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Seattle, Washington
Protopresbyter Serafim Gascoigne,

Friday, June 25, 2010

Are you having a bad time trying to get published? These days publishers (who only work through agents) and agents are very choosy, especially if you are unknown. The first question they ask is 'Do you have a platform? If so, how many books can you sell for us to make a profit?' That seems to cut out quite a number of potential authors. So what do you do? Self publish? But even here there are big problems when it comes to marketing. Yes, a selfpublishing company will edit, proof read and print your book (they mostly use OUTSOURCING) but when it comes to marketing, you are on your own. It all comes back to whether you have a PLATFORM. I have discovered that I can outsource my work, just like the selfpublishing companies that charge at least $3000 to do it for you. And if there is no marketing, it doesn't make sense to spend your hard earned dollars on such companies. What do you do? Well you can do what I did. I hired a graphic artist to design a cover, a copyeditor to read and assess the m/s and a proof reader and a printer (Ingrams the big, big book distributor) to complete the novel. Much cheaper than paying a selfpublisher to do this. Yes, I have a book published by a selfpublisher on atleast 3 Christian bookstore websites (there are apparently 4000 in the US) and on Amazon and B&N. However if my book does not sell (off the shelf) within 3 months, the bookstores send them back for a refund. A definite lose/win situation for me. Any way I have worked out a method to build or should I say borrow a platform to get my book out there. I am happy to share it with you, if you bother to read this blog!
www.creativecopy.us

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