Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Tuesday, 28 Dec 2010, 04:03
The opportunist are even better for the someone with something to say or the skill to tell a good story. Without the support of a publisher your book may take time to find a market, but it will: narrowcasting and micropublishing makes this possible.
Once a dirty word, 'self-publishing' makes sense; have a website, say something often, build a readership then have a book, CD or T-shirt to sell. i.e. be commercial, sales are better than hits.
Books will be bought in great numbers, but in a plethora of genres and volumes, because on the one hand this micromarket can be winkled out, while on the other, if there is a marketing campaign behind the book which uses the Web successfully, it might attract millions.
I dare say it helps to be writing in this global language which I call 'English English,' that might in time transmogrify into 'global English' or even 'globalish'.
Steven Pressfield is a prime example of an author who has embraced the web.
I'd also recommend his book 'The War of Art', though despite my taking several years out to write I find resistance always gets in the way; blogging is my form.
These words will add to the 1,8 million I've pumped into Cyberspace since 1999.
Perhaps it is about time I put some of the following online:
Escape from Alien Zoo
Kids returning home in the school bus are abducted by aliens and put in a zoo.
Fortune Photobooth
An handful of coins used in a Photoboth take the person back to the time on the coins. I've had them back to 1066, 1914 and 1957 so far.
Get Jack Back
Henrietta Wilson, a nurse on the Western Front, successfully poses as a Machine Gun officer to go in and get her brother Jack Back from a pillbox on the edge of Houthulst Forest, Passchendale.
Airborn
Gustav Hemel a pre-World War 1 aeronaut faces internment, or worse, being shot as a spy soon after the outbreak of war. He fakes his own death and returns a training officer and fighter pilot George Hepple.
The Watersprites
A couple of water-living humanoid creatures are forced out of their sanctuary in a small lake and hole up in a condemned public swimming pool. Befriended they journey from city to the mountains to be reunited with their own kind in deep lake in the Alps.
The Girl in the Garden
Three 10 year old prep school boys find a young girl in their den in the woods. Sworn to keep her hidden from adults and other boys they successfully fend of all 'attacks' and dangers. When she dies they bury her in a their garden plot which wins that summer's 'Gardening Cup.' 1972.
Driving Blind
On a whim a guy takes a bet from an American tycoon to drive a car on public road for 100 miles wearing a blindfold. The prize isn't the $1,000,000 but the technology that is developed, tested and stolen.
Skieasy
The best 1000 ski runs on the planet lovingly analysed!
Perhaps I can do this one, when I've sold a few million of the above
Perhaps it is time for me to decide how I am going to survive 2011
What chance does a book have in 2011? Book 2.0?
The opportunist are even better for the someone with something to say or the skill to tell a good story. Without the support of a publisher your book may take time to find a market, but it will: narrowcasting and micropublishing makes this possible.
Once a dirty word, 'self-publishing' makes sense; have a website, say something often, build a readership then have a book, CD or T-shirt to sell. i.e. be commercial, sales are better than hits.
Books will be bought in great numbers, but in a plethora of genres and volumes, because on the one hand this micromarket can be winkled out, while on the other, if there is a marketing campaign behind the book which uses the Web successfully, it might attract millions.
I dare say it helps to be writing in this global language which I call 'English English,' that might in time transmogrify into 'global English' or even 'globalish'.
Steven Pressfield is a prime example of an author who has embraced the web.
I'd also recommend his book 'The War of Art', though despite my taking several years out to write I find resistance always gets in the way; blogging is my form.
These words will add to the 1,8 million I've pumped into Cyberspace since 1999.
Perhaps it is about time I put some of the following online:
Escape from Alien Zoo
Kids returning home in the school bus are abducted by aliens and put in a zoo.
Fortune Photobooth
An handful of coins used in a Photoboth take the person back to the time on the coins. I've had them back to 1066, 1914 and 1957 so far.
Get Jack Back
Henrietta Wilson, a nurse on the Western Front, successfully poses as a Machine Gun officer to go in and get her brother Jack Back from a pillbox on the edge of Houthulst Forest, Passchendale.
Airborn
Gustav Hemel a pre-World War 1 aeronaut faces internment, or worse, being shot as a spy soon after the outbreak of war. He fakes his own death and returns a training officer and fighter pilot George Hepple.
The Watersprites
A couple of water-living humanoid creatures are forced out of their sanctuary in a small lake and hole up in a condemned public swimming pool. Befriended they journey from city to the mountains to be reunited with their own kind in deep lake in the Alps.
The Girl in the Garden
Three 10 year old prep school boys find a young girl in their den in the woods. Sworn to keep her hidden from adults and other boys they successfully fend of all 'attacks' and dangers. When she dies they bury her in a their garden plot which wins that summer's 'Gardening Cup.' 1972.
Driving Blind
On a whim a guy takes a bet from an American tycoon to drive a car on public road for 100 miles wearing a blindfold. The prize isn't the $1,000,000 but the technology that is developed, tested and stolen.
Skieasy
The best 1000 ski runs on the planet lovingly analysed!
Perhaps I can do this one, when I've sold a few million of the above
Perhaps it is time for me to decide how I am going to survive 2011