Tough Love: Things No One is Brave Enough to Tell Self-Published Authors - (co-written with Amy Edelman)

Everyone is writing about how great and glorious the new publishing paradigm is. About the pot of gold at the end of the self-publishing rainbow. About authors getting 70% royalties and having control.

 The scent of revolution is in the air.

 A writer who writes all the time might still be a romantic ideal but it’s not a practical reality. No writer can entirely devote him or herself to the muse. Not one who is traditionally published. And no one going the self-publishing route.

 So how much work are you are you going to have to do?

 If you have an agent and a publishing house you won’t have to make all the decisions or do all the work yourself. You’ll have partners along the way – from editors to publicists. They will do the lion’s share of the work and pay the lion’s share of the bills. Yes, you might want to – even need to add to some of those efforts —adding more marketing or more pr – but much of the work of publishing will be done for you.

 When you self-publish you are on your own. 

 Okay. So what’s so tough about that?

 Part One

 1. Writing a great book

 Self or traditionally published, you need to produce the very best book that you can.

 That means being committed enough to rewrite your book three, four or twenty-five times. Even pros who have been at it for years and have dozens of books under their belts don’t have their first drafts published.

 So far it’s the same for self-published or traditionally published authors. But then the traditionally pubbed author turns his or her book over to professional editors.

 If Lee Child, Sara Gruen, Laura Lippman and Jennifer Weiner all get edited, can self-published authors afford not to do the same thing?

Yes, an editor costs money. And yes, an editor might require you to do more rewrites. Yes, you might be tired of writing the book and not even want to work on it anymore.

 But if your goal is to sell books, get readers, and build word of mouth – you absolutely need professional help.

 It’s like cooking. Just because you can scramble eggs doesn’t mean you can make a soufflé. 99.9% of all books can be improved by a good editor (and we’re not talking about your sister or your great Aunt Mary, unless they are editors by trade). 

 What if you don’t have the funds? Barter. We’re in a recession… maybe you can find someone who will agree to get paid in installments. Do whatever you can but whatever you do - don’t spend a dime until you see examples of their work and get references. You have probably put a lot of time and work into this project. Your name will be on the cover. Do yourself proud.

 The average reader buys one or two books a month. The competition is fierce. Your job is to convince Jane S. not to buy Kristin Hannah’s newest but to take a chance on yours.  To persuade Alan K. to buy your thriller instead of Steve Berry’s.

 2.    Self Publish for the Right Reasons

 Even though Mark Twain and Virginia Woolf self-published, the stigma didn’t really lift until very recently.

 Suddenly self-publishing is no longer just a fall-back position.  It can be a first choice. Just be sure you choose to do it for the right reasons.

 Don’t self-publish because you think it will be easier than trying to find an agent and a publisher. It won’t. Self-publishing is a tremendous amount of work. You have to be prepared, not only to be an author, but a business person, too.

 Doing anything right takes time. So don’t self publish because you are impatient (unless, of course, you have a timely subject that you want to get out there fast, in which case you still need to pay attention to quality, but self-publishing will definitely provide you with a faster turnaround time).

 Don’t self publish because an agent rejected your book a few times—or twenty times. There are lots of hugely successful books that have been rejected many times by agents.  Harry Potter comes to mind.  But if every agent rejects your work, perhaps instead of self-publishing it you should take a look at it again. We can’t be totally objective about our own work. Neither are our friends or family.

 In fact we’d go so far as to say if you can’t get a single agent interested the last thing you should do is self-publishing. There is a difference in believing in yourself and being unrealistic.

 Do self-publish because you are an entrepreneur. Do it because you have a vision.  Self publish because you want control of that vision.

 Part Two – tomorrow.

 As many of you know I'm the author of 11 traditionally published novels, one self-published novel and one-self published non-fiction book - Buzz your Book.  In 1999, my novel, “Lip Service”, was the first self-published book (e and print) to be discovered online and bought by a traditional publishing house. I'm also the founder of the first marketing company for authors - AuthorBuzz.com and one of the founding board members of ITW.

 The co-author of this article - Amy Edelman -  is the author of two traditionally published books and one indie that she sold to a traditional publisher.  She has been a publicist for two decades and is the founder of IndieReader.com.  She can be reached at Amy at indiereader dot com

 

Comments

[Hart]

I so totally agree with you, M. J. I stress the importance of editing, rewriting, at all my writing group meetings and yet, so many totally believe their book will be different.

Ronnie

[Cynn Chadwick]

Hi MJ & Amy,
I just discovered your blog & this particular article via Twitter, and wanted to write to say I appreciate this smart cautionary and spot-on advice.

I most especially want to say that your final missive: "Do self-publish because you are an entrepreneur. Do it because you have a vision. Self publish because you want control of that vision..." truly is key to success. Self-publishing is not a sustainable venture without this element.

I am a 4xs traditionally published novelist. I have published with 2 different indie presses, I have an agent, and have been in the "industry" for over 10 years. Last spring, I discovered that I owned my ebook copyrights, and after much research chose to release them myself, along with the ebook & print version of my 5th novel.

You are exactly correct, if an author is going to self-publish, she must invest time and money.

I am fortunate that my publisher gave me cover-art rights, but beyond that I hired a professional formatter to convert all ebooks, and then I hired a copy editor, formatter, typesetter, and cover-designer for the the 5th novel.

Having done so in Jan 2011, I am having a modicum of success, better than the print alone; that said, the ongoing challenges are primarily, and perhaps "as always" in promotion, reviews, marketing, etc...those tasks that a publisher does handle, although authors do much legwork nowadays, but self-publishing authors do it all.

This is not a venture to be approached lightly, especially if an author cares about the quality of the work. My experience in traditional publishing gives me a much greater base of knowledge and networking.

I am fortunate that I have a readership, links to my books, blog, Twitter & FB accts, and 10 years experiencing doing bookstore readings, festivals, panels, teaching, etc...I am also a most prolific writer with a "real" job that allows time for this endeavor, but as you suggest, this takes time away from the stories, it requires a creative mind to think like a business mind, and perhaps for some, it could be a real killjoy for an artist.

For me? I have learned much about the industry and much about myself in the last year of making this all happen. From here on out, I will be releasing all of my new books both digitally and in print because, in spite of all of the continuing intense work of it, there is something incredibly exciting about making it all happen all by myself.

It is exactly this entrepreneurial spirit that has been carrying me through and beyond the challenges. Obviously, of course I hope the gods will rain down gold and accolades on my vision, but in the meanwhile, I'm having a really good time manifesting my own little empire.

I look forward to revisiting your blog.

Best, Cynn Chadwick

[Account Deleted]

"Just because you can scramble eggs doesn’t mean you can make a soufflé."

[Chrismeeks]

MJ, as someone who brought out on Kindle yesterday a new novel, "Love at Absolute Zero," I can attest that the independent route isn't glorious, but it's what I'm doing between agents. I completely concur with your points. To get to the "Great Book" took me six years, six drafts, and two editors--and a number of proofreaders--until it was ready. I was once a senior editor at a publishing house, so I had my idea of professionalism in mind.

My hope like you and Amy is to move to a traditional publisher--but I'm proud of what I've done. If I can sell copies (yesterday, publishing day, ended with "Love at Absolute Zero" reaching #75 on Amazon's list of comic novels) then I also want to use AuthorBuzz. I like how you support authors.

[gean]

being rejected is always part of the game, we'll get used to it somehow, and often it leads to more opportunity than what your aiming at, I guess self publish due to rejection is pride and being unreasonable at some point