I’ve made a huge decision. One that took a tremendous amount of soul searching. I always thought the holy grail was to find a literary agent and get my book into a big publishing house. But, the industry is changing and the brick and mortar stores may not even be in business in ten years. While I sit here querying and begging folks to read and represent my finished, professionally edited works, life is moving by… and fast. So, I’ve taken the plunge, I am going indie and getting my novels out. I’m going to join writing contests, going to promote and see where this dream leads.
THE WORLD OF KAROV, my first dark fantasy novel, came out in December, 2012. The sequel, THE RUBY AMULET, will be released in November 2013. THE HUNT FOR XANADU, a thriller about a young girl on a quest to avenge the murder of her parents, will be scheduled for January or February, 2014. I have been blessed to have a literary agent for two Young Adult Novels, FLYING TO THE LIGHT and FLYING TO THE FIRE, and he’s working tirelessly to sell them but so far, nada. Fingers crossed for them to find a home. I’ve got a few more books in my computer, just waiting to be set free. It’s time to get them into editor’s hands and send them off to the world. So, that said, here is the cover reveal of THE RUBY AMULET. I just absolutely love it. Thank you Laura LaRoche, from BZHercules.com
THE RUBY AMULET, Book #2 in the Children of Demilee series.
Would love to hear what you think! And if you ever have ideas on how to promote a series, by all means feel free to share – I take any, and all, advice. 🙂
Elyse Salpeter 
Great cover, well done!
Thank you so much, David! It’s crazy how much we agonize over covers, but I’m really happy with this. 🙂
Good on you! You are right, the industry is changing. The worse it gets, the more nervous they are about picking up someone new or someone with something different – anyone, in fact, “outside the box”.
I did the self-same thing. I write sci-fi – book 1 came out October 2012, book 2 came out July 2013, and I’m working on book 3 of the series. 🙂
I wish I had done it earlier, but then earlier would not have produced these exact books! I have to trust that I timed it right. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I like your cover. That you are really happy with it is the most important thing.
Good luck in all you do. Cheers! 🙂
Thank you so much and congrats on your series! How exciting to be working on book #3 – way to go!
The best bit is that I could stop constantly reworking book 1 in my attempts to please someone – anyone – behind a desk, and actually get on with the series! It was like the cage door was opened. But then, you’ll know that yourself. 🙂
Definitely, I just took a book back from an agent that I wasn’t going to compromise on – just for the slight the possibility they might pick it up. My editor, who I trust implicitly said it was sound… and I wanted to keep the integrity of my book, so I’m doing it myself.
I think that’s great. It’s the way of the future, too, I seriously believe the publishing industry has lost the plot (if you’ll pardon the expression). They rush books on and off the shelves in an attempt to keep more books in front of the customers and sales up (for themselves, that is), but all that does is prevent word of mouth from working. So, even if you are picked up by a publisher, what’s the point if your book is pulled after only three months on the shelf? Trouble is, now they are panicking, making it all the harder for newbies and anyone with something original to get in. They are frightened now to take any risk.
I also understand it’s just as slow for authors if it’s on the shelves, and they still have to do the promotion work that we do. Personally, I like the middleman cut out of the equation, I like to have the book out there as I want it, for as long as I want it, with total control over such things, plus I get the cover I want (not so in the industry, you have to take what they give you).
All up, congratulations for standing tall and doing it your way. I really hope it goes well.
Thank you so much for commenting – what scares me most is the marketing – how to make sure the book stands out the way it needs to from all the other places out there (without breaking the bank in the process)… Being “on shelf” is not guarantee of success any longer and with bestsellers netting the authors maybe $20K in the long run, it’s simply not what it used to be. I really appreciate your comments.
