Yesterday I received an email from my publisher at Austin Macauley. Hanna is the production director and stated in the email that she sent me an application for certification to have the manuscript A Man’s Passion print ready once I read through it a final time and the signed certificate back.
With the exception of one scene in the entire book that I wished edited for clarity, it is finally ready for the printers to begin having print and eBook formats produced.
Hopefully, I will start having my finished product on book shelves in book stores very soon, hopefully before Christmas.
Yes, you could argue I already am a published author through Author house: This Life, My Life after My Stroke(2012) and Amazon Four Seasons books One and Two (2018) (2020), but this is an actual publishing house that has gone well above what those other two offered. And yes, I had to donate a financial investment to get the book started because, well it’s how the publishing world works these days. It has become a collaboration between author and book seller/publisher.
Long ago when there were only a certain number of writers, kept purposefully low by the top publishing houses, one merely wrote a great book to see it get rejected numerous time until one actually made the commitment and took a gamble the book would be a commercial success. Steven King (Carrie) is one such example, along with Peter Benchley (Jaws).
Then with the advent of digital printing and Amazon, a whole new monster was created. Now the world is saturated by people who want to write the great American novel, but aren’t very good writers, competing with very good writers wanting to be financially successful but can’t, not like before when the big five publishers dictated how many books would be printed in a given year.
I had discussions with my book club coordinators and the problem is an over saturation of the market. It has of course made it nearly impossible to become successful novel writers unless you have a niche, like a fellow writer I know who has a loyal following with the gay and lesbian community. He is extremely popular and writes books of all genres that are directed toward that segment and market.
My hope with this book that I will have to help market to sell to a wide audience is the niche that is out there comes to the surface and makes my name a household name for all my future books I wish to have published.
Jerry Schellhammer 