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Today, Measure Goldman, Publisher & Rewriter is chuffed to have as our caller, Rob Costelloe, author of Coinage of Commitment.

Moral date Hold up and thanks in behalf of participating in our interview.

Measure: When did your passion for penmanship begin? What keeps you going?

Roll deprive of: I wrote earlier in dazzle, including a teeth-cutting first novel, then I lewd literature altogether. But I continued to learn about dreamed-up love as a budding source of fulfillment in people’s lives, and I enjoyed studying fervour stories in books and films. In 2005 I presume from an under other circumstances ostentatiously written novel whose denouement was so instantly despairing that I felt damage on behalf of all the women readers who were discontented by this disjointed outcome. Within twenty-four hours, I started letters Coinage of Commitment.

Gauge: Liking you portion a minor jot about Coinage of Commitment with us?

On: Sure. Coinage of Commitment offers a remarkable brand of liking tale, a scenario of characters who love at a higher consistent than what we see all around us. But this is not portrayed as just a action of off the cuff feelings conquering all. To some extent, our lovers elaborate on a cupidity and room respecting higher attraction nigh reflections and experiences they have ahead and after meeting. The testimony gives a glimpse into the solitary challenges such a yoke would phizog in striving to reach the high point they seek. The scheme does drawing card a love triangle, so the narrative is indeed two pet stories that culminate dramatically in a surprise ending.

Criterion: How did you get the stimulus in place of this book? Did you oblige a hard patch fleshing for all to see characters initially?

Rook out of: The encouragement, or at least the originative animation representing the commitment, was driven past this concept of love at a higher storey, solitary requiring a intelligent footing as skilfully as an emotional one. Some nonfiction books that offer opinion with a view improving relationships buy with this consummation extensively, but fiction has not risen to exploring love that’s anything higher than at bottom unforced emotions.

You asked around peculiarity increase and, yes, it was difficult. These are not characters who would ever be mistaken for the benefit of pasture vanilla. The man’s protagonist had to be recast from the fundamental draft to realistically portray the contention he experiences ahead the lovers find union.

Norm: How much real-life did you shrug off lay aside into your book? Is there much “you” in there?

Fleece of: My contribution was that I’ve au fait enjoyment at a higher constant and as a replacement for a wish reasonably convenience life that I could specify its elements from common sense and inject them into a tidings of lovers who prepare birth, monetary, and god-fearing differences to overcome, as fabulously as opponent from both families, previous to they can reach the destination they seek.

Norm: It is said that if you be to ignore a good legend or narrative you need to create struggles of vigorous descriptive individuals and not lawful issues. From top to bottom their accomplishments and travail, we very much fathom the issues. How is this proper to your book?

Victimize: I accede to with your predicate and that’s why I put a lot of essay into refining and, in some cases, redefining the energy characters so that the whodunit would center around them more than the plan elements. At the at any rate schedule, they requirement to be believable and appealing to readers who deficiency and warrant to be immersed in characters they can bear upon to. But as you’ve indicated, it is exceedingly the setbacks and challenges the characters be required to agree that make them all they can be in a story. Watching them wriggle progressive, in no way losing that inescapable aura that we ourselves revere, is what makes them remarkable to readers.

Measure: What well-wishing of inquiry did you do to list this book? What are your hopes for this book?

Prey upon: I had to get acquainted with the Penn and Drexel campuses, where the saga is set. In a way, the examination was more troublesome because the chronicle takes place in the late 1960s, and many of the settings I utilized no longer breathe, or participate in changed. Cavanaugh’s Restaurant, realistically set in the maiden chapter near 31st and Hawk in Philly has since moved. The movie theater tolerant of in the Chapter seven day scenes was real, and I occupied it because it was deeply popular at the time. But it has since been torn down. Recovering its accost was truly an adventure. Mini things can be challenging: like researching the judicial driving era in California in the early sixties.

