Book Publishing Secrets with Jörg H. Trauboth #books #bookpublishing

 

Jörg H. Trauboth, born in 1943 near Berlin, logged over two thousand flight hours as a Weapon Systems Officer Instructor in the Luftwaffe, flying PHANTOM F-4F / RF-4E and TORNADO fighter jets, and over 3000 hours in light aircraft. At the age of fifty, he left the service with the rank of Colonel in the General Staff. He received training as a Special Risk Consultant from the English Control Risk Group and served as Managing Director Germany, dealing with extortion and kidnapping cases in South America and Eastern Europe. Shortly thereafter, he founded his own consulting firm, quickly establishing an outstanding international reputation. Trauboth protected his clients with a 24-hour task force during product extortions, product recalls, kidnappings, and image crises. He was the first President of the European Crisis Management Academy in Vienna and President of the American Yankee Association.

He is known as a respected expert in the media on security-related topics. He volunteers as an emergency counselor and is a member of the Crisis Intervention Team (KIT Bonn) of the German Foreign Office. He is a private pilot, married, with two sons and three grandchildren.

In 2002, Trauboth wrote the now out of print standard work “Crisis Management for Company Threats”.

In 2016 the follow-up work was published with Jörg H. Trauboth as editor in collaboration with five authors: “Crisis Management in Companies and Public Institutions”.

Terror expert J. H. Trauboth presented his debut novel in 2015 with the Germany thriller “Three Brothers”. (Available in English). In 2019 “Operation Jerusalem” followed and in 2020 “Omega”. The trilogy is about the former elite soldier Marc Anderson and his team. With these three self-contained thrillers, Trauboth is rated by many readers as the “German Tom Clancy.” The trilogy is available as a printed edition, eBook and audio book.

His first detective novel, “Jakobs Weg” (German), followed in 2021. The highly explosive topic of “sexual abuse of children” is processed sensitively in a scenario on the Way of Saint James and at the end offers contact options for those seeking help.

In 2022, the novella “Bonjour Saint-Ex” was published (German) in which the passionate pilot Jörg H. Trauboth turns the last flight of the legend Antoine de Saint Exupéry into an exciting literary event.

Readers wanted a sequel to the Marc Anderson series. In 2023, ZarenTod – Das Ende der Präsidenten was published, a highly topical political thriller. The Russian president and new tsar, Ivan Pavlenko, suddenly shows his true face during the war in Ukraine. He wants the old Soviet Union back. The world is on the brink. The influential oligarch, Alexei Sokolov, wants to prevent Ivan’s megalomaniac plans and is planning a fundamental new beginning for Russia. To achieve this, the Russian president must be removed. But the plan goes awry. Ex-elite soldier Marc Anderson intervenes. Will Czar Ivan die? What will become of Europe? The book 8/ 2024 in English „The Death of the Kremlin Czar” is the fourth political thriller in the Marc Anderson series.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜  https://trauboth-autor.de/english/

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/JorgTrauboth

📙 Thank you for your time in answering our questions about getting published.  Let’s begin by having you explain to us why you decided to become an author and pen this book?

First of all, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share some of my experiences as a writer. I'm very glad that I don't have to make a living from this genre. In fact, I've been writing out of passion all my life. I won a few awards for it in the military. But it was only after I had finished my time as a professional soldier that I learned what is necessary to become a respected author.  I learned how to design a plot, learned different types of storytelling and how to captivate the reader. I learned more from book to book. The reviews were great, but unfortunately not the sales. That didn't set me back. A book is like a baby that wants to be born. In my thrillers, I also have the unique opportunity to create a world that is better than the previous one. And to invent people in whom I find myself. If I gave up writing, my life wouldn't be as full as it is now.

📙 Is this your first book? 

THE DEATH OF THE KREMLIN CZAR is my seventh book since 2015 and my second in English. Among these books are four thrillers of the Marc Anderson series, a thriller about child sexual abuse, a novella about the French poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and two non-fiction books about crisis management. Actually, all the books have something to do with me because good crisis management is my passion.

 

📙 With this particular book, how did you publish – traditional, small press, Indie, etc. – and why did you choose this method?

