You know, one of these days I am going to take my courage
in my hands and actually do the unthinkable again. Attempt to self publish. My
last experience left me so badly frightened that I ran yelping to traditional
publishing.
I have read Guy Kawasaki, for days after that, I saw
vision of me becoming a successful Indy author. Slept at night with such dreams
and woke up with palpitations Each time my husband asked what the matter was,
I will whisper and dramatically announce I was thinking of doing the self
publish route again. Alarm would jump into his eyes and I would hurriedly
assure him I was really toying with the idea.
You will need to understand where we are coming from.
Self publishing in my country is really the only way to get read. But take a
pause and see what gets published, some of them have no business being
published because it was not edited, nor spell checked nor.. I could go on.
On the other side of the lake are the traditional
publishers, in my country, you will need to be in the suffocating air of the
politicians for a serious publisher to take you seriously.
Here is a simple scenario, so you think you have written
a good book? The questions start coming in
1. Is
it a recommended school text? And you answer with a tentative no defending
yourself by saying it can be read for pleasure.. the publishers looks behind
you wondering who let the lunatic into his office. This does not look like a
charity organization damn it.
2. Are
you a politician and spilling the dirt on some opposition? The publisher will
first check with his lawyer to see if you had the potential of getting away
with it and so more people are likely to want to buy the book so they can tell
what the rumpus was all about. The publisher really doesn’t want to know if you
had just scratched your itchy backsides and was using the book to rile your
opponent up so you get publicity. A political party might just be interested in
giving you political office if you story is really irritating enough. The
publishers like this. They have a style, they do a big Book Presentation, call
all the honourable thieves from your camp and the other opposing camp and the
book is launched. You get paid and everybody forgets the book. No one wants to
know if you never sell one more copy after the presentation date. See what I
mean?
3. There
is the other option though as the publisher allows his finger to hover the
security button, He makes a small cough, puts his most charming fake smile on
his face and asks you if you know someone in the education sector, specifically
in the curricula section who might suggest your book as a recommended text. The
Lord help you if you answer is negative because in a blink you will be outside
the gate of the establishment.
The last time I tried something like that, I almost had
to promise my arm and my heart. The trouble was, my heart bled so much that
nobody wanted it, least of all me.
Then I came online and I am being seduced into thinking I
can try again. But maybe I need to go read Guy’s book again. Maybe I need more
dreams, or hunger so acute that I would grab at a chance to do it alone again.
It is a nice nightmare that has the potentials of being a dream and who knows
you just might reach for it one day in a book store near you. How is that?
