| Hello fellow writers,
In case you're interested, I've included the abbreviated
(and recently updated) story of
my life here. Seven years ago, I was working as a freelance writer and
doing very well. In fact, I made close to $70,000 in 2000. For me,
that was a lot of money. The trouble was that I made it mostly
by doing corporate work. I wrote for television, for an Aerospace
company, technology companies, and so on. And I'm not complaining.
I enjoyed the work. But I didn't have time to work on the projects
I loved: the books and the movies. The ones I'd already written
were gathering dust, and the ones in my head had little chance of being
placed on paper.
It was my ex-husband (the father of my two daughters) who suggested
I publish my own works instead of spending any more of my limited time
fielding rejection letters from New York. Okay, I want to take
a moment here and spell this out. Yes, I got rejection letters.
But I was a successful writer. I had a Master's degree, and I was doing great. And despite
my lack of time, I had even sold three screenplays and more works
for television than I can count. So I knew
that it wasn't a problem with my work.
Then the recession happened. Since a lot of my business came
from technology companies, I was hit hard. In fact, I lost
most of my contracts, one major account went out of business, and I had to begin again. But I thought, why do
it the same way? Why not try to publish my own work and see what
happens? I began by exploring all the self-publishing sites
on the web. And I discovered that most of them, especially the
biggest, are printers first and writers never. They didn't care
what books they published, and that bothered me—a lot. Why would
I want to publish my books under an imprint that also published books
that weren't even edited for grammar? It would make me look bad.
It would put me in poor company. And it would make it very difficult
to sell my work to bookstores and libraries, who logically would realize
that books from 1st Books (now called AuthorHouse), Xlibris, iUniverse, and others of that
ilk were an iffy
proposition at best.
I explored further and deeper, and discovered that I could do what
these companies were doing. After a couple months I had figured
out how the business worked and published a few books of my own to get
myself up to speed. And you know what? It was a thrill to
get my first book back from the printer and just as big a thrill to
get back the second and the third. It didn't make any difference
to me that it had not been approved by some corporate editor.
At last, I had my work in my hands in a condition that could be shared
with others. Let's not mince words: I could sell it! I could
take it to Borders or Barnes and Noble and have a book signing.
I could send out press releases. In short, I could find my audience;
no one could stop me.
Well, as it turned out there were a few glitches back then in what should
have been a smooth process. Availability on the Ingram database
wasn't enough to ensure that bookstores could buy the book. It
turned out that returnability was a big issue with both bookstores
and Ingram. But one by one, we've knocked down the walls
separating writers from their audiences, and we'll continue to do so
because we're in this to sell books. I can't say it enough. Our setup costs are comparatively low because we're in this to sell
books. We're learning and growing, and we're still in this to sell
books. The only downside for me is that, as a publisher, I
really don't have time to write them right now.
But if you're a writer who has decided to take charge of your career,
then you're in the right place. Llumina can
help make your dreams come true.
Warmest wishes and best of luck,
Deborah Greenspan
Publisher
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