Shitflight, aka yet another self-publishing thread

[Aphrodite]

Oops, I mean 'Shiftlight'.

For a laugh, read the 'xtract' and look at his awesome cover.

Some things really just aren't worth publishing. But I guess good on a boy racer for actually writing a book. :rolleyes:

www.shiftlight.co.nz

[Angel]

I was suprised at how crap it wasn't, actually. He used...punctuation.

[Aphrodite]

What I was impressed with was his marketing. He made a website and posted a link on car forums.

That xtract still made me want to poke my eyes out with forks, punctuation or no.

[Jen]

Not interested in the subject matter and the writing is bland, but not terrible. It might be one of those niche markets where self publishing is the best bet.

But if I thought posting links on message boards would be sufficient marketing for something of mine, I would self-publish in a second.

[scott]

Hmmmmm, you know, I am in two minds about this.

It will obviously appeal to a niche market of racers/car enthusiasts/etc that may not necessarily value good prose over an interesting story.

Personally, the extract made me cringe, but I'm not a "boy racer" with more CC's than IQ points under my hood...

My gut feeling here is good on this guy, not for me and therefore not how I would do it, but good on him for getting it done!

[gordon]

He's definitely captured a niche market but he should have brought an agent or publisher on board before he went to the effort of finishing the piece.

here's why:

the 'xtract' is only several paragraphs long and i still skimmed it. he is too descriptive about crap i really dont care about: car functionality, etc.... if it was a graphic novel i would get to see it and thusly wouldnt have to read it.

if it was a novel novel then his editor would have cut all that crap out and made him stay with Cam for the whole race... which is where i wanted to be.

big ups and good on him for getting to the end of a crappy novel. i think that more than a few of us know how hard that really is. this guy has a passion and obviously has a story to tell... he just didnt take it down the right off-ramp.

[Jen]

But it's not easy to get an agent or editor, especially for a niche market. You can't just bring one on board. I've been trying to do that for two years with no luck.

[gordon]

I suspect its because you just dont know how to spell xtract correctly.;)

[Jen]

I suspect it's because they ask for this stupid query letter before they ask for an "xtract" and I suck at writing query letters. I had Jimmy write one for me and he did even worse than I did, which made me feel slightly better about myself, but still didn't get me an agent.

[gordon]

Query letters are a ruse. everything is a ruse.

it's all about getting to the decision maker and making them believe you have exactly what they need right now. sales baby.

Not that i have an agent... i've never written anything longer than a short story. but my job is all about influencing the decision makers.

here's the trick that always works. buy them an expensive boozy lunch. how to get them to that lunch? that bits all yours baby.

it never fails to astonish me that i can get tens of thousands of dollars of government money out of someone just cos i pick the second most expensive wine on the list. wild.