The Publishing Process: An Analogy

 

by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

Picture this:

Authors and readers are on opposite banks of a river.

The authors hold their manuscripts and need to get them across the water to the readers.

Until recently the only way for the authors to deliver their manuscript to their readers was by crossing the bridge the Agents/Publishing houses provided.

As trolls did in Fairy Tales, agents and publishers controlled access to the bridge.

In Fairy Tales, travelers had to had the right answer or the right token to be granted permission to cross to the other side.

In the publishing business, queries and connections were the tokens that would grant or deny access to the bridge.

In the old times, the bridge was narrow and trolls denied most travelers the right of way.

Frustrated, many attempted to cross on their own. But the river was wide and deep, and the current swift and most didn’t know how to swim, and drowned.

But then something happened, somebody designed a boat and travelers starting using this new device to get to the other side. And some failed, but others made it and sold their wares successfully to the customers there.

With time boats became more sophisticated and easy to use until finally an engine was added to them creating a motorboat everybody could use. Now more and more travelers, even those who had access to the bridge, avoided it altogether and used a motorboat to get to the farther bank.

And the trolls saw this and realized that, instead of wasting their time questioning all the travelers arriving at the bridge, they could do a better business by helping those that had already proved their worth by crossing the river on their own.

As you have probably realized by now, the boats in the publishing world are the Print on Demand services and the power boat the e-book.

E-books have made it so easy to get your manuscript to readers, publishing houses are no longer necessary.

Or are they?

Following the analogy, the readers’ bank is crowded now.

So the problem for the author is not longer to woe the editor/agent but to woe the reader.

But that is another story.

The Book Cover as Visual Blurb

 

by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

 

 

 

Shelli who runs a wonderful blog, Market my Words, has been blogging for the last few months about her road to self-publish her YA novel Untraceable.

Today she revealed her book cover in her blog post (http://faeriality.blogspot.com/2011/11/untraceable-cover-reveal-finally.html), and as I read her explanations of how she came to choose this particular shot, I realized what she was trying to do with her cover was to give us a visual blurb of her story.

Yes, I know, it sounds obvious. But it wasn’t for me before, because I am not a visual person, and I find very difficult to summarize my story in a picture.

I didn’t have to do this with my first published book Two Moon Princess. Tanglewood Press did it for me. In fact I had no saying in the matter. This was good (I didn’t have to worry about it) and bad, because the cover didn’t fit my expectations. How could it really, when I didn’t know what I wanted in the first place?

But now that I am older and wiser, as I consider self-publishing my second book, The King in the Stone, I have given a lot of thought to its cover, and although I will hire an artist to do the real design, I do have a clear image in my mind of what I want.

And this is, I think, how it should be for who knows better than the author the particular mood she wants to elicit in the reader with her story?

Publishing Seminar!

Come Join us at Mercer County Community College on

Thursday, August 12th from 7-9 PM for our informative Publishing Seminar!

Three Women, Three Authors, Three Approaches to Publishing

You finally finished “The Great American Novel.” Maybe you’re putting the final touches on that children’s book you’ve been penning. Perhaps you want to publish your memoirs for posterity.

How do you go from typing on your computer to holding the finished book in your hands? Join authors Mary Fran Bontempo, Carmen Ferreiro Esteban and Chrysa Smith in this two-hour seminar as they share their interesting, maddening, but ultimately fulfilling experiences about writing and publishing their books using traditional, print-on-demand, and self-publishing methods.

Tuition and fees: $65

We’d love to share our hard-won knowledge with you!  This seminar will give you essential information to help you to get your work published.

For registration and more information, click on the link below.

http://www.mccc.edu/pdf/tab_noncredit_fall10_w.pdf

Three Women. Three Authors. Three Different Approaches to Publishing

I met Chrysa Smith at a book signing. We shared space and a blanket as the event was outside and the Pennsylvania weather unseasonably cold. In between talking with readers, we exchanged tips about writing and marketing and also our cards.

Mary Fran Bontempo I met later, a hot summer day at a Craft Fair. Together with Chrysa, we shared a tent and a good laugh or two, and by the end of the day, we were friends.

What we three had in common was a love of writing, and the determination to have our books known.

We had come to have our books in print by three different venues. I published my young adult novel Two Moon Princess through a traditional publisher. Chrysa self published hers, The Adventures of the Poodle Posse, for early readers. And Mary Fran used print on demand for Everyday Adventures a recompilation of her newspapers columns where she humorously ruminates about life.

As we talked with people that stopped by our tent, we came to realize that many would like to know of our experiences in the publishing world and thus the idea for our seminar was born.

Three Women. Three Authors. Three Different Approaches to Publishing is for all of you that have a manuscript finished but don’t know what to do next. It is a step by step guide to get your story into print by whichever venue you choose.

So if you are ready to start on the publishing trail but need a little push, this seminar is for you. Just check our sidebar to find out the one that better fits your schedule, or drop us an e-mail. We’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban