Free Articles on Publishing and many other topics
Another free Publishing article for you by Peter Leakey
Titled: The Author's revolution is here
The Author's revolution is here
Article Summary: Get easily published and promoted. Maybe end up being famous The Author's revolution is here
Get easily published and promoted. Maybe end up being famous. The Author's revolution is here.
Not any longer are authors spending their time waiting for the next rejection slip. Everyone can undertake the process of writing, publishing and promoting a book.
The tools of the trade
Special computer programs such as Scrivener ($39.95), Writers Café ($45.00), PageFour ($ 34.95), NewNovelist ($54.99) and Screenwriter Version Six ($249.95) can handle script formats for motion pictures, theatre, television, novels, comic books and non-fiction books. Amazingly they keep track of characters and plots. Some advise on the structure, scene order, suggest characters' names, personality attributes and locations.
Writing a book involves research. Through search engines such as Google the writer can find the answers to most questions without leaving the desk.
How long does it take?
Writing a book may involve 2,000 to 3,000 hours of work.
Some people manage to set aside funds to support themselves while they write. Some write at night, keeping on the day job. Many write solidly from Friday evening to Monday morning, with little sleep. Family life, hobbies, holidays are often forgotten.
Who can write a book?
In the author's revolution era, where everyone who has a good idea and something interesting to tell can write a book. In past, very young and very old writers have marked the history of literature. Christopher Paolini wrote the best-seller Eragon, when 15 years old. Kate Morton's huge bestseller, The House at Riverton, is only in her early twenties. Karen Blixen, who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen, did not publish her first book until far over 50. Out of Africa followed many years later. The famous Bangladeshi writer Nirad Chaudhuri published Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse in 1997, when he was 100 years old.
And when the book is written...
When a stack of manuscript is lying on the desk, crisp and ready the writers start sending copies to Literary Agents, still key-people to get into mainstream retail publishing.
The reality for the typical author who, full of hope, at some considerable cost has sent out maybe a hundred copies of the manuscript to literary agents worldwide, is the depressing sound, over the next month or two, of rejection notes flopping on the doormat.
Then, after three months, everything fizzles out and not even the rejection slips arrive.
The present time of publishing
The modern author, in this new publishing era, does not even bother sending a manuscript to a Literary Agent. Better to send it to a professional editor, who will comment on characterisation, the plot, the start, the middle section, and the end. Then it is the proofreader's turn, to correct spelling and grammar mistakes, change bad sentences, cut out repetitions and generally give the book a professional feel.
The publishing phase is the easiest of the whole process. Nearly two hundred different POD (Print On Demand) companies worldwide will take on the task, creating a cover and back cover, producing an ISBN number, providing all the necessary help to get ready with a nice, professional book. They can print as many copies as the author wishes, then can keep the file to print it again every time it is necessary and when the author or re-sellers like Amazon, Borders and up to 40 Internet retailers asks for more copies.
Yes, one single book can now be produced with full colour cover and unlimited pages - removing the cost of having stock. Hallmark Press International (Tel 00 44 191 158 73 886 www.hallmarkpress.co.uk) is the new face of friendly publishing. Trafford Publishing in Canada sends a comprehensive free publishing guide. PenPress produces five quality books for £50. BookSurge.com is part of the Amazon group of companies. IUniverse is owned by Barnes and Noble.
But the publishing revolution does not stop here
Here comes the book promotion phase. It's a fact, that if the general buying public are not aware of the new book, people would hardly find it by chance and buy it. It is absolutely essential to get visibility or awareness for the new book.
There are many book publicists who work independently and are not bound to publishing houses. Among them, some of the most famous are the US based TCI Smith Publicity and the UK based Book Promotion Limited.
Book-Promotion.com started some years ago from the idea by one man, who put a team of experts together to research how to create awareness for an unknown author and the new book. A year was spent focusing on the publishing world and the struggle of new writers. Then gradually the team moved on to create the complete book promotion campaign, Book Promology, which today is used by new and established authors in the UK, US, Canada, Australia to POD publishers and mainstream retail-publishers. Their web site was created, www.book-promotion.com, to illustrate the methods and the campaigns; the number of daily visitors on it became quickly astonishingly high. The company accept every author and every new book, fiction and non-fiction, but cannot, therefore, make any promises with regards to the number of books expected to be sold - and which publications would take the book for reviews. An open and honest policy might anyway be better in the long run, as mentioned in the Company Declaration. But the core of their method is to get the book out on the Internet, making it visible to millions. This is happening through creating an author's web site for each book, SEO (search engine optimization) the new marketing tool and through a press and article releases distributed to their own database.
One of the ten internal professional reviewers reads the book, decides on keywords, checks the synopsis and forwards the finished review to the author or publisher for comments. Adding that to an interview with the author, a press release, a bio provided by the author, info on how to buy the book and some pictures, the seven-page web site is ready. The site is focusing strongly on creating sales. Advanced tag and keyword technology is used to attract the right people for that specific book. Registration on hundreds of search engines is done and a Google Adwords campaign made ready. The book promoted is placed on the two largest book price comparison sites, Bookhead.co.uk and best-compare.com together with a registering on the eight most applicable social websites with an audience of many hundred millions. This advanced promotion technology, combined with the company's trained optimatization staff makes it possible to guarantee five thousand unique visitors to the website, within 150 days of launch. The company includes a three-month one-to-one marketing support. All this costs £396.00 or US$ 789.00.
And the future?
Back in 2006, new hand-held e-book was presented, with mixed reviews. The e-book did not take off. At the Le Web conference in Paris end of last year the audience erupted into laughter, when presented with an idea that already seemed 'old hat'.
Then, Sony launched their new product, the super-slim 'Sony Reader' in the USA. All of a sudden, like a miracle, everything changed. Not only can it hold 160 books at one time, but also it's light, elegant, with black leather casing and 'white paper technology' as the screen, which can even be read in sunlight. Hold the Sony Reader in any way you want and the text is clear on the screen. Vertical or horizontal. Amazon has a similar product: 'Kindle Electronic Reader' which was launched already, but has been improved to the extent that Citigroup has forecast a turnover of $ 1.1 billion for Amazon, through the sale of the reader and the downloading of books. Ilead Reader, Libresco and BeBook are similar book readers on the market in US, coming to EU and Asia within months. The Sony Reader will be available in the UK from mid September at Waterstones and from Sony's own shops at around £200.00.
And finally...
The success of Richard and Judy's book presentation on TV and similar programs in US, has made it clear that more lively, more direct means are needed for spreading the word about new books.
The world's largest review website, devoted entirely to book reviews and interviews, with daily updates, is being created for launch early in 2009.
A natural market place for new authors.
Copyright (c) 2008 Best of the World Ltd, UK
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
About the Author:
Peter Leakey
Get easily published and promoted Maybe end up being famous The Author's revolution is here http://www.book-promotion.com
**NOTE** - Peter Leakey has claimed copyright on the article "The Author's revolution is here" ... if there is a dispute on the originality of this article ... please contact us via our Contact Form and supply our staff with the appropriate details of dispute.
