Posted on 2013-Mar-01
Being a prolific storyteller is always one of the finest ingredients for a literary journeyman/woman to push their creativity beyond limits. Unfortunately, each and every one of us is not endowed with miraculous gifts to tell stories unstoppably. Writing for the most part requires industrious patience and superhuman stamina to constantly release the great abundance of materials in the most relevant, cohesive, and holistic format for readers to believe, marvel, and buy your book.
Pizza Hut Guy’s Transformation
Today shows just one case study of a self-publisher who dares to tell all about his career while holding a day job at a pizza company. After discovering his raw talent in writing, his impressive sales records convinced him well enough to farewell the pizza position. Although I am bit skeptical to view the initial part of this article as a one-author-to-conquer-all formula, I took a deep breath and continued to read way deeper than I had originally planned due to the fact that David Gaughran brought this up. Instead of beginning with the awe-inspiring experience how successful David Dalglish was, a “stupid decision” foretells the lessons learned worth investigating.
Collaborative Effort
Admittedly, he is not alone promoting his book to the world with the help of trustworthy friends. His agent deals with queries about rights and deals when his like-minded colleague, Robert Duperre, collaborated on a novel project. While David gets stuck in creating the new world for his book, Robert fills in the gap and missing details by examining even tidbits of details and prevents David from making bad decisions. Working closely Robert complements what David is struggling to express.
Hybrid Author
Here is the part when it makes David’s journey in publishing interesting. The term “hybrid author” appears in its own merit to signify his decision to have worked with Amazon imprint, 47North, and a traditional publisher, Orbit. He wanted to see what Orbit team can do to boost his discoverability under the umbrella of their complete package (advertisement, editors, negotiating power). With 47North, the then newfangled Amazon imprint, its promotional prowess sounded promising to him and his agent in the sense that they could bring his books to digital readers. Basically, he is happy both ways to supply demand for print lover and cater the needs of eReaders’ owner.
Success Does Not Come Overnight
The case of “Success does not come overnight” is applied here when his ecstasy to get his book published by an international publisher-cum-agency took over. One of the royalty deals he made was a regrettable 50% of which was branded as “outrageous.” His past experiences negotiating royalty percentage with other traditional publishers was not smooth as silk either. After having a horrid experience being offered the unreasonably low 20%, he figured an agent would do a better job in negotiating deals. Lesson learned: signing a tempting contract can enslave you to earn next to nothing.
Iconic Influences to Breathe Reality into Writing
Moving on, David Gaughran diversifies the topics of discussion that include the writing technique and book covers. Obviously, a fantasy author looks up to their iconic model, R.A. Salvatore as an inspiration. What he learns from the master helps him to personify magical heroes by revealing their dark sides apart from “black and white characters.” Stephen King’s style also helps David Dalglish shape character’s credibility more realistically. Apart from great story plot, one of the striking things this blog shows is the exhibition of vivid and fan-favorite book covers. Sitting side by side along with texts, they easily make the author name stand out and stir reader’s curiosity by presenting the climactic action and grim transformation of characters right before their eyes. A myth about insanely expensive design is debunked to encourage self-publishers to reach out to an artist. With lifelike menacing zombies, Peter Ortiz’s skill in digital art is one of a kind.
Fail Plenty
Perhaps, his customary bidding farewell by offering a sound advice to self-publishers has been broadcast many times before. Still, there are good points to take notes especially the frightening ‘fail plenty’ statement. He admits his own defeat and learns not to repeat the history. Collaboration can come in handy when your best consultant has the missing pieces for your puzzle. In this case, not only David gets to know the best alpha reader, but Robert’s willingness to help also goes beyond what friends are for. David Dalglish has come a long way to live through good and bad moments. Thanks to David Gaughran for making the story heard, the fruit of the self-publisher’s labor seems so worthy that it attracts a legion of like-minded souls whose aspiration will sail through the digital wonder of self-publishing for a very long, long time.
Label: Self-Publishing
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