So here you are….you’ve spent the last x (9) number of months working on your masterpiece of a story. It has been tough…that is without a doubt. Among those demons that try to draw, drag, or seduce you from the marvelous ending of your book are possibly the following: divorce, bankruptcy, loss of job, kids’ needs, spousal needs, finding a new job, moving across the country, etc, etc, etc…you get the point. Oh! Let’s not forget the lure of your favorite authors’ releasing books of their own (which draw you to them like ants to honey). So you have to finish those books to satiate your craving, AND at the same time, find the time to keep your story alive and breathing.
But now you’ve done it! The end is in sight! You have x (5) number of chapters to go, and you can FEEL the climax of the story about to seize you by your frontal cortex and cause you to vomit what you have probably been ruminating on for a long, long time. So you sit down…and you look at your notes…you find your sweet spot…you know, the one little room in your head where your writer hides themselves like Golum until you drag it screaming into the light, where it screams, “It burns us! It burns us!” Then, like Frodo, you take your unbreakable elven rope, secure it around your writer’s misshapen form with one command, “Take me to The End.”
So you are off toward The End. The question that I must pose is this…what happens after The End? Is this manuscript going to become a magnificent paperweight? It will if you choose to sit back on your laurels and tell yourself, “Gee…I did a really good job, didn’t I?” Do you really want that?
No. I didn’t think so.
I didn’t want it either.
So I did the research and discovered that I could self-publish. After all, I completely HEAR what those picky book agents are saying…”If you don’t fit my criteria of x by y within a z paradigm, sorry…I don’t think you’re good enough to publish.”
Well…you know what Mr. Agent man? I don’t think YOU are good enough to handle the product of my nine-to-ten months labor of love!
Let’s face it…this is YOUR book! With the explosion of e-books and self-publishing market, there is a definite chance that, with the right amount of research and properly applied marketing schemes, YOUR book WILL reach your intended target…be it Goth-attired teenagers, divorced single mothers who work two jobs, Holy-Roller-Praise-God-Grandparents-whose-offspring-caused-the-financial-collapse-of-America, or Asian-exchange-students who assimilate a little too-well into American culture (and in the process, shed their own traditional ones). Yes…dear writer…you can reach each and every one of these target markets, with the right amount of research, focus, intensity, and persistence.
What does it take?
Two words…
MORE WORK!
