Frank Chase Jr’s blog

Hello All,

Author Frank Chase Jr

     Those of you who have read my book, False Roads To Manhood, What Women Need To Know; What Men Need To Understand, might be interested in knowing about the draft cover ideas that did not make the cut. Every book has a cover idea.I certainly had many cover ideas.  My early original idea was to have faces of men from different generations and time periods on the cover. That cover never got drawn, but take a look at two of the original cover designs. Would love your feedback. And share my book with your friends. 

Hello, all,
Many of you have never read the story of how my book become published. It's was a nightmarish and exciting journey of discovery that lead to D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. It's not the complete story, but it's a story of Determined Effort So Tenacious It Negates Yuck. It's how, I overcame obstacles to see this book materialize from dream status to a published book. Share the story with your friends. I hope you find it interesting.

Frank

Let The Journey Begin

 The journey began for False Roads To Manhood back in 1997. With a stubby pencil and a spiral note book, I took a seven year journey into the heart and soul of manhood to write and publish my first book. What started as an idea and a thought began to surface as words on paper from my heart. These are my storied events behind publishing my book.
  
By the year 2005, I completed the hand written manuscript but realized I needed to type up the book. So until I bought a computer, I started a research journey by reading other books on the subject matter. I discovered during the writing process that anything you write must be verified with corroborating evidence. Some time later, I finally bought a computer and began typing my draft manuscript. Over the seven year period, I almost quit several times. I also took breaks to research how I was going to publish my book.
 
I finally finished the book and realized that I needed an editor. We looked around and I located my first editor at a local college in Huntsville who worked for the English department. I inquired about her to get information. We met and talked about editing my book and she agreed to help. We poured over the book with edits, changes and rewrites for months and sometimes we had long meetings to go over what she thought I should revise or rewrite. Finally after a long period of time, I thought I was ready. But after some recommendations that I should get a second edit done, I relented and began searching for another editor. This time my journey took me to Sally Stuart’s book, with a listing of editors, publishers, literary agents and magazine publishers. I searched through the book and my eye caught the name of a particular editor. My wife cautioned me at that time that I should take my time before deciding on a second editor, but I wanted to get done and published as soon as I could.

We contacted the lady by email, had phone conversations and we asked her for a sample edit of the book to examine her work. Then we asked for recommendations from her and they all checked out to our satisfaction except for one who said he would not use her again because she focuses too much on the small stuff. Well against my wife’s wishes, we hired her and the editing process began all over again. We sent the editor one chapter at a time as she requested. For months, I was making changes and talking on the phone with her. She began to tell me that she could get my book into publishing houses if I retained her her as my literary agent.  I began to notice as time progressed that she seemed more concerned about getting paid than editing my book. I made all the edits I thought should be done and from the surface, it looked like I had a well edited book.  With her continued high pressure sales tactics, I agreed to review her literary agent contract.  But before we signed it, I took it to a lawyer and he told us that it was written in her favor and he changed it so it would be mutually beneficial to me, the author and to her, the literary agent. We sent the revised contract back to her, and she was highly indignant that we changed her contract and she decided it was not in her best interest to represent my book as a literary agent. Well, needless to say, after all her editing was done we paid the last check.

I finally got up enough nerve to let my friends look over the book and even a professional counselor. I started getting negative feedback that I did not want to hear. To confirm their suspicions, I asked my co-worker to look at my book and he went through the entire book and found many errors that should have been caught by the second editor. I finally realized that my haste to get done with editing turned into waste.  I was devastated, shocked, disappointed and angry. I really did not know what to do with my book after that. I asked other co-workers if could they take time to edit it and they couldn’t.

