With all the talk I've made lately of my trouble with getting my writing anywhere close to publishing, I've had a lot of people point me toward self-publishing. I don't know if I'd call it the elephant in the room, because usually people don't tug on your sleeve, point, and say "LOOK AT THE ELEPHANT. LOOK AT IT. LOOOOOOOOK."
Anyway.
I've never wanted to self-publish, because my writerly dream has always been to be like the people whose books adorn my shelves. I want the career. I want writing to be what I do, my entire job, the thing I'm known for if I'm known at all. I want my books out there, on shelves and in shops, where people can pick them up and read a little and decide to take them home.
This is the part where I can't continue without acknowledging that the world has changed. I know that digital sales are big and will continue to grow. I don't know if they'll ever take the place of physical books, but that's beyond me right now. I know there's generally not a stigma to self-publishing anymore; I know it's no longer the realm of the desperate and the painfully amateurish.
But I have real trouble seeing myself getting what I want out of writing by doing everything myself.
From what I've read about self-publishing, it means being in charge of a whole lot of things that I know nothing about. I know that, were I to get traditionally published (insert bitter laughter here), my job wouldn't be limited to just writing. But I know that there would be people whose entire job is to handle aspects of publishing that aren't my job, and I'm good with that. Hell, I'd much rather have it that way.
Full disclosure: a lot of why I don't want to self-publish is it would feel like giving up. I know that's ridiculous, but it's what I think. The whole thing rings of "nobody wants it, so I'll put it out there myself". And I have enough trouble with the 'nobody wants it' aspect that I know, I know, that if I self-published and it went poorly, it would absolutely crush me.
It's one thing to query agents and hear back "no" or silence. It's another thing to put your stuff out there and get the same thing back from your would-be audience.
On the other hand, I posted a story series online years ago. Never promoted it, never advertised it, just threw it onto a fiction-posting site and let people find it. I posted the final part of those stories almost eight years ago, and they still get hundreds of hits per month from all over the world and have racked up hundreds of reviews, every single one of them positive. (I didn't think that was possible on the internet.)
So it's entirely possible that I just need to get my work out there.
This is hard for me to consider, since there's no way to know how things are going to go and no way to take something back from being self-published if I go that route and it goes poorly. For now, I'm going to focus on editing STARWIND (two days in and it doesn't suck, so that's a plus) and see how things go with that. I have some agents noted down who might be interested, and I have some small presses I'm looking at if that road goes nowhere yet again.
For the future, as per usual, I have no idea.
Dude, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. Seriously. Self-publishing is a lot of work and a lot of money. If you can't format your manuscript or create your covers, then you'll have to pay someone, and that's on top of paying for editing. And even if you can create your covers, doesn't mean you should. I've had a few failed starts of my own there.
ReplyDeleteDon't self-publish. Yeah, I did, but we have different goals. I love doing the work myself. My only goals have been to write 4.5 books, and maybe some novellas. I don't market my books, and my sales are miserable. But that's okay with me because making it my career was never what I set out to do.
You deserve to keep at it and not settle for something less than what you want. Pull up BotLR again and put it through another pass of fine-tuned revision. Try submitting to Baen books or Ace Publishing. Neither require an agent, and they have well-known authors on their list. Since you aren't querying it anymore, you can give it a shot. It will probably be more silence for another 9 months, but at least you'll have tried a different option.
And some small presses do make it into bookstores. A local friend saw her book in B&N. You can do it via self-publishing too, but that takes a combo of choosing the right mode of distribution and approaching the stores about ordering and carrying the book.
Anyways, don't give up. Keep after yor dream.
It's weird. With so many people suggesting it or outright saying I should do it, I needed to hear "if you don't want to do it, don't do it". I don't know why my brain worked like that, but it did. Thank you.
DeleteI know a lot of people who claim to make more money at self-publishing than I do with traditional. (Which is probably true now that all my advance payments for the Eighth Day series have been paid out and I have no new deals as of yet.) But it seems that the people who make the most are the ones who write in a special niche -- whether that is dinosaur porn, historical fantasy romance, or Pride & Prejudice spin-offs. Sadly, a lot of these people crank out the books, barely edit them, and still have tons of readers.
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon a review of one of those books: "Needs an editor. Lots of mistakes. One character's name changed halfway through the book. 4 stars."
What? FOUR stars? Really?
There ARE successful self-published authors who put out quality, expertly written work, but they work REALLY hard to get their readers. I don't know why readers of the dreck seem to flock to the stuff on their own.
