Are you close to publishing your book? Or has it been published? So no more research, huh? The research phase of publishing is over, right? Don’t be too sure.
If you are ready to choose a publishing option, you’ll need to conduct research to figure out which company to go with, whether to publish a digital or print book, which printer to hire, who to design the cover and a whole bunch of other details.
And once the book is published, if you want to sell more than a handful of copies, you’ll need to shift into high promotion gear. This will require additional research to figure out how best to promote your particular book. Should you hire a publicist? Which one? Who (or which software) can help you create a nice website? What direction should you take your blog? What is the best way to reach your particular audience? Are there any book festivals held in your area? Where can you go to participate in a book festival? What sort of promotional pieces would work best for your project? Where can you set up signings locally? What are good speaking venues? Should you have a merchant account—what’s the best merchant account company? Should you open a business bank account? Where? What about PayPal? How do you get established with Amazon.com? Are there other online bookstores you should contact? Are there conferences related to the theme of your book? Would it benefit you to attend?
As you can see, you will have (or should have) a gazillion questions once your book is a book and getting the answers to those questions requires research.
If you are a timid or clueless researcher, but you are writing or have written a book for publication, perhaps now is the time to hone your research skills—to reach out into the wild blue yonder and start exploring the various avenues that could lead to your publishing success.
Stay cocooned in your writing space with blinds closed and blinders on and your book will never see the light of day.
I’m doing a lot of reaching out lately. As many of you know, this year, I published my first fiction. After 40 years of writing nonfiction—mostly books and articles and blog posts to help and inform authors—I wrote my first two novels this year and published them on Kindle. This week I established a Facebook Fan Page featuring the novels—check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/kleptocatmysteries
My latest novel, Cat-Eye Witness received two more reviews yesterday. Speaking of reviews, this is another reason why we need good research skills, to locate appropriate reviewers for our books.
I’m Patricia Fry. You can contact me here at this blog—or email me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com