Dispiriting day...

Hi Tom. Well done on completing the book and taking action. That's a massive achievement. I went on a two seminar in London a couple of years ago, with Hay House Publishing. It was incredible. Tons of information. I'll certainly fish some of it out for you if needs be. They confirmed more or less what you said above, but there are other ways other than kindle to get your book published. However, Hay House Publishing run these seminars. They're not expensive, especially considering what the event consists of. As part of the deal, you get to submit a proposal. In short, you write the chapter titles of the book, you submit your best chapter and a couple of pages for each of the other chapters giving an outline of what they will be saying. They choose a winner, who wins a book deal. The information received on the days is worth more than what you paid for the event and you also get the opportunity to put forward a proposal. You get editors etc to help you and they go through all this on the days. 

I thought I would submit a proposal but I am no way near that stage yet. However, I still highly value the information that I received and will happily pay again when I'm ready. It would be well worth your while going to an event just for the information. I still receive podcasts etc, from the event. I also have contact details of a small two women publishing company who support and publish unknown authors. 

Dont be dispirited, this is a wonderful day. You should be very proud of yourself, crack open the bottle, let's have a toast. Cheers. 

Your book will be published, you just have to learn the different ways you can go about it. Creating a 'platform' as they call it, is often necessary, but you can learn that as well and get help with it. It's all doable if you take it one step at a time. The hard part's over. You not only wrote the book but you completed it. You can now enjoy exploring the options of publishing. Including using the law of attraction, one of the natural laws of this universe. Well done. 

Thanks, BlueRay.  I think I needed some encouragement after yesterday!  

Hay House does sound interesting - and that small publishing company. I think the book will have a lot of appeal for women, actually.   I had my first novel published by a small company in the end (though the company concerned rather turned me over, unfortunately).  I've spent so many years fighting my way through the literary 'jungle' with agencies, publishers, etc., that my recent experience is hardly surprising.  It was a little easier, though, about 25 years ago.  At least you could get a foot in the door with some of these people.  I've been picked up, then dropped, several times.  That novel actually caught the interest of a London agency - but they turned it down finally because it wasn't 'commercial enough'.  Not enough sex, dragons or wizards, probably!  History is littered with 'not commercial enough' novels that have broken through via self-publishing and word-of-mouth: these 'experts' really don't know everything.  I once wrote and illustrated a series of children's stories.  Agency after agency said they weren't 'targeted' enough:  it's really rigid now with 'age bands' - which is basically doing a disservice to the intelligence of children.  I took issue with one agency, saying that - on the basis of what they'd told me - if Winnie The Pooh was written now, no agency would touch it and it wouldn't get published.  'Absolutely right it wouldn't', they replied.  What kind of idiocy is that?  Then there's the famous (and tragic) case of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces - an absolute classic of American fiction which still sells in huge numbers almost 40 years after it was first published.  A year after publication, in 1981, Toole was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for it.  Posthumously.  He was so dispirited at having it rejected by just about every agency and publishing house that he committed suicide.  And it was only after he'd done this that it was 'discovered'!

It's much tougher now, in the internet age.  It's more cut-throat than ever.  With these people, it's all about commercial viability, marketing proposals, unit-shifting rather than unit-content.  So we get flooded with trash... but it sells!  E L James, Dan Brown, Lee Child, etc.  Sure, they can spin a tale.  But their writing is, frankly, crap.  And crap always sells.  Reading habits have changed drastically, too.  Here are some interesting stats collated by The Guardian and The Times:

* 20% of 2,000 people polled by the Royal Society of Literature couldn't name a single author, and 25% said they hadn't read a book in the past six months.  Many were hooked on Game of Thrones - but couldn't name the author of it.  Many more didn't even know that the TV serialisations of it were based on books.

* 1 in 10 people - 1 in 5 in the 18-24 age bracket - don't own a single book.

* By contrast, the average household has 8.2 devices connected to the internet.  By the time they leave primary school, 40% of children own a mobile phone.  And 56% of children say they're on the edge of addiction with social media!

