Alternating Reality Books

This week we are looking at alternatives for small writers who want to be published, but are facing the idea that no one is going to pick up anyone new anytime soon.

One other way of getting a book published is to look at the idea of Podcasting your book. In the Times, talks to J.C. Hutchins, the author of 7th Son, and how he went about scoring a publication deal when everyone kept on telling him no. Of course, you have to be a good writer, or at least have run through an editor if you really want the thing to go. There is always self-publication, but here is a novel use of Podcasting to sell your book as a serial.

In an interview with TIME, Hutchins recalls the early dejection and then the determination to release his work in any way possible. “It may not be perfect,” Hutchins, 33, says, “but, golly, is it good. I believe in this thing. And I’m not interested in putting this in a drawer.” On putting his work out for free, he explains, “If I can’t sell it, I might as well share it.” Source: Time

By banding together a group of authors together, they started podcasting their books, aggressively word of mouth marketed it and each author in the group cross posted and let people know that their books were available. The good part to this is that it hit right were consumers would be wanting to use their books, burn to CD and listen in the car, stream on your cell phone, copy it to your Iphone, treat it like any other podcast and group everyone together so that people could access it via ITunes.

The process ended up being so successful that J.C. Hutchins got a book deal. It is these kinds of novel ways of approaching marketing and showing book publishers that there is a market for this book to help ease their fears. Book Publishers are looking at raw numbers, if you can show that there is an audience, you are helping them while helping yourself along the way. Something to think about and something that you might want to do if you are thinking of self publishing or publishing your own book. It is all about creating buzz; podcasting is one way of doing it.

Tags: self-publishing, science fiction, podcast, itunes, subscription, interesting

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