Notice something different in the title of this blog than the title of my July entry?  In July, my blog was “Marketing My Self Published Book: A first-time author’s journey.”  A fine title but does being self published really matter anymore?

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2

If the term self published bothers you, drop it.  You are an indie author.  Your imprint is Create Space or Ingram Publishing Services or whatever publisher puts ink on paper for you.

Part Two:  Book Festivals

All literary festivals have applications to fill out and deadlines to meet.   Be sure to read the rules and guidelines before submitting your book.  If your book doesn’t comply with their requirements but you have your heart set on hobnobbing with the other authors, it’s worth contacting the director.

I had my heart set on being part of the Virginia Festival of the Book.

Since KINGSLEY wasn’t coming out until November 8^th and the Virginia Festival of the Book deadline for submission was October 1st, I asked permission to submit the final draft of my novel instead of the finished product.  I was very fortunate that they agreed.

The sad fact is that most Literary Festivals aren’t welcoming to indie authors.  When they are, they seem to give priority to indie authors living in their state.  This is where doing some legwork before you publish pays off.  I was an active volunteer for many years with the Virginia Festival of the Book, and I’d moderated and participated in panels.  I can’t say for certain that this is why I was accepted but it might have helped.

The Virginia Festival of the Book is a multi-day literary festival in Charlottesville, Virginia. The festival invites authors and publishing experts from all over the country.  Most of the events are free so they draw a good crowd.  The festival is held in March, which means weather can be a factor in its success.  A lovely spring day attracts more attendees.  Rain or snow is a real wet blanket.   My panel was scheduled for a Friday at a popular library.  I was looking forward to it.

Regardless of whether an author is invited to participate in a panel, they can still rent a table at the Omni Hotel on the last Saturday of the festival to sell their books.  I rented half of a table, which cost $110.  

Bottom line: Don’t wait until the last minute to submit your book or to rent a table if your goal is to be part of a book festival.

Once I had advance reader copies of KINGSLEY, I began submitting to other Literary Festivals.  At that time I didn’t realize how slim my chances were of getting in.  Most of the festivals I applied to required several copies of my book, which meant more trips to the post office.  Money going out and none coming in.

I was rewarded for my hard work with acceptance to the Dahlonega Literary Festival in Georgia.  This festival was scheduled for the weekend before the Virginia Festival so March was filling up with opportunities to talk about my book.  I was to be part of a panel that wrote science fiction and fantasy.  I had high hopes so I rented a space for book signings and sales.   It only cost around $35.  Not bad, but attending the festival in Georgia meant renting a hotel and a couple tanks of gas to drive there and back.

Was it worth it?  Not in sales.  But both festivals allowed me to spread the word about KINGSLEY, sharpen my presentation, and focus my pitch.

And as the saying goes,

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

“Practice, practice, practice”?

Next up: Practice makes perfect (or at least better).  Watch for it in  2017

Free Speech and Writing

So the National Endowment for the Humanities threw its 50th birthday celebration, Human / Ties, in Charlottesville, VA, mid-September 2016. Almost all the events, over a span of several days, were offered free to the public, and I went to a few of them. It was a treat. I ended up feeling chuffed – and sobered – about being a writer myself.

On the Friday evening, 16 September, at the Paramount Theater – our lovingly refurbished former Vaudeville theater now hosting drama, music, speaking, meetings, large-screen movies, etc. – Sir Salman Rushdie came for a chat. The successful author and teacher, who catapulted to international fame when an Iranian Ayatollah put a bounty on Rushdie’s head in 1989, sat on an elegant chair near the center of the vast Paramount stage. To his right, in a identical chair, his interlocutor, Suketu Mehta, a fellow professor at New York University’s School of Journalism, spoke for several minutes, after which, inserting brief questions from time to time, he let his friend and colleague do most of the speaking, .

I didn’t know what to expect. I signed up weeks before the event for my free ticket, as soon as I heard about it, on the theory that this was an important occasion and I might be surprised by what I observed and learned. I’m so glad I did that. Turned out to be a worthwhile theory.

