Thanks to advances in technology, self-publishing is growing at a tremendous rate. Authors considering this route are faced with a dizzying array of options. My self-publishing experience is still developing, but I have a novel that will be self-published sometime in April or May, and perhaps my experience will be helpful to someone just starting the process. Here are five steps that I have followed:
1. Stop thinking that you will write a book someday and set a real deadline for yourself. Far too many aspiring writers think that they will write their novel at some hazy point in the future when their life settles down some. Life never settles down. Just start writing and don’t stop; even a page a day will produce 365 pages in a year. If you find yourself in this position in September or October, National Novel Writing Month in November is a great way to break through and actually finish a first draft. Their website is www.nanowrimo.org.
2. After writing the first draft, let it sit in a drawer for at least a few weeks. You need some distance from it before you start the first revision. Give your mind some time to rest. Actually go outside for a change. When you come back to the first draft, read it out loud to see how the narrative flows, and remove sections where things bog down.
3. Send your revised draft to a good freelance editor. You need an objective professional to tell you where the book needs work, as well as to catch simple grammar, spelling and punctuation errors you wouldn’t see yourself. A Google search will bring up multiple freelance editors, but be sure you check their references before using one. A word of warning about letting friends read it before it’s finished: they are rarely objective, and their feedback is typically well meaning but just as typically useless.
4. Decide on a Print On Demand (POD) Publisher. Look for one who will support you throughout the process, with other services such as cover creation or coaching.
5. Don’t be shy about self-promotion. Even with a deal from a traditional publisher, you will have to do most of the marketing yourself. Tell everyone you know about your book, and ask them to tell everyone they know. Post links to your website or your book’s URL on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com everywhere you can. Use Google Adwords, and pester local and national book reviewer until they’re sick of you. Be creative, and stop at nothing to get the word out.
In the end, writing, publishing and marketing a book is a daunting task, but the satisfaction you will receive from seeing your book in print is worth the sacrifice.
The Odyssey of Daniel Bonner.
The first chapter finds Daniel Bonner as frightened fifteen year-old making an escape from a young offenders’ institution, incarcerated for a crime of which he is innocent.
During a harrowing escape he receives unexpected help from a total stranger who later becomes his mentor, to aid and abet his survival as a fugitive on the open moor. Daniel learns to trust him implicitly in what is seemingly an unbreakable friendship, and remains unaware that the stranger, Anthony Windrow, has a hidden, and altogether, sinister agenda.
At the time of his escape, Danny, unwittingly, sells his soul to the Devil, and nothing in this, or any other world comes free. Anthony Windrow, hell’s second-in-command, otherwise known as the Chancellor, sets Daniel on a course to leave the moor and make his fortune, hoping that greed would be the catalyst to turn him into the perfect representative for the forces of evil in the living world. However, no one had counted on Daniels inbuilt sense of right and wrong.
With an act of selfless philanthropy he undermines the Chancellor’s plan, proving that his path through life is destined to carry him on a very different journey; to become the Chancellor’s nemesis.
Genre – Paranormal Thriller
Rating – PG
More details about the author
Connect with Dominic Buffery on Twitter
Website http://dominicbuffery.co.uk
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