My wife and I thought since we had been signing up on web sites and getting writer information that I should attend a writer's conference. We found one in the state of Tennessee. It was an eye opening experience and that's an understatement. Unbeknownst to me, I started talking about my book at one of the breakout sessions with other writers and published authors. It so happened that someone asked me who edited my book after each of them had the chance to go over my manuscript. I said the name Bonnie and everyone slumped their head down as if they were praying. They finally told me they knew the person that edited my book and she was a very good sales person but her skills in editing were atrocious. She had a PHd in English. If you had saw my face, it was as if I needed a defibrillator to bring me back to life. I learned a lesson that day. You can hang out a shingle in any book and identify yourself as an Editor, Doctor or anything, but it doesn’t mean squat unless you verify and verify and re-verify over and over again, someone’s credentials. At the conference, I met an acquisition editor from a major publishing house who told me to send her my manuscript after we talked what my book had been through. I sent her my manusrcipt after the conference. Some time later she told me in an email that my manuscript was not what they were looking for. That was my first rejection.

Can you hear that sucking sound? It was my money flying out of my pocket. As a result of that debacle, I had to figure out a way to save my book from the trash heap of finished, I quit!  My wife and I spoke about a third editor but she was not hearing it. I wanted to try one more time before I retired or quit with the whole book.
 
I went on a hunting trip for another editor and I’m not sure, but I believe I found a third editor on the internet. We made first contact with her. We grilled her and asked for a sample editing of one of my chapters. After we got the finished work back, I was shocked to see red all over the place. The second editor did catastrophic damage to my book.  We phoned the third editor and after talking with her, we signed with the third editor to repair what had been death editing to my book. Until this day, I still use and recommend this editor. She rehabilitated my book back from dead on publishing arrival.  After months of working with her, we finally got to a point where the book was ready for a publisher. I was spared the agony of defeat by this third editor.

Now the manuscript is completely edited and final in 2004. And the next phase took me to a place I’d never been before. I started drafting up book proposals and sent one to a book proposal service because publishers no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts from authors. I was not going to give up on my dream of being a published author. But after my book proposal sat on the website waiting for acquisitions editors and publishing to contact me, time ran out. I saw my money take wings and fly away on that effort, too. 

I proceeded to mail out inquiry letters and book proposals every where and every one was returned rejected out of hand. So after many rejections, I decided to self-publish. I did not go with any self-publishing companies but went a step further. I wanted to be a publisher and an author. We found another local person to accept my book to do layout based on one of my co-workers recommendations. Again, we made first contact, and did our usual investigation of her abilities and after much talking and praying, my wife and I signed with her. I decided to print 350 copies. She worked the book layout, assigned ISBN number. I filed my book with the Library of Congress. After about two to three months, I feverously began to look for a person to design my book cover. We asked my wife’s friend who designed covers to do the honors. She agreeed and we took about three months to go over my ideas for a cover. At the same time we set up my first book signing event and the pressure was on for the publisher to finish on time. She did finish on time and we had the first printing done, but we lost 50 copies because the printer, by the way, was not a professional printer of books and messed up 50 copies. We had the book signing and it went well. I deigned my first bookmarks and flyers using Micro-Soft publisher and gave them out to everyone. I sent out emails to all my friends. I started getting interviews on TV, and radio regularly. And I appeared in local newspapers. I also had a lot tips from friends.  The first printing sold out and we gave some books away. However, after I started getting my paperwork together to become a publisher, I happened to find and sign up on the internet as a publisher to order my own ISBN’s. I  then searched my publisher’s ISBN that she assigned to my first printing and found out it was fake.  Again, I was devastated and hurt. I wanted to sue her, but my wife encouraged me to let go of the whole matter.   Then I found out the printer who cut my first book made it bigger than a 6 X 9. I was furious and questioned the publisher but she could not give me any answers.

