The Pit and The Pendulum

In the book world today is news that a traditional NYT bestselling novelist has turned down a half-million-dollar deal to self-publish. Barry Eisler’s going to get a lot of ink.

He’s a good friend and we’ve had many conversations about why he doesn’t want to be with a legacy publisher anymore and why I still do want to be with one. (There are too many things a publisher and I can do together- some I can't do alone - others I don't want to do alone. And like Mike Shatzin, I'm not sure all books are going to do equally well in all formats.)

None of my conversations with Barry were like this one he had with another friend of his and that he posted on his webiste. Two guys... a few beers... twelve thousand words shooting the shit about the publishing industry.  

That Barry is self-publishing isn’t the news. Benjamin Franklin did it. So did D.H. Lawrence, Jack Kerouac, George Orwell, Anais Nin and Sylvia Plath. Just to name a few.

What’s news is that he’s turned down a big traditional deal to do it focusing on the ebook market and its promise.

Barry’s decision is of particular interest to me because I was one of the first people to do the opposite. In 1998 I self published online in order to get a traditional deal.

I was taught to think outside the box. Before my grandfather was one of the original Mad Men, he and a group of other Air Force Intelligence officers formalized brainstorming as a problem solving technique. He taught the concept that creativity can be taught at Buffalo University. My dad invented toys. My mom was a photographer.

So when my agent told me that while publishers loved a lot about my work they couldn’t publish it because it was a marketing conundrum  - my reaction wasn’t to slink off into the sunset.

At the time I’d just left my job as the creative director of a top NYC ad agency to work on the web. I had a few ideas about new marketing.

I put my novel on my website as an eBook (in those prehistoric days people read them on Palm Pilots and Rockets). I joined the Advantage Program at Amazon and started selling my book there as a POD book (in those days we called it me going to Kinko’s with 20 orders a week.)

It was an experiment. To see if there was a way to market and sell my work using the net.  Turned out there was. Sales grew and grew and soon my book was the highest ranked small press title at Amazon.

I though what I’d done was exciting. Instead I found it was something people expected me to be ashamed of.

My agent was aghast. “Self-publishing is for failed writers,” she said.

MWA and The Author’s Guild refused to accept me as a member.

My local indie bookseller wasn’t even  willing to get off a ladder and talk to me face to face about putting a few copies on a shelf.

“I don’t look at self published stuff,” she’d said without even turning around. The word stuff was uttered with utter contempt.

I left the store.  Stood in the street. It was  February. Snow was falling. Big fat flakes landed on my cheeks and mixed with my tears.

I didn’t get it. In the ad business, iconoclasm was applauded. Being different was better. My friends who were independent film makers were praised for going it alone.

Hell, they even had their own film festival.

I hadn’t known the club I was trying to get into held fast to the rule that self-published books were crap and any novelist who dared try to do it by herself would only get the back of a bookseller’s head and nothing but derision.

As it turned out I didn’t stay self-published for long. My marketing efforts worked and within three months I had a deal with a NY house and an embarrassment of media attention from the NYTimes to the Today Show.

It was an exciting time. There were a lot of us trying new things on the new frontier - Seth Godin, Doug Clegg, Douglas Ruskoff, even Stephen King – to name a few.

Authors – all with traditional deals - we doing non-traditional things; serializing books online, giving away free ebooks and writing original stories for the web to get new readers.

Michael Cader (then a book packager) sold Michael Gerber's self-published Amazon bestseller, Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody, to Simon and Schuster. Brandon Massey (Thunderland), Victoria Christopher Murray (Temptation) and Travis Hunter (The Hearts of Men) all made the jump that same year.

At Wired, Writers Digest and Poets & Writers I reported on the changing digital landscape and wrote about how authors had to become partners with their publishers and publishers had to start treating authors as equals. How authors needed to get involved with the business of being a writer and take charge of their fate.

It’s been more than a decade since I put that self-published novel, Lip Service, up on a website. Since then many hundreds of authors have gone from self-published to traditionally published.  

How far is the pendulum now going to swing?

Last year Seth Godin announced he would no longer publish with traditional houses and opened his own press. John Edgar Wideman also made news when he went indie.

Self-publishing still entails many things many of us aren’t interested in. We would rather not run a business. Don’t want to be entrepreneurs. We want the best that a publisher offers.

But that doesn't mean we don't have issues.We do - but that's for another blog post.

This one is about change.

It’s taken a long long long time for ebooks to take off. For the price of ereaders to come down. For self-publishing to its lose its stigma.

Now self-publishers have the aura of revolutionaries and are being lauded as heroes, paving the way for freedom.  I’m not sure yet that it will indeed prove to be the kind of freedom that serves us all equally. We’re still in the early days on this new frontier.

But I am sure it's something I never expected would happen when I stood outside that bookstore thirteen years ago, on that cold day, in the falling snow. 

 

Comments

[ErikaRobuck]

I loved reading how you started and where the industry has gone. Great post!

[JMCornwell1]

What's your take on this Ms. Rose? Are you ready to sign back onto the self-publishing train or will you stick it out with the legacy publishers? It is nice to see such a balanced article that explores a lot of different views.

J M Cornwell
Among Women

[M.J. Rose]

My take is in the second paragraph - I still do want to be with a publisher. There are too many things a publisher and I can do together- some I can't do alone - others I don't want to do alone. And like Mike Shatzin, I'm not sure all books are going to do equally well in all formats.

Here's that article: http://www.idealog.com/blog/ebooks-are-making-me-recall-the-history-of-mass-market-publishing#disqus_thread

[Tracy_March]

Hi, M.J.

You've told me a bit about your start in publishing and I enjoyed reading your more detailed story.

The self- versus traditional-published debate is interesting to follow--not only from the perspective of seasoned authors like yourself and Barry, but also from the perspective of a debut author like me.

It will be interesting to see how the industry evolves.

Thanks for a great post, M.J.!

[Joe Wallace]

Really appreciate hearing your POV on this, M.J. I'm in the process of stepping into that world, and pieces like this one help keep the way clear. Thanks.

[Sandra_Gulland]

Great post, M.J.

[Awannabe_writer]

Thanks M.J. it's interesting to see another perspective on this.

Do you think that self-publishing is a good place for a newbie to start, with the option to do as you did and go on and try to get a traditional publishing arrangement afterwards? Or could that put off publishers and agents from considering a person's work, in your opinion?

[Ernessa From FierceandNerdy.com]

M.J. - this was a great blog, so much food for thought. I, too, am mightily tempted by the self-pub world. I've always been an electronic pioneer, and quite frankly, it feels a little strange not to be on the wagon. As an author who falls between genres, this seems especially alluring. There's only one thing: I barely have time to do the bit of promotion that I'm currently doing. I really don't see myself doing all the other stuff that self-publishing entails as well. I respect and admire those who have made a go of it. However, when I look at my lifestyle, at least for now, I'd have to say not for me.

[Someyer]

First blog I come across that I feel serves a purpose. I think as writers we should find a way for good literature, i.e. writing with a mission, to not drown in the flood of entertainment literature we produce(America had its last Nobel prize 20 years ago)
Happy to have found you. Sonia Meyer

[Alex Wilson]

Here's a dirty little secret: even with a traditional publishing house, you still have to shoulder a major portion of the promotional burden. You think you hand your work to a publisher and walk away? Not in today's world. The economics of pbook publishing has dramatically changed the landscape. No big advances (except for published royalty) and no deep promotional departments making you famous and rich while you rest or contemplate your next inspiration.