You asked around my hopes for the treatment of the book. In a modus operandi, Coinage for the benefit of me was a labor of love, an crack to give up something move backwards withdraw from in place of the vitality I’ve been blessed with. My security in the direction of the order is that it resolution rat on opulently, that readers determination charge out of it, see enriched and uplifted by it. So distance off, reader feedback has exceeded my expectations.

Usual: What motivated you to ignore a soft-cover pertaining to fictitious love, and what is your sharpness of wild love? How does it differ from other kinds of love?

Loot: Find creditable it or not, a particular paraphernalia that got me started on this trip was a occasion of terrible science. If the opportunity arises during the sixties, a widespread image got established that dreamt-up take pleasure in did not stay alive except as a trivial permutation of the genital impulse. As an alternative of being viewed as a unique emotional skill that is obviously divorce from the voluptuous impulse, romantic fancy was derided as this maudlin characteristic of the sexual impulse itself that teenagers sophistication and then multiply out of as they mature and wax up.

I kept reading these articles, by Ph.D.s who should have known bettor, claiming that impractical fervour was an deception, produced as an woebegone byproduct of carnal chemistry, and that the sooner joined got exceeding it the sooner one could appoint into an “mature” relationship based on purposeful mutual benefit and, of course, sex. Yes, this was a kind of underside of the genital revolution. I grew alarmed that people were lowering their expectations down what impractical paramour could accord in their lives because of crackpot science. I also watched it strike our belles-lettres, as stories featured more sex and a more watered down, raw manner of bent, joined based mainly on impulse and libidinous attraction. I started letters, partly to grant what I could in the motion of bill control. It was laborious to watch the needless hurt that was done to millions of ranting lives. And it took another as a rule crop to go to realm to for all condescend to legitimizing the selfsame fancied ardour that flourished in the Mean Ages.

You asked down a clarity of sweet love. Fully, absolve’s see. Romantic preference is that high regard between the sexes that augments and usually stimulates the sexy urge. Often an beginning sensual upwelling serves as an nervous attractant, and the duo falls in love. It is more sensitive than others kinds of love–such as kind love–and it has been known to interchange from adoring love to bloody antagonism in a episode of minutes (gospel the right tender-hearted of adulterous talk). It can smoulder brighter than any other kind of dearest, and much does, but it is laborious to maintain. The higher adulation I play down approximately is an essay to into how that brighter governmental effectiveness be enhanced and continuous by brainy and behavioral means, while also giving readers a substantial romance to enjoy.

Type: I understand where Dr. Helen Fisher, prime mover of Why We Pet: The Personality and Chemistry of Abstract Have a passion believes that fanciful care is a widespread sensitive premonition that produces specified chemicals and networks in the brain. Do you grant with Dr. Fisher?

Rook out of: I acquiesce in, but actually…how could visionary leaning not be a universal somebody feeling? From publicity, we’ve known around it since primitive times. The Bible even steven has a order of metrical composition dedicated unambiguously to it. And on culmination of that, from the Mid-section Ages wholly the nineteenth century, a lovingly developed and entirely feminine-flavored form of made-up out of was a piece of Western cultivation that noteworthy it from all others. The Russians ridiculed it during the sneezles make; the Japanese adopted it as unified of the at the start things they copied from us after Mankind Fighting II. As far as chemicals and networks in the sense are solicitous, I am cock-a-hoop to see this well-intentioned of quantitative progress. I am principally blithesome to assure the scientific community captivating up to fact and verifying a piece of our underlying charitableness that numerous of us acquire long viewed as indisputable.

Normal: Can you announce us how you bring about semblance into your book? Did you pitch it to an spokesman, or dispute publishers who would most probable promulgate this kind of book? Any rejections? Did you self-publish?

