"Everybody has at least ONE good book in them"
Discussion
As per the title of my thread, someone once said that everybody has at least ONE good book in them. I don't know about an entire book, but for sure one good story!
Do you agree with this? I do and I'll tell you why. With the advent of services that online groups such as Amazon offer for self publishing it has become such that anyone can write a book and put it out there for the masses to get at.
Since I can remember I have always been fascinated with books and I even have the first "book" I ever wrote. 3rd grade, 4 pages with illustrations. Total sentences, about 7
To this day I yearn to write a book and have several original ideas. I get my note book out from time to time and I open up Word on the old laptop every now and again and I write. I go on writing binders some days and I am proud of what I jot down. I honestly believe some of it is worthy of publication.... Some days when I am out at my local book store I some times breeze around the new release table and it amazes me some of the absolute crap that gets published. Books on things from how to roll a blunt to 101 ways to make friends. The list goes on. And I think, if these can get published I KNOW I can find a literary agent to publish stories of mine.
Currently I am working on a few things; a horror anthology, a memoir, a screen play and a motivational book. Most recently I have been really grinding away at the horror anthology. Not a day goes by where a new idea doesn't pop into my head; a new story idea or an addition to one of the stories already titled. I have seven stories for my anthology. I have always wanted to write a novel, but I must be honest with myself; I know I do not have the talent to write an entire novel, MAYBE a novella, but certainly not a novel. That is how I got into short stories/anthologies. Horror is my favorite genre (particularly zombies), and for years I have had several story ideas floating around my head, I decided to finally do something with them.
I want to go the traditional route of paper publication via literary agent versus self publication via Amazon.com for example. What do you think? I have looked over a few self published Amazon.com pieces from nobody authors, and I have to say I think I can give them a run for their money.
Does anyone have any experience self publishing or otherwise?
Do you agree with this? I do and I'll tell you why. With the advent of services that online groups such as Amazon offer for self publishing it has become such that anyone can write a book and put it out there for the masses to get at.
Since I can remember I have always been fascinated with books and I even have the first "book" I ever wrote. 3rd grade, 4 pages with illustrations. Total sentences, about 7
To this day I yearn to write a book and have several original ideas. I get my note book out from time to time and I open up Word on the old laptop every now and again and I write. I go on writing binders some days and I am proud of what I jot down. I honestly believe some of it is worthy of publication.... Some days when I am out at my local book store I some times breeze around the new release table and it amazes me some of the absolute crap that gets published. Books on things from how to roll a blunt to 101 ways to make friends. The list goes on. And I think, if these can get published I KNOW I can find a literary agent to publish stories of mine.
Currently I am working on a few things; a horror anthology, a memoir, a screen play and a motivational book. Most recently I have been really grinding away at the horror anthology. Not a day goes by where a new idea doesn't pop into my head; a new story idea or an addition to one of the stories already titled. I have seven stories for my anthology. I have always wanted to write a novel, but I must be honest with myself; I know I do not have the talent to write an entire novel, MAYBE a novella, but certainly not a novel. That is how I got into short stories/anthologies. Horror is my favorite genre (particularly zombies), and for years I have had several story ideas floating around my head, I decided to finally do something with them.
I want to go the traditional route of paper publication via literary agent versus self publication via Amazon.com for example. What do you think? I have looked over a few self published Amazon.com pieces from nobody authors, and I have to say I think I can give them a run for their money.
Does anyone have any experience self publishing or otherwise?
Edited by ESOG on Saturday 6th July 07:42
Edited by ESOG on Saturday 6th July 07:42
ESOG said:
I want to go the traditional route of paper publication via literary agent versus self publication via Amazon.com for example. What do you think? I have looked over a few self published Amazon.com pieces from nobody authors, and I have to say I think I can give them a run for their money.
Does anyone have any experience self publishing or otherwise?
I'd definitely agree that everyone has at least one book in them, it's just that not everyone has the inclination and ability to take themselves seriously when it comes to developing that book into something cohesive and getting it down on paper; doesn't sound like that's a problem for you though! Does anyone have any experience self publishing or otherwise?
I self-published a travel book about a year ago, after having an adventure so different to the norm that I felt I had to get it down on paper. I'd never written anything before so the learning curve was pretty steep. It took about 9 months to get the first draft written, then another few years - and some invaluable help from a few English language-minded friends - to edit said first draft into something vaguely readable.
Before self-publishing, I went down the route of approaching agents and publishers, but the niche nature of my automotive/travel book meant that the best responses I got were along the lines of 'good story, well written, but we can't see a market for it.' Obviously, this won't be the case for your genre of writing, so I'd definitely say go for it. As a stating point, get hold of a copy of the latest 'Artists and Writer's yearbook' - it contains comprehensive listings of publishers and agents, their contact details, and great advice on how to approach them - it's pretty much the yellow pages of the industry.
Back to my experience; as I wasn't able to get a publisher onboard, I self-published my book through Amazon (kindle version) and Createspace (paperback).
The process for getting both versions available was very straightforward, and anyone who has the willpower to get a book written will have no trouble making it available. My experience has probably been pretty typical of self-published authors, in that it's not exactly changed my life, but this is offset by the satisfaction gained in having written a book which is now 'out there', even if the pedant in me means I can't really describe myself as a 'published author' due to the self-published nature of the book.
So in short, go for it. Get the book written and edited, give the traditional agent/publisher route your best shot, and if that doesn't come off, self publishing will always be there as a 'plan b'.
Ben (currently planning book #2, and hoping he has a second good book in him!)
I have self published - a thriller called Hell's Garden. It is currently making me a basic living which should be augmented when I put the second one out at the end of this month (subject to lack of any delays). Thread about it is here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
It also references andyroo's book (another PHer who has self published).
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
It also references andyroo's book (another PHer who has self published).
FiveTen - Thank you so much for the information! Good on you for getting it done. Do you do any sort of promoting?
LeftMost - I wish I had more time this second to have a look into your book, but it is on my to do list for sure! Sounds like my kind of reading. Same question to you; what sort of promoting have you done?
Is it costly to promote both ways? Will going the traditional route restrict my freedom of expression via editing on their part do you think? Example, many screen plays get used and abused and end up far from the writers determination once it goes through the hands of the many people involved in the making of the actual film. i.e. Directors interpretation versus writers intent, and of course the producers/studio big wigs providing the money and the direction they want the movie to go. I would imagine a book is vastly different and left more to the writers intent and original ideas?
King's On Writing was a fantastic read if you have yet to pick it up.
I have the vision of exactly how I want the book to look from the paper it's printed on to the size and even the jacket of the book. I suppose it would be much easier self publishing in that regards. I am not a fan of E-Books (even though the obvious advantages are there), my dream is to simply see my work in an actual book store and know that I wrote that. To me, that is one of my life's largest achievements to come.
Thanks.
LeftMost - I wish I had more time this second to have a look into your book, but it is on my to do list for sure! Sounds like my kind of reading. Same question to you; what sort of promoting have you done?
Is it costly to promote both ways? Will going the traditional route restrict my freedom of expression via editing on their part do you think? Example, many screen plays get used and abused and end up far from the writers determination once it goes through the hands of the many people involved in the making of the actual film. i.e. Directors interpretation versus writers intent, and of course the producers/studio big wigs providing the money and the direction they want the movie to go. I would imagine a book is vastly different and left more to the writers intent and original ideas?
King's On Writing was a fantastic read if you have yet to pick it up.
I have the vision of exactly how I want the book to look from the paper it's printed on to the size and even the jacket of the book. I suppose it would be much easier self publishing in that regards. I am not a fan of E-Books (even though the obvious advantages are there), my dream is to simply see my work in an actual book store and know that I wrote that. To me, that is one of my life's largest achievements to come.
Thanks.
ESOG said:
LeftMost - I wish I had more time this second to have a look into your book, but it is on my to do list for sure! Sounds like my kind of reading. Same question to you; what sort of promoting have you done?
