I was chatting with one of my friends recently when he said that he has written 2 manuscripts and a number of eBooks using the now very popular AI. Writing is all about heart. It takes a lot to get your thoughts and ideas down on paper, then you have to kink it all together so it all makes sense. Priming and getting artificial intelligence to write and edit you master piece reduces your creative juices and takes all of the challenge and intellectual acumen from it. There are so many people just busting to get their book, read by an agent or if you are really lucky, by a publisher. I will quickly be thrown to the bottom of the pile if there is a hint AI working its so called magic. Nothing beats your own creativity. So many people have at least thought about writing a book. I believe there is at least one book in all of us.
So you have written your masterpiece, your pride and joy. The real work starts now. First question; self publish or publisher. For my first 3 books, it was a no brainer. These were part of my life’s work, a reference, an archive about me that will tell my story for many years to come. I had to get it out there and I did not want any one tampering with it. They were far too important. So luckily for me. My friend Valerie Khoo is the owner of the Writers Centre and she gave me some help, some contacts that were instrumental in getting started. I had my own editor and Linda Diggle was awesome as my book project manager. She organised the front and rear cover, got me connected to all the online book shops. The one thing that was lacking was the marketing. This is the biggest difference between self publishing and publishing.
You need to have a strong social media presence. This helps for self published and for published. I lost the idea of getting rich by selling books a couple of years ago.
I had a large martial arts school, and sold to the students. That dried up when I sold the business. I have finished my 4th book. It is a fiction novel. I have embarked down the publishing road. But I feel like a white belt as there are many pitfalls on the publishing road. The first thing that you need is a think skin. You have spent months maybe years striving to get a manuscript ready, only to get zero interest by an agent. You can approach a publisher directly, but the general consensus is, if you can get a good agent, you will have a better chance of getting a publisher.
Apparently the agents are snowed under with months and month of manuscripts to read, You may start to feel a little despondent, as it seems your precious manuscript that you laboured on for many hours, days, months, years is not worth a pinch of salt. Lost in manuscript wilderness. But just like martial arts, you have to pick yourself up and keep moving ahead. It is quite a reality check when you realise that publishers are not going to be racing to sign you up. They do their best and their job is very difficult.
So all this has probably confused you even more.
https://www.writerscentre.com.au/blog/ep-573/ Sam Bernard. Literary Agent.
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