Today I'm pleased to welcome Wendy Unsworth to Pure Jonel.
Let's see what she has to say about epublications.
This may sound like a little bit of a suck-up but ...
Since the advent of ebooks many authors, like myself, have finally done it; we have self-published. For those who have chosen to take this route, regardless of sales success, I would like to bet that a very large proportion, just like me, have no regrets in taking this decision.
There is no doubt that it is a huge task to complete a full length novel. The fact that the author can be sure, at the end of the endeavor, it will be published, makes a huge difference to the whole experience. Rather than months or years of submissions to agents/publishers with no guarantee of the full work ever even being read at all, much less evaluated, there is now the knowledge that publication can happen.
Of course going it alone puts the onus for every aspect of the book squarely on the shoulders of the author. Not only must they ensure the manuscript is as good as it can be (whether editors and other professionals are employed or not) but there is also the cover, front and end matter and the dreaded formatting to tackle. For me, every step required research and advice. It's a mountain to climb but thousands of determined authors are proving it can be done.
So... Stage one complete. But how many first time authors realize, when they finally finish the herculean task of bringing a book to publication that this is actually just Stage one? I'll bet again, and this time I would say - not too many!
Speaking for myself, my end goal as an aspiring first time author was to publish. I really did not think much about what would happen beyond that point.
Fortunately, though, the writing/reading eworld reaches out, it's arms open wide. There is help at hand. Writer's sites and forums offer good advice: Create a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter presence. Join popular book sites; comment, engage, be part of the community. It all takes work and precious time but, if managed wisely and kept within bounds is well worth the effort. And an added bonus; somewhere in this flurry of activity the uninitiated cannot fail to stumble into the realm of the Book Blogger.
I would like to champion (and I may be accused of that 'creeping' I alluded to in my intro!) the work of book bloggers. Since publishing my first novel 'The Palaver Tree' I have come across so many of them that are willing to be helpful to new authors and 'give them a try.' If they accept a book for review, of course, there is no guarantee that they will give a shiny, five star endorsement but these people read a lot of books, so when they do praise your work it feels very, very good indeed!
Book bloggers, I am sure, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes but one thing they have in common is their incredible energy. They read and review books at an astonishing rate, arrange giveaways, special features and interviews - and all this around their presumably busy and full, offline lives. And apart from opportunities for self - promotion, book blogs are great places to hang around, find out what others are reading, check out their opinions and add one or two titles to the old, 'To Be Read' list.
So, at the risk of preaching to the converted, (after all, you are reading this on a Book Blog!) I would like to say... Thanks to everyone, including authors who help promote self published books. And thank you book bloggers everywhere, great job, keep up the good work. Where would we authors be without you?
A bit about Wendy Unsworth:
Wendy Unsworth was born and raised in Lincolnshire, England; her passions are her family, travel, beautiful gardens and reading and writing stories. Wendy lived in Ndola, Zambia and Nairobi, Kenya throughout the 1980's and early '90's before returning to the U.K. to acclimatise back to the English weather in a Cornish cottage close to Bodmin Moor! She is currently based in the north west of England. The African continent has left a lasting impression; The Palaver Tree, is set in a fictional Central African country and Cornwall. At present Wendy is working on her second novel, Beneathwood, re-introducing cameo characters from The Palaver Tree and telling their own individual story.
Watch for more from Wendy over the next 2 weeks as we run an awesome giveaway for 4 ecopies of her debut novel The Palaver Tree.
And don't forget to enter while you're here.
Entries close at 11:59pm Monday July 15/13.
Winners will be announced Tuesday July 16/13.
Good luck to all!