Meet Scott Zema, highly educated and very experienced art, antiques, and collectibles dealer and appraiser--inexperienced at publishing!Getting my book Three Steps to Investment Success: Buying the Right Art, Antiques, and Collectibles into print has been a bigger struggle than I thought it would be. But in contrast to many authors who apparently spend years and their health trying to interest the publishing powers-that-be in trying to publish their works, I thought, after a a very short struggle--what the hell am I doing?
Let me explain.
I tried mainstream agents and one publisher, was told I had writing talent, but found that a combination of bias against the topic and a lack of interest in this specialized area--even sans any submittal on my part--seemed to doom the effort. Keep in mind that except for one feeble effort published in the early 1980's, I believe that my book is truly the only book on the topic of art, antiques, and collectibles investment in the whole corpus of published literature.
After a fairly short period of dealing with rejection, I thought--what the hey--all the tools for self publishing and promotion already exist in the computer. Not only that, but assuming as an unpublished author the IF I managed to land a contract through an agent for a book, my compensation for that initial contract would probably be in the low thousands of dollars (I make that in a few days as an appraiser), I would be in bed with several partners and have to jump through their hoops, and would receive fractional compensation on any copies sold!
So I had a website design team design my book and put it into adobe format. Then I featured my book for sale on my own website, downloadable (with a security key to prevent unauthorized internet distribution) and payable with a credit card. It certainly seems cheaper and easier than going the traditional route, and perhaps more lucrative if done correctly...
I feel that going through the internet has to open doors for authors, and that correctly done, it must prove some kind of threat eventually to traditional publishers. Anybody can publish now.
Scott Zema
Author of THREE STEPS TO INVESTMENT SUCCESS: BUYING THE RIGHT ART, ANTIQUES, AND COLLECTIBLES
http://www.arklimitedpublishing.com/
Tags: Publishing Secrets of Authors, book publishing, virtual book tour, public relations firm, blogging authors, book promotion, book publicist, Scott Zema, art appraiser
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