This is the cover of a book I’m publishing. Consider this the pre-publication publicity hype.
These days, with print-on-demand, self-publishing can be remarkably easy, and cheap.
It’s also possible, of course, to pay editors and graphic artists, etc.
But it’s nearly free if you do your own editing, typesetting, and design — and upload the files yourself.
Of course, then you get book covers that look like…this.
In a few days, this book will be available on Createspace.com, Amazon.com, the local bookstore (Literary Bookpost), the store at The Looking Glass Artist Collective, and from the trunk of my car.
The media blitz will be minimal — but so was the risk.
It didn’t cost me anything but missed sleep.
I seriously doubt any traditional publisher would have been interested in the least. The cost is high and the market is small.
If nobody buys it — so what? It’s stored on a computer and printed only when somebody wants a copy (except for the ones I buy, that will be in the trunk of my car).
If people do buy it, good for me. I make a few dollars profit per book (instead of the tiny royalty a hypothetical traditional publisher would hypothetically pay, if they would hypothetically publish it ).
If anybody wants to read the plays for free — they’re all here, on the website. Lots of people do every day. There’s nothing new in the book other than the more portable form and a little more editorial scrutiny.
This is just to state the obvious: publishing is really changing.