Determined Effort So Tenacious It Negates Yuck (D.E.S.T.I.N.Y)

by Frank Chase Jr
(Huntsville, AL)

False Roads to Manhood

The journey began for False Roads To Manhood back in 1997. With a stubby pencil and a spiral note book, I took a seven year journey into the heart and soul of manhood to write and publish my first book. What began as an idea and a thought surfaced as words on paper from my heart.

By the year 2004, I completed the hand written manuscript but realized I needed to type the book. So until I bought a computer and I started a research journey by reading other books on the subject matter.

I finally finished the book and realized that I needed an editor. I found my first editor a local college in Huntsville who worked for the English department. I inquired about her and she agreed to help. We poured over the book with edits, changes and rewrites for months and sometimes we had long meetings to go over what she thought I should revise or rewrite. Finally after a long period of time, I thought I was ready. But after some recommendations that I should get a second edit done, I relented and began another search for an editor.

This time my journey took me to Sally Stuart's book, with a listing of editors, publishers, literary agents and magazine. I searched through the book and my eye caught the name of an editor. We contacted the lady by email, had phone conversations and we asked her for a sample edit of the book to examine her work. Then we asked for recommendations from her and they all checked out to our satisfaction except one. Well against my wife's wishes, we hired her and the editing process began. For months, I was making changes and talking on the phone with her. She began to tell me that she could get my book into publishing houses if I signed her as my literary agent. I began to notice that she seemed more concerned about getting paid than editing my book. From the surface, it looked like I had a well edited book. I agreed to review her literary agent contract. But before we signed it, I took it to a lawyer and he told us that it was written in her favor and he changed it so it would be mutually beneficial to me, the author and her, the literary agent. We sent the revised contract back to her, and she was highly indignant that we changed her contract and she decided it was not in her best interest to represent my book as a literary agent. Well, after her editing was done, we paid the last check.

I finally let my friends look over the book and even a professional counselor and I started getting negative feedback that I did not want to hear. To confirm their suspicions, I asked my co-worker to look at my book and he went through the entire book and found many errors that should have been caught by the second editor. It was obvious the second edit was a disaster and I was shocked, disappointed and angry.

My wife and I thought I should attend a writer's conference. We found one in the state of Tennessee. It was an eye opening experience. Unbeknownst to me, I started talking about my book at one the breakout sessions with other writers and published authors and it so happened that someone asked me who edited my book after each of them had the chance to go over my manuscript. I said the name Bonnie and everyone slumped their head down as if they were praying. They told me they knew the person that edited my book and she was a very good sales person but her skills in editing were atrocious. If you had saw my face, it was as if I needed a defibrillator to bring me back to life.

I leaned lessons that day. You can hang out a shingle in any book and identify yourself as an Editor, Doctor or anything but it doesn't mean nothing unless you verify and verify and re-verify over and over again, someone' credentials. At the conference, I met an acquisition editor from a major publishing house who told me to send her my manuscript after we talked. Some time later she told me my manuscript was not what they were looking for. That was my first rejection.

I went on a hunting trip for the third editor online and found one. We made first contact with her. We grilled her and asked for a sample editing of one of my chapters. After we got the finished work back that she completed to the first chapter, I was shocked to see red all over the place. The second editor did catastrophic damage to my book. We phoned the third editor and after talking with her, we signed with the third editor to repair what had been death editing to my book. She rehabilitated my book back from dead on publishing arrival.

Now the manuscript is completely edited and final in 2004. And the next phase took me to a place I'd never been before. I started drafting up book proposals and sent one to a book proposal service because publishers no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts from authors. I was not going to give up on my dream of being a published author. But after my book proposal sat on the website for publishing houses to contact me, time ran out.

I proceeded to mail our inquiry letters and book proposals everywhere and every one rejected my book. So after many rejections I decided to self-publish. I did not go with any self-publishing companies but went a step further. I wanted to be a publisher and author.

I finally had enough and started my own publishing company to re-publish my book with a different subtitle than the original. In the second printing, we found a professional book printing company and printed a second printing with a new ISBN and the right size book. However, after we printed the second printing, I was told by a traditional publisher that they could tell my book was self-published just by looking at the layout. I asked them how they could tell and they said the margins and gutters were wrong. But even in that painful discovery, I pressed on selling books.

Again, on the suggestion of another author, I contacted his web site designer an we negotiated a contract and she built my new web site and reformatted my book, and guess what, I actually had a forth edit done. My new web site designer took some of the material from my old site and built a new site. I provided all the information to be posted. The revised book was backed financially by me borrowing a large some of money from my retirement plan. I was involved in designing my company LOGO. I choose from three designs for my new book cover based on what I envisioned in my mind. After months of going over draft logos, book cover designs and website designs, I finally settled. I was also encouraged to check out a marketing person on the advice of an author friend. I did contact her and she gave me her credentials. I went forward because my author friend said she was OK. I signed with her to develop a press kit and to do my book marketing efforts and book tour schedule. But at one point in the process, she asked me to make a check payable to her instead of her company with no thought of anything happening. I lost thousands of dollars because the marketing person skipped town with my money without delivering anything but one or two book blurbs. So what do you do? You develop you own press kit and I did.

So in the end, I learned that self-publishing is a tough business and I'm glad I did not give up. I leaned more about publishing from my mistakes than I did if someone else did the job for me. Things have turned around since I started using more professional services instead of fly by night charlatans.

I use professional press release services and marketing services and I still do my own marketing using Micro-Soft publisher. With my new printed book, I had professional book marks done, and palm cards too. I also have business cards with my book cover on one side. Marketing a book takes money, and you have to be wise as a serpent where and when you spend your money.

As far as marketing, I've set up book blogs, joined author websites and any website that allows you to post your books and information. I also write articles which provide an avenue to expose my book to other audiences. I've always said, I do not regret none of the experiences because no one can ever take away what I've learned about publishing and the continued leaning I'm experiencing as an author and a publisher.

I market my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many author websites and blog sites. I participate in book signings and speak at book clubs and still appear on TV to talk about my book. Self-publishing is a rewarding experience, but it does take away from your time in writing new projects. I've submitted my book to self-published book contests with Writer's Digest. Self-publishing requires a lot of your time and energy in marketing and surfing the net for opportunities to expose your book. You must choose the best road that fits your personality. So why is the acronym D.E.S.T.I.N.Y in the title of this discourse. Publishing a book requires Determined Effort So Tenacious It Negates Yuck. If your book has a destiny, you can't allow nothing to stop you from pressing on. Self publishing is the best way because you are in charge of everything.

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