I'd Rather Be Writing...

by Janis Patterson

I’ve been happily self-publishing for a while, and love the sense of control it gives me over my books. There are few greater feelings than seeing a book which you have written, gone through multiple editing rounds with, had final say over the cover and worked with your formatter coalesce into a real book that goes out for sale and is the equal of any book published by anyone anywhere.

There are few worse feelings than to realize now you have to publicize the book. Of course, this is not a problem specific to self-published authors. Over the past few decades every publisher has pushed more and more of the publicity chores off onto the authors until, unless one is a mega-best-seller, they do little more than list the books in some catalogues. The more unknown you are, the more likely it is you will disappear, which means as an author you are pretty much responsible for your own publicity.

I hate doing publicity. I would rather write two or three books than do the publicity on one. Unfortunately, I cannot afford a publicist, though I dream of having one. It’s the same with book signings – I love doing them; it’s almost like having a literary salon. But… there is the hassle of setting them up, and there are so few places now who will host them unless you pay them money for the privilege of doing so. Unless, of course, you are one of those mega-best-sellers. Them that has, gets!

So – I know what I must do.

A KILLING AT EL KAB is now on pre-order at Amazon for the bargain price of $2.99. It will go up to the regular price of $4.99 on 20^th March, the official release day. There will be a paperback, but that will be in a little while.

Bet you saw that coming, didn’t you?