All the Fun of the Fair

Well, after I had got over the trauma of the ‘sandal scandal’ (see previous post) I had a fantastic time at London Book Fair.

After the masterclass on Saturday I gave a talk on self publishing and took part in a seminar on the same subject.

Afterwards I was chatting to the commercial manager of AuthorHouse, one of the world’s largest self publishing companies, and he was in agreement that there was a real buzz around self publishing at the fair this year.

Owing to the increasingly cautious and commercial world of the traditional publisher, self publishing is starting to look like a real and exciting alternative for writers. It felt great to be able to talk about my own experiences and offer some kind of hope and alternative to the other writers there.

All the fun of the fair - with fellow author Michael J Davidson

 The fact that both self publishing events were packed out says an awful lot too.

I thought it might be useful to summarise the facts that people seemed to find most useful from the talks:

• It costs £800 for the standard self publishing package from AuthorHouse.
• I would recommend print on demand when self publishing as this frees you from having to stock and distribute your book.
• If you do go with print on demand make sure that the company you use have links with Gardners (the UK’s major book distributor). This will ensure that your book is available to order via stores and on Amazon.
• The internet can be a fantastic and free marketing tool. The importance of a web presence cannot be under-estimated. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube – all can be used to great effect to publicise your book.
• The internet also enables you to give some of your work away for free as downloads – which can also be a great way of building readership.

If you have any questions regarding self publishing please feel free to email me via the mailbox on this site…