‘The Legend of the Great Horse’ trilogy – Page 7 – THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT HORSE trilogy

Solstice Announcement

I plan to make an announcement about The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy during the upcoming Summer Solstice on June 21, 2015. It is a declaration of sorts, a surprise.

Into the Dark (bookcover) I began ‘marketing’ the full trilogy a few weeks ago. This may not be obvious since I haven’t actually done anything … but the summer solstice, first official day of summer, has been an important date for the trilogy.

In the book, the summer solstice was the day the Great Horse of the trilogy, Promise, was born … it was also the date the first book was published, and the last one too. It seems to be the right time.

New Great Horse

It’s an uncertain time, book-wise. I had to stop efforts to ‘market my own books’ to finish building all the marketing platforms and finish the trilogy. I also needed to make peace with being forced to commit cultural sin and ‘market my own books.’

"Capriole" gold coin from The Golden Spark - Book #2 of The Legend of the Great Horse trilogy Which is cultural sin, of course … this is made evident by the fact every major reader or book site enforces strict rules to prevent authors from doing it!

Traditional publishing is suddenly demanding that authors “sell their work” against the obvious background of a public who does NOT want to be marketed to by authors; they want to be marketed to by large corporate entities. I’m not condoning, just saying.

LOL, they are right: authors shouldn’t be promoting their own work. That was what the industry was supposed to be doing. So it’s all very weird right now. We are participating in a charade.

On the other hand…

The Great Horse trilogy has had support from readers, and there are others who could enjoy the story. Also, the trilogy is a large part of my life’s work at this point, so I want to finish it as well as I can.

I can’t do the selling: that is the role for a 3rd party, not the author (literally, anyone else). None of us should be willing to completely forget that cultural remnant that called for books to be praised by merit and not marketing.

What I hope to do is explain it and share what others have said about the trilogy books, and try to re-engage with new reviewers and readers. It’s the plan … please wish me luck!

Adventures in Publishing: Irene Watson & Reader Views

The Legend of the Great Horse is a historical fiction account of a young horsewoman’s adventure through history … publishing the story has been an interesting journey of its own.

ECLIPSED BY SHADOW | 'The Legend of the Great Horse' trilogy book cover (90x135px) In 2008 the trilogy opened with a close. Its small press publisher went out of business as the (ongoing) financial crisis was initiated–since that time we’ve seen endpoint consolidation of publishing, the advent of both ebooks and social media, Amazon’s rise as the newest industry monopoly, and the closure of 1/3rd of all US bookstores. It’s been an interesting ride.

Along the way I encountered obstacles and many “good guys” too … often these were honest book reviewers, perhaps because this section of traditional publishing was among the first to be taken down by corporate consolidation and its all-excusing bottom line.

One of these good guys was a woman, Irene Watson, who had the idea to build an organization (Reader Views) to provide free reviews to small and self publishers … while offering promotion assistance as an optional paid service.

Only Library Journal and Reader Views offered an all-important prepublication review of Eclipsed by Shadow. Irene and the support staff of Reader Views were unfailingly positive and supportive. The story went on to win several national awards: only Reader Views and the traditional, highly-respected Library Journal noted it beforehand.

Amazon did later crush her business, removing many thousands of ReaderViews reviews (and those of the Midwest Book Review, another ugly incident).

targa-small Irene died of pancreatic cancer the following year. Today the site is being carried on by Irene’s supporters, preserving the path that her vision, energy and solution-oriented approach brought to independent publishing.

As traditional publishing completes its folding up and vanishing act, it will be ideas and energy from people like Irene Watson who can show new paths … may her memory be honored. The future contains challenges, and I wish Reader Views success in blazing even brighter.

Independent publishing

I’m sharing some experiences in publishing. For a reason I wish didn’t happen, I find myself on the front lines of publishing’s upheavals.

Being published by a Big House is an author’s basic goal. That was my goal too.

It’s probably common knowledge that traditional publishing has been subsumed and relegated to a balance sheet entry in a multi-national conglomerate media empire. It would be hard to imagine otherwise … but people have been calm. Things are still within acceptable boundaries. Books do get published and enjoyed.

I fought the law …

Now I know the books were worthy of a big house–each title won independent national awards and had solid reviews and sales figures. It could have done well for them.

I didn’t need to spend years assembling rejection slips–though I got a sizeable sample–because things were pretty clear early on. I had written an adult-level book with horses … with no erotica or vampires. My story didn’t fit the preset BISAC publishing categories: there ARE no official publishing categories for “Teen” and/or “Adult” fiction for horses, only “Juvenile.”

My work was out of market and, barring luck I wasn’t finding, I could either make the decision to go independent or wait until Hollywood rediscovered horses. The novels were too novel. I don’t mind.

Books are not all one thing

It’s true the corporate blockbuster model (commodification) needs a certain pre-established popularity to lower risk for expensive marketing campaigns that dominate the field. Unfortunately this doesn’t enhance a diverse and free-flowing marketplace.

I don’t know the outcome, but what’s interesting about the corporate consolidation of traditional publishing is that everything that was feared and predicted came true. Maybe the next publishing convulsion will be about finding new and truly independent solutions.