I suppose I should start by explaining myself. Because really, what right does one have to essentially self-publish a book? Well, here was my logic:
1. It’s a short story collection, not a “novel.”
2. All of the stories have already been published. So they’ve been “vetted” already. This should, ideally, distinguish this book from every other Lulu-printed piece of shit that ends up for sale on Amazon.
3. Since the collection is a Kindle download, I can avoid the costs of printing and paper and all that jazz and simply charge what I consider a fair price for a 150-page short story collection: roughly four bucks. Yes, $4.
So after about a dozen or so hours of revising, along with the untold number of hours proofing by the volunteer authors who make up Brew City Press, I began formatting for the Kindle, running into a variety of wonderfully terrifying problems until, finally, the book was finished and ready to go.
It was time to get the word out.
Step One: Hear Ye, Hear Ye
My first step this week was to get a press release put out there. For this, I paid an untold sum to an agency, which sent the press release nationwide. The release offered review copies to all interested.
I then waited. I admit I expected something along a dozen or so responses, which would then balloon into a few hundred as the reviews spread like wildfire. A cover shot on TIME Magazine wasn’t out of the question–it never is, in one’s fantasies–which would then culminate with an offer from a major publisher.
“Denied!” I would say, hanging up on the hapless editor. For you see, I’d already conquered the Amazon Kindle market … publishers were a dying breed and nothing more! This was the future, right here! Short story collections on Kindle could be fairly priced and people–finally!–would read again!
Actual number of responses: 0.
Apparently, this is going to be much more difficult than originally expected.
