John Austin Answers Phelicia Brown:

To answer your question: I don't know if saying your true story is fiction and using other characters is better or not. You see, you would still be a relatively unknown author; whether the story is fiction or nonfiction. AND, a lot of people like to buy a story especially if it is true, even if they don't know the author...How many times have you bought a book in a store because the cover looked good or the synopsis on the cover sounded interesting and you never heard of the author? Many times...You think everybody who buys books KNOWS all the millions of writers who have books published? Hell no. We just have to get our foot in the front door by meeting the right publisher or learning marketing of self-published books well enough to get them in front of the right audiences...

I will be discussing some of these things in more detail in future posts to my blog. Spread the word on my blog to others who may be interested.

Keep studying publishing and marketing your books and always seek to polish up your writing skills...and before long you will get there. I am detailing my first self-publishing experience on my blog for entertainment, analysis and to hopefully help some others, too.