Well... we all know about stats.  Even so, it doesn't bode well for books and reading...

Thanks, BlueRay.  I think I needed some encouragement after yesterday!  

Hay House does sound interesting - and that small publishing company. I think the book will have a lot of appeal for women, actually.   I had my first novel published by a small company in the end (though the company concerned rather turned me over, unfortunately).  I've spent so many years fighting my way through the literary 'jungle' with agencies, publishers, etc., that my recent experience is hardly surprising.  It was a little easier, though, about 25 years ago.  At least you could get a foot in the door with some of these people.  I've been picked up, then dropped, several times.  That novel actually caught the interest of a London agency - but they turned it down finally because it wasn't 'commercial enough'.  Not enough sex, dragons or wizards, probably!  History is littered with 'not commercial enough' novels that have broken through via self-publishing and word-of-mouth: these 'experts' really don't know everything.  I once wrote and illustrated a series of children's stories.  Agency after agency said they weren't 'targeted' enough:  it's really rigid now with 'age bands' - which is basically doing a disservice to the intelligence of children.  I took issue with one agency, saying that - on the basis of what they'd told me - if Winnie The Pooh was written now, no agency would touch it and it wouldn't get published.  'Absolutely right it wouldn't', they replied.  What kind of idiocy is that?  Then there's the famous (and tragic) case of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces - an absolute classic of American fiction which still sells in huge numbers almost 40 years after it was first published.  A year after publication, in 1981, Toole was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for it.  Posthumously.  He was so dispirited at having it rejected by just about every agency and publishing house that he committed suicide.  And it was only after he'd done this that it was 'discovered'!

It's much tougher now, in the internet age.  It's more cut-throat than ever.  With these people, it's all about commercial viability, marketing proposals, unit-shifting rather than unit-content.  So we get flooded with trash... but it sells!  E L James, Dan Brown, Lee Child, etc.  Sure, they can spin a tale.  But their writing is, frankly, crap.  And crap always sells.  Reading habits have changed drastically, too.  Here are some interesting stats collated by The Guardian and The Times:

* 20% of 2,000 people polled by the Royal Society of Literature couldn't name a single author, and 25% said they hadn't read a book in the past six months.  Many were hooked on Game of Thrones - but couldn't name the author of it.  Many more didn't even know that the TV serialisations of it were based on books.

* 1 in 10 people - 1 in 5 in the 18-24 age bracket - don't own a single book.

* By contrast, the average household has 8.2 devices connected to the internet.  By the time they leave primary school, 40% of children own a mobile phone.  And 56% of children say they're on the edge of addiction with social media!

Well... we all know about stats.  Even so, it doesn't bode well for books and reading...

I think it’s different for all of us. We all get our inspiration and ideas etc from somewhere. Maybe as you’re changing, your tastes in what you read etc are changing. I know I’ll be influenced by what I read and I want to be, I just feel like I want to at least get a skeleton version of what I think I want to say, down first. But who knows, I’m currently unable to read a book, listen to one or write one, so who knows what I’ll do first when I feel ready to get back into it. I’m still very much in recovery mode just now and not even recovery mode actually. I’m still winding down from the last 50 years of trying to be nt. and when I feel I’ve finished with that, I’ll move into recovery mode. 

Let's describe it.  Fundamentally, it's a love story.  It's a story about a very close and unique human relationship.  It's about hope and survival in adversity.  It's about sacrifices made for the love of another.  It's about fractious family dynamics.  It's about, too, growing up with Asperger's - a condition, which, in many ways, predisposed and conditioned the protagonist for his role: shaped his life in such a way that it put him in precisely the right place and circumstance, at the right time.  It's about grief and loss, and overcoming these things against many odds and discovering a new lease of life. It's about taking hold of every precious moment of life and experiencing it and valuing it, not taking it for granted.  It's about believing enough in that to have the desire to record it all in words - by which means not only strengthening that new optimism for life, but being able to encourage others with it. 

