Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: December 03, 2017 11:04PM
"Getting it published" can mean many different things...
It can mean "getting it commercially published"...
...or "getting it in [book] form" (which could be through a so-called vanity "publisher": a business entity which is paid by the author to get the manuscript into (primarily) book form, with typeset pages, binding, a cover, etc.)...
...or it could mean publishing it on the Internet in some way (as a blog, or as a Print on Demand book).
Of these, the only one I know anything about is commercial publishing, which mainly means: you sell the manuscript (or the concept) to a regular publishing house, they edit the book, print the book, and market the book (and hope they recoup the costs they have incurred along the way).
In commercial publishing, the first, overwhelmingly most important, question is: "Who (precisely) is my market?" Second question is: Can this market be accessed in a way which makes business sense (means: the promotion is cost-effective, and can reach your individual readers through accessible venues: reviews in magazines, appearances of the author at bookstores and book shows and guest lectures, etc.).
As I see it (and I have been watching this for several years), the challenge of exmormon books is to get to potential exmormon, or Mormon, purchasers...and I have no idea how this can be done.
I know of one book re: Mormonism/exmormonism which I (personally) consider both brilliant in its insight, and well written by all commercial standards, yet so far as I was able to determine, the marketing of the book was nearly impossible because the "exmormon market" really is NOT a defined market (economically), but is a conglomeration of international individuals who have, as individuals, left Mormonism for their own personal reasons and have few other connections to each other.
Contrast this with the marketing framework for a book about a new perspective on childcare: numerous interviews for the author on the morning TV shows, reviews/profiles/feature stories in the various "women's" magazines, profiles and news articles in national newspapers, guest shots on radio shows, etc. If the concept is "sexy" (in publisher's terms), there is a well-defined general path to connect a new take on childcare (or popular health concerns, etc.) with potential buyers. I not only do not see anything comparable for exmormons, I don't see HOW anyone could conceivably pull together anything comparable.
However, there IS a well-developed marketing framework for GLBTQ subjects, and if your book would fit within this framework, this might work on many levels: a real commercial publisher, a real commercial editor, a way to connect with the North American GLBTQ community through all the various venues, but the book would have to be geared to the existing GLBTQ marketing audiences and media structures. (Probably, and in other words, heavy on the GLBTQ throughlines, and a whole lot lighter on the Mormon themes, which would be, in most cases anyway, of little interest to the bulk of your retail purchasers (unless the Mormon themes were, in themselves, of general-nonMormon-audience dramatic interest).
In any case, and regardless of how your book is published, marketed, and sold, I STRONGLY suggest that you join Sisters in Crime (www.sistersincrime.org, an organization for female writers of mystery novels; they have various levels of membership and you can join regardless of your gender), because "the Sisters" (as they are known in the publishing industry) have the BEST, organized, accessible, informative, real-life marketing "education" and plans available in the industry, and you can access all of their vast and up-to-date experience and knowledge simply by becoming a "Brother in Crime." Joining the Sisters is the easiest and cheapest entrée into publishing available anywhere in North America. Follow their well-laid-out marketing information (how to get agents...how to do your own marketing, starting where you are right now...how to create a successful book campaign), and you may well be able to actually create a viable economic market out of the disconnected exmormons who now have little existing contact with each other.
If you do this, you will have the eternal gratitude of those other exmormons to come who will THEN have a marketing plan
in place which can be adapted to their particular takes on Mormons/Mormonism/exmormonism.
Mis tres centavos. :)
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2017 11:17PM by Tevai.