lastflightoftheancients

Many people (my parents included) asked me why I did not spend a bit more time and effort into marketing the work.

The answer is a bit of a complicated one.

1. The issue of cost:
I had looked into doing postcards to “market” the book to a wider audience, and the cost is upwards of $2K (AUD) and frankly I don’t have that sort of spare cash lying around. Marketing just feels like another big project and so much maintenance work needs to come out of that – that the lazy side of me said that on top of my full time job and voluntary stuff and a household to keep – I really did not want to take that on at a large-scale level. If anything I would do my own promotion small-scale, in-house.

2. A Word of Mouth Consideration:
Perhaps I’m an optimist but I am a believer in the power of word-of-mouth and to me it is a test of the quality of the work as to how far it goes without a huge push.

3. The Power of Providence:
God is ultimately the promoter and inspirer of this work, and perhaps in my human limitations, I would do a lot better to let Him do the promotions and the moving of hearts towards the book to those He intends to pick up. In that light I am not entirely worried about the success or failure of the book, but what our God will have happen will happen in due course. I do not see that it is fatalism or a letting go of one’s destiny – I have put a considerable amount of work into this piece myself according to the ability God has given me – but the outcome of such investment is not in my hands. This frees me from having to control or worry about the final result and liberates my time and energy to continue investing in lives that God has brought to me and my household.

So, there we go – let us see where the adventure takes us!

Posted in The Self-Publishing Journey

"Blue Scorpion - Last Flight of the Ancients"

A long awaited moment – the 30 copies of my project “Blue Scorpion – Last Flight of the Ancients” ISBN: 978-1-742841-71-7 has been sent to me from BookPal Australia.

From here on in, things should be quite interesting. My little “baby” is out and now it is being seen by the world for the first time.

Of course, being such an emotional and personal investment I am intrigued by how it will be received. On one hand, it feels somewhat surreal. On the other hand though, I know that its success is not in my hands – God is the one who will ultimately decide who this piece of work will impact.

I will put some more of the background in my next posts of the story, the worldview and the ideologies that have driven this story, its characters and its very setting. For now, I am just going to quietly let it see the light of day.

Posted in The Self-Publishing Journey

Every storyteller who wants their story told faces up to this one little obstacle – the Publishing Journey.

For me, the self-publishing route was a very personal one. Not only did I not want to surrender the copyright of the book to anyone else (just because the story was such a personal journey); I really wanted it done by an Australian company.

Most authors/artists would say that one must start overseas – and for a while it seemed that all the major publishing houses are in fact, overseas companies with some Australian Offices – even some of the self-publishing houses. For a while I was tempted in every direction and knocked on many doors. None of them satisfied the questions I was asking. I found a few Australian self-publishing houses but they seemed to specialise in a different sort of genre.

So I decided to jump onto the Australian Publishers’ Association website and had a quick click around – and found BookPal Australia, a Queensland-based self-publishing company that appeared to do what I needed to have done. An Australian self-publishing company with an Australian ABN Registration and registered with the Australian Publishers’ Association. That was the point at which I felt safe to proceed.

At this point my journey with them for this book is not yet over. I am still awaiting the final printing of the book, and the Media Release etc – the final stages so to speak of this initial process. I will say that my experience with the staff at BookPal have been positive overall, they were extremely helpful and quite professional to date of their handling of all my inquiries. I have received almost everything to date on time.

Waiting is always hard, and I will update this blog when things are ready. For now, I will wait patiently on the hand of the Lord.

Posted in The Self-Publishing Journey