Hello, I'm seeking other book authors to pool resources to market our books. Marketing is the key to commercial success. Anyone interested?

I managed to track down your books via Google and they look interesting. Good luck. I am curious if you are doing self publishing? I have written a couple of novels myself, but am not to the stage where marketing will help, since they have not been publihsed yet. But I will be sending one off to DAW before long. Looking forward to getting my first rejection letter. ;-) jon p.s. All the book cover images in the gallery seem to be broken links. Would be nice to be able to see them. jon

Attached Link: My Web Page

Which site di you visit? I'm at the URL attached...

Attached Link: The Eternal Night Life

I'm actually writing a book myself and had on quick question that may have been answered already here. I only really want a few copies like 12-24 for family and friends to get some good feedback. There's no one better critic than cousin felix or brother eric who done care if they hurt your feelings if you know what I mean.... Is there a publishing house that will do such small quantities? CAT

Yeah, that's the page I eventually found. The broken pics I was talking about are in the gallery here. I read chapter one last night and it seems like a good read. But when I go to Amazon.com and search, I cannot find it. Where is your book available? Sounds like you have quite an ambitious series planned. Good luck. jon

cat3 - Do you want a small quantity so that some of your friends and family can critique your work, or as a finished product? If the former, then you just need to make copies of the manuscript and hand them out. If the latter, then I think you will be hard pressed to find an affordable solution. Sounds like a self-publishing type of job and those can be pretty expensive. Even just doing a couple of copies of the manuscript can be pricey. I made two copies of my manuscript at Kinkos and it ran about $25 each (for about 350 pages). I did a quick Google search on "small press runs" and found this book that may be useful to you: Publishing for Small Press RunsHow to Print and Market from 20 to 200 Copies of Your Book. Second Edition, 2002, ISBN 0-9658380-8-0, 372 pages, 6" x 9", perfect bound soft cover $19.95 jon

Hmm, odd. I didn't remove my pics from the gallery. My books are not yet availble through Amazon. The first one comes out in March. If you want to place an advance order, you can click the banner on my site. Advance copies ship late January. ;-)

Ever since they started doing things with the servers, graphics have appeared and disappeared. Sometimes they have to be reloaded. Mine came back on their own but that isn't the experience everyone else has. Thanks for the information, Jon. It can be expensive to self-publish....and disappointing because it can be very hard to market and sell a self-published book. There is a lot of promotion that a large publishing house can do that's difficult for a single author to do. I'm not saying it can't be done...it just takes a lot of effort and, as always, persistence.

The thing is, unless you're really lucky, a major publisher won't put a dime into marketing you. You're on your own any way you cut it, unless they decide to invest seriously in you. And the secret to any book's success or failure is marketing- or lack thereof.

I know you're right, but it's also hard for a self-publisher to do marketing and distribution on their own....especially if that's not an area they have interest in. And that is the point of your initial posting, was it not, that there might be writers willing to pool resources who could do more collectively than an individual writer might be able to accomplish? As a person singularly without resources, I can only wish you the best and see what develops.

I'm not self-published, nor do I recommend that. My current publisher is a combination POD/traditional press that couldn't help authors market even if it wanted to (like most small presses). Pooling resources allows authors to go a lot further that they could alone. For example, pick up the current issue of REALMS magazine and you'll see a full-page ad that includes my book. Normal price would have been $900 or so for my own ad. By pooling resources with 5 other authors, the cost was $150 per head. Economy of scale. And if one has no money to put into marketing? There are lots of free ways to get publicity. For example, dialyn, I could include your book in an ad in exchange for you getting bookstores iny your area to carry my book. Or something. We're only limited by our imaginations.

Sounds like a great idea. As soon as I become an actual book author (i.e. published) count me in. jon

Didn't Amazon (at one time) have a special section devoted to small authors? Or was that just digital?

Attached Link: The Eternal Night Life

Thank Jon! I'll check into it. I just seems to me that waiting 3-4 months (from what I've seen in many publishing sites) to get back to you and say "we're not interested" is a tad bit frustrating, but that's the path that every author has to take... CAT

Anthony - I am curious if your publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts? Very few do, anymore, so I'd like to know of any that I am currently unaware of. jon

Yes they do.

Thanks. Very handy to know. :-) jon

er, just be sure to submit according to guidelines. Don't just send an ms out of the blue.

er, just be sure to submit according to guidelines. Don't just send an ms out of the blue.