Black History Month Increases Interest in Self-Publishing

Washington, D.C., USA – February is Black History Month, a time when Americans turn their thoughts to the impact African-Americans have had throughout history. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know how much of the African-American experience may have been lost over the ages, as the people who knew the most about it were many times the least able to preserve it.

That is no longer the case, as advancements in self-publishing have made it possible for anyone to tell their story. All authors need to get published now are their stories and a plan, and most can get their stories published for very little expense.

“It is easier for people to get a book published right now than it has ever been in the history of the world,” noted Chris Kennedy, author of the self-help book, Self-Publishing for Profit: How to Get Your Book Out of Your Head and Into the Stores. “The neat thing is that most of the publishing process can be completed at either no cost or very little cost, making it very accessible.”

Kennedy, who is working on the fourth novel in his Janissaries story line, should know, as he is the author of six genre fiction books in addition to the nonfiction Self-Publishing for Profit, and sold over 40,000 books last year.
“The most important thing to know about the self-publishing process is that authors need a plan,” he added. “There is so much information out there that it is easy to become overwhelmed. I made a lot of mistakes when I published my first book, Red Tide: The Chinese Invasion of Seattle, because I was unable to sort through it all.”

The other challenge aspiring authors face is how to get noticed, as the number of books published each year is staggering. In fact, the company that tracks bibliographic information in the United States, R.R. Bowker LLC, noted in its 2013 year-end report that over 1.3 million books were published that year.

“With so many new books being published each year, it is really important to get it right the first time,” said Kennedy. “These days, authors really need a guide to get them through the process, which is why I published Self-Publishing for Profit. I attend a number of science fiction conventions every year, and no matter where I went, aspiring authors had the same questions on how to get into self-publishing. I knew they needed something to use as a reference.”

Contact Information

Chris Kennedy

CEO

Chris Kennedy Publishing

chris.kennedy12@gmail.com