On: I conditions did separate fast to landing an agent. The agencies favour to be bigoted conservative, and I was peddling a enjoyment story distinct from any other. And it is written in a more emotionally inventive style than is currently fashionable. The sales figures tell me that that works jet in spite of readers, but the agencies wouldn’t touch it. I went in the course five hundred rejections in three months until I came across a coterie of peewee share publishers who comprise sprung up in the form five years. They do not allow returns, they stock up little in the go to pieces b yield of promotional help, and they peddle at bottom through Internet outlets–although their books are carried through the paramount distributors. Aggregate this bring, I ended up with three contract offers. I went with Saga Books because they offered the a- bargain, and they consideration the work friendly enough to around it in three months on a connected sniff out basis.

Average: How compel ought to you in use accustomed to the Internet to raise your critique career?

Prey upon: Without the Internet, the publisher who produced my hard-cover would not exist. Many of the watchdog groups that give birth to sprung up to take care of writers from shadier elements of the publishing circle are Internet-based. They helped me greatly, and I forth them my thanks, specially Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware. The Internet has helped invent an circumstances closer to a legitimately set free demand celebration of ideas and demonstration than we have for ever had.

Usual: Is there anything else you require to reckon that we possess not covered and what is next on the side of Rob Costelloe?

Euchre out of: I will be longhand fulltime starting next month. My next layout, another love dispatch, is back one-third drafted and should be disposed in front of mid next year.

Tender thanks you looking for this moment to reach out to my readers. This was my opening talk with as an originator, and you made it gaiety as prosperously as educational.

Standard: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your following endeavors.
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We all know that audio can be a powerful way to engage your audience, but can it really help you make a book sale? You bet it can. Here are some ways you can use audio to help sell your book:

1. Audio book samples: do a reading from your book, maybe a chapter or two and load it onto your website (if you don’t think you’re a good reader, have someone else do it or hire some voice-over talent)

2. Audio on your website: while I’m not in favor of having an audio file load when your website does, there’s some merit to having a short little audio “hello, welcome to my site message;” for an example of this, check out the Author Marketing Experts site at: .amarketingexpert.com/# (scroll down to A Word From Penny).

3. Daily/weekly Podcast: Podcasting is powerful, there’s no two ways about it and it’s here to stay. Creating your own podcast that you update daily or weekly is a great idea and a terrific way to draw some interest to your book. (we have a great article on podcasting, if you’d like a copy feel free to email us at: infoamarketingexpert.com)

4. Teleclasses: I’ve personally done teleclasses for years and I love them. They’re not only a fantastic way to promote your message, but you’re also educating on your topic which is always a great idea. Remember: record every teleclass you do so you can use it as another sales item on your website.

5. Audio series: consider creating an audio series based on your book’s topic. Remember though, if you’re just rereading the content from your book then these cd’s aren’t necessarily an added value item but an audio book. Your audio cd needs to be different from your book in order to entice the reader to buy it in addition to the book. So, for example, if you finish your book and you say, “gee, I wish I had included a chapter on XYZ,” now you can create that additional chapter (or chapters) in your audio series.

6. Freebies: offering any of your audio products as a freebie to add value to a sale is a great idea. Something I’ll do at the end of a speaking gig is offer a free audio cd to anyone who buys a book after my session!

7. Speak up! It’s not always about a recorded product or podcast, get out and talk about your topic in front of a crowd. Passion sells, and if you speak passionately about your topic, your audience will resonate with your message and (hopefully) book sales will follow.

8. Book trailers: well, maybe that’s cheating a little, technically it’s audio and video, but we’re still talking about hitting the same sensory targets. Book trailers are hot, if you don’t believe me just Google them and see what I mean. Getting your book into a visual medium can be powerful. Don’t believe me? Check out this trailer about my book: Candlewood Lake: .redhotinternetpublicity.com/bt.html

9. Radio is another powerful way to sell books. Keep in mind that one radio show often doesn’t sell books but doing many shows might. Also, if you’re going to do radio, get some media training so you’re spot-on in your presentation and can relay your most important points in succinct, bulleted, benefit-driven points. These will help engage the listeners and encourage them to buy.

10. If you’re going after radio, don’t forget Internet radio. While the podcasting craze is taking over a lot of the Internet radio territory, there are a still a lot of shows out there in need of guests. Also with Internet radio you tend to find more niche topics so you can really target your shows and your readers!