That’s the tricky bit for all of us. My sales aren’t huge, they sort of trickle along, but I understand it takes time – I’ve heard at least a year before things even start (I’ll have reached my first year for my first book this coming October, but that notion seems pretty accurate so far). Book 2 for me is doing better than book 1, and I suspect that’s because readers to new authors figure that 2 books mean a better writer – hardly true, of course, yet I find I do that myself. If one unknown author has several books up and another only has one, I will tend to go for the one with several… human psychology, I suppose. Also, those liking book 1 will pick up book 2 more readily, so that plays a part.
Networking with whatever works. I prefer the Internet and blogging. I can be more myself than if I went out and tried talking to local newspapers or whatever, yet that’s an important option, too.
For me, I’m still taking it step at a time – and allowing time. I’m writing my you-know-what off to get more books out there (I’m writing a science fiction series that pushes over into occult themes to the extent of psychic perception being recognized and other dimensional beings).
I also give the first of my series away as a promotional freebie whenever Amazon allows me to – 5 days out of every three months – just to get it into as many hands as I can.
The bottom line is, different things work for different people, and marketing takes as much time if not more as writing itself does.
Personally, this is where blogging works best for me, because it’s the one avenue I really enjoy.
Sorry to waffle on so. I just wanted you to know you are not alone. Cheers! 🙂
This is a wonderful cover! And I applaud your choice to self-publish. I think you’ve made the right choice.
Thank you so much, Frank – I’ve tried for well over 10 years to find this book and series a home… it was time.
The cover grabs your attention. An author-publlisher is a wonderful thing! You can be in a position to control every aspect of your work – and carry the responsibility for it too. Independently published work no longer carries the stigma it did a few years ago. Well done!
Thank you so much James – I agree that the stigma is changing because indie authors adhere to the same, if not higher, standards than the big houses – I know very few who don’t pay for edits, proofreads and betas to make their books the best they can be. Thanks so much for commenting!
I think the world of publishing is changing too fast to sit around writing query letters and then waiting another year for someone to publish your book. In the indie world the more you publish generally leads to more sales so set those books free! Nice cover, Laura does great work and is so easy to work with.
You are so right – the idea of waiting months for a possible answer is agonizing – I can’t keep going through it over and over – it’s been 18 years since I’ve started querying and after awhile, the amount of rejections can wear on you. Books that are beta’d, edited and in series! It’s time to release them to the world. Thanks so much for commenting. Really appreciate it.
Great cover and I’m with you on the publishing biz: it all changes too fast to wait for a year or 2 years or 10 years to get someone to sniff at it. You want the world to read it? Give it to the world.
You are so right. The idea of taking my next book and going through the entire agent query process again nearly made me ill – enough – get it done right and I’ll do it myself. At some point, we must take back our lives, our work and our dreams 🙂 Thanks so much for commenting.
It’s hard to wrap our heads around the idea that the old way is rapidly becoming obsolete. But when you see traditional publishers (for their popular books no less) adapting our promotion strategies, moving in on our audiences, it suggests the playing field may be leveling out. Good luck with your upcoming release. The cover looks great! 🙂
FAB cover dahling. And you GO. Make your dream happen. Regardless of how it happens, we are the only ones who can take charge and make our dreams reality… So here I am cheering you on! XOXO
I say SCREW EM… HA HA! Ms. Cheevious in Hollywood won best unpublished manuscript in 2007 and my packaging and proposal were incredible… I had people ask for exclusives and then never a solid bite… The industry is SCARED and doesn’t know what to do… So go get ’em tiger.
I love the cover – the amulet looks like an ancient piece of art. Very cool. Being an INDIE is not a bad thing. You might be surprised – I know how much effort you expended on your books trying to hustle them when published traditionally. Imagine what it will be like when you have total control? You will have the feedback at your fingertips to know what is working and what isn’t. Good luck.
I love it Elyse! Beautiful! Congratulations!
A winsome cover–an exceptional job! Admire your courage and can-do spirit–Best wishes!
Thank you so very much for your kind words! I really appreciate it. 🙂