Author Peter Bowerman on Self-Publishing - Guest Post
Author Peter Bowerman, Mr. Well Fed Writer, is joining us for three days here on Fiction Scribe. He’ll be talking about his writing, his book, and self-publishing today.
“Writing is a career path of dubious financial prospects.�
I’ve earned a handsome living making a lie of that conventional wisdom. And I’ve done it in two writing arenas: “commercial� freelancing (writing for businesses, large and small, and for rates of $50-125+ an hour) as well as self-publishing.
My name is Peter Bowerman and I’m a commercial freelancer, speaker, business coach, and self-publishing author. In 1994, I started out as a commercial freelancer with NO writing background, experience or training; I’d never written anything for money. I was paying all my bills in less than four months, and I spent the next seven years collecting the all the how-to detail about my field.
I self-published the 2000 award-winning Book-of-the-Month Club selection, The Well-Fed Writer, and its 2005 companion volume, TWFW: Back For Seconds (both self-published; www.wellfedwriter.com). Those two books have become how-to “standards� on starting a lucrative commercial freelancing business. I then chronicled my self-publishing success (52,000 copies of my first two books in print and a full-time living for over five years) in my third book – and the focus of these blog posts – the award-winning 2007 release, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living. www.wellfedsp.com.
Why did I write The Well-Fed Self-Publisher? Well, visit virtually any writer’s web site or read any writing publication, and chances are, you’ll see one or more articles relating to the challenges of getting published – along with tips, strategies, tricks, etc. So many authors chase it, but so few manage to get it.
I felt that for most authors, self-publishing was truly viable, and given the time and energy they’d have to invest even in a conventional publishing scenario to be successful – and all for a lousy return – didn’t it make more sense to do it yourself and keep control of the process, the timetable, the rights, and most of the money?
Given my success at creating a full-time income for five years off ONE book, I felt my story was one worth sharing. Oh, and yes, I thought I could make money! Because my formula had worked twice, it could work again (and has). Yes, that success benefits me, but it also reaffirms the fundamental validity of the book’s premises.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I’ve just finished reading this book and it contains a wealth of information, resources, and links for writers who are considering self-publishing or who are already self-published and want to make the most of their marketing efforts.
Cheryl
June 18th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Hello everybody,
And thanks Cheryl! Glad to hear you found TWFSP so useful!
Delighted to be here on Fiction Scribe. Hope to generate a lively discussion on the subject of self-publishing. The subject is a hot one these days as more and more authors are starting to realize, 1) how hard it is to land a publisher, 2) how much easier the Internet has made the process of self-publishing, 3) how lame the conventional publishing model actually is in most cases: anemic royalties, 18-24 months to publication, loss of creative control, and loss of book rights.
And even after giving up all that, authors who HAVE been given the keys to “The Publishing Kingdom� then discover, to their dismay, how much of their own book marketing they have to do themselves - and usually for a buck a book or less!
With that paradigm, many are understandably saying, hey, if I’m going to have to do most of the work myself anyway, I might as well be making most of the money!
I wish you all the best on your own self-publishing journeys. Know that there are plenty of tools out there (including a few of my own at http://www.wellfedsp.com).
Peter
August 21st, 2008 at 11:21 pm
[...] to self-publish, is The Well Fed Self-Publisher. He has been a guest writer here on Fiction Scribe a few times, so be sure to check out those posts as well. Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to [...]