Unique Publishing Ideas...

dwndrgn

Fierce Vowelless One
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
3,914
Location
Help! I'm stuck in the forums!
From my email:
"According to BBC News, the tiny "dragon" supposedly found preserved in a jar in an Oxfordshire garage two months ago was a hoax conceived by would-be author Allistair Mitchell, who was having difficulties finding a publisher for his fantasy novel about dragons. It worked. In a self-described "refreshing approach to book publishing," Waterstone's has announced it will publish Mitchell's book (written under the pen name P.R. Moredun), "Unearthly History." Stay tuned for a ground swell of authorial hoaxing."
 
This obviously comes under the heading of "No such thing as bad publicity". Well, whatever works, but I just don't think I could do something like that, not even to publicize a book that I really wanted people to read. Just me, I guess.
 
I wish I had thought of it!! If only I could come up with some gimmick around my time travel novel that takes place in Victorian London...no dragons there :(

I am amassing a lovely pile of rejection letters, some from agents and some from publishers. Some say it is too short, some say it is too long. The one I received today said that I shouldn't mix fiction with fact.(I guess she never heard of historical fiction before)

I think that I will end up doing POD sometime this month. I want to put this thing behind me and move on to another project. It certainly is tough getting published and you have to give this guy credit for coming up with something unique.

Marianne
 
I don't know if this is a viable suggestion for you guys or not, but I'll throw it out there for ya.

I was reading some commentary on publishing by an author (possibly Piers Anthony, but I don't really remember, it was a long time ago) and he suggested that if you are having trouble getting a novel published, take a portion of the story and make it into a short story in and of itself and submit it to both writing competitions and magazines. If it gets noticed at the competition, that can be used in your submission letter later on and if it wins the competition, same thing. As for the magazine, if it is a story that is liked there will likely be some follow up from there.

I hope you find a publisher soon! If not, I hope your POD goes well. You'll have to let us know so that we can (or at least I) save up some money and get a copy. Once it's been read, it can be 'released' a la BookCrossing.com. As a matter of fact, someone recently was giving away a book that they had published themselves on BookCrossing. I suppose they figured they'd at least get a few readers interested and it just might spread.
 
Marianne said:
I am amassing a lovely pile of rejection letters, some from agents and some from publishers. Some say it is too short, some say it is too long. The one I received today said that I shouldn't mix fiction with fact.(I guess she never heard of historical fiction before)
What in the world was that woman who told you that smoking? That is the one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. A lot of the best science fiction and fantasy I've ever read has mixed fiction and fact quite liberally, and quite successfully. I think that if it were me receiving advice like that, even at the risk of alienating an editor, I'd shoot back a letter with a little reading list for her.:p Then again, I don't always suffer fools gladly - and that woman is a fool, in my opinion.
 
I like the way you think littlemiss - I'd probably do the same thing: create a list of very popular books/authors that include what she thought was wrong. I'd then explain to her that she may need to get out more...:D
 
Good luck Marianne! It is incredible how downright braindead people who should know better can be - you can't mix fact and fiction? Someone should have told Dickens that before he set A Tale of Two Cities in a pretty accurately-portrayed French Revolution!

As for the topic - it will all be fun until some bright spark starts thinking up ideas to promote his new serial-killer book. :rolleyes:
 
I actually had a reply to a query yesterday that asked for a couple of chapters and a synopsis...I'm gonna shoot that off today. Keep your fingers crossed :)
 
Yep, good luck...:)

As for the dragon... I didn't know that such an approach could work. I have one living in my closet, you see... or was it a demon? Whatever it is, it sure smells bad:rolleyes:... Ah, I don't remember, gotta' go and check it out;) (or clean it up:D).

Chefo
 

Similar threads


Back
Top