Purchasing your own ISBN

As I get closer to publishing my first book, I find more information on what I should and should not do.

Honestly, I was going head first into Amazon publishing option. I did more research, and if I really want to indulge in selling books then owning my ISBN is essential.

And here’s why…

Publishing through Amazon will allow me to make money, which I’m all for; however, the free ISBN (or ASIN) Amazon will only work for Amazon. Also, retailers and book clubs that want my book as a hard copy (paperback) may contact my online publisher (Amazon) instead of me, which won’t go well because the ISBN (ASIN) is for the digital copy only. There isn’t much control there.

But if I have my own ISBN, I can sell my book on Amazon as a book published under my own name/company.

When my book becomes more popular, the demand will be high. Then I’ll have to purchase a bar code, which will allow me to sell to retailers and online.

I may have got myself into something here. The road to become an established writer is a long one…

Proofreads and Edits are done!!!

I just finished my last proofread and edit. The six stories are complete. But I think the book could use one more story.

So tonight, I will start that story which will be entitled, “Dwellers.”

In addition to the last story of Foot in the Door, I want to release another collection of flash stories. The plan is to have at least fifty flash stories. Why fifty? I want the word count to be over 10,000. But it’s going to take more than a coke and a smile to do that–so I will writing from random prompts to push that goal forward.

Now that I’m near completion of Foot in the Door…Well, allow me to say that phase one is finished. Phase two is finding a beta reader I can trust. Phase three is promoting my work. Phase four is promoting my work and working to get published. Honestly, I have no idea how many phases it will take. I’m just very happy that I finally finished these stories.

Keep your eyes open folks–Foot in the Door is breaking into the literary world!!

Advice, Progress and Growth

Hello visitors and followers.

I took a few days off from writing to celebrate my birthday and Memorial Day. While I was enjoying my time away from blogs and countless pages of text, I was watching Adobe software tutorials on YouTube. Those tutorials inspired me to collect various clips in hopes of creating a documentary. The documentary will be used to promote a novel, I’ve been brainstorming and writing since college.

Speaking of published works, I’m almost done with my proofreading the short story collection, Foot in the Door. Depending on page count, I may add another story. If the page count exceeds 150 pages, I’ll keep it at six stories. Also, I will pair the Foot in the Door with a collection of 50 flash stories that are currently exclusive to my Facebook friends and FictionPress.

I’m determined more than ever to self-publish. I met a few writers at a comic convention a few weeks back. It was my first time ever going to a comic convention, and I’m glad I went. The writers urged me to keep writing. One of the authors explained to me that he started his career by self-publishing, an idea I wasn’t sure about a few months ago. Now, I’m convinced more than ever to put my fingers to work over a keyboard. And I encourage any poet, writer, artist, or whatever you may be to keep going.

We will make a breakthrough!!!

Self-Publishing: Hard-copy or E-Book?

I’m so close to finishing my first book. For those of you who just found Black Board, I have a book, a collection of short stories not published yet, entitled Foot in the Door. The book follows various young black men whose inner strength grows as they toil through the challenges they are expected to crumble under. My target audience is young black men; however, I want to make these stories interesting for all readers. Besides, what writer narrows his audience down to one group. I want everyone to enjoy my literary illustrations.

The challenge: I have to decide if I want to take this to a publisher or self-publish through an entity like Amazon Kindle. I’ve read several eHow, About, and other FAQ pages about what my next step should be. Also, I’ve followed the Writer’s Digest on Twitter to get a sense of what my next move should be. At the end of the day, it’s my decision. I discovered that there is no right path to take. Everything instance is different. The only for sure thing is to try everything as many times as possible, in regards to a publisher.

With self-publishing…I will be in control. From price to promotion–it’s all up to me. I enjoy that concept. There is some hard work that follows. Getting people I DO NOT know to like the content I produce is going to be a challenge. Let’s face it. People are critical. Only a few will tell the truth, and the rest just don’t care. Pushing out content on my own is a ego-risk. The question arises: “Is this good?” Of course, I’ll feel that it’s good. I’ve worked hard on it forever. But what will others say? I want to give them their money’s worth.

So what’s better publisher or self-publishing?

Reasons why we chose the writing profession

I say “we” in the title because I’m sure writers other than myself have heard, “there is no money in writing.” At least that’s what I’ve heard while I was attending Greenville Technical College in Greenville, SC. I chose to be an English major to become a writer, professionally and creatively; however, writer is often narrowed down to author by the people who do not realize that writers do assignments other than books and poetry.

We’re in every profession. We’re the force that ensures clear communication between marketers. We’re the fixers of the rough draft speeches in politics. We’re every where. Some of us choose our professions not by the measure of how much cash we can potentially make, but because we like what we do. My philosophy: When you like what you do, career wise, you will eventually come into the pay grade that you want.

As for me, my writing career hasn’t given me a salary. Not yet anyway. Do I give up and choose another profession? I don’t think so! I can’t throw in the towel because I’m frustrated. I understand that careers take time, talent requires attention, and writing takes more than a Coke and a smile to be excellent. I got into writing for the reader’s enjoyment. I want to write something that brings forth debate or discussion. If money follows that vision, so be it. Sooner or later, books that I author will sell. It’s something I like to do.

That’s just how I feel about it. How about you…?

Update: Foot in the Door

Although there isn’t much traffic here yet, I still want to post an update of my short story collection project also known as Foot in the Door. I’m currently wrapping up the second edit of my first story entitled “Beast”. I’ve butchered most of the sentences to focus on clarity and syntax. Not really sure how well it’s written until someone reads it. Of course, I’ve read it; however, I would like many others to read it. Before that happens, I need someone else to butcher my stories like I did after the rough drafts.

Eventually, upon release of Foot in the Door, I’ll try to submit two or three of my stories to a literary journal; particularly, journals in South Carolina.

For now, readers can enjoy samples of my writing at FictionPress.com and FanFiction.net. Just search my username, eeblackwriter.
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