As I continue to work and promote this project, it seems reasonable to make the allowance that some people might actually want to contribute to the success of the books. I’d love nothing more than to produce the highest-quality materials for my readers, so if I can get my manuscripts professionally edited and properly critiqued, all the better. Moreover, I’d love to have the resources to help promote this series as broadly as possible, which again requires money.
Professional editing of a manuscript doesn’t come cheap: Createspace’s Comprehensive Copyediting Plus service runs at $.022 per word, meaning that a 100,000-word book would cost $2200 to be edited for spelling, grammar, sentence structure, continuity, and consistency. To give a better understanding, Stephanie Meyer’s original “Twilight” had 118,501 words. Her word count increased with each succeeding book until she peaked at 192,196 for “Breaking Dawn.” By those numbers, “Twilight” would cost $2607.02 to edit while “Breaking Dawn” would come at a hefty $4228.31. If you want to really cringe at potential expenses, J.K. Rowlings’ “Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix” was over 250,000 words in length.
Marketing campaigns and ala carte promotional services aren’t exactly inexpensive either. As with most things in life, you basically get what you pay for, so the more money that you can throw into advertising your book, the more people will actually see what it is you have to sell. Some companies offer “Press Release” services along with email campaigns while others specialize in targeted advertising that helps to get your book in front of the best possible audience. Createspace offers Press Release with Distribution as a service for a meager $598, and that’s just to have them write the press release for you and email it to whomever they think might be interested in your type of work. Actual advertising, such as newspaper and magazine advertisements, can easily cost you thousands of dollars depending on the size and circulation of the particular media. Radio and television advertising? You’d better have a rather sizeable checkbook for those things.
Though it all sounds very daunting and intimidating, it goes without saying that “every little bit helps.” Even a Basic Copyediting Service at $.012 per word is better than no editing whatsoever, and while Press Release campaigns aren’t the ideal for promoting a new book, they sometimes yield an interest from people that get other people talking. Naturally a winning Powerball or Mega-Millions ticket remedies all of these concerns, they seem to be few-and-far-between and I’ve not yet developed the knack for selecting winning numbers.
Considering the very limited resources that I have to work with, I’ve elected to keep the doors of charitable kindness open by selecting an alternate method of seeking backers for my writing project. Following the suggestion of the fine (and trusted) folks at PayPal, I’ve opened a FundRazr campaign in hopes of gaining some support for the first book, “I Am Skorpió.” I’ve kept the campaign goal to what I thought would be the minimal amount necessary to do something halfway-decent with the book, but if I should somehow manage to acquire more funding, I’d certainly pursue the best possible services that the money would provide.
If you want to contribute – or know of anyone else that might be interested – the link is provided here and also on the ‘Contribute’ page.
Thanks again for your support.
SKORPIÓ 