Deception to the Nth Degree

by Mary Taylor
(Lino Lakes, MN, USA)

Writing a book is a very personal, challenging, and rewarding commitment. You may have personal and/or professional reasons why you want to get published. Perhaps it's because you have important information to convey or a compelling story to tell. My book, Deception to the Nth Degree, started out as a journal. One day while re-reading my journal, I got a feeling that this story could help others. Now, the work really began. I converted my hand written journal to a word document. That took several dedicated months typing, any time the urge hit me. Once I completed the Word document I had several editors preview the work. Once completed, I started submission of my book to several publishing companies. The responses I received were from publishing companies that I would have to pay them to publish my book instead of them paying me. Becoming an author with a published book and writing for any publishing house continues to be more of a challenge due to the highly competitive nature of the book publishing business.

I learned through this process about literary agents, book rights, ISBN, print on demand, etc. My next step was to find a literary agent. I found one which required that I have their editor preview my work, of which I did, for a fee. I also assisted in covering the printing cost for my manuscript to be submitted to publishers. After talking to several authors, I was informed that no legitimate agency ask for money up front. I was turned off by that experience and decided to try self-publishing. I guess I was deceived again. I found several sites that are virtually free, if you just want to publish. If you want an ISBN, marketing, and distribution, it'll cost you a little more. A good resource for self-publishers is Self–Publishing for Dummies.

The most expensive part of self-publishing is marketing your book. You may have heard of "free" marketing. I am still in the learning curve on marketing. Well, nothing is absolutely free, if it does not cost you money it will surely cost you time, and my time is valuable.

I have also recently published another book called "Thus Saith the Lord" and I have published articles on the Author Connection website.

Visit Mary's site.