I was waiting around for agents and the publishers who accept unsolicited manuscripts. I was waiting around for a positive response to my submission of 'Serendipity' my novel that I'm so fond of (see earlier posts). A steady stream of rejection emails trickled through. I had been bolstered by the response of two publishers, who requested the whole novel. One publisher treated me abominably. They asked for the entire manuscript by email and by post. It was a rather expensive process but I was so chuffed I didn't care. Then I heard nothing. I sent a polite email after several months and no reply. Then several more and no reply. The other publisher kept giving dates when he would review it and when no response came, I would send an email and be given another date. I gave up in the end.
So it's a tough business. I had tried self publishing previously with two print on demand companies. I was royally ripped off. There have been numerous complaints about them and one was being pursued by Interpol!
Then I discovered Amazon Kindle. No, I am not an agent for them, even though I have affiliate links with Amazon.com on my website. But this has been a very positive self publishing experience. I recommend that you struggling writers out there give them a shot. It's an easy process to upload your work, they can provide a cover, it's free, and you have potential exposure to millions of customers. Admittedly, I have had no action with my children's book, 'The Exmoor Yarnies' but I've learnt a trick or two about promotion since publishing 'Serendipity' on Amazon Kindle. They have two great promotional tools. 'The Kindle Countdown', reduce price for set period and it gradually rises to original price. Even better, you can offer your book free for five days. I have offered it free for five days and over 100 people have already uploaded it! To me, that is a miracle. More than I want to be successful I want people to read my work. It means everything to me. I want to share my stories with others as other authors have shared with me. One lady on a site I'm on, said my sample chapters were 'quite amusing'. Great! It's supposed to be!
So I'm a happy bunny right now. Going on Amazon Kindle, blogging, tweeting, joining online writer groups, has made me very happy. Finally, people are reading my work and I'm discovering great writers that I'd never heard of.
I won't plug 'Serendipity today. It's on Amazon Kindle and is free to download until 20th June. Damn! I just can't help myself!
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