SPECIAL GUEST BLOG

BY RON MUMFORD

I wrote my first novel in 1993 with visions of grandeur: to get an agent, receive a million-dollar advance from one of the Big 5 publishing companies, and make a full time living writing novels. Sound familiar? Pipe dreams!

After getting ripped to pieces by two literary agents, paying thousands of dollars for cover designs, editing, getting websites built, e-book conversions and hiring publicists, I decided to self-publish.

I put my book and e-book on Amazon and joined 2.2 million other books on their list. I sold an average of one book a month. I kept my day job.

Years later, I found an Indie publisher who charged me a lot of money to buy my own books, received a 10% royalty, and still sold only one book a month. Their contract included NO MARKETING. I wrote blogs every week for two years, hit my social media contacts really hard and still…you guessed it, I sold one book per month.

Then, I had an epiphany, No Mass Marketing, No Book Sales! Besides, I’m an author, not a marketing guru. There had to be a better way. I went to Plan “B” and became a literary agent.

I traveled to Hollywood and lower Manhattan, called on all the big publishers and discovered that if you’re not a celebrity or an author with a huge following, forget being published by even by a medium-sized publisher, much less a large one. It’s all about book sales. If you haven’t sold hundreds of thousands of books, keep your day job, write as a hobby, and hope for a miracle.

I was at the point of asking myself, “Why should I write another book—even though this is my passion—and incur the expenses that goes along with each book? I spent $10,000 on one book and got the same results…

Then I discovered 3rd Coast Books, L.L.C., a group of authors, editors and publishers with a unique idea: Market our authors’ books on a global basis and create a global literary community!

Plus, they give their authors a 40% royalty and do all the work of producing a book for about $3,000, including covers, editing, text flowing, e-book conversion, then, marketing the book to their 15M contacts all over the world. They call themselves a “hybrid” publisher.

After asking some hard questions to Rita Mills, Publisher (30 years in publishing), Managing Editor Faye Walker, Ph.D. (English professor, editor, and ghost writer) and Mario Rosales, (IT Director), I had my answer. They screen books, do all areas of publishing–editing, book covers, e-book conversion, text flow–give me a 40% royalty, and send me 100 books as part of the package and, most importantly, They market my books to 15M global contacts. This is mass marketing.

After signing a contract with 3rd Coast Books and being placed on their marketing web site, Readers Cloud 9, I can now do what I love to do: Write novels. If this is your passion, I urge you to go to www.3rdCoastBooks.com and make your submissions. You’ll be glad you did.
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