Dear Everyone,
How have y'all been doing?
Me? Imagine a face growing shiny and round with happiness, then deflating at 180 miles per hour. That would be my face.
Y'see, I'm almost done with this book I'm writing (yet another book), but to publish means:
1. I would have to find an agent who would find a publisher. Agents are the prima donnas of the book world and you have to woo them with more fervour than Don Juan trying to sweet-talk a woman. Now if all of them except one turned down J. K. Rowling, what chance does a li'l 3rd world wala like me have?
2. I would have to self-publish via a local printer. These local printers eat money. They eat, and the po' writer gets the diarrhoea. Also, not many people buy books in this here jungle. I am going to end up with a roomful of very expensive loo-paper.
3. I can self-publish online. Wow. Yeah. How clever. Bring out the fireworks. That's what I've been planning all along.
But guess wot?
Wot?
Our banks don't accept payment via online.
Squeeeeeeeee............................
That's the joy going outta my happy balloony face, see me lying deflated on de ground.
I've been asking the bank staff, can't y'all do something about it? Think of the potential...foreign exchange earnings coming in.
I don't know if y'all ever see people answer-not-answer.
Anyway, I've read a report that says a group of business people have been lobbying for a chance for citizens to sell online and receive payments via Paypal.
So, all being well...progress might come to dis here tird world country too.
Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI hope things turn around (soon) and your sad face is replaced with happy dances.
Thank you, Child, thank you.
DeleteThings can take so long to get done in this country. I refuse to let go of my dreams of selling stories online though, so I will find a way!
Can you open a foreign bank account?
ReplyDeleteI have one, Kim. But I need to pay taxes here, so I'm not sure how that would work out. I must check out that option, thank you.
DeleteI keep editing my manuscript[s], hoping that the business people will push through with the legislation.
dang! :( That's a deflater x 100. I'd be a limp little dead balloon face. I had problems like that in Africa, but even Africa does amazon now. :\ You got any family you really trust overseas to be your bank? That's about the only other idea I can think of. All my books are with amazon createspace, because I'm impatient. Hey, I'm 50 now, too old to wait for someone to "find" me! :P
ReplyDeleteMichelle, I'm not worried about finding readers, I am going to pester every soul I know to tell every soul they know, from here, across the Caribbean, the US, Canada...everywhere. :-D hehe
DeleteEven if I have to write our taxman to put the legislation in place to help us creative people here earn via online, I'm going to do it.
As you know I have spent much time on that long and lonely Road being - in turn transported with delight and then plunged into despair.
ReplyDelete'They' loved my book but wanted to change it and make it unrecognizeable. I find content - at my stage in life - doing final edits as I go along and publishing a chapter at a time on my blog. I'm so lucky to have some faithful readers. By the way Missus you are falling behind:)
Pat, it is indeed a long and lonely road.
DeleteHow I hate when publishers try to put people's work into that 'formula' style, so the writer's voice is lost, and the book sounds like everyone else's. Good for you, not letting them seize control of your work.
You have MANY different types of ways now that you can publish.
I know I haven't been blogging a lot. It's because I am so busy editing, and by the end of the week, I have all kinds of little things to do. So one thing had to give.