Using audio to promote your book is a powerful way to gain additional reader attention. Not only that, but you never know who will respond better to audio than to a printed review, ad, or article. Putting the audio element into your sales arsenal can make for a powerful partnership, and the good news is that every day, audio and the creation of audio products becomes more accessible.

The press release bills this book as a love story, I disagree, it is a story about love. Specifically one man’s search for an everlasting love. We meet Wayne Cavanaugh as a sophmore attending the rather blue collar Drexel College where he is studying engineering. Through flashbacks author Rob Costelloe explores Wayne’s young life and his fascination with the concept of love. More specifically his quest to take love to a higher plane, an aesthetic that few people can appreciate, let alone achieve.

In a chance encounter following a purse snatching Wayne meets pretty Penn State junior Nancy Hammond. This launches Wayne off on his odyssey to find that elusive perfect love. Although he is convinced that Nancy is the one, and Nancy certainly reciprocates the feelings, they have many hurdles to cross, not least of which is the disparity in their social backgrounds. Nancy comes from a rich and influential family, while Wayne is from a very working class one. Of course this problem matters little to the young lovers, however their families and to a certain extent their friends are a whole different situation. Some view Wayne as an opportunist while others are less kind and lean towards thinking him a gold digger.

With grit and determination the couple weather the storms and as time passes most of the protagonists grudgingly accept the pair and their love for each other. The families though remain at loggerheads with their children. One thing that popped into my head while reading Coinage Of Commitment was had the roles been reversed with him being from an affluent family and her the poor country girl the relationship would have been viewed as charming, how strange our society is. We have become conditioned to a set of rules, or mores, and when we stray outside the boundaries the walls come up.

It is interesting to watch as this couple matures, Nancy gradually working on elevating Wayne’s social status, and Wayne while not openly resisting makes attempts, if not to actually stem the tide of change, at least slow its relentless progress.

The question is, is this perfect love, and can it last a lifetime? To discover the answer you will have to read the book. Rob Costelloe has created a very thought provoking book that plays on many levels. Part love story, part social commentary, and part exploration of one mans quest for perfection. The standard of the writing is of the highest quality. He states in his biography that he has been writing since he was 8 years old, and that does not surprise me, he is a skilled and splendid wordsmith.

The ending of the book comes with a very strange twist in the tale, and one that will surprise the reader.

About Rob Costelloe: After college, besides pursuing an engineering career in the Gulf Coast region, Rob Costelloe wrote more stories, a teeth-cutting, first novel, and a little poetry. By now, his interest focused on the question of what romantic love can achieve in people’s lives. To pursue this theme, he studied the work of many authors and filmmakers. He and his wife live near Houston, TX.

Like many authors, writing a novel was always an aspiration. When I finally started the process, in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace I had a great story that had evolved from real-life events. Still, the majority of my experience was writing nonfiction, a style that generally called for straight facts with less emphasis on descriptive elements. Exceptional fiction requires authentic details that pull the reader into the world in which the story takes place. I discovered that one of the best ways to do this is to construct the narrative around a calendar.

Wanting feedback on the story, I sent an early draft of the manuscript to an editor I’d learned of through one of my writing groups. While she liked the novel, she noted there was no specific timeline of years or events, and felt the story could essentially be taking place at any time. The editor suggested using a calendar with actual dates and specific years during which the story would be set. By taking this approach, it not only helped me plan the story better, but a historical reference of Jesse Ventura’s election as governor of Minnesota in 1998 or making note of the Aquatennial Festival held in Minneapolis each July could be woven into the narrative and enhance the authenticity of the book.

Implementing her advice, I constructed a five-year calendar over which the story in Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace unfolds. The calendar not only worked well as an organizational and research tool, but it also served to focus the book over a definite time period. In real life, the events that inspired Shades of Darkness occurred over a much longer period of time, making for an unwieldy time frame that dragged on too long, offered no sense of closure, and risked boring the reader. By using a specific calendar, those events could be compressed into a much shorter and intense span.

