Getting back to self-publishing

 I thought I had it made being picked up by The Wild Rose Press for my New Adult, Romance, Cinnamon & Sugar. I did do much better sales-wise than I did with my previous books which I self-published.

After enjoying The Queen's Gambit, both as a novel and limited Netflix series I decided to write a story with chess as the theme. Since I'm also a chess master it should be easy to show the real world of tournament and match chess. It was, but when I presented it to The Wild Rose Press they turned it down because they objected to me using real chess players' names in the body of the work and it the ms. also has a small period of time in which Covid influences the story.

So I sent out queries and so far not positive responses. I'm antsy to get this story about a young black girl in a poor neighborhood, who lost her daddy and remembers the chess they shared out to the public.

So back at square one, I bought ISBN's from Bowker, found suitable front and back cover shots, and got my copyright.

Next, I decided to submit to both Amazon and IngramSpark to do my print on Demand services. IngramSpark gets the book into bookstores and Libraries as well as everywhere else and Amazon has a strong hold on the online sales via Kindle. Of course, I'll reach out to Barnes & Noble via Nook as well.

I write all this to save you time if you are thinking about self-publishing. I have chosen the best paths. You can email me anytime if you want to discuss this. I'm at rwrichard@ymail.com.

p.s. Since I am having the story professionally edited (highly recommended) I will try a small number of literary agents before I self-publish. Yes, all that I wrote cost money but if you believe in your story and think it has merit to the readers then at the very least, satisfaction will come from knowing you didn't cut corners. Next stop marketing and more spending...

How to write a novel in 9 minutes, March 24, 2013

At the So Cal RWA 2013 conference, I attended many amazing classes. In particular, Chris Green had us listen to a short instrumental in which we wrote down the basics of a novel (conflict, black moment, climax, opening hook, inciting incident etc.). At first I was sceptical, but I wrote two story concepts that I could easily convert to novels. We had fun sharing some terrific ideas.

 

For those of you who hadn't attended, try listening to Rhapsody in Blue* (1924 original) and let me know if you've created something you'd like to turn into a novel. *I choose this masterpiece because it never fails to inspire me.

 

I'm picky when it comes to renditions of Gershwin's artistry. It's hard to find a laughing clarinet like you'll hear in the opening. It's never been done better, IMO.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Did you just listen to the music and not write anything down (because no one's there to watch over you)? Sorry, try again. Gershwin tells a story and it doesn't have to be about New York.