For the most part, these are pretty universal themes.  They're what it's all about, in the end.

So... probably the 'self-help' shelf.  Or, loosely, 'autobiographies'. 

Sorry to be flippant... but that's how it all makes me feel.  A market category.

Maybe they’re approaching the whole thing from the ‘right’ end, for them. There are many reasons why people write. Some people find that it’s something they’re good at and they would therefore like make it their means of earning an income. If so, it would make sense for them to write about things that the reader wants. The reader is happy and so are they, they achieved their objective. You have to be clear who the book is for. Is it for you or the readers and who are your readers. Can you describe for me your target audience. 

what I needed to get clear on, for me, was, what I wanted to say, what I wanted to achieve from the book etc and how important it was to me.

Always been my approach.  The one literary agent who took me on for my children's stories changed them so much to what he thought they should be that I eventually took them back from him.  He took everything away from them that had driven me to write them.  Unsurprisingly, he got no takers.

That's a good tactic.  Writers like Stephen King say that anyone who professes to write should be reading constantly.  Alice Munro disagrees.  Interesting that the more King writes, the less I like his work - and the more Munro writes, the better she gets!

I'm not so interested in making a living out of it as I am in using it as a means of communicating to people, informing people and helping people.  That's, of course, a basis for a marketing strategy!  What I mean is, though, I'm not driven by the celebrity 'famous author' thing that drives so many - especially younger writers.  Or by the idea that this will make me a fortune.  I belong to a few Facebook writers' groups, and for a good deal of the members it's all dragons and wizards and epic battles between the Scalcion Overlords of Nebulon and the Xathene tribes of Alaria (part were-rabbit, part vampire) on the plains of Endora, et al... because they see it as something that sells.  They're approaching the whole thing from the wrong end, as Paul Auster says.  But this is what 'corrupts' so many really good writers.  I'd frankly be a Knut Hamsun writing 'Hunger' - a book that most certainly would never get published today because of it's subject matter (a writer starving himself to death), yet is a cult novel that will never go away - than an E L James, writing trash for the masses and making zillions.

Yeah, great advice. Since starting my book, I have purposely stopped reading books in my ‘niche’ because I want to get the book out of me and onto paper (in rough form)  before reading other books. I didn’t want to risk being influenced by them before I had kind of said what I feel I wanted to say. Then I want to get going with reading other books and work out, as a reader, what I want from them etc. And yes, it most definitely needs to be a burning desire and for it, to be its only reward. We already fit the criteria of a writer, what I needed to get clear on, for me, was, what I wanted to say, what I wanted to achieve from the book etc and how important it was to me. I’m still working all this out, as well as how it fits in with the rest of my life. And that’s ok, I have a lot of clearing, decluttering and detoxing to do before I sit back down to write again and that’s what I’m currently working on coming to terms with. I realised I needed to get my basic home set up etc sorted out before I move on to anything else. But I’m always writing anyway as a way of processing my world. 

This is a continuous struggle between authors and publishers. However, again, it comes down to what you want. Publishers do have an idea of what people like to read, they have a lot of knowledge on what sells etc. They of course don’t always get it right, nobody does, but publishers do bring a lot of value to the table with their knowledge. The guy who wrote the book ‘I can make you sleep’ for Paul McKenna, said he faught with Paul over the tittle, he said it would never sell. But no matter what he said, Paul stuck to his guns and the book was a best seller. The guy admitted he got it wrong but in getting it wrong and Paul sticking to his guns, the book was a huge success. There are lots of things to think about such as who is your target audience. You have to be super clear on this as it will effect things such as book cover design, colour, the title etc, even the time of year when the book’s released. 

There are definitely easier ways to make a living, but this is more than that. If you want to make a living out of it then you most definitely do have to seriously consider your target audience etc and have great marketing strategies etc. 

Always loved this...

