Cape Cod Writers Conference Day 1

Monday morning, Aug. 5, was the first day of a five-day course on self publishing taught by Fern Reiss. She was excellent, and she confirmed the same ideas I learned from previous conferences.

Fern Reiss

She said 10 years ago, finding an agent to gt you in the door of a major publisher was what it was all about.  today's publishing industry is radically different. the major players have merged, shrunk and downsized dramatically.

She said self-publishing gives the author control, but may mean the author has to shell out between $5,000 and $10,000 to finance the publication. On the other hand the per-book profit can be much higher in self-publishing.

She said we need to remember that the shelf-life of most bookstore books is three to four months.

She said we need to keep abreast of what is happening in the business, keep track of the competition, and remember the cover needs to work on a tiny image on a computer screen.

One interesting thing is she recommended printing a set of pre--publication galleys to send to the seven trade journals, hoping for a review. They wasn't to get those three to four months prior to publication. A good review there makes a big difference.

She also recommended getting full Library of Congress Catalog data with a CIP number, not just a PCIP number

My favorite line form the morning was:

"Benjamin Franklin was self-published."