You aren't going to like this, but I haven't really done any promotion at all (a couple of tweets, an underused Facebook page and a sparsely updated blog).What I did do was read up on how to use KDP select to your best advantage. Free days worked for me (they don't for a lot of others though, so don't take my word for it. AFAIK it is all about connections - 'you may also like'. I got lucky and had an email sent out from amazon which got the book in front of a LOT of people, many of whom clicked and bought. That pushed it to prominence in the category and main charts (and no.1 mover and shaker for a while), which meant more people bought, supplemented by a 4.3 review average from 24 reviews at the moment (although I've had 1 1-star and 1 2-star due to the sex/violence content).
So I now have a readership base and a bit of fan interest so I need to capitalise on that - by releasing a second (and subsequent) books. This should mean that a good chunk of people who bought book 1 get alerted by amazon's algorithms and so click to buy, which pushes book 2 to prominence, which attracts new readers, who buy book 1 as well, which pushes that one to prominence etc. etc.
Sales are slow at the moment, but I now have those automatic connections which should make marketing book 2 far more effective than anything I can do (amazon's mailing list is a LOT bigger than mine). That, I think, is the real value of KDP Select.
Read up on JA Konrath (as per my other thread). He seems to have captured the essence of the changing landscape in publishing and is doing pretty well for himself (>1m sales from amazon). Drop me a PM if you'd like some more info, or I'm happy to share what I can here.
LeftmostAardvark said:
I have self published - a thriller called Hell's Garden. It is currently making me a basic living which should be augmented when I put the second one out at the end of this month (subject to lack of any delays). Thread about it is here:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
It also references andyroo's book (another PHer who has self published).
Thank you for the mention http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
It also references andyroo's book (another PHer who has self published).
For anyone wanting to self publish, here are the raw facts as I see them (in no particular order):
- The quality of the book is secondary to the marketing. I've seen god-awful self-published Kindle books well into the top 1000 (i.e. hundreds of sales per day) purely through expansive marketing. And vice-versa.
- Females are the biggest readers. And writers. This is why publishing houses will happily take on new chick-lit and crime fiction authors all day long, because it's what their biggest audience buys.
- Marketing to enthusiast readers will not yield the best results. Here is where the quality of the book really matters. You'll get lots of feedback from sites like Goodreads, but if your book isn't up to scratch, you'll get shot down in an unrelenting ball of flames. Their five star rating system is even staggered down a star from what you'd expect, too - i.e. 3 star is good rather than, 'meh' - which further gives the appearance of rejection from the masses.
- You will get bad ratings. Don't be disheartened - check the other ratings of the person who rated your book. I have a one star rating on goodreads from someone whose usual tipple is Twilight and one on Amazon from someone who couldn't grasp switching characters in alternating chapters. Yet both had the gumption to tell the world they didn't like my book. People who do enjoy your book rarely tell you.
- Edit, edit, edit. Then get a professional editor. People will knock a precious star off for a handful of typos, and a professional editor will also smooth out your writing too, making for a better read overall. When you're playing the averages game, another five star over four or three star really makes the difference.
- Promote like crazy. Tell everyone in the world, ever. You don't need to be clever, you just need to be thorough. Here's where the hard work really comes in. Tell anyone who'll listen: bloggers, authors, forum-goers, everyone. This really saps time, and is one of the places I fall down due to normal working commitments.
- Keep writing. First books are rarely any good. Mine was re-written several times and is still so-so. It's with a professional editor now, something I regret not doing a long time ago. As with anything, you will get better with practise (and that includes reading other highly-regarded works to learn from).
- Don't give up. It's a long, slow, emotionally-torturous process, and you may never see success. But unless you give it your all, you will never know. Hell, your first book might become popular after your third starts grabbing people's attention. Remember that the huge success stories (in my genre books like Wool and The Martian) are partly due to a great book, but mostly due to thorough marketing and a good dowsing of luck. In fairness, I don't think Wool is even that great, yet Ridley Scott was impressed with it. Yeah, the guy who directed Alien. Can you imagine that?
I hope these give you a little food for thought, and I wish you the very best of luck with your endeavours.
Andrew
I'm 2 and a half chapters into my first "novella".
I find that finding the time to write is a bit of a PITA. something always comes up, work, homelife etc...
I'd love a home studio or library to shut myself away in and write but that's unlikely at pres.
