First Pitch
Well… I finally did it—my first pitch to a real professional publishing house in London U.K., Heaven Help Us, Fourth Edition has gone. There won’t be any more editions after this and now I can get back to finishing the sequel.
I was so nervous my stomach was turning over, and now, I am so relieved it’s done and the waiting begins.
They say it will be four weeks before I hear anything back at all, but I did get a confirmation email to say that they have received it and a tracking link to see where it’s at with them.
Two difficulties arise: The first is that I have previously self-published with other publishing houses. However, I have been totally honest with them and so if they reject me on that basis, then I have to go to plan B and self-publish with Amazon. The second possible problem is that I want to keep the rights to my book and if they don’t let me, then I will withdraw my manuscript with them and go to plan B.
Most Publishers buy the rights from you when they agree to publish your book. However, with this company, they give you nothing upfront and you only get 45% of any royalties. With that in mind, there is a good chance they will let me keep the rights to my book.
They do editing and proof reading for you at no cost and also undertake to market your book too. This has been my biggest brick wall since I just don’t have the big bucks to pay for these services and advertising can be very expensive. So, nothing ventured, nothing gained and at this point I still own my book rights.
They sell ebooks initially and if there is enough interest they will do a paperback version and get it into the bookstores.
This journey has taken seven years of my life thus far. First writing the story, then perfecting the writing, and then selling both online and to the bookstores. It has been both enlightening and exhausting with little return in the end. So many brick walls and no-one to turn to for help. I’ve joined clubs, groups, and online websites, only to discover my mistakes and usurp my time and money in the process. What I did learn about myself is that my computer skills are limited to typing and doing small investigative tasks. I just don’t know enough about how to do media advertising and ‘building a platform.’ I’ve spent hours and hours on Twitter sending out emails and Facebook ads… I did get quite a lot of followers, including some very odd offers of holidays in paradise countries… and lonely people looking for friendship… and others who want to give me millions of dollars direct into my bank account, if I just give them my details, which I would never do… but needless to say, not enough sales.
I hope they do publish for me on my terms and I don’t have to go back and negotiate the Amazon self-publish site…
I can only say a big “THANK YOU” to all those friends and supporters from Facebook and around locally who have bought a copy of my book either paperback or my $1 ebook version. I hope you enjoyed the story whatever edition you bought.
Wish me luck…
