It will sell itself.
Author Seumas Gallacher refers to himself on in his blog as 'ol' Jurassic'. I have met Seumas on a couple of occasions now, I can tell you there is nothing Jurassic about that man at all. He knew what he wanted, and he set out to achieve it. Having sold over 80000 copies of his 'Jack Calder' novels on Kindle he has landed himself a publishing deal, for his entire back catalogue. I think he has shown what can be achieved and I am sure there is more to come.
Now this is the man who when told he should publish his first work on Kindle replied 'that's a good idea…what's Kindle?' Not only has he managed to bring himself into the twenty first century publishing arena but he has successfully established a platform via social networking from which to advertise his work. Bear in mind this has been achieved whilst still writing.
Many people say if the story is good enough, it will sell itself. Well I'm afraid I have news for you, no it won't. The latest statistic I can find is that on Amazon alone, 12 titles an hour are being released, 12 an HOUR! So at that rate over 105000 new titles are released in a year. Add to that the estimated 3.4 million titles already there. Now do you think your book will sell itself?
Something has to make your book stand out. It needs to be on top of the pile waving a little flag…no a massive flag, 'Buy me because I'm worth it!' Not only does your story have to be good, but you as a writer must make the effort to sell your work.
So is it worth being a writer? Only you can answer that. For myself I don't find the statistics all that scary. I know I too can do this and I too will make the effort.
Seumas is a shining example of making an effort to make a success. One we would do well to follow.
