The Road to Publishing

By Dawn Brotherton

It’s a long, twisting road to publishing—don’t let anyone tell you differently. There’s no one path, and the results are as varied as the methods to get there. Before you make a decision affecting your life, you owe it to yourself to do some homework. The Road to Publishing describes options available to you from self- to traditional publishing, providing helpful hints along the way. Through exercises and thought-provoking questions, the path will become clearer. Grab your notebook and let’s get started.

Dawn Brotherton is the owner of Blue Dragon Publishing, LLC and has helped many authors realize their dream. She is an award-winning author and instructor at the Author Academy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Dragon Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Aug 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9781939696458

Dawn Brotherton

Dawn Brotherton is an award-winning author and featured speaker at writing and publishing seminars. When it comes to exceptional writing, Dawn draws on her experience as a retired colonel from the US Air Force as well as a softball coach. She has also completed four books (Trish’s Team; Margie Makes a Difference; Nicole’s New Friend, and Tammy Tries Baseball) in the middle grade Lady Tigers Series about girls’ fastpitch softball, encouraging female athletes to reach for the stars in the game they love. As a mother of two female athletes, Dawn is intent on encouraging women to “play like a girl,” which means play with determination, teamwork, sportsmanship and most of all, a love of the game. Under nonfiction, the Softball Scoresheet was created to keep score during softball games with instructions written for those not as familiar with the intricacies of the game.

Book preview

The Road to Publishing

Choose Your Path: Self, Hybrid or Traditional Publishing

By Dawn Brotherton

Review for The Road to Publishing

The Road to Publishing is a well-written, thorough account of what every author needs to know as they embark upon their writing journey. Faced with myriad challenges along the way, it can be easy for a writer to get lost in the what next questions after a manuscript is written. By following the step-by-step breakdown of how to approach the world of publishing, The Road to Publishing provides a detailed map for writers who want their book to succeed. I highly recommend it for any stage of your writing journey, from people considering writing a manuscript to writers who are ready to publish.

-Narielle Living, President, Blue Fortune Enterprises LLC

Published by Blue Dragon Publishing, LLC

PO Box 247

Lightfoot, VA 23090

www.bluedragonpublishing.com

Copyright © 2018 by Dawn Brotherton

For Smashwords

ISBN 978-1-939696-44-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-939696-45-8 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018908586

All rights reserved.

No part of this product may be reproduced in any form, without the author’s permission. Contact the author through the publisher’s website, www.BlueDragonPublishing.com.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why Publish?

Chapter 2: Your Audience

Chapter 3: What Does it Take?

Chapter 4: Don’t Rush to Publish

Chapter 5: Editing

Chapter 6: Publishing Options

Chapter 7: Query Letters

Chapter 8: Agents

Chapter 9: Publicity vs. Marketing

Chapter 10: Selling Your Story

Chapter 11: Self-Publishing Route

Chapter 12: Printers

Chapter 13: Warehouse/Fulfillment vs. Distributor

Chapter 14: Indie Publishing Route

Final Thoughts

Recommended References

About the Author

Books by Dawn Brotherton

Remember, your manuscript is your baby. It deserves to be nurtured and treated right. You shouldn’t entrust your work to just anyone without doing your homework.

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Introduction

There is so much more to writing than writing. It never ceases to amaze me how much time I spend on my writing career that doesn’t involve getting my story on paper.

There is setting up book signings, then creating the signs for it, then the pre-advertising, and, and, and . . .

Oh, but before you get to that, you need a website, and a Facebook account, Pinterest, Twitter or Snapchat. You need a following. But how do you build a following? A blog? Add it to the list.

How do you learn about what needs to be done? Research the internet, read books in your genre, read books about writing, read books about publishing, join writers’ circles, book clubs and author associations.

Where does marketing come in? Before you’re done writing or after? Or somewhere in between? What do you know about marketing? Better read more books, do more research. Maybe attend a seminar or class.

In the meantime, you need to get your cover designed, manuscript edited (multiple times) and storyline boosted. Who needs to sleep? You need to get writing!

It’s a long, twisting road to publishing—don’t let anyone tell you differently. There’s no one path, and results are as varied as the methods to get there.

My journey started as a simple quest to get my story on paper. When I was a second lieutenant in the Air Force stationed in Missouri as a missile launch officer, I had a stalker. I would delight at the reactions of my audience as I regaled them with the tale of the creepy things that can happen to a young female, working in a man’s career field, living alone, rebuilding a 100-year-old house single-handedly. After the expected ohs and ahs, my listeners would insist I write it down, some going as far as to assert there should be a movie deal on the table.

As frightening as it was at the time, my experiences don’t live up to Hollywood expectations, and I realized this. To satisfy my friends and colleagues, I put pen to paper—or hands to keyboard, as it were—setting a self-imposed deadline at the end of 2010.

Reading through the pages, where the real ending was nothing more than a permanent change of duty assignment, I recognized my life wasn’t exciting enough to share with the masses. But, after adding a few murders, the storyline took on a life of its own.

Having never done this before, I reached the end of my draft manuscript and had no one to ask, now what? Keep in mind this was 2010, and the resources for self-publishing weren’t quite as prolific as they are now.

One of my traits, sometimes positive and sometimes negative, is I have little patience. I want to get things done and move on. The book was written, so I wanted to move on to the next stage—figuring out how to get it published. Where to start? There are plenty of books, blogs, and websites that will feed you bits and pieces, but as I alluded to at the beginning, there is no ONE way to get there.

Let’s walk this path together.

I will start by saying, I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice. I am also not a tax accountant, so my biggest piece of advice is to find a good one of each.

I am a person who has written and published numerous titles. I have also published works by other authors and helped them realize their dreams. I speak at conferences, teach classes on publishing and work with schools and Girl Scouts to encourage young writers.

Now I’d like to extend my reach and help you. I would never claim to know everything about publishing. It’s growing and changing at such a rapid pace; I don’t think anyone could ever make that claim. Before you make a decision affecting your life, you owe it to yourself to do some homework.

Chapter 1: Why Publish?

You are a writer. Whether you publish or not, if you are creating a written story or poem, you are a writer.

Why do you want to publish?

You may think this is an easy question, but