How to publish your fictions?
02-05-19
After your manuscript is ready
take copyright registration to protect from thief or plagiarism by writers and
film producers.
Every writer will try to get
their manuscript published by traditional publisher. They will not take money
to publish your fiction but you have to sign their contract agreement. They will proof read and edit your fiction
before publishing. Most of them will get you ISBN number for your books. Since
they invest money to publish your fictions they will also promote your books through
exhibition, book stalls and book distributors. Based on number of books sold
they will give you royalty. If your fiction / novel became best seller they
will ask you to submit your other manuscripts to publishing.
Before publishing my fictions on POD mode I too
checked with traditional publisher .one of the publisher told me that he got
more than 3500 manuscript with him and asked me to come after three years. The
other publisher said he got more than 5000 manuscript with him and asked me to
come after five years! I think these guys are publishing whatever trash
they get to publish. Perhaps that is the reason we Indians do not get to read
quality work. I remember reading an article in newspaper. Some of the leading
French publishers are rejecting more than 5000 manuscript every year!
Traditional pub ushers will
have thousands of manuscript at any given time. If you have time and patience
you can wait for them to select or reject your manuscript. If you get rejection
slip after waiting for so many years you can either try with other traditional publisher
or go for vanity publishing or self publishing like E-Books.
Vanity
publishing.
Getting published through
traditional publishers will take years of time. There is thousands of
manuscript to read and select or reject.
In that case you go for vanity publishing.
They will not reject your
manuscript coz they will charge money to publish your manuscript. They will offer different types of packages
for publishing. Low cost publishing is done on paperback (recycled paper)
without editing service. It is cost around Rs 25,000/- in India. They will publish about fifty books for you. To recover your publishing cost you have to
buy your own book at author’s prize and sell it on MRP. I.e. they will supply
your book at author’s prize say Rs 60 and you sell your book at MRP of Rs 150/-
take Rs 90 as profit. You will end up selling hell lot of books to recover your
investment or publishing cost.
Vanity publishers also offer
editing service but very expensive. I.e. if publishing of your fiction cost
Rs25, 000/- editing service cost Rs 50,000/- extra. Premium service including
editing and publishing book on a costly paper. They will also promote your book
with book trailer made with local actress or model. Few scenes are made out of
your book. It will set you back by about Rs1, 50,000/-
Vanity
publishing – Part-2
Everybody think it is easy to get fiction published. Writing
fiction is easy. To get fiction published at the expense of publisher is no
laughing matter.
We have seen people claiming ‘published Author ‘’who cares?
Whether he / she got published fiction at her expense or on merit.
Even though I had WgaW copyright I still needed ISBN for my
fiction. WgaW and ISBN will deter people using my story concept for writing and
making movie out of my fiction. I wrote eternal love exclusively for movie
production. On first page of my fiction there is a copyright warning notice. In
India producer and director look for story concept and they take story concept
and make movie. Even Robot Indian movie was copied from five different
published books. Case was closed after the producer paid money to all those
writers.
Most of publisher are sending estimate since more and more
budding writers are willing to spent money to get their fictions published. Why
should publisher risk their money on some one’s creative work? Publisher
prefers to have cake and eat it too. When writer gets only estimate after
estimate he had no other option than to spent money to get his fiction
published. If publisher risk their money to publish your book he needs to
promote your book or risk losing investment on your book. To avoid risk they
want writers to spent money to publish. Whether his/her books are sold or not
publisher will make minimum profit of 20% or more. If his book became hit, next
time publisher will pay advance to write new book. Call it material world.
Even if we writer spent money to get published our book, publisher
will refuse to promote our book! When my book was introduced by Xlibris
Corporation of U.S and power publisher in India, my book was not available on
their new arrival list. When I asked why they are not promoting my book both of
them sent me promotional scheme. You spent Rs 17,000/- for 40 books but to
promote books you have to spent additional Rs 25000/-! I am not yet MAD.
When it is writer’s money they do not care. They do not even want to
promote your book. Funny people. Only my blog friends know about my book but
not the rest of the world.
When you take platinum scheme for publishing at the cost of Rs 1,
00,000 or Rs 1, 50,000/- there is lots of fun. Publisher will print your
fiction with the best available paper on earth. And the cove page? Anyone would
love to put it on their showcase. Editor will do spell and grammar check. If
necessary they will polish it. After reading your book, you will fall in love
with your own book! Followed by print and E-media blitz. Then there is a critic
review followed by book signing ceremony at the four stars or five star hotels.
Distinguished writers are invited to speak/ praise sky high... verdict? A new
J.K Rowling is in the making! You bask in glory. Critics and distinguished
writer get paid in advance!
After that you are asked to read few passages from your book.
Readers are thrilled. Really? After signing few books and autographs you will be
asked to get photographed with readers, critics and distinguished writer for
the last time and they will give your memorable event in 4 G.B pen drive.
Readers will have coke and snacks for free. After you interact with new found
readers you are given warm send-off. You will be put on chuffer driven
Benz car. Full throttle you will sing all the way to home “WATTA
FEEEEEEEEEEELING!”
After one month you will get sales report of your book. Only after
calculating profit and loss you realize how much money you lost out by choosing
vanity publishing.
