by Neil J. Savage

It's easy enough for 13-year-olds to whiz their way around the Internet, having grown up with it. Alas, the only thing electronic in the home of my youth -- I will be 82 in August -- was a two-party phone line.(My father once caught me surreptitiously listening to a conversation of the newlywed couple who shared the line with us, and kicked my ass!)

So it was with trepidation that I set out to publish my novel, Jonathan Baker's House on Lime Street, on the net. What followed was a series of mistakes, frustrations, small victories and ultimately, a nicely printed, attractively covered 5.5 X 8.5 paperback.

Using for the most part fellow National Writers Union members, some of whom I paid for their services, I had the book edited, a cover created, and established a website -- theliteratesavage.com (Cool!).

I first went to Lightning Source which, as you guys probably know, is in effect a printer with all the work of design, formatting and uploading done by the author-publisher, which I laboriously did, paid for by a substantial deduction from my life expectancy.

I purchased a IBSN, and being a very smart guy, bought only one instead of the ten I could have bought, the package of ten obviously costing more but less expensive by the unit. Who would ever need more than one? Me!

It seems that despite herculean efforts to make the manuscript error-free, it still contained typos and misspellings, none of which detracted from the quality of writing or the flow of the narratives, but were nevertheless distracting for those who might notice them.

I decided to produce, if you will, a new "edition" of the book, this time error-free, which meant I had to repeat the whole tension filled procedure with Lightning Source -- formatting the text, converting the cover to PDF etc since they do none of that for their clients. I decided to hell with that and switched to CreateSpace, theirs being a full service company in the creation of a book from start to finish and not just offering printing and distribution of the final product.

Since the original version was already up on Amazon.com -- and once up stays up- I cancelled my contract -- not easy -- with Lightning Source so no copies could be ordered from it. It turned out to be less laborious to sign the contract than to cancel it but after several e-mails I managed it.

The next step, whether it insults your literary sensibilities or not, is to make your book available for electronic download -- on Kindle. CreateSpace offers to do this for you for a fee, about a hundred bucks. I subscribed to that service and paid $69.00 to CreateSpace to begin the process when a fellow member of the Union informed me that I could do it myself from an available website. I did that and it was quite easy -- much easier than getting my sixty-nine bucks back, which I was told would take four to six weeks. I guess they are short-handed in their accounting department.

The next step is to sell some copies of your work so you can at least recover the money you have put out and hopefully make a profit. I established a website (a blog would do as well) where I posted a picture of the book's cover, a picture of the author (it's a wonder what you can do with PhotoShop), an excerpt from the book and the various ways it might be purchased.

Amazon offers a service where you order copies of your book sent to you, open the carton, cover up the barcodes -- don't ask me why -- and ship them back to Amazon as inventory. You don't have to take that time or go to that expense since your book is available already on Amazon and can be readily purchased.

ou are a book publisher and should act like one. If you used either Lightning Source or CreateSpace you had to choose a name for your publishing company. I choose The Savage Press, which has a certain "or else" tone to it, don't you think? You had better check to see if such a named publisher already exists. I did not, and was appalled to later find out that The Savage Press already existed in the Midwest. I wrote to the publisher to apologize, he told me not to worry. It turned out that that Savage's grandfather, as did my grandfather, emigrated from Ireland and we may be cousins!

I do not know about your city or state; but in Boston, you can, for forty dollars, purchase a registration of your business name. The next step is to open a bank account separate from your personal account, if for no other reason than ease of tax reporting. The bank I do business with offers a small business account with no fees if you make one purchase from your debit account every month. (You can buy a pack of gum.)

The next step I faced was the actual selling of the book, which really breaks down to two aspects -- electronic selling and personal selling. Selling on Amazon or other computer outlets, after everything has been set up, is pretty much out of your hands, but promotion is not.

I began by asking all my friends on Facebook to direct their friends to my website so they could learn about my book and how to purchase it if they were interested. You might consider giving those you are asking -- Centers of Influence we might call them -- a complimentary copy of your book as an incentive, which would be tax deductible.

Also, I am sending an email to everyone in my email address book -- even if I no longer have any idea who they are -- with a short description of my book (I included a PDF of the cover) and directions to my website.

Then of course, there are personal, one to one sales to your friends and acquaintances. This method is the most profitable of all. Depending on your personality, asking someone face-to-face to buy your book ranges from tolerable to onerous to the feeling of whoring. You have to have a sales pitch. I begin by asking if they read a lot. It doesn't matter what they answer, I hand them my book and say: "I just published a novel, Jonathan Baker's House on Lime Street. Perhaps you would like to buy a copy? The price is fourteen dollars and ninety five cents. I will autograph it for you." A surprising number of men have said: "I don't read much, but my wife does." Ah, gold! "I think your wife would really enjoy the book. How would you like for me to sign it?" Before your prospective buyer hands over any money, most will turn the book over several times to experience the feel and the look of it. An attractive cover and a well-written synopsis of its contents on the back cover is most important and you want to put your picture there as well.

The sales material you will carry with you -- four or five books, self-addressed envelopes to give to people who do not have the purchase price on hand so they can send it to you, and change -- if the book cost $14.95 you want to have several five-dollar bills for change if you are given a twenty. (A surprising number of people gave me a twenty and told me to keep the change!)

Make lists of people to call on -- from your neighborhood, your old neighborhood, alumni book etc. Don't ever leave the house without your sales material. You will inevitably run into potential sales in the supermarket, at the gas station, waiting for a commuter train. Be shameless! I was showing a friend my book at the back of my church after the 5:15 Mass one Sunday. She wanted to buy a copy and when she was handing me the money, the Pastor, Monsignor Kelly, came up and reminded me of the passage in the New Testament where Jesus drove the money changers out of the Temple!

You have written a book! Many people go through life always wanting to do that but never do. There is yours! You can hold it, savor it. And you will sell some; some people will buy it and enjoy it. And buy my book: www.theliteratesavage.com .