Publishing a book

I attended our writing group yesterday and part of the discussion was on publishing. Three of our members are now at that stage of considering what they will do with their works. Finding a publisher is the ideal, but over recent years this has become more difficult as many of these operations have shut down. As more people have turned to self-publishing, this has created less work for traditional publishers, meaning more publishers have closed, meaning even more people are doing it themselves, creating an ever-decreasing circle.

With the advent and advance of the internet, it is far easier to get one’s writing out there. Some can do it relatively cheaply, but I have often heard the cry ‘’how do I get sales?’’. It seems that no matter which way one goes, traditional or self-publishing, there is still a hard slog in marketing and one will need to put in a large amount of work to sell their book. The benefit, of course, with a traditional publisher, is one’s costs will be covered, though the downside is royalties are generally low. At least with self-publishing, one can set their own price and receive 100% of the cost. But in saying that, those who only put their work on a site like Amazon, will still receive a lesser amount than what the person pays for the book. Costs need to come off these sales too.

Then there is tax to pay as well. I itemised my costs for The Collective Us and sent this to members of our group. I forgot to mention the tax. I also forgot to point out, that if one’s costs were only for the cover and printing, then these would easily be offset by sales. But unfortunately, these aren’t the only costs.  Here a hundred and there a hundred and they soon mount up. It is easy to spend several thousand on a book without even realising it.  

I am going to have another burst at selling my books. I will run some more Facebook ads and I hope to visit another Mind, Body, Spirit event in September. Selling really is an ongoing task. I have noticed there have been several reincarnation stories of children remembering their previous lives, appearing on my U Tube feed. There appears to be quite a bit of interest in this topic, judging by the comments, though getting to those interested people is the difficult part. Perhaps I need to muster some courage and mention my books in the comment section, though my topic on yesterday’s blog, about learning preferences might work against this. If people are enjoying the U Tube clips, that does not mean they would enjoy reading a book and vice-versa.

But potential readers are out there, I know this. My job is to find them.