 

I am an author from Germany. So there may be differences to other countries in terms of my experiences. But I read the US book market is even more challenging than those in Europe. I was contacted by a well-known German publisher for my non-fiction book. It went easily. I got the kind of professional support you would expect. My other books were printed in the traditional way by a small publisher who also covered all the costs but had no resources for marketing. All books are available in print and as e-books, three as audiobooks. But all books have small editions to keep the risk low. When I started, my publisher and friend had a few thousand books printed. They were then stored in a warehouse and cost money. Now there is print on demand, so these costs no longer apply. But at the same time, the prices for paper, printing and the supply chain have increased so much that the process is at least as expensive. The “biggest” earnings are comparatively with e-books.

 

📙 Can you tell us a little about your publishing journey? The pros and cons?

 

You need a lot of nerve and patience as an unknown writer. Although I'm not completely unknown, I didn't receive any replies or rejections from over 30 publishers and agents. You write on the assumption that they are waiting for this very book and then - nothing. Although the reading samples, the synopsis and the other required papers were perfect. Most agents and publisher write that if there is no response after 12 weeks, the book is unfortunately not interesting. Many also want to know whether you have already submitted elsewhere. So it is frustrating.

 

On the other hand, I can see the enormous pressure agents and publishers are under. There is no more room for risky decisions, even if the manuscript is excellent. It's no longer about the good text, but only about money. I learned that my book readings in an event, for example with discussions and music, are the greatest fulfillment for me. The media also reported on this. Afterwards, however, that didn't boost sales either. 

 

I invested some money in book marketing and book fairs, but in the end had to learn that you need a huge amount of money to get noticed – for a few weeks. Only a big publisher can do that. 

With my advanced age, I am perhaps not the right person to talk about social media as a book promotion tool. One thing is clear, you can't do without social media. I am on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and LinkedIn. But one should be aware that you have to invest hours day by day to produce the best story, the best reel, the best video with the best music. And to communicate with your community. Is that what you want? I prefer to invest in social media professionals who do the most important work for me, like pumpupyourbook.com right now .'

 

📙 What lessons do you feel you learned about your particular publishing journey and about the publishing industry as a whole?

 

The best thing about a book project is the writing process itself. After that, it becomes painful. In my country, unknown authors have not a real a chance of ending up on a bestseller list without a publisher. There are more and more untrustworthy publishers who exploit the desperate situation of unsuccessful authors and publish the books in exchange for a payment system. It can easily happen that you burn €20,000 or $ without getting any readers. 

 

Overall, I take a critical view of the development of the book market. Publishers are closing, interest is now only focused on reliable bestselling authors, and the number of publications is increasing rapidly worldwide. 

 

Many young people are unlearning how to read, and superficial scrolling is dominating the brain. With AI, publishing a book will be child's play. My horror scenario: AI writes a book, guarantees the perfect style, guarantees flawlessness, does the translations into other languages, does the cover, brings the book to Kindle in a matter of minutes and thus to the global market. Together with a perfect book teaser. The result: the book market is increasingly flooded with products that are no longer backed by qualified authors. Anyone, theoretically, even someone who can barely read and write, will have the chance to become a bestselling author in the future.  The only problem is that even AI cannot guarantee sales success. But with or without AI, the book market is moving away from quality towards a big lottery. Even the Nobel Prize for Literature couldn’t prevent  that.

 

📙 Would you recommend this method of publishing to other authors?

 

 No, I wouldn't recommend dedicated authors to rely on AI, but to use AI wisely. Writing a good book yourself is an art. It doesn't fall from the sky, but has to be learned like music, painting or acting. If you then have a good story, a lot of it goes by itself. At some point, you'll be in the flow, and you have to manage your energy so that you don't exhaust yourself and the quality suffers. If you end up with a book, whether traditional or self-published, you've given yourself a wonderful gift that will live on long after you're in the ground. Everything passes. A book remains.

 

📙 What's the best advice you can give to aspiring authors?

 I wouldn't wait too long for the answer of an agent. Your lifetime is running.  The new digital world offers great advantages for unknown authors to publish a book themselves. And during writing, do not spend your time on selling. Be concentrated on your baby growing.  So don't let yourself be dragged down and hope for success. And also without the big success, you alone have created a wonderful baby. Your baby.