November « 2014 « Robin Writes

Last week, I talked about what you should look for in the context of bugging out; where and how and why. If you’ve done your homework, and scouted out locations and routes, you can be fairly confident that where you end up will actually be the right place.

If, however, you’re searching for a spot now for a future, unknown eventuality, what do you need to look for?

You need to decide, early on in the process, what use you’re going to make of the land you eventually purchase. For instance, we want a lot of trees that will protect us from the weather, from prying eyes and possibly intrusion (physical and auditory), with some open areas for gardening and pasture. We’ll grow most of what we need and hunt and trade for other things.

For power, we’ll go on-grid if that’s possible, off-grid if it’s not; we want live water, and we’ll drill a well and add septic. So far, so good. And of course, we also need to be able to get to it, and maybe quickly.

Yesterday, I talked to someone who had been worried about providing everything for her family. They raise chickens and her husband hunts; they have a small garden, but not big enough to grow everything they’ll need.

And then a light came on.

She was at a church function one day; the congregation includes several farmers who had brought produce to share. They were able to trade meat for vegetables!

So, you see, you don’t have to do it all—focus on your strengths and find a good community or prep group, or local sources, for the things you can’t produce yourself.

For me, I don’t really like game, and I’m not entire sure I could eat something that I kill. I have no problem eating something that SOMEONE ELSE kills . . . And I don’t do chickens. Ick. Nasty things. So we’ll trade for eggs too. My husband is on his own if he wants fried chicken!

But I can grow things, and cook and bake. Of course, many things, everyday items and those you make, can be traded too and can also provide a little income, most likely before SHTF.

Again, the better prepared you are, the better off you’ll be, whether it’s SHTF or a natural disaster or even just a tough winter or slow growing season. There are all kinds of possibilities, but you have to know your strengths and your weaknesses and be willing, sometimes, to compromise.

I saw this question in a FB group of which I’m a part, and thought I’d go more into depth today, here, with my answer.

“Do I need an agent to market my self-published book?”

The short answer is no, you don’t need an agent to market your book. You’ve already published that book; the time for an agent was BEFORE you self-published. What you need is a publicist, someone who will get exposure for that book, and therefore sales.

But first, there are things you, the author need to do. Low or slow or even non-existent sales can be due to many things.

Start here:

A good cover.

A well-edited manuscript.

Proper formatting.

Competitive pricing.

Promotion and marketing.

If you have a bad cover, and Internet examples abound, no one is going to look twice at your book. Period. Not too cluttered, good margins, compatible colors, one or two fonts, easily readable fonts.

If your book is full of mistakes, no one will read it. They might buy it, and be severely disappointed, and never read your work again. Oh, and they’ll tell everyone how horrible it is. You can bet on that.

If your book is not a conventional size, readers may avoid it. Books are typically 8.5 square or 5X8 or 6X9, or something closely matching those sizes. The right margin should be justified, and there should be equitable margins all around. Line spacing should hold at 1.15 and there shouldn’t be spaces between paragraphs.

Pricing can be tricky, but know this: on a royalty-based contract from a publisher, you will earn around $1 on each copy sold. If you self-publish, you can make a few more dollars, but you aren’t going to earn $10 or $15—because no one will buy a paperback novel for $20. Especially if that “novel” is fewer than 70K words.

Promotion. If you self-publish, you probably don’t have much in the way of distribution, so the default is Amazon. Your book will not get enough exposure on Smashwords, or Lulu, or any other third-party, obscure site for books. Make use of the author page on Amazon and all forms of social media, whichever ones work best for you.

Do some research. Give away some books. Pound the pavement.

And yes, you can hire a publicist, if you can afford it. They are expensive, the good ones. Anyone can refer to himself as a publicist, but be sure to do your homework and hire someone who gets results.

But at this point, you don’t need an agent unless you want to pull your book and start over. Some authors do that—and others perhaps should.

But it’s your call. Being an indie author certainly has its benefits.