet - By all means, get yourself a writer's website. You won't be taken seriously without one, but don't expect to sell too many books over the Internet, even through Amazon. Why not? First, people are reluctant to buy any book by an unknown author, especially when they can't even flip through it first to decide whether it seems interesting. Second, shipping charges will kill you. Somebody wants to buy your paperback for $12.95, then he finds out that it will cost another $16 to get it shipped to him. Bye bye.

Press Releases - The outfits who sell these things promise to put information about your book onto Google, Amazon or into various print media to generate buzz and to attract customers. I've tried only one of these and it generated zero sales.

Book Stores - So far, I've approached two bookstores and both were willing to sell my books on commision. The first store wanted 45% of the sale price and the second store wanted 30%. After I paid printing and shipping costs, then gave the store manager her cut, I would have lost money on every book that I sold. If you can find a bookstore that doesn't charge the proverbial arm and a leg, then this can be a way to sell some books.

Samples - The sales method that has worked best for me has been to simply give away copies of my books to people whom I know. Almost without exception, the recipients loved my stuff and several of them wanted to buy other books, either for themselves or as gifts. Unfortunately, unless your circle of friends equals the population of Los Angeles, you're unlikely to sell thousands of books this way.

So, there you have it. Writing is a tough gig, but I'm still trying. If you just love to write, then I wish you luck. If you think you can get rich as a writer, my advice is to go into dentistry instead.

Are there any writers out there who ant to share their experiences?

George

P.S. Please check out my website at: www.checkmatefiction.com

Posted by gjcondon on 2008-05-29 16:20:05 | Rating: