“The Troll Hunter” is now on sale at Amazon for the low price of $2.99 (overseas is 4.99). So now, from here on in, this experiment in self publishing is happening. I’m going to try and do self-promotion on the net as much as possible, and keep an eye on the sales (if any) for the next couple of months before deciding if I can make a career out of it, or stick to my day job.
Why self publish? Because I got fed up with publishers and agents reading only the first few pages of my book or only the synopsis and saying no thank you. I believe my work is as publishable as a lot of the stuff I’ve read recently (and in some cases, stuff that simply made me ask out loud—“how did THIS ever get published?). It became too much of a lottery for me.
Why ebooks? I’ve also been reading Joe Konrath’s blog http://jakonrath.blogspot.com and if you believe him (and why would he lie?) he’s doing just fine (and others like him). Mind you, he has something like 25 books out there. Right now, I only have one (but two others are on the way). In the expanding ebook market, this will hopefully change. I also like the idea of owning all the rights, not waiting a year (or two) to publish something due to a full schedule, and not having to make huge edits because one person said so.
Why $2.99? Well, it’s the price of being an unknown. I hate to charge someone $9.99 for something by a new writer, but $2.99 is a bargain. When I was a kid I had a rule when buying paperbacks, a cent for every page is a good buy. Not realistic now, but I would like to offer good reads for around 5 bucks. I don’t think I’ll go higher than that. If I ever do cross the line, remind me, okay?
In a few days, my second ebook, “No Experience Necessary,” (a self help/how to book on working in the EFL industry overseas which draws upon my experience of what to do and what not to do in a conversation classroom) will be available from Amazon.
Coming soon… I’ll try to let you know what I’m doing to promote and advertise the books. This should be especially interesting for those readers who are considering the self publishing route.