I tend to be an off the cuff writer, I'll be sat on teh bus or in traffic and the next linking idea or plot line will come to me...
I find that finding the time to write is a bit of a PITA. something always comes up, work, homelife etc...
I'd love a home studio or library to shut myself away in and write but that's unlikely at pres.
I tend to be an off the cuff writer, I'll be sat on teh bus or in traffic and the next linking idea or plot line will come to me...
I've recently self-published an ebook on Amazon.
My novel took three drafts and about a year from concept to reality. I've tried to get publishers on board but despite some promising feedback I've had no success.
A couple of published authors have read it in its entirety and think it's quite good but sadly that counts for nothing in the publishing world. It's a contemporary satire/thriller about a wind power scam. It references the phone-hacking scandal, council waste, stupid footballers - all the PH favourites.
I'd mention it on here but don't want to fall foul of the advertising rules (and I don't know how to create the link things).
Go for it OP, you'll feel great when you've done it.
I've got my second novel mapped out but have a bit of factual writing (I've got a small publisher interested in the story of a little-known local WW2 air battle)to complete before I begin.
Good luck.
My novel took three drafts and about a year from concept to reality. I've tried to get publishers on board but despite some promising feedback I've had no success.
A couple of published authors have read it in its entirety and think it's quite good but sadly that counts for nothing in the publishing world. It's a contemporary satire/thriller about a wind power scam. It references the phone-hacking scandal, council waste, stupid footballers - all the PH favourites.
I'd mention it on here but don't want to fall foul of the advertising rules (and I don't know how to create the link things).
Go for it OP, you'll feel great when you've done it.
I've got my second novel mapped out but have a bit of factual writing (I've got a small publisher interested in the story of a little-known local WW2 air battle)to complete before I begin.
Good luck.
Live and let live, but I have to say that the self publishing thing leaves me cold. You are not a published author if you have self published.
If nothing else, it's about self respect.
It's like Twitter, where people seem to be under the impression that other people would be interested in their views and opinions. Bizarre.
If nothing else, it's about self respect.
It's like Twitter, where people seem to be under the impression that other people would be interested in their views and opinions. Bizarre.
SV8Predator said:
Live and let live, but I have to say that the self publishing thing leaves me cold. You are not a published author if you have self published.
If nothing else, it's about self respect.
It's like Twitter, where people seem to be under the impression that other people would be interested in their views and opinions. Bizarre.
I would have agreed with you, but there is an enormous step change in publishing at the moment. Debut authors under legacy publishing have to do pretty much all their own marketing anyway (it seems strange that only the big names, who would sell like hot cakes anyway, get the marketing budgets). The self publishing groundswell seems to be the more effective way of 'breaking in'. I've tried both ways and the legacy publishing / agent approach doesn't seem to make any business sense at all - 18 months from contract to publish for instance and 3-6 months before you get royalties.If nothing else, it's about self respect.
It's like Twitter, where people seem to be under the impression that other people would be interested in their views and opinions. Bizarre.
Self publishing will provide me with a reasonable income long, LONG before that (in fact, I'd already made more than minimum wage on the time I'd put into my first book within a month). Self publishing is the way forward for a while I feel - if I can become a big enough name from three or four books,then that would be the time to sign bigger publishing deals.
LeftmostAardvark said:
if I can become a big enough name from three or four books,then that would be the time to sign bigger publishing deals.
But who would 'sign you up'?The writing skill / commercial viability of the whole package still stands.
If they won't sign you up now, what is going to change after a couple of self published efforts?
SV8Predator said:
Live and let live, but I have to say that the self publishing thing leaves me cold. You are not a published author if you have self published.
If nothing else, it's about self respect.
It's like Twitter, where people seem to be under the impression that other people would be interested in their views and opinions. Bizarre.
I have some sympathy with what you're saying. In no way would I consider myself a published author.If nothing else, it's about self respect.
It's like Twitter, where people seem to be under the impression that other people would be interested in their views and opinions. Bizarre.
Having said that, I'm proud of and will stand by what I've written. I've been told by more than one one publisher that, even though they like it, they are only considering established authors or famous people.
Why not have a read and give me your opinions afterwards?
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