'Independently published'

[igenlode]

A neighbour's daughter has just had her children's book 'accepted' by Amazon and the mother was proudly showing a copy. Friends very impressed. Of course all this means is that she has submitted a formatted file to Amazon's print-on-demand process and had a (unmistakably self-published) paperback volume emerge automatically out of the other end. I didn't read the book itself, only got a glimpse of the binding and the opening page (plus home-brewed illustrations). It may of course be a work of talent, but the odds are against it, especially when it comes to writing for children, which people tend to assume is easier simply because the books are short...

Sour grapes on my part? Yes, almost certainly :-(

And I haven't even *tried* to get mine published; at least she has gone through the work of formatting and submission and soliciting reviews, even if only from friends and family.

Comments

[watervole]

My friend Heather has just signed the contract for her first book with a real publisher. But it won't be in print until September '25. Ghost stories are saved for the Halloween market and this year has already been planned.

[igenlode]

I hadn't pictured book releases having 'seasons', but presumably it's like the existing tradition of films being released as summer blockbusters or arty projects 'for the Oscar season'...

(I had never thought of any books as being particularly seasonal, but somebody of late seems to have come up with the idea of Christmas/summer themed chick-lit, which means that there are suddenly floods of "Under the Mistletoe" or "Cornish Summer Beach"-type titles with appropriately dedicated covers that are thus rendered virtually unsaleable and of zero second-hand value for 80% of the year!)

[watervole]

I've noticed those as well. I guess they're just like Xmas movies which have been around for decades.