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Smart Self-Publishing
An Author’s Guide to Producing a Marketable Book
This is a revised, updated, and condensed
version of the first chapter found in the third
edition of
Smart Self-Publishing.
N
OT
TOO
LONG
AGO
THE
publishing world was
quite different from what it is today. People
wrote books—poetry, essays, and novels.
They sent their manuscripts off to publish-
ing houses in big cities, and agents, or
editors chased them down with a contract.
Advances were paid and sometimes royal-
ties followed. Unknown authors—if they
were any good—had a chance. The publish-
ing industry has changed dramatically,
though, and yesterday’s publishing success
story is usually today’s fairy tale.
This does not mean that writers won’t be
able to find outlets for their books. Certainly
some will be purchased by rights-buying
houses, but most will not. Our book,
Smart
Self-Publishing
, was written for the latter
group. Their success story may well be found
in self-publishing—especially if the actual
1
Ways to get
published