Following are some of the nuggets I came away with, from Rushdie’s conversation with Mehta.

FYI: To the best of my knowledge, the quoted material here is accurate. I had a little notebook with me in which I scribbled 😉 Any errors in transcribing are mine.

On Dissidence and Writing

The writer is the voice that nobody owns.

The authoritarians … want to control the narrative.

If you say, ‘no it doesn’t,’ that’s why they want to lock writers up.

These remarks and the narrative around them led me to feel pleased and proud to be one more member of the international clan of writers, dating back from the storytellers in the cave, to the present-day, where we express ourselves through so many means in so many media. It’s a privilege and perhaps a duty, Rushdie implied, to write the truth as we perceive it – and as we choose to communicate it.

On Freedom of Speech

Having lived in the New York area for twenty years, he said, he applied for and received US citizenship. Rushdie emphasized that “the most important thing” in his decision to do so is the existence of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

After overcoming some discomfort about people in the US being able to say more terrible things about others than they are permitted to, for instance, in England or Germany, he said he gradually came to value more the First Amendment’s wisdom. It favors openness over control. After all, some people will be in power, and they are the ones who’ll say what’s permitted and what isn’t. What if you are on the wrong end of the people in power?

All it says, as adopted in 1791, is this:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Here’s some of what Rushdie had to say about the importance of that brief paragraph.

Bad ideas don’t disappear if you forbid them.

I want to know where the assholes are. … [T]hen we’ll know where they live.

Lest we try to believe that censorship can be used for good, in the interests of protecting those segments of a society that are smaller, less recognized, or less vocal, he gave us this heartfelt advice.

Don’t use censorship to defend minorities – it will backfire.

Rushdie was clever, funny, and sincere. His friend, Professor Mehta, conducted the conversation elegantly, with minimal fuss.

I am grateful for the chance to sit there, take notes, and take it all in. All writers can be brave. Some like Rushdie are called on to be publicly, conspicuously, so. That night, he did not let us down. Seated in his chair, under the spotlight, he stood up for all writers.

— A M Carley writes fiction and nonfiction, and is a founding member of BACCA. Anne Carley Creative provides coaching. Her first nonfiction book, Becoming Unstuck: The FLOAT Approach for Writers, is forthcoming in 2016. #becomingunstuck 

Part One

After spending years writing KINGSLEY, I felt like everyone knew everything about my novel.  Family and friends had heard about it, read excerpts, and even backed my Kickstarter campaign to push KINGSLEY through the final steps of publication.

A month before KINGSLEY launched, I contacted a local book store to host the launch party.  The date was set, invitations sent, menu planned.  About 50 people attended, filling the small bookstore.

Certainly by now, everyone in the world had heard about KINGSLEY, right?

All I had to do was watch the sales numbers to learn the truth.

Over my next few posts, I will lead you through my meandering marketing of KINGSLEY.  My failures, my successes, and what I learned along the way.

Let’s start at the beginning.   I decided to publish KINGSLEY through Amazon (eBook) and Create Space (an Amazon company that prints paperbacks.)  I found both easy to use and cost effective.  Their websites are clear and their technical support is great.  Need help in a hurry?   Create Space gives you the option to input your phone number on their help page and receive an immediate call back.

The upside to using Amazon and Create Space is obvious.  Amazon is the largest book seller in the world!  This meant I could market my novel to the entire world.

Theoretically…

Good luck with that.  It’s hard enough getting people in your town to buy your book, let alone readers in France or Japan to purchase an unknown book by an obscure author written in English.  But at least by using Amazon, readers in other countries have the opportunity to buy my book.

The downside of using Create Space to print your book is that some bookstores, including Barnes and Noble, won’t work with Create Space.   Amazon is their competitor. If you find a way to make a deal with Walmart, Barnes and Noble, or Costco please let me know and I will pass it along!

Now that I’ve told you what you can’t do, stay tuned for ideas on how and where to sell your self-published book.