Good eReader profiles self-publishing author Gordon Bonnet

Good eReader has a profile of self-publishing author Gordon Bonnet, a science teacher who writes paranormal fiction in his spare time. Bonnet found that he simply didn’t have enough of that spare time to devote to the process of finding an agent and working with publishers to meet editorial deadlines.

So he decided to self-publish (his book Shadowboxing can be found for $2.99 via the Kindle store), but found it could be tricky to stand out from the rest of the self-publishing crowd. Like many other self-publishing authors, Bonnet turned to his friends to help him learn how to produce and sell it.

“I had several friends who were in marketing, and they were able to help me see that a book is no different than any other product when you are trying to get it into the hands of customers—in this case, readers—and develop a loyal following. I also happened to know someone who was an editor, and even though he wasn’t editing fiction novels, he was able to give me crucial advice,” remarked Bonnet. Even Bonnet’s wife proved to be a valuable connection, because when it came time to design a cover for his self-published manuscript, he was fortunate enough to be married to a professional artist.

This puts me in mind of Amanda Hocking, whose professional-editor mother edited her self-published books. It seems that some self-publishing authors are fairly lucky in their familial relations.

Also like Hocking, Bonnet found that the time necessary to market his books takes away from the time he has to write, which is what he wants to do in the first place. This seems to be a fairly common complaint of self-publishing writers, and is a factor that led to Hocking accepting a traditional publishing deal even though she had been doing quite well in self-publishing.

And Bonnet seems to share another factor with all sorts of self-published and Internet writers:

For Bonnet, finding the motivation required to make his manuscript available to scrutiny across the Internet was easy. “If I put my work out there for e-readers and only fifty people choose to download it, that’s fifty more people than would have read it if I had not gone this route. No one will ever read it if it doesn’t leave my desk.”

I know exactly how that feels.