Writers Are Us Forum Creating a Writer's World

Greetings My name is Matt T. Schott,

I've worked as a Union electrcian for 24 years and I'm use to getting up around 4 in the morning.  The economy has been kind enough to give me some time off to work on promotting my book and write the next one.  So at 4 in the morning with a steaming cup of coffee smoldering at my side I write with a fresh brain.  I find it easy to travel to distant worlds in my mind when all is quite and dark.  Sometimes I feel like I get up early to see what I'm going to write next because I don't know what happens next in my story.  Right now I'm writing the sequell to "Lord Skyler And The Earth Defense Force".  I'm 3/4 done with writing it.  I'm in the middle of a big space battle and I can't wait to see what happens.  I never know what the characters are going to do exactly until I write it.

When I write I start with a generalization of the scene and what has to occur.  Then I rewrite the whole thing just thinking about color, smell, taste and any other sense I can see is missing.  I'll rewrite the book several times and just keep adding to it.

I write now to keep mind off of selling the first book.  I self published with LULU.  I brought my own ISBN # with a distribution package $99.  The package includes putting my book's title on some big list that all the bookstores order from.  I got an e-mail yesterday saying I have to change my binding, that they can't mass distribute my book in the 4x7 paperback pocket book that I choose from their list.  How dissapointing.  I paid $65 to have my book formatted to 4x7 from manuscript format.  Once I put my ISBN # on the book it wil cost me to make any changes to the book.  I e-mailed them this fact and told them I still wanted to proceed.

What I learned is not get an ISBN # until my friends and family have brought the book.  You see once you buy an ISBN #  they tak on extra revenue cost to your book.  Before the ISBN # my book sold for about $13.  I make $1, LULU makes 4 something and the cost to manufactoring the book.  Once you put the ISBN # on it Amazon and all the other bookstores have to have their revenue.  Now my book sells for $24 online.  The download is still $5 with $4 for me, little overhead in a download.

My goal was, I mean is, to sell enough books, (1,000) in a year to catch an agents eye.  I'm up to 10 books sold but I plan on doing a family tree seach and make more realitives buy my book.

Thank you David for starting this group.  I didn't realize I had that much to say.

M.T.S.

Is it me or am I the only one who has brought an ad.  Every page I drift through has my ad and the ad to take an ad, with the duck pic, and one for a photo ad. 

They, Writer's Cafe', are doubling your budget for first time advertisers.  I think I'm getting a 1000 clicks a day.  I spent $25 and they match my ad budget by $25 so my ad will run twice as long.  I think lulu has a similar deal except it's $200 for so many clicks but it's on a lot of book sites not just one like this ad.

let me know what you think of my Lord Skyler and The Earth defense Force ad.  I'll let you know if its worth the money to advertise here.

MTS

I liked your info on the price of your book. I had the same questions when AuthorHouse sold me their package deals. It cost me $898 to get signed up, but I bought a book-sign kit, press release, and book sellers return program which raised my total to $3200. At that time I had a job and could afford such a luxury. By the time I lost my job, my last selling day was April 11, there was no going back. I explained to my wife that to make money we have to invest it.

I'm going into the mindset that I'm not in it for the money now, but for the publicity. I have to get people to know who I am first. I also have to be successful locally before I branch out. Jeff Edwards (author of Torpedo) has said if you can be successful locally then you can make it nationally. It sounds like good advice to me.

I'm at a stage where I don't want to invest more money, but rather get people interested in my story. I'm calling radio stations, TV News, you name it. I'm calling every week too. My job as a salesman trained me not to give up simply because you don't get a return call.

Matt, you and I have a similar background. I'm a certified plumber going for a writing career. My book is out there. How do I get known. What got me my TV interview was the fact that I told KUSI TV News Channel 9 (51) that for the past 17 years I worked for Expo Design Center, A Division of The Home Depot. They closed us down and now I find myself among the ranks of the millions of unemployed. Less than 30 days ago President Obama said, "There are opportunities out there that Americans should take advantage of." That's what I'm doing by pursuing a career as a writer. When One Door Closes, Another Opens!

This piece got me my interview. Check it out on my website www.DavidLuceroSandman.com > click on my Link tab > click on My Custom Links and you can view the video. Tell me what you think.

Networking is our best bet and helping each other will pay off. I'm going to spread your website to my friends on Facebook, you do the same for me. We can market each other's book and our own in each other's territory. Look me up on Facebook, too. I live in San Diego. Send me your email too. Mine is [email protected]. Log on AmericanAuthorsAssociation.com and sign up. It's free and that's the site the author Jeff Edwards and his wife set up for people like us. They can help market our books.

I need to sell roughly 1400 books to make my investment pay off. Nationwide that's not impossible, but I can't do it alone, so that's why I'm calling Libraries too. There's a local library event in July I'm attending for new authors. You city's main library hosts an event like this every year for local authors. Call them and sign up so you can attend in January for the group of writers that came out in 2009.

I'll give you more information soon. Send me your email. You can trust me. Look at my website and you'll see I'm serious about this.

Good luck to us!

David