Boyo, if I’m not having to watch the beagle 24/7 lest she steal my computer, I’m cooling my heels with that Morgan woman. If that’s not enough, I’m doing it with that Smith woman as well with her post about self publishing. Have I no original thoughts myself? Apparently not. At least not today.
But I wanted to attack the self publishing game from a different angle, and Jane’ s thoughtful post gave me the perfect lead-in. Jane’s post warns about the overall folly of self publishers who use this option with the sole idea of getting picked up by a trade publisher. As always, she’s absolutely right.
Remember, there are no short cuts in publishing. It takes money, experience, knowledge, and time. Lots and lots of time.
I’ll get it out there right now; I have the utmost respect for those who become their own publisher to produce their book. It’s hard going, and I’ve seen some respectable works and fabulous Cinderella stories come out of this publishing option.
However.
The vast majority go into self publishing without knowing what they’re doing. It’s like a first year medical student trying to perform heart surgery. Sure, maybe they’ll successfully open the patient up, but once they begin climbing around inside they have no clue as to the next step. Problem is, their patient has a giant incision in their chest, and it’s bad form to drop the scalpel and say, “Holy mother of the cosmos, what do I do next?” Dude, that’s what residency is about.
There is no publishing residency except the school of hard knocks, experience, and research. Most self publishers go in like our poor intern and don’t understand how books are sold. Nor do they know the difference between having their title listed in the warehouse distributor’s databases (Ingram, Baker & Taylor) and having distribution with sales teams who pitch their titles to genre buyers. They lack the understanding of how to properly promote their books. They don’t understand their competition, and worst of all, they are sorely underfunded.
You cannot be in this business without knowing what you’re doing and having solid financial backing.
Sadly, most self publishers don’t realize that until it’s too late. They’ve had their eye on the Big Prize and forgot about the steps that would help achieve that goal.
The Island Syndrome
We all know that writing is a solitary endeavor and that we need to stop what we’re doing and come up for air. This is when the beagle usually serves up margaritas, chips and salsa. Once we’ve finished our tomes of brilliance, our first dose of reality invariably comes from editors and agents. These are the folks with an experienced, unbiased eye, and they usually communicate via rejection letter or a contract. Or writers use beta readers and crit groups. The point is, their stories have allowed to be knocked around for a look under the hood.
But too often that isn’t the case, and writers stay on Writer’s Island and never grow.
From what I’ve seen with most self published books, the plot is tepid, the characters are underdeveloped, and/or they lack satisfying endings. They lack proper editing. When they receive rejection on top of rejection, they decide to take control of the production strings. “I’ll publish this myself and those cranky editors will see they really missed out. And while I’m at it, I’ll be so successful, they’ll offer me a multi-bajillion dollar deal.”
Reality: Few authors are accidentally successful and get a sweetheart deal without breaking a sweat.
Jane’s blog post details how agents and editors go running for the sales records of the self-pubbed book. If they are low, then it’s buh-bye time. Low sales means that you have one or more of the following:
- A lousy book
- Inferior promotion – due to lack of money, time, knowledge, defining your readership
- No distribution (I’m not talking Ingram’s here)
No one is going to touch your book without a solid sales record. And why should they? They are looking for books with legs. The self publisher who understands the business knows this and takes all the necessary steps to present a strong, viable package.
Authors often ask me what can the big publisher do for them, besides an advance, that a self pubbed author hasn’t already done themselves? In a word; distribution. A well-established publisher can launch a self-pubbed book further into Reader-Ville with the long arm of their media and distribution channels. Those books will be on shelves across the country, thus giving the previously self-pubbed author a lot more exposure. They can also get your book reviewed, and this is great in the credibility department.
There is nothing more comforting than having an entire team backing up an author’s book. It’s far easier than going it alone. Established publishers have far more names in their Rolodex than you do, and this comes in veeery handy when trying to blast your book into the wild blue yonder.
Another concern you, the self pubbed author, may have is whether the established publisher will feel you’ve exhausted the bulk of the market. In many cases this is true. It depends on the publisher, the book, the sales, the author’s platform, and what markets they hit. However, there is an untapped market you probably haven’t hit because you simply aren’t big enough to do it; foreign rights and foreign distribution.
In short, don’t be our poor intern. If you want to control every aspect of your own operation, then go through the residency program and learn what it takes to perform a successful surgery. If you doing this to get noticed by a larger publisher, you can see the amount of hard work it takes to accomplish this. If you want to be with a large press, then make that your first publishing move. Otherwise, you may want to think about playing the lottery.
Like this:
Like
Be the first to like this.
13 Comments | 
Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites 
If you want the inside scoop on what floats our boats, The Writer's Essential Tackle Box is a must have. Out in November 2009.