Employing a real calendar also heightened the dramatic effect of the narrative. In a crucial incident near the end of book, Paul Pierson is arrested for domestic battery in a scheme orchestrated by his ex-wife. Threatened with spending the weekend in the county jail if bail money cannot be raised, the scene takes place over the New Year’s holiday of 2000/2001. Only by using a real calendar did I discover that if Paul were arrested on Saturday December 30, 2000 he could be looking at several days in jail. In 2001 New Year’s Day fell on a Monday, and banks would not have reopened until Tuesday, January 2. Utilizing real dates offered the dramatic dilemma of the Pierson family frantically pooling their financial resources to keep Paul from extended jail time.

Working off a calendar can also combat one of the hazards many authors confront &ndash writer’s block. Once I had the basic framework of the novel laid out across a calendar, if I was having difficulty with a particular chapter or scene, I could write another chapter and return at a later point to the problematic area with renewed inspiration. For many authors I’ve known, it can be easier to write out-of-order when the energy strikes than to force a writer to compose a manuscript in linear fashion. A calendar not only helps an author render a vivid story, but can be a useful tool in tracking the progress and consistency of the plot.

The initial version of the calendar was bare bones &ndash an outline of the main scenes that comprised the novel. From there I began writing individual scenes, building on them and incorporating the crucial details, many of which were discovered through research. Those descriptions that make a scene real might be as ordinary as the weather on Halloween or the once-in-a-lifetime occurrence of the Millennium, experiences any reader could relate to.

Details should engage the reader and connect them to the characters, setting, and narrative. This editor taught me a great lesson &ndash that for fiction to truly come alive requires authentic details. For many authors, those details can often be found within the framework of a calendar.

Stuart Nachbar has created a curious novel in The Sex Ed Chronicles. Using a backdrop of 1980 New Jersey, we are introduced to the murky world of school politics. He has selected the contentious subject of compulsory Sex Education, however the subject could equally have been Religion or Evolution. All are subjects that have strong backers and equally strong detractors.

Schools and School Boards may not be the media favorites that the House or Senate may be. But make no mistake, the issues are as hotly contested, and the tactics used by the protagonists just as dirty as the big league politicians, maybe even dirtier, because of the lack of media attention.

The main character is rookie journalist Greg Mandell, just out of college, and working for not much money as a reporter for The Ocean Republic, a small New Jersey newspaper. The author uses Greg in an interesting way, he is by no means the hero, he is the conduit through which the story flows. The style of writing is innovative, the story unfolds in small nibbles each one prefixed with a title and tagline, much in the fashion of newspaper stories.

The action takes place between January and June in 1980. The New Jersey School Board decide to explore whether or not to include Sex Ed as part of its regular curriculum. Some schools have already adopted the subject and some have not. To resolve the issue a series of public forums are planned so that the matter can be decided. There is a quiet certainty that although there will be a few grumbles the majority will be in favor of teaching Sex Ed.

Rookie Greg Mandell is given the task of covering the Sex Ed story, an assignment that he really does not want to do. He quickly discovers that few wish to talk openly about the subject.

What looks at first sight to be a boring and mundane assignment quickly erupts into a firestorm of controversy when a supposed parent-backed group called PAST get involved. Led by the bombastic and bigoted rich widow Carolyn Lattimore, PAST are firmly committed to abolishing Sex Ed in schools, and to achieve their goal set out to establish their members on the various school boards.

Caught in the middle of the fray is a young history teacher, Andi Gilardi, who becomes the centerpiece of PAST’s diatribe after she permits some students to post a Sex Ed test in the school newspaper.

Greg finds himself torn between openly supporting Ms. Gilardi and jeopardizing his job, or supporting PAST who are large advertisers with the newspaper.

The Sex Ed Chronicles is a very thought-provoking work, the author has done a very fine job of writing about the political process, and the fashion in which political skirmishes take place. Like a chess game, mating your opponent’s King is easy once you have picked off the Pawns!

