August 16, 2006

Should I Self-Publish?

Angela,

I am a produced screenwriter and have just recently completed a novel that I was thinking of self-publishing. (After going through the five-year headache of getting a screenplay made into a movie--I'm not sure I want to start over with the tradional publishing venue!)

Jeff

For an unknown author, your chances of landing a traditional publishing contract are greater if you self-publish and can prove there's a market for your book through sales of the self-published version. Publishers are very happy to have that risk factor figured out ahead of time! (See the last Letter to the Editor in today's issue of WritersWeekly.com.)

For what it takes to market a book successfully online, please see my article in today's issue of WritersWeekly.com, SideStepping Traditional Publishers: Successful Online Book Marketing.

You can always hire someone to build a website, but many authors teach themselves this skill so they can do site updates whenever they want. As for the other marketing tasks, you'll really need to personally do hands-on online marketing to make your book a success. If you don't want to treat the marketing of your book as a full-time job, you might want to reconsider sending proposals to traditional publishers.