I finally had had enough of people messing over me and started my own publishing company to re-publish my book all over again. In the second printing we found a professional book printing company and printed a second printing with a new ISBN and the book was the right size. However, after we printed the second printing, I was told by a traditional publisher that they could tell my book was self-published just by looking at the layout. I asked them how they could tell and they said the margins and gutters were wrong. But even in that painful discovery, I pressed on selling books. Well, about the same time, I was approached by a co-worker who found out about my book and suggested that I needed a website to promote my book. I was not the least bit interested, nor was I going to spend another dime. Well, he persisted and then offered to set me up a web site at no charge, but I said I would pay him something. I ended up paying him more than what I intended. And there’s story behind that.  Well, after the site went up and was running, book sales increased. But then when the second set of book sold out I was once again at a crossroads as to whether to let the book die and I move on with other things in my life or republish the book with a different more professional cover.

Because I believed I could do it myself, I officially set up my LLC and began the new process of republishing my book with a different subtitle than the original with some content changes.
 
Again, on the suggestion of another author, I contacted his web site designer an we negotiated a contract and she built my new web site and, layed out my book again. Guess what? I actually had a forth edit done. Can you hear the money saying bye Frank Chase Jr. My new web site designer took some of the material from my old orginal site and built a new site. I provided all the information to be posted on the site and to this day, some of it never made it online. The revised book was backed financially by me borrowing a large some of money from my retirement plan to do over. I was involved in designing my company LOGO for FC Publishing, LLC. I choose from three designs for my new book cover based on what I envisioned in my mind. After months of going over draft logo designs, book cover designs and website designs, I finally settled.

At this juncture, I was also encouraged to check out a marketing person on the advice of an author friend. I did contact her and she gave me her credentials. I went forward because my author friend said she was OK. I signed with her to develop a press kit and to do my book marketing efforts and book tour schedule. But at one point in the process, she asked me to make a check payable to her instead of her company, and I did so with no thought of anything happening. Well, I discovered that she had bad blood with my web browser. They were once friends. My book got caught up in the cat fight after their relationship went sour, and I ended up losing thousands of dollars because the marketing person skipped town with my money without delivering anything but one or two book blurbs. To make matters worse, I learned that my marketing person, swindled money from other Huntsville, AL authors. I was ready to kill and I tried everything in my power to recover my money but it was a total loss.  So what do you do? You develop your own press kit and I did.
 
So in the end, I learned that self-publishing is a tough business and I’m glad I did not give up. I leaned more about publishing from my mistakes than I did if someone else did the job for me. Things have turned around some since I started using more professional services instead of fly by night charlatans.
 
I market my book using professional press release services and marketing services and I still do my own marketing using Micro-Soft publisher. With my new printed book, I had professional book marks done, and palm cards too. I also have business cards with my book cover on one side.  Marketing a book takes money, and you have to be wise as a serpent where and when you spend your money. As far as marketing, I’ve set up book blogs, joined author websites and any website that allows you to post your books and information. I also write articles which provide an avenue to expose my book to other audiences. I’ve always said, If I had accurate knowledge I could have avoided many mistakes but I do not regret none of the experiences because no one can ever take away what I’ve learned about publishing and the continued leaning I’m experiencing as an author and a publisher. I learned during the process that you can get sample edits from many publishing places and in some cases, the more sample edits you get, your entire book could be edited without you paying a dime, but I would not advise doing it because all editors are not the same. So, you’ll end up having to meld all the sample edits into one sound edit. There are vultures out there waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting novice author. They will promise the world, and the best defense is to verify first and let trust be earned by those who want to publish your life’s hard work.

I market my book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many author websites and blog sites. I participate in book signings and speak at book clubs and still appear on TV to talk about my book.  Self-publishing is a rewarding experience, but it does take away from your time in writing new projects. I’ve submitted my book to self-published book contests with Writer’s Digest. Self-publishing requires a lot of your time and energy in marketing and surfing the net for opportunities to expose your book. You must choose the best road that fits your personality. So why is the acronym D.E.S.T.I.N.Y important in this discourse. Publishing a book requires Determined Effort So Tenacious It Negates Yuck.  If your book has a destiny, you can’t allow nothing or no one to stop you from pressing on. Self publishing is a rewarding experience because you are in charge of everything. In fact you become an Entrepreneur.