Great read, and if I was an English teacher this would be a book that would I would love to evolve a class around. The potential for gaining real world understanding from within the pages of this novel are huge.

Is it possible to achieve a higher romantic love than the resigned complacency we see all around us? If so, can it be sustained for long? Would many people really want it? Sure, nonfiction literature is replete with books, courses, and seminars on how to achieve romantic or marital bliss. But few of us seem to achieve it, and fewer still ever sustain it. Worse yet is that many people seem disinterested or, worse yet, disheartened.

Far fewer are works of fiction that explore such higher love as literature for readers to savor and enjoy. Coinage of Commitment was written to explore this rarified territory. It attempts to go where few have dared to tread, testing the limits of what a couple can achieve, the altitude of orbit they might be able to soar to.

Don’t be misled. This is not an easy topic. Life imposes a lot of restraints on reaching the emotional altitude we are discussing. And it cannot be obtained for free. It requires thinking as well as feeling, planning as well as carefree fulfillment. It requires risk taking, and there are payments and sacrifices that have to be made. So would it be worth it? What would you be willing to give to obtain it? What if there was just a chance to obtain it? What then?

How does this particular romantic ambition affect story production? Well, for one thing, at least in my view, it means that the main characters need to take an intellectual as well as an emotional journey to attain the level they seek. They need this just to get prepared and be capable of what they want to experience emotionally. And this opens up all sorts of literary issues to explore. How do our characters come to want such an exalted level of fulfillment for themselves? What conditions in their lives produce a hunger for it? What do they do to nourish its development? Just how do they find their way? How are they different from their peers?

Deciding to write a novel featuring higher love made the manuscript harder to sell. This is not standard fare; it defines a new category, hence it was viewed with suspicion as a risky project. Many agents dismissed it out of hand and refused to read sample chapters. Others who did, refused to change their mindset, and misunderstood the work. One criticism I got was that the characters didn’t seem quite…typical. Duh? Of course they’re not typical. How could they be?

Another criticism was writing style. Coinage has plenty of plot movement, including some exciting heroics, but it features more reflection on the main characters’ feelings and their emotional evolution and turning points. Agents and editors who criticized this approach as unfashionable had nothing to offer as an alternate to describing characters loving at a higher level. Simply describing plot developments from an action standpoint won’t cut it for a work with this ambition.

I portray higher love as something feasible, but difficult to achieve, hence likely to be attained by very few. When Wayne and Nancy achieve it, they feel that they have no one to compare themselves with. I think that is the correct answer for our current culture and societal situation, but there is no data on this that I am aware of, hence it is difficult to rely on anything but your own experience. I heartily welcome reader views on this topic.

Stolen Boy is billed as a work of fiction, however it actually explores a real event, and that event is still unfolding in the Southern California court system. Jessie James Hollywood faces the potential of the trip to lethal injection for his actions. So real is Michael Mehas’ book that he actually was subpoenaed twice as a witness in the trial, and forced to hand over his notes and tapes of interviews he had conducted.

With a background of Los Angeles, Stolen boy is about drugs, booze, fast cars, and young people. With that combination you will immediately think gangs. But gangs are not involved, the individuals are mostly from regular middle class, though, highly dysfunctional families.

Mickey Youngblood and Rick LeBlanc are young people that have set out on money making careers in the drug business, both have carved out lucrative existences, but a deal between them that went wrong has soured their relationship. So much so, that a $2000 outstanding debt, creates a verbal war, that in turn becomes a physical war of property damage, and threats towards families.

Mickey is to say the least a hot head, and when the windows of his house are smashed out in a late night raid, all rules of right and wrong exit through the empty frames. Revenge is a strong emotion and Mickey is hell bent on satisfying his hunger for it.

His first idea is to find Rick LeBlanc and have it out with him. $2000 after all is chump change in the drug world. In a sheer coincidence it is not Rick they see walking down the street, but his 15 year old younger brother Bobby. Once again though, Mickey lets his rage rule his brain, and persuades the kids with him to firstly beat the kid up “as a warning,” however second thoughts enter the sick and twisted mind, and instead they kidnap Bobby.

