Monthly Guest Post - Hilda Leticia Dominguez

Thanks to Hilda for supplying this month's Guest Post! Go check out her blog HERE.   "Hey everyone! I want to thank Amy-Anne for letting me guest post on her blog for you. How many of you love to write? How about draw? Or both? Well, guess what? You can publish your own creations. I'm here to talk about my experience with self-publishing. See, at first, I was searching, sending query letters, submissions, etc., to what are called traditional houses. An example of one is Simon & Schuster which they publish books like City of Bones. For many years I followed to the letter what my books said to do, but I was either ignored and other times rejected. Frustrated, I turned to self-publishing. I did so much research on it that I found out that many writers are turning to self-publishing too because of its benefits. And, LOL, traditional houses are getting worried because of it. That is what they get for being so picky! What are the benefits of self-publishing vs traditional way? - To be published the traditional way, you have to send first a query letter, actually according to the publisher's guidelines. It is a long, nerve-wrecking process of silence to see if your story gets published or not. If they do pick your story, they go through with you where to edit or replace in your manuscript (story) and like many authors, I don't like that. Personally, it is wrong because each writer has a "voice" of how they tell their story. If editors start poking their noses into your story and make some changes, they can mess up your voice and ruin your book. And another thing, many publishers wont even look at your manuscript if you don't have an agent. Yup, it's like show biz, but without the photo shoots, and all that, LOL! - There is just one plus side to traditional publishing: you don't get to pay for anything. The publisher pays you and other expenses like advertising, etc. SELF PUBLISHING: - Many writers are self-publishing their work because of its benefits: -You have the freedom to choose how you want your book to look like, inside and outside from fonts, font types, and illustrations, to cover designs and book size. There are MANY options to choose from. So you have more freedom to create your book the way YOU want it to look like, unlike a traditional publisher. They choose for you. -You can do it yourself for free or you can pay for services from editing to illustrating. - Did you know that some traditional publishers are turning to authors who have self-published? Basically traditional publishing is competing with self-publishers, but there are those who notice authors who have self-published and contract them for more books. - Another pro to that is that authors have the freedom if they want to go with the traditional publisher or continue on self-publishing. There are only 2 cons: - You have to pay only once for the services to make your book. - Unless you are a very sociable person, you have to advertise your book yourself, unless you hire a PR which costs a lot of money! But that wont guarantee you will make many sales. You can try selling them through your parents's work, relatives, friends, or online medias like twitter, Facebook, etc. My Story: As I mentioned above, I did my own research --a lot of research! And I am happy to have found Createspace. Through Createspace, you can have your book sold on Amazon.com, worldwide, and even at your favourite bookstore but some bookstores don't have them on shelves. You have to place an order with them. Anyway, to make a long story short, since I'm not familiar with doing it myself using their tools, my brother paid services from Createspace to have my story, The Invisible Spy Spying on the lives of Celebrities, into a published, professional book! Those of you who have won my book giveaways know the look and feel of a great high-quality book for such a small price to buy it on Amazon. The process was super easy. The only thing I needed was patience to receive the next step. Since I hired an illustrator through Createspace to do my book cover, I received sketches over time, and each time they wanted my feedback. If it was okay with me, I okayed it and went on to the next step until all was done and I pressed that glorious "publish" button on my laptop. DING! 'PUBLISHED!' The next day, my book was listed on Amazon.com. I was so beyond thrilled! The only problem I'm having is spreading the word around about my book. So if you could please help, spread the word about my book around-- families, friends, school, work, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or even make posters or flyers and place them on phone poles or make your own bookmarks and type where they can buy my book. If you read this far, wow! Congratulations and thank you! I can go on but I think I mentioned the important stuff for you to get the idea how it works. Recommendations: If you want to publish your story, I recommend you do your own research. Learn, learn, learn on your own. That is the best way to learn than any other method." https://www.createspace.com/pub/l/diyauthor3.do?ref=1159301&utm_id=6085&cp=70170000000bqtY&ls=Paid_Search&sls=MSN_DIY ~Hilda Leticia Dominguez, Author of "The Invisible Spy Spying in the lives of Celebrities"