PUBLISHING CONTRACT

WOW...Remember last post I said I submitted to two publishers? On December 23rd, I got an early Christmas gift. I received a contract for my novel, Losing Cinderella from the second publisher.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of holidays and negotiations, and today I signed my first publishing contract. Did I just write that? Needless to say, I'm on cloud nine. I never expected it to happen this fast. This wasn't my first attempt to pitch my manuscript. I sent it out a couple of years back to about six publishers who rejected it. After tearing it apart and numerous rewrites, I tried again.  The message here?Believing in yourself and hard work does pay off.

This post was to be about self-publishing vs traditional publishing. Obviously, I am going the traditional route now. As a first-time author, I have a lot to learn about the publishing field and am more than happy to have the experts helping me publish and market my book.

But I would not be adverse to self-publishing either. If you are willing to do the work, and can afford to pay the printing and marketing costs, the bonus is 100% of the net profits are yours and yours alone. There are many sites on line willing to publish e-books for free and use POD (print-on-demand) for paperbacks. It's a matter of doing the research and there are so many sites on line to educate yourself on self-publishing.

I think self-publishing and free e-book sites are giving traditonal publishers a run for their money. But I don't believe they will be replaced any time soon. Personally, I still enjoy curling up in a chair in my jammies with a blanket and a good book. To my way of thinking, publishing of the future involves traditional publishers who embrace ebook technology, and POD technology.

Whichever way you decide to go, the resources for traditional publishing and self-publishing are all there at your fingertips on line. The only warning I would give, is check out any publishing sites before you sign up to do business with them. Again, you can find reports on this on line. There are site like: Preditors & Editors: http://pred-ed.com/ and Writers Beware:  http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/ that list publishing scams and rate publishers, editors, publishing services, and agents. Do use them, they are invaluable.

Now that I have chosen the traditional route and have a contract under my belt, my work isn't over, just taken a different direction...marketing. Traditional publishers expect authors to participate in their marketing campaigns and hold up their end. So between rewrite deadlines and then marketing strategy, I expect this will be a busy year.

Keep on keeping on writing.