The writer/publisher – part 18

The weeks after your first book comes out are filled with interesting indicators of possible success and of potential obscurity. Your state of mind can sorely tested. Fortunately, when you self-publish, enough hard work takes care of almost any problem.

Reviews of my book are unbelievably good, thanks to the wonderful people who have taken the time to write them. I try to thank everyone who has helped. If I have missed you, let me know and I’ll visit your site and remedy the oversight.

Orders trickle in from abroad and from the US. Each order is immensely gratifying and I get the satisfaction of acknowledging and fulfilling the order myself. At the same time, I am very glad I still have other sources of income, because the book income has a long way to go before it gets to the point where we can become a full-time writer/publisher team.

On the other hand, that vision is no longer a wild fantasy, it is merely a distant goal, if you can understand the difference. I can see that it is achievable, but there is much more ground to cover.

I still have an enormous amount to learn about promoting myself and my book, but the self-education about self-publishing is an entertaining process.

I am networking locally to make myself known as a local author. There is an article coming out soon in the local paper about my book and I am planning an book signing at a Business Expo hosted by our local Chamber of Commerce. I also have one local gathering spot that wants me to put up a book display with books for sale. I’ve donated books to the local library and have been given introductions to local literary groups and to the student placement function of Piedmont College.

On a wider scale, I am sending books out for review. My preferred target area is career counseling consultants and anything to do with finding meaningful or satisfying work. If you know of anyone who should be interested in reviewing my book, let me know. I would appreciate it.

While the promotional actions continue, I am also seeing possibilities for additional markets for the book in other forms. The latest idea is to create an Audio Book version of Danger Quicksand – Have A Nice Day on CD for commuters. There are a number of self-help business and career books out on CDs already, and I have already had a request to make a CD version. As a result, Pam Carlson will get the first CD produced. Thanks for the nudge, Pam!

In closing, have any of you produced audio CDs? Anyone have any suggestions on microphones? How about formatting of CDs with separate tracks for each chapter so the CD can be indexed by chapter? I am open to any suggestions.

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0 Responses to The writer/publisher – part 18

  1. It’s not about CD, but I found this from Todd Storch’s friend Michael W. Geoghegan to be a very easy to understand look at sound engineering, in this case for podcasting. He talks about freeware software, called Audicity; microphone choice; voice processing etc.

    And if you are going to do a CD, you could podcast the first chapter on Ripples.

  2. You might consider doing a podcast of the first few chapters, just to try out the tech stuff (and it’s good marketing too).

    They’re fiction, but there are some folks podcasting whole books:

    http://www.scottsigler.net/earthcore/ is my favorite so far, but there are a couple others over at http://www.podiobooks.com/

    And as I look at podiobooks.com, I notice that they’ve just posted a new one… a non-fiction business related book…

  3. Larry Keyes says:

    I would recommend that you check out the CDs as well as the advice for making them by Alan Weiss at http://www.summitconsulting.com. While his “production values” are sometimes less than optimal, the results are outstanding…especially recordings of teleconferences that he has given over the phone, or keynote addresses that he has delivered in front of groups. Another format that he uses is the “interview” format, where he has a second person interview him. What is interesting about all three of these formats as they involve an audience…it is not just a matter of reading text.

    And I, for one, would welcome a CD of your book!

  4. David, haven’t done my book review yet…but, it’s coming. I do, however, TELL everyone about it! I notice you’re not on Amazon…is that a conscious choice? If you choose to do the Amazon thing, I can recommend a good Amazon reviewer. Also, SPAN has a great article on this subject this month.

  5. I have covered this elsewhere, but it is a conscious decision NOT to go on Amazon at this time.

    Self-published books on Amazon.com often get listed as “out of stock” when they aren’t, or with long delivery times.

    I want my customers to get overnight response and am signing all copies of this first printing. Amazon can’t offer that service. Since I take credit cards as well as PayPal, the customer will get better service at http://bentcrowpress.com, at least for my book.

    What about the visibility of being on Amazon? I am not sure there would be any visibility unless someone is searching for the book by name or by author.

    If they search on Google, there is plenty of information and reviews to steer them to the Bent Crow Press site. The only thing I currently lack is a URL that contains Danger Quicksand and points to bentcrowpress.com.

  6. Joy Kramer says:

    I know nothing about making CDs, but I think this is a great idea. I transcribe tapes and the quality of the taping is variable, either speakers (usually good) or groups (usually not). So it would be good to find out what makes the sound quality the best. Even on music CDs I buy, some songs are too quiet in comparison to others. Obviously, that is an important consideration for the listener.

    Joy

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