... read all about it !!
Please welcome Ute Carbone to A Passion for Romance...
The Crossroad
Deciding how
and where to publish a book is like standing at the crossroad of a busy
intersection. Signs point every which way, cars whiz by, and the poor author is
scratching her head, wondering which direction to take.
What you
choose, and why you choose it, has a lot to do with who you are as a person and
a writer.
Back when I
first put pen to paper, there weren’t many roads for a writer to follow. The route
to publishing was simple—get an agent, preferably one with good New York
connections, and let the agent shop the book around to the publishing houses.
By the time
I was ready to think about getting a book published, the landscape had changed
considerably. E-books had come into play. The big New York houses were merging
into giant conglomerates until, at last count, there were only five left. Some
authors were, with varying degrees of success, publishing their work themselves
on Amazon. What was a writer to do?
I thought
long and hard about the decision I made. I wanted, like most everyone, to get my
books into the hands of readers. After much pondering and a few mistakes, I
decided to give small houses a try. There were quite a few of them, popping up
to fill in the holes the big publishers
left behind. From where I stood, they were (and are) well positioned in the
market, able to be selective about the work they took on while still being
flexible enough to take on projects the bigger houses might reject because they
feared sales would not please their accounting departments.
Through more
trail and tribulation, I found two small houses that I love writing
for—Champagne Books, a Canadian publisher of genre fiction that has become a
home for my quirky comedies and, lately, the historical romance series I’m
writing, and Turquoise Morning Press, a primarily romance and women’s fiction
house that has been a great fit for my upmarket women’s fiction, who recently
published Dancing in the White Room. I like what these houses offer—great
editing, good covers, and a supportive group of fellow writers. I like that
they are small enough for me to talk to the publisher directly if I need to and
to be known and recognized by the publishing house staff.
I grew up in
a small town, so maybe the small is beautiful model works for me. There are
other choices you can make. You could, as a writer, take a shot at landing an
agent and a big house contract. If you can manage it, you’ll likely see your
book carried at all the major bookstores. You’ll get great editing and covers
and a marketing department to help with promotion. You’ll get an advance, yours
to keep no matter how small your sales. There is a downside. The first being
the large conglomerates like big names and big sales. Unless you deliver, they
aren’t going to be happy with you. If things go south, you might not be given a
second chance. And big company authors aren’t getting big advances anymore.
Their contracts aren’t as lucrative as they used to be.
Or, you
could go in the other direction and publish yourself. You have complete control
over your product and you don’t have to share any of the profits. Trouble is,
you’ll also be responsible for making sure the book is well edited, so you’ll
have to pay an editor. And you’ll have to hire a cover artist and you’ll have
to get someone to format for you—or learn to do it yourself. All that means an
outlay of cash, money that may be very
difficult to make back. You’ll be swimming in a sea of unknown writers all
trying to get noticed, and you’ll be swimming without any sort of a life jacket
at all.
Now, small
publishers have a downside as well. They don’t have big promotion budgets and
so a lot of promotion will fall on you. They don’t have the clout of big
houses, so your book probably won’t be featured at the front of big book store.
You’ll have to work hard to be seen. But, unlike self-pub, you won’t be going
it alone. For me, that translates into more time to spend writing the next
book.
So, there
you are, standing at the cross roads, trying not to get hit by an oncoming bus.
There are lots of choices. My best advice—think carefully, consider who you are
and what you need. Then make the choice
that best suits you.
* * * * *
Dancing in the White
Room
by
Ute
Carbone
New from Turquoise Morning Press
Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Over the six weeks in which he’s gone,
Mallory begins to question her relationship with Bell. Does he really love her?
Is he in it for the duration? What has loving him cost her? Mallory’s life choices are thrown into stark
relief when her daughter Emily takes a terrible fall. Together with her
life-long friend Creech Creches, she must work her way through a maze of
uncharted territory at a hospital miles from home.
Dancing in the White Room is the story
of the love we keep, the price we pay for that love, and the forgiveness it
takes to hold on to what is precious.
Buy links: Amazon B&N TMP Kobo Books
About the Author:
Books and Stories by Ute Carbone:
For more
about Ute and her books, Please Visit:
Web
page: http://www.utecarbone.com/
Giveaway
Ute is
giving away a total of 3 ebook copies, winner’s choice of any of her current
books,
including
Dancing in the White Room.
No comments:
Post a Comment