Paul Auster's advice to writers

Marketing strategies are just ways that can be used to get your book in front of people. If nobody knows about it, nobody can read it. I know how you feel about marketing strategies though, I feel the same way, I just want to write the book, for somebody to publish it and for it to help others. So part of my ‘design’ or end goal, is that somebody helps me with that or more or less deals with that side of things for me. 

They suggest going to a book store and looking at the books in your niche, getting ideas about what people are reading etc and considering how your book fits in/compares.

This makes sense, of course - but again, too many writers get sucked into the 'commercial objectives' thing, which can have an effect on the way they write.  I've seen people change their style to fit in more with what sells.  Some have the idea of getting established first, then going back to their true ways... only to find that backfiring on them.  It also, I think, 'standardises' the whole thing.

There are easier ways of making a living!

That's great, thanks.  Yeah, I know about the social media platforms.  I've tried a few things.  I've had several blogs, too.  My best outlet was ABCTales.  I had a good following on there and was consistently one of their top-read writers, also winning their competitions.  Their CEO at the time even came to my book launch for the novel.  He told me he thought I was the best writer he'd read who didn't have a publishing deal, and thought it was just a matter of time.  But I had a crash-and-burn, upset a few people (who, I think, were jealous), deleted my account and left.  I think a few other people got cheesed off and did the same.  I've thought about going back, but haven't. 

Part of me hates the whole idea of 'marketing strategies' - though I know you have to play that game eventually. 

I'll figure something out....

Thanks again.  I appreciate this info.

Yes, the internet has changed the way we read etc. The Hay House event taught me that publishers aren’t marketers so they want to know, before even considering the book, that you’ve got a target audience that want to read your book. The marketing is now largely done online, so people build a social media following, known as your ‘platform’, and tell the publishers, as part of their proposal, how many followers they have. If they have a big following, the publishishers may then consider looking at their book but if not, they won’t consider you. From their point of view, they want to know that people are going to read the book. They suggest going to a book store and looking at the books in your niche, getting ideas about what people are reading etc and considering how your book fits in/compares. With the Hay House competition, it’s great if you do have an audience, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. They will consider your book and if they like what they see, they will work with you to do whatever you need to do to get your book out there. It often takes a couple of years. 

My mentor self published his book, which has been hugely successful, but he already had a platform and a great marketing strategy. My friend published her book, via the two Women company I mentioned but she also has an active website and social media platforms etc as her book is connected to her work. 

The event would be beneficial as you get to hear from several great authors and you get lots of great beneficial information which helps you to clear about what you want for the book and how to go about it etc. I think I paid for the online course as well, which I haven’t really looked at yet because this was at a time as I was already starting to breakdown/breakthrough, but this is an example of emails I receive regularly, I don’t usually open them. 

Hi there,

I’m hosting a call that is LIVE NOW and I want to personally encourage you to join me. You’ve heard me say this many many times—you have a special message to share with the world, and the world needs to learn from you. The fastest way to help others and get your message into the world is to Publish Your Book.

And I’m here to help you. Just do this one thing…

Join me on this live call going on NOW - January 16th, from 4 pm to 5 pm PT/7 pm to 8 pm ET.

I want to personally answer your question – you can call in to talk to me by following the steps below. My goal is to answer as many questions as possible.

I can’t wait to hear from YOU personally…

HOW TO CALL-IN or SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION:

- Click this link: Ask Reid Tracy a Question
- Login to your Hay House U account.

-Live Call-in Number will also be provided once you log in.

I look forward to talking with you,

Reid

P.S. If you need help getting access please contact Hay House Customer Care by phone: US (800) 654-5126 or INTL CC +1 (760) 431-7695 or chat with us live during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 7:00 am - 5:30 pm PST/PDT).

Reid Tracy was working at Hay House at its beginning and is now in charge of the whole thing. They also have their own self publishing branch of the business, a dedicated team in the U.K. and they’re the biggest personal development/true stories publishing company in the world, so they know a thing or two.