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| From a blank screen to a sales tool, writers can market themselves from within a writers' group. Photo credit | Elizabeth Humphrey |
There's this great idea that I've been on the periphery of (unfortunately, I can't claim it as my own good idea!) that you might get some mileage out of with your writers' group.
A group of women in a writers group have been polishing their prose and poetry, and passing their writing among themselves. Then they pooled their money to create a professional-looking, printed book compilation.
Because they started early enough, the group has had time to proof the PDF files and request a printed proof to check for any problems. (And have enough time to fix any problems.)
During the development stage, the ladies assigned each member of the group different duties--one collected author photos, one handled the cover designer, another was in charge of the technical specifications, and one person took care of reporting back to the book designer (in this case, me!).
Out of the dozens of self-publishing places on the Internet, the group contacted CreateSpace for printing and getting the ISBN numbers.
With the group's forward thinking, each one will have a professional sample to show an interested agent and none had to learn the technology or take on the cost solo. This way, each one can--confidently--present a professional book that shows dedication to her writing craft.
What have you done with a group that has helped market your writing?
Elizabeth King Humphrey is an editor and writer living in Wilmington, NC. She dabbles in a lot of different things, including cooking and book design.
4 comments:
What a great idea! I love the concept of writers cooperating on this type of project. Not only does each person minimize her own investment, the group can draw on the various strengths of its individual members. And in today's self-publishing environment, I would expect to see more of this type of joint venture in future.
I love this idea as well! It's a great example of writers working together to advance each other's success. Congratulations on having such a supportive group!
Elizabeth:
After the conference, will you share with us how it goes for them with this? Are they going to try to sell copies or is it all to "show" their work? Are they published in other things as well? Just curious. I haven't heard of doing this before.
My critique group started a blog. It is great because there are 6 of us and we are all busy, but we try to have at least 3 posts a week, and we are all promoting it. So, it's doing well, and it is fun to do, too.
I haven't done any marketing with a writing group, but I do like what this group has done - the whole collaboration to create a finished product - is a wonderful idea!
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