Lower standards, maybe? Or just not noticing or caring about what they consider minor mistakes. I get surprised and a little upset if I find a typo in a published book, but I know I'm more neurotic about that than most people.
DeleteThough I do think it's hilarious that there's a market for dinosaur porn. ^_^
The problem with a big publisher is that they throw all their dollars behind authors who are already proven. If you're new, you don't get the dollars, and if you somehow break through the crowd and end up with a hit, they'll start to back you. But until then, good luck. They'll do the minimum to get you out there. Plus they are paying less and less to their authors. Small to medium presses don't have the cash to give advances anymore, so typically all you get are royalties, which, let's face it, are pennies on the dollar.
ReplyDeleteSo reality is, 95% of authors will never be able to live on their writing income alone. It's only the lucky few. You can aim to fit into that dynamic, but even if you have the best book in the world--say you get slapped with a crappy cover? Yup. Goodbye career. The key these days is a hybrid. Half indie or self published, half traditional. Either way, it's hard to get an agent's or editor's attention without at least a couple publishing credits or awards in your resume.
Hmm. That doesn't match with what I've heard - I've seen many agents saying that you don't have to have any publishing credits to get their attention or for them to want to read your stuff. Then again, considering how many agents are out there, it's no surprise they're saying different things.
DeleteFor what it's worth, an agent at a conference told me to self-publish first to prove that I'm viable as an author. Apparently if you're moderately successful working all by yourself, then traditional publishers think you can be majorly successful if they step in to help. Or at least, some traditional publishers think that.
ReplyDeleteSome do, yes. But I've also seen agents and/or publishers saying that if you self-publish and it tanks, that'll make it much harder for you to get traditionally published. So not only is there no right way, there's a considerable risk either way. >_<
DeleteI didn't want to do it all myself. I had no idea how. That's why I chose the publisher route.
ReplyDeleteCrystal is right that hybrids are in the best position. Elizabeth S. Craig makes a living at writing as a hybrid author.
There are always success stories, but there are always failure stories as well; we just hear those less. >_< As for hybrids, we'll see. I'm not at a point where I need to make that decision yet.
DeleteSelf publishing doesn't mean you have to actually print physical copies of your book, you can publish electronically through plenty of sites and people download to e-readers. The only thing it doesn't do is promote your book for you. You'll still benefit from an editor and from a really professional cover too. Then there's the problem that people expect books to be cheap when it's electronic - all issues to overcome but not to force you to quit.
ReplyDeleteIt's not "giving up" because you'll still have to work hard at it, you'll still be doing a lot of self promotion and you'll have 1-1 contact with your fanbase for better or for worse (all the advice I've seen is not to reply to every comment in review sections).
Think of it as a new medium, a new way to work. I'm even thinking of getting out of my pretty well paid full time job to make my own way in the world via my jewelry one day in the next 5-10 years and that's not going to pay even close to what I get now but it'll be so much more satisfying - to be myself. That's what you want, to be yourself and not beholden to some exec somewhere who pressures you into writing their way and not your way. Screw those asshats, if they can't see the value in your writing leave them behind in the dust.
*fistpump* If I had enough money I'd start my own publishing house for fantasy/scifi/lgbt writers :D I'd go broke in, like, a month but it'd be fun while it lasts lol
I know there are multiple different ways of going about it, yes. But I do plan to stick with what I've been trying for, especially after so long.
DeleteBoth routes have pluses and minuses. So far, I'm in the boat with you on traditional publishing, although I've come to appreciate both sides. The money is rough on both sides, and I agree that it seems hybrid authors are in a nice situation. Self-publishing has gained more respect over time, and as a reviewer, I've noticed that the poor editing on self-publishing is also not as bad as it was several years ago.
ReplyDeleteYou have to follow the path you feel most comfortable with. There's no right or wrong way, but simply the choice of which one fits you better. Let's face it, publishing is never a piece of cake :)
Yeah, publishing is much like writing in that if it was easy, everyone would do it. >_< I'm going to try to think about it less for now, as I'm in editing and plotting mode so I think it'll be better to focus on the actual creative side, not the business. Oi.
DeleteI think you should definitely stay with the query route because it's in your heart to do. But I also think it would be an interesting experiment if you wrote a book that you told no one about and published it under a pen name just to see what happened. Good luck with your edits. I hope you're able to get repped for STARWIND, and soon. Good luck!
ReplyDelete