Here is my own experience. For Rs 17,000/- Xlibris publisher
had edited and polished my fiction. They gave me only one soft cover book with
ISBN as compliment and Amazon Kindle edition. 59A-4 pages long fiction became
83 book pages after editing .size.9’x5’. Cost 16.95 USD! Amazon Kindle edition costs only 5USD. I not Selman
Rushdie. Who will buy 83 book pages of my fiction for 16.95 USD? are you mad or
what?
For Indian edition of Eternal Love I had remove explicit love
making scenes. I got it published through Power Publisher of Calcutta. For Rs
15000/- I got 40 books. No editing, No polishing .it is just the way I wrote it
on my blog. Even if I sell 40 books on MRP .Rs 175/- I will only recover
Rs.7000/-. Printing charges alone will cost me Rs 8000/-. I had sold out
40 of my books.
Not every publisher rejected my fiction eternal love. Most of them
sent me estimate from 1000 USD to 6000 USD! I literally fainted.
An
anonymous person from book club India who is really concerned about the quality
of Indian writers in English put on a site on Face book. One of the books
is yet to be released came under scrutiny. A single page shot was put on
display for others to read. There were enough mistakes on one single page.
There were more than 82 comments. It was more like a debate. Being a mute
spectator you will observe few things.
At
first you have to ask same question to yourself and find out the reason for’
why quality of Indian English writer degraded”?
Let
me explain. When new budding writers gets repeatedly letter from publishers
expressing their’ inability’ (condolence message / Ram Nam sathya hai) new
writers go in for POD mode, E-Pub or E-books. POD publishers offer three
different plans. Gold, diamond and platinum.
If
you opt for platinum they will offer you fifty per cent royalty for every book
they sell. Book promotion ceremony will be held at five star hotels. You
will be able to sell few books on signing ceremony. Some of them will arrange
worldwide book signing ceremony. Video presentation on T.V, F.M, you
tube, book review by a prominent writer on your leading national newspaper etc.
Publisher makes it a memorable event so that you can cherish those moment
for the rest of your life. You became celebrity by overnight. Forget
about your book creating Tsunami among readers. You cannot even make ripples.
You may even wonder what the heck is wrong with my book.
Here is
the answer .Did they offer you fifty per cent royalty? Table top
presentation with glossy cover page? Everybody would love to keep your book on
their book shelf. Still why you book became dud? It is very unlikely
readers are going to foot fancy prize for a new writer’s book.
Indian
POD publishers are one step ahead of others. They also offer three different
plans. With, without and the third option is for vanity writers. ‘With’
comes with editing, proof reading and polishing. It is cost real money.
‘Without’ also cost money. Without editing, proof reading and polishing, no
publicity for your book. Their mantra “No business is bad business as long as
they make minimum 20 per cent profit out of every struggling writer who wants
to get their fiction published. When you get published ‘without’ writer’s
proficiency in English will be visible to naked eyes. Kebab May Haddy? Bone in
meat ball? Lol
Scared?
Not really. Xlibris Corporation of U.S.A had done tight editing (no frills) and
proof reading of my fiction Eternal Love. After reading my own book only
I had realized the importance of editing and proof reading.
This
week I will be introducing Eternal Love in India. I had done censoring of
Eternal Love for Indian readers. No more explicit love making scenes. It
will be just the way I wrote Eternal Love on my blog. Apart from shot
synopsis my book is linked to my blog. Three chapters of web excerpt readers
will be able to read it on my blog before they decide to buy my fiction. Reader
will be reading new story concept in filmy style. The prize of Eternal Love
Indian edition will cost only Rs.175/- or $ 3.5 only.
In
India it is easy to find chick lit and other books by new authors. Most of them
sell their books between Rs 80/- to Rs12o/- when you read such books you do not
look for quality writing. You read it for entertainment value. You cannot
even keep it on your book shelf. Some of the books are full of sleaze.
E-publishing
or E-Books
Amazon kindle edition is the
best. There are publishers offering E publishing for Rs 5000/- formatting and
uploading on to their server. You can upload softcopy of your manuscript on
Amazon kindle edition. to upload your manuscript you have to follow their
instruction .few clicks here and few clicks there all it take to upload your
fiction and its ready for download. Amazon will take about ten percent
commission for using their server rest of the money is all yours!
Popularizing your E book is not
easy. You have to use social media, blog and sent link to all your friends
through whatsapp and email.
Now customer is the king. When a person looks
for cheap thrill he will not complain about quality. I.e. when you go to a
local restaurant you look for tasty food at moderate prize because your
expectation is low. At the same time when you go to a five star hotel your expectation
is very high. You expect quality and tasty food of your choice,
atmosphere, interior decoration, ambient temperature and lighting condition,
background music, behavior of the food supplier, his body language and his tone
and few other things… and if you are not satisfied with the food or service you
are definitely going to write it on their complaint book because you are
disappointed and did not get your money’s worth. It is just that simple.
To
write critic review for book and movie one needs experience. Here on our
newspaper you will find collage or even high school students writing critic
review for books and movies. I do not read such reviews.
If
people like short synopsis of my fiction they will buy it, if they are happy
with my book they will recommend my fiction for their friends.
Market
is driven by consumerism. Here product / service logic works better. If your
product or service is really good customer will recommend your product/ service
to four other friend or known people. If your product/services are bad then
they will tell ten other people. So, the fate of your book is in the hands of
your readers.
AMEN………….Amen…………..Amen……….Amen…………………Amen……
(Echo)
Friend,
Jivan