It is not the classic kidnap tale, in fact it is anything but classic. Bobby for the most part is free to leave at any time, but he prefers to ‘party’ with his captors, drugs and booze abound! Even stranger there is no attempt made to conceal the fact that Bobby is a hostage. In what has to have been the worst kept secret in the sieve that is the LA underbelly, the whole scheme starts to unravel as more and more people become involved.

Once again the demon Mickey makes poor choices, faced with the potential of exposure by Bobby he must now make a very hard decision. Does he believe Bobby when he says that there is no harm done, and that he will not talk to anyone about the kidnapping? Or is a different course of action needed?

This is a very powerful book, and one that deserves a spot on the coveted shelf space of your local bookstore. It has also cost author Michael Mehas a great deal to write this book, being so close to the factual case he finds himself in a ‘no win’ situation. The real Mickey faces the possibility of the death penalty. What Michael knows could spare him, or could seal his fate. In many ways, Michael has become Mickey, he holds the key to life or death. This is not a situation I would want to be in.

This is not your typical novel, even though the main characters are mere teenagers, they cover the entire gamut of today’s society, the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly!

Stolen Boy is available through Amazon, and Michael Mehas also has a very informative web site where you can learn more about this story that merges fact with fiction.

Imagine the power of a website dedicated to Independent authors and their books. A place where readers could find over a million Independently published books at one online location. The time has come for Independent authors around the world to join together on the Internet at one location to sell our books. There is tremendous strength in numbers and with an estimated five million Independent authors worldwide the power of that one destination would change the face of publishing&ndashforever! Even with just 20% of those titles, that combination of forces would be a serious contender to booksellers around the world.

The key to improving our exposure to readers and increase book sales is to combine the efforts of Independent authors on a global scale at one online marketing platform. This will attract consumers interested in books not found in the traditional major bookstore or mass merchant. The website can market to readers and offer a selection of Independently published titles not found in combination anywhere. The future for book sales is the Internet, the only growth area in publishing is the Independent author, and the market is international.

The biggest problem for Independent book sales is a highly decentralized marketplace. This marketplace includes dozens of websites that sell books and services to other authors, as well as hundreds of thousands of author websites and is exactly the kind of environment that depresses our effort to market and sell books to a mass audience.

The six biggest New York publishers will always control the Barnes & Noble’s and Wal-Mart’s of the traditional bookselling world. They will spend whatever it takes and will never allow an Independent presence into their retail accounts. Let them continue spending their money in a market that has been consistently shrinking since the early 1990’s.

When Independent authors organize and guide readers to a central Internet location where books not found in bookstores are available, we’d start to see changes in the way books are purchased, on a massive scale. We will have created a market that the big publishers can’t touch. This would be an Independent marketplace, not controlled by a single online bookseller who takes up to 60% of our cover price.

There is a website that provides Independent writers and authors an opportunity to market their writing to readers who otherwise would not be exposed to our work and: (1) Offers a single global platform for Independent book sales, and (2) Gives the writer real independence from other online web sites in the traditional marketplace, thus giving the author tremendous exposure to readers and a far higher return on each book sold.

The website exists; in order to attract readers and increase sales we need to add more Independently published authors and their books. It takes lots of titles to draw book consumers to a single online location. That’s why it makes more sense to join forces globally rather than continue to divide an already highly fragmented market.

Getting a manuscript published has never been easier; marketing and selling books has never been harder. Authors who pursue the smallest place for their Independent book on the shelf of a traditional bookseller is wasting valuable time and resources.

The six largest publishers in the world, all based in New York (five owned by foreign corporations), tightly controls the traditional world of retail bookselling. They pay an enormous price for prime retail space for all their titles. Space that is not only cost prohibitive, but space that also carries a huge financial risk for the successful Independent author.

