Authors Helping Authors - Make this new section work for you [Return to index]
Here is an article from John Wolf:

January 2010 - the time to reflect on our blessings and play on our strengths. The Pen Jabs met once again to share our writing experience. Enjoy.

LinDee Rocelle, Sally Gary, me, Linda Meckler, Marj Lacy, and Pauline Hager met at my place for our usual brown bag buffet.

Notice LinDee with the cover art for her new book, targeted for May and Linda's new book that was just published by Infinity Publishing on how to fight your insurance and win, which is featured in the Jan issue of F&Q.

Sally is an independent publisher of her books and gave us the inside story of how to become one, sparing us none of the gory details. The chain of how to register a company name and address, getting a resale license, having to advertise in a newspaper for at least four days the establishment of the new company.

Once you are straight with the State, you are ready to build a book, get it printed, but the next snag is working with a distributor. They are the middlemen between you and the Big Box Books Stores. Without them, no deal, because the store only wants one source on their books for many authors. They all take a cut and the invoice paper trails starts piling up. We laid out some numbers and it's pretty much the same results as you get with the self-published route, but with one level of significants. If the book starts selling in the big book stores, the demand can soar, because they have the marketing and display power to push books on a daily basis.

For non-fiction books, this route can enhance the author chances to sell more, but the path to success in convoluted and not easy to navigate. You probably have a much better chance to sell in-the-back-of-the-room at conferences and talk you give. Independent publishing has merit for the non-fiction, how-to-do author. For us fantasy flushers, the self-publishing route or what Infinity calls author-initiated publishing, you have a lot of services available to you that others can do without on the complex legal tricks of the trade to learn.

We also discussed the possibility of sponsoring a half-day conference tagged onto an Infinity appreciation dinner for Infinity authors in the area. It provides us a platform to iron out misconceptions of the publishing world, how to mount marketing schemes, and network with a whole new generation of local authors.