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Well, ok, "poor, struggling" overstates things a bit, but if that's what got you reading this, so be it.
The success of most any new book is getting positive reviews. Getting reviews is easy for established authors, not so much for the rest of us. One way to do that is to offer Advance Reader Copies (ARC's) at no charge. The reader gets a free book to read, the author (hopefully) gets a positive review, which encourages others to buy and read the book. I can use your help. If you're willing, head over to BookSprout where you can pick up free a copy of my soon to be released "The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn". Like it or not (I think you will), I appreciate you taking the the time to post a review on any digital book site you prefer (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, etc.)
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 The concept of parallel universes gets very confusing very quickly; take a look at the Many Worlds Theory. But you don't have to go down that rabbit hole to understand the layman's explanation.
If parallel universes exist, there could be an unlimited number of you and me "living" somewhat to very different lives in them based on the choices we've made and not made. Possibly the best movie interpretation of this is Back to the Future I, II, and III. What could be more that than Marty McFly encountering himself, family, and friends, in the past, present, and future? Just as Katelyn Tarver does in a video of the same name. Raymond's story has a puzzle hidden among all the words. If you enjoy doing puzzles you will enjoy reading his story. When you assemble a puzzle you see the individual pieces, and must find how to put them all together. You don't see the complete picture until you put all the pieces where they belong. There are no physical puzzle pieces in Raymond's story, but it is a puzzle nevertheless. The pieces are the individual interactions he has with others, and none more than with Asian. What they say and do to each other, and all the other characters, becomes clear to you when you reach the end. If you read the book, read carefully, paying attention to the detail. Do that, and you will be rewarded with the ending. You will look back at what you read, saying (hopefully to yourself), "OK, now I understand!  I initially thought I would use a company in the US to produce a video blurb. The one I chose offered tiered pricing ranging from $500 to well over $2,000. I was planning to go with the $1,000 level.
But after asking questions their contact would not answer ("We can get into that after you sign up and provide payment") I looked elsewhere. So glad I did, and that I found Pranay Bhagwat. (https://fiverr.com/s/R7qz71w) If you're not familiar with Fiverr, become so. There is a lot of talent there to help you with many of the things you need to do in support of your book, video blurbs included.  How difficult is it to get a legitimate publisher to publish your book?
Each year publishers publish between 500,000 and 1,000,000 books. Not bad, right? Our books should have a shot, shouldn't they? And if not, we can always self publish. Another 2,000,000 books are self published annually. The odds of getting a legitimate publisher (a lot may be the latter while not being the former) to publish your book, or mine, is between 1% and 2%. The odds of getting our books in a bookstore, 1%.🫤 So why attempt it? Why write? ideas.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-publishing I didn't know the numbers when I began Raymond Quinn's story, but I did know the likelihood of sales success was extremely low. Still, I had the time. I wanted to see where the vague notion of a story would take me. I'm almost to the finish line ("The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn" will become available October 15). I have no regrets along with no illusions of what will happen when I do pull the publish "trigger" this fall. Keep your expectations reasonable. Enjoy the process. If only you, your family, and a few friends read your book, so be it. You've come this far, don't give up now.  Raymond's story comes entirely out of my imagination, but that's not to say there isn't a connection to a real event. The loss of a great friend in Vietnam over 55 years ago.
Myself and three friends from high school all served in the same army 1st Cavalry Division artillery battery in Vietnam. We arrived December 7, 1967. Steve was killed in action six months to the day after, June 6, 1968. Tom, Ron, and I completed our year-long tour and continue to be close friends to this day. Steve is dead, but what if life after death is "living" a completely different life in a universe parallel to the one we all know exists? How would that change what you think about love ones and friends in your life who have passed? I wish I knew. I don't but I can and do speculate using Raymond Quinn for what I'd like to think just might be. Maybe you should as well. The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn  Most of what I'm posting here is about the process of writing, publishing, and marketing a book. The first two being relatively easy, the last, confusing, difficult, and expensive.
Once published, if you decide to read my book, "The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn, great! But that's not the point. Most of these posts, this one included, are intended to provide information that may help others write, publish, and market their books. Maybe your book? That said, I don't want to completely ignore what drove me to attempt fiction. Raymond's story is somewhere between fantasy and science. He is KIA in Vietnam, but believes he is living an unhappy life 46 years later. He meets a stranger who tells him he has been dead for 46 years, and is "living" a life in a universe parallel to the one in which he was killed. Fantasy because the concept of parallel universes is, at best, just a concept. Science because one day their existence may be proved. Do I care? Not really. Science will have to hurry with that proof to beat me dying. But I can and do speculate what it would be like to encounter myself in a universe parallel to the one in which we all believe we live. Raymond is my fictional "guinea pig". I have put him in situations that may one day prove to approximate what our alternative lives would be like. It's been fun, I'm glad I attempted it, but now Raymond has become much more a part of me than I expected or wanted him to be. He's not real, dead or alive, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about him a lot, awake and in my dreams. I began his story wondering what life in a parallel universe would be like. I'll end it questioning whether I'm already in one. After a long career in marketing and strategic planning, I wrote The 7 Keys to Change: A New Approach to Managing Change to Live Better and Work Smarter. A book for people who want to see more positive results from personal and professional change initiatives. Nothing odd about that. Now I'm preparing to publish a novel about a man who is given the opportunity to visit some of the lives he would have lived had he made different choices. Who wouldn't want to do that? The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is a big leap from strategic planning. At first, I planned to publish under a pseudonym. Did I really want my clients and other business contacts to know about my fiction writing? People I trust said, "Hell, yeah!" So I started publishing updates on LinkedIn and I'm planning my book promotion. I'm going full monty as a fiction writer. Well, at least metaphorically. |
AuthorIn addition to writing, William Matthies' accomplishments include earning a lifetime ban from Catalina Island at 13, viewing Earth from 80,000 feet during a Mach 2.5 flight in a supersonic Russian aircraft, and remaining an absolute beginner after “playing” guitar for more than three decades. ArchivesCategories |
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