I Wrote A Book--Now What?

Meet A. Pexx

It appears that the easy part about writing a book is writing the book. Over the years, I've done a lot of writing but nothing like this. Technical writing and academic writing were relatively easy because I did not have to worry about marketing and selling the stuff. Now I do. And this seems to be the most important, and difficult, part of being an author.

The good news is that the internet has liberated me from the grasps of "traditional" publishing. The bad news is that the internet has liberated me from the grasps of "traditional" publishing.

Not very long ago the process was pretty straight forward. You wrote something, found a literary agent and/or publisher and got out of the way. Today it's a bit more complicated--print or electronic, publisher or self published, traditional marketing or social media marketing, and so on. Oh, and it helps if you have something interesting to say.

To make things worse, it appears people don't read much anymore--now that can be a real show stopper. Second, there is a lot of competition for the reader's time and "eyes." And finally, what to read? There are millions of books--traditional and e-books--to choose from. This can make this "author thing" a bit of a crap shoot.

So what's a guy to do? I am a new author--yep, published, and few people can say that! (Mom is so proud).  Now I need to find some people who: 1) read, 2) have time to read, and 3) also what to read my book. If I can't do this, I can take comfort in knowing that at the very least I'll have some nifty Christmas gifts for the next hundred years. I love a challenge . . . Money Makes Me Crazy.