On The Horns Of A Literary Dilemma

By Author: Billy Alexander
Total Articles: 35
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About three months ago I finished writing my first manuscript. The next step was to have it proofread and copy edited which took a further three weeks and left me balanced precariously upon the Horns of a dilemma.
Should I approach a Literary Agent when it was ready, a scary thought indeed, or should I go by way of an eBook?
I sat, for what seemed like hours with the Writers and Artists' hand book staring me in the face, and I, staring vacantly back at it. Even though I had selected, and book-marked all the most likely Literary agents who might, or might not decide to take a look at my manuscript, I somehow felt convinced or rather; had been convinced, by most of the negative material I had read on the subject that, as a new writer without a track record, I didn't stand a chance in Hell!
I never did send off that first letter...
So e-Book it was, and putting it all together kept me extremely busy. There were the manuscript to convert to an e-book friendly format, in this case a mobi file for Amazon Kindle which didn't present much of a problem as the Internet listed dozens of people who would do the conversion ...
... for around $50, but would it be done right?
If the original manuscript, written on a word document in my case, was not put though all the correct stages of conversion; by someone who knew exactly what they were doing, the results would be catastrophic! And so I widened my search to; Professional file conversion required for word document manuscript, mobi, Kindle.
Then there were the e-book publishers and distributors to find and study, cover image designers to engage; because contrary to the popular belief, that "one should never judge a book by its cover... " It's a lie, they do!
The importance of a good, eye catching and interesting cover design for an e-Book is, I believe of paramount importance and, if you have to part with your hard earned money to get one then do it, because as I remarked earlier; today's e-book readers do judge a book by its cover, believe me.
The fact is that e-Book publishing is labor intensive, and I was obliged to spend an enormous amount of time on the internet just learning the basics. The do's and dont's, of self publishing the, who to talk to and who not to, regarding e-books, the list was endless. I can assure you it's taken a steady hand to navigate this far across the sea of confusion, but finally it was published, and what a relief that was!
The rush didn't end there either. Once you're up and running you suddenly find out you have a zillion new questions to ask and it all begins again, but quite soon, before you even realize the change in you demeanor, from one of an anxious and sometimes indecisive writer, to that of a, happy, positive and proud published author, you wake up one morning and guess what. You're on your way!

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