After publishing my first book and all the lessons I have learned and still am learning, I have decided to do something. I thought how hard it is for first time authors to get noticed amidst this sea of authors new and well-known. Self-publishing has become easier than ever with digital publishing and on-demand print.
Amazon,
Smashwords,
Uncovered Books (coming out this fall) and
Createspace for on-demand paperback publishing.
It used to be, as my Grandfather was a self-published author, that you would have to pay a lot of up-front set-up fees for the printing and then buy a shipment of books and hope you can sell them and make a profit. Only the most confident, motivated and with at least a little disposable income ventured into the world of self-publishing. If you lacked one of those things, most likely the disposable income for the initial investment, you relied on traditional publishers by submitting your book and receiving tons of rejection letters before finally getting one, if you ever did. Those days are now a bygone era.
Now anyone with internet access can be self-published. This is a great thing. Of course that means that there are more new and emerging authors. Uncharted imaginations, if you will. Stories that will not be stuck in a drawer because someone behind a desk decided it was not a profit worthy project. We are free to decide for ourselves what authors we want to read and which ones to pass on.
I have decided to do my part in helping these previously unpublished authors to achieve some attention. I want to start a book review site just for authors that have never before been published. Authors that are unheard of from the everyday world. Authors that still have day jobs like teaching, manufacturing and service jobs. A place where readers can find their new favorite author. While titling a book can sometimes be the hardest part of publishing a book, naming a website can be the first and hardest part of staring a blog or website. I could use a few suggestions....Any ideas?
