If You’re Gonna Self-Publish

Writing, publishing, sometimes we don’t know how or can’t decide how to pull it all together. Go the traditional route or self-publish. These days, fortunately for indie writers who choose to go it alone most readers, I’d guess the majority, don’t really care how a book hits the shelves or Amazon or any other distributor.

So, if you’ve considered different methods of getting your work out there and have settled on self-publishing for right now, read on.

Despite the fact that most readers don’t care if a book is self-published, for a lot of reasons (including they don’t actually know it is) if the indie writer is smart he or she won’t allow what has become a big down side of the self-publishing world jump up from the newly purchased work and slap them in the face.

What’s that you say? You're asking what downside? Come on, if you’ve gotten Ebooks (and of course self-published print books) you’ve experience the total crap that can be out there.

Believe it or not, readers are truly turned off by books that look like crap. Books that have awful spelling, grammar, formatting, infantile covers, insanely long and convoluted sentences, links from table of contents to chapters that don’t work, etc. You know, unprofessional. It’s shoddy, it’s messy and it won’t keep or get you any more readers. The one reading will give up and new readers, if they read sloppy samples, will pass you by.

That’s the big plus of professional publishers. They do it all. I know, I know, not so easy to get them to publish your work even if you choose to go that route as opposed to indie. But take note. The books they produce look professional from cover through text. Well, at least most of the time. I’ve seen some doozies there as well (but my guess is the Editor was fired). Still, it’s worth emulating their methods.

Bottom line, you don’t want to look like an amateur.

Another bottom line, too many writers think they can simply crank it out, slap it up and sell a million.

Uh, no.

If you have any self-respect as a writer at all you should be going

for the polished, professional, outstandingly stunning look.  You want a reader to be unable to tell the indie published book from the traditionally published book – until or unless they look at the imprint name in the listing. So the goal is to make the book look very professional so your fantastic story won’t be tossed aside, the reader insisting any self-published book is junk. Not good for you; not good for other struggling Indies.

So, pay attention to your work. Check and double check. Have volunteer readers or an editor, or both, go through looking for all those little mistakes. And throw in a professional formatter versed in the various venues if you just can’t seem to get the hang of it yourself.

If you do that from the very first book, make sure it’s professionally done, your readers will know who to come to for a great story AND a professionally done manuscript. You know, one they can read without being jerked to a stop, pulled out of the flow of the reader’s trance, every few sentences by some glaring error that should never have been allowed to see digital or traditional print.

And let’s not forget the cover. It has to be professional as well. Remember that old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”?  Well, really, people do. Sorry, that’s life. The reality is if you don’t have a great cover you aren’t going to hook ‘em in the first place and they’re not going to read your truly fabulous story.

I suspect it’s always been true, but modern life has only exacerbated the problem. With all the distractions we have, work, cell phones, the net, video games, hardly any free time in between, you want to give your reader some eye candy to lure them in.

The take-away here is check and double-check. Everything. Twice.

Don’t let something stupid or blatantly obvious slip through the cracks. Don’t think, ‘if it’s there they’ll buy it,’ because they won’t.

And readers, I don’t blame you. I’m a writer in addition to being a reader and I understand. We can all forgive an occasional typo or maybe a left-out close quotes, but if it’s peppered throughout the book it becomes unforgivable.

Writers, I understand your pain as well. There are a whole lot of platforms to publish with out there, Amazon, Smashwords, Create Space and others and every one has a format that claims “It HAS to be exactly my way”. There’s a lot to dead with but that’s exactly why you have to be on your toes and get it right. It’s much too easy to get it wrong.

So get your work out there, but get it right. Thrill your readers and boost your books. And proudly do the work all Indies can also take pride in.

Go ahead, tell us about your good and bad reading and writing adventures in Indie world. Let’s see what’s right and what needs to be fixed.

Writers And The Hurdles of Publishing

Writing and publishing in the modern, digital world is changing and changing very quickly.

Your off–the-cuff response may be well, duh!

But here’s the thing, duh or not, all that changing is offering a whole lot more opportunities and choices but also some conundrums the writer hasn’t faced before

There’s the traditional method which is still a strong one, but it also still has the amazing hurdles the writer must negotiate before publication.  Sadly the chances of running the marathon and getting all the way from query letter to holding that book in your hand is truly scary.  Writers submit every day to agents and statistically about 95% of those manuscripts never get represented. Furthermore the odds don’t improve much even if you do get representation since less than half that get represented actually get a book deal.

Discouraging?

I’m not finished. Even with that failure rate, it potentially gets worse. Advances are pathetic and not dependable. Most books published don’t do very well (despite the hoo-haw you hear about ‘best-sellers’), get returned after a very short window of exposure on a bookstore shelf and cost the author even more as advances must be ‘earned out’ before more income can be seen from a book and returns come back against that balance. 

On top of all that, when a book is accepted for publication it can easily take up to two years (or even more) for that book to become a real,  hold-in-the-hand object. Still, for many, it’s the way to go. Book prep and design, cover design, editing, all that’s taken care of for you. It is a big plus

So how goes the alternative, the shiny and new self-publishing? There are some rumblings that the ‘gold-rush’ is past, that self-publishing has hit the ceiling and is now on the decline.

Um, don’t think so myself. I think it’s just changing, hitting its stride, becoming the evolving and maturing alternative to traditional publishing.

In a number of ways self-publishing can be better and in some ways worse. It’s much better in that the whole process is shortened and in the hands of the writer. This is good if the writer makes sure the editing is professional and the formatting perfect before publishing in digital or Print On Demand or Audio books or all three. It means more work and learning for that writer, but it also means ultimately more time to write that next book since it eliminates lots of time spent writing query letters, contacting agents, possibly dealing with a bad agent and doing constant rewrites at the request of a seemingly interested agent who doesn't come through, and pitching new works.

But it can be a lot worse if that writer gets the book looking great, professional and polished and then it doesn’t sell. Why not? Despite writing and rewriting blurbs, doing another edit, playing with the cover and price point and creating promotions, very little happens. Since it all falls on the writer it can be a very heavy burden. Frustrating and demoralizing. For the writer who expects to earn a living that way it’s very difficult.

But again, realize making it as a writer is damn hard and it doesn’t matter which way you choose to approach it. Many writers, whether following the traditional or self-publishing route get discouraged and quit. Not surprising and not a bad thing really. If it’s not for you, you shouldn’t be doing it.

Because through it all we have to remember that careers in entertainment, any career there, probably won’t be steady. Screenwriters come and go. Novelists have their day, then fade from the scene. You’re part of the public, think about what authors you’ve read in the past but no longer read, what movie stars you loved, but now no longer care about, what producer got you to his every movie, what TV show you wouldn’t miss but now don’t bother with. That’s the way we are.

So back to publication.  Quite simply it provides better chances but that doesn’t give any guarantee. In my experience self-publishing is less frustrating than dealing with crazy agents, delays in publication, very small advances and long dry periods. However, I’m not married to it and think a writer keeping his or her options open is definitely the way to go.

Look, self-publishing started from scratch a very short time ago. It has changed and will continue to change. And traditional publishing will also be forced to change.

So keep your options open and keep your excitement up for whatever way you choose to pursue your writing career.  Do your homework, make informed decisions and keep writing.