by Chris Ossman
September 15, 2020
Years ago, I finished my first novel: A story called Far Beyond that is meant to help young readers transition from listening to story read to them by their parents to a story they could read for themselves. As for the story, it tells the tale of a young girl named Kelcy who befriends a magical, fairy-like creature named Fabian Augustus to save his world from an evil not seen for hundreds of years. During their adventure, Kelcy discovers the wonders of Fabian's homeland, Far Beyond.
While Far Beyond is a fascinating sorry, this article is meant to market that story. I am writing here to discribe my own personal journey to market my book by getting it published as an applicatio on the Google Play Store. As for why I chose to turn Far Beyond into an Android application, that's simple. There are more than 3 billion devices that use the Android operating system and this number grows by 20 milion every day. And where do Android users turn to download their games and apps? Most choose the Google Play Store because of the trust they feel towards this platform. It also doesn't hurt that the majority of software developers release their apps on the play store.
So, with the goal of making my book as widely available as possible, I set out to get it listed on the Google Play Store. I of course listed it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other outlets, but I also wanted to expose my self-published story to as broad of a a market as was available. Initially, I sought out software that could turn the PDF version of my book into an applications because my programming skills were outdated.
While there are several software packages that offered the ability to create a software version of Far Beyond, none of them offered the personalization that I sought. I wanted custom colors, custom buttons and I wanted to offer the reader more than just the story. More about those custom features later. First I would like to discuss the next approach I took to fulfill my dream of seeing Far Beyond listed on the Google Play Store.
My next step was to utilitize one of the many freelance platforms that offer up such services as software design and programming. This however proved to be just slightly better than using the templates provided by those software referenced a couple paragraphs ago. While, there was the ability for more customization with the freelancers, the costs became quite prohibitive. For this and the reasons mentioned previousy, I decided to brush off my coding knowledge and update my programming skills. I had a personal need to meet and I knew that I was not the sole, independent author who hoped to expose their work to as many people as possible.
While many independent authors write for the pure pleasure that self-expression provides, I believe many more seek to spread as much joy as they felt creating their works to as many people as is possible. Hence, the creation of the aBook. I created the aBook in such a way as to make it possible to not only incorporate the story, but to also allow customizztion to whatever extent the author or publisher desires. Whether you simply want to offer your book to the 3 billion Android users with no frills or you want a customized color scheme, and even a story-themed game incorporated into the application (as can be played in Far Beyond), the aBook will suit your self-publishing needs. To find out more, shoot me an email at Cossman@MiksonsEntertainment.com and find out what the aBook can do for your writing. As an independent author or publisher, you need to promote your work or works wherever possible and the aBook offers one very large platform upon which to do just that. And, for those independent authors who want the added ability of selling their book on their own website(s), what better way to offer your book for immediate downloadable Android application?
While the aBook cannot guarantee exposure to all of the visitors to the Google Play Store, it does offer independent authors more platforms upon which to promote their work. Imagine being able to promote your book on websites like Goodreads without having to give 30 to 70 percent of the purchase price to Amazon. I created the aBook to fulfill a need, a need that I know many independent authors wish to fulfill.
