After a three year hiatus, I am now in edit mode for Swauze Acres Life. The reasons for the vacation are many, but they include Covid three times, and my living situation is now in an adult home. What we used to call the Old Folks Home. I am in assisted living, not a nursing home. Be that as it may...
If you've read through the many chapters to the book, you know that they are a vague unconnected bunch of short stories. Right now, I am editing each for typos, poor grammar, and sentence and paragraph structure. As it sits now, the book is 54,758 words. The target for a novel is somewhere around 80,000 words. This will be no problem. The 25,000 words needed will be filled by the storyline connecting all the stories to make sure it all flows seamlessly.
I've been contacted via Facebook by a pay to publish company. The fee is considerable. A bit over $2,000. They not only print and distribute, as my current print on demand publisher does (for free), but also market the book in various media. Marketing is something I've never done. My first book, Living Among Sasquatch: A Primer sold amazingly well. Many thousands of copies. It was Amazon's best seller list for one month. I attribute that to my well known presence in the Bigfoot community. I would not be as lucky with this book.
I intend to look for an agent. Their job is to contact publishers who are looking for books like this one, in particular. They do everything the pay to publish houses, but at no charge. For well known authors, they even pay in advance, and then royalties. Having seven books self-published means nothing to a publisher. Anyone can self-publish anything, even really terrible books. However, I'm hoping that the consistent 4.5 star reviews for all seven of my books will be the edge I need to attract their attention.
The editing and rewrites will take me several months. As I get closer to the end, I'll be looking for an agent. If any of you folks know of an agent with a solid track record, please let me know.
In finishing... it feels great to be back in the saddle.
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