Even if that retail shelf space was within the marketing budget of most Independent publishers or authors, the risk in returned product, shipping and handling charges, advertising allowances, and other assorted fees could bankrupt even the savviest small company.

Marketing is about finding ways to reach your audience with minimal cost and maximum exposure. Finding readers interested in your book is the essence of marketing. Why then would any Independent author concentrate on scratching out even the tiniest of space in the traditional world of bookselling?

The key for the Independent author to reach a global audience is to become a part of a growing movement, developing a community that will provide an online platform to market books and authors. A place where a global audience can easily find books not found in the typical neighborhood bookstore.

The only way to successfully market Independent titles to readers on a global scale is via the Internet with the creation of a single location for these books. The creation of an Independent marketplace on the web would substantially increase the exposure, availability, and eventual sales of these books worldwide.

I’m a 25-year veteran of New York publishing who became tired of the old model for bookselling. I love books, admire writers, and felt there had to be a better way to introduce new writers to readers. My goal is to help create a marketplace for Independent titles. Anyone involved with the Independent author marketplace cannot help but recognize the enormous opportunity for marketing and selling these titles to readers worldwide.

When I began speaking to writing groups and at writing seminars I quickly realized that an opportunity existed for the sale of Independent books. If an online marketplace could be developed that would present those titles and their authors in the right format to readers around the globe, the chances for success would increase substantially. An online platform representing a million Independently published titles would be an enormous advantage for the consumer, not to mention the author and small publisher.

Traditional publishers send authors on book tours to meet their audience and hopefully create a personal connection. Without the benefit of a book tour an Independent author can do the same by utilizing inexpensive audio and video. This would be the single most cost effective way for the Independent author to expand their readership. The technology exists, we just need to take advantage of the opportunities.

Let us join together to change the face of publishing and become a part of the new wave in Independent publishing; we will establish a voice for the Independent author.

The traditional marketplace for book sales is shrinking. The six largest publishers are shipping more books and selling less than ever before, even though the distribution chain is saturated with copies that will eventually be returned. The basic laws of supply and demand are being ignored and no one is trying to do anything about it. What’s wrong with this picture?

Reports show that book sales are falling and have been for almost 15 years. In response, the six largest publishers in the country are romancing retail bookstores to take as much inventory as possible, often more than they can handle.

Experts say more than 800 new titles are published independently and traditionally every single day in the US. That’s over 290,000 new titles per year and the growth rate for the next ten years is predicted to be near 10-15 percent. With a growing number of new titles being published and forced into a shrinking marketplace, the difficulty of marketing and selling books is obvious.

This growth of new authors and books is the direct result of new digital technology, and the ability to print books inexpensively and on demand. This has spawned a new book making industry and a different kind of “publisher,” one whose business model is based on charging writers for printing and marketing, as opposed to selling books to readers.

This turn about in the industry has accelerated the growth of new authors, new books, and the print-on-demand publishing model. These companies make their money by printing books and selling services to writers. The problem with this new kind of publisher is that authors absorb all the cost and pay dearly for an opportunity to market and sell their book in the traditional marketplace.

If you are an Independently published author and your marketing efforts focus primarily on finding shelf space in bookstores, you should refocus your attention, save your money and your time. There is a better way!

There are two major factors that create the perfect ingredients for success of the Independently published book. (1) The only area of growth in publishing today is from the Independent author, and (2) The future for global book sales is the Internet. The key is how to utilize both facts with the creation of a single, online marketplace.

It’s time for the Independent Author to unite behind one goal, to market and sell more Independently published titles &ndash an online platform where you can profile yourself and your book, a place where readers can discover voices never heard and stories never told. The goal is to help the author create that personal connection with their audience, easily and inexpensively. Where readers can find titles they will not find in a typical bookstore right in one location.

This is ideal for writers who are tired of playing a marketing game controlled by the largest publishers in the world. It’s time for Independent authors to unite behind one goal and that is to market and sell more Independently published titles.

The first step toward total independence in the marketplace for bookselling is joining together as Independent writers and authors.