I see you have the common misconception that publishers want to find and promote good content or talent. In fact, they are in the business of providing what the market demands. You’ll never understand this unless you stop saying “I’ll never understand” 🙂 .. it’s really quite simple.

Bookstore chains control everything in traditional publishing. Mass market means MASS, not “new and different” and they want what they know will sell.

Fortunately, the Internet has changed the equation. ANY good content can be shared easily. If you really have the talent, and produce something worthwhile, you need only post it online and promote it yourself. If it’s good, people will share it. If it’s good enough, shared enough and then marketed to the publishers, they will excitedly buy it

Thanks Ronda….I love it and am so happy that others do as well. was kinda worried about the upside down Defy Gravity – but its worked out GREAT.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I appreciate you!

reb

Thanks DeAnna. Ya know, I had just come back from a conference where I watched people pass by the book table – probably 75 books on that table including my Advanced Readers Copy. Almost everyone of them picked up my book first (after they picked up the book of whoever had just spoken). When I asked them why – the answer was always the same. The Cover ROCKS. So – I wasn’t about to let that direct customer feedback be overwhelmed by some buyers’ opinion. I knew that cover was the right one for me. And it turned out well in the end for all of us!

Thanks much for your support!!!
reb

Thanks so much Shel. I’ll probably create my own pub company going forward – even with the great experience of independent publishing, there are still things I think I can do better on my own. And now that I have a bit of experience under my belt – I know what needs to happen and how I would improve the process the next time.

What’s amazing to me is how much Gravity STILL interferes – even with an independent. The publishing system itself is Gravity bound – and sooner or later you hit that system. But I do believe there are ways around it if you think out of the box and go for it. So that’s what I’ll most likely do next – even in a small way – just to experiment.

Thanks for the kind words and I look forward to more conversations with you again soon! reb

For many of the reasons you articulate, I steer a lot of my book consulting clients toward starting their won publishing companies (and I have a very creative cover designer). However, if you gain enough clout, you are in a much stronger position to negotiate with big publishers, at least the more entrepreneurial ones.

My own most recent book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson), is a revised and expanded edition of a book that was originally self-published. When I came to Wiey, it was from a position of strength. And on a number of issues, I was able to do things my way. This was not at all true of a much earlier book I’d done with one of the giant publishers.

PS–I think your cover is great. It looks like a business book to me, but a more edgy, less mainstream one.

Warmly,
Ronda Del Boccio
http://asktsl.com/vipsystem