Self-Publishing
Wednesday Workshop
29 March 2017
Why do we write?
Before we talk about publishing, in any form, we must pose the question: why do we write? As a former academic, my writing was intimately tied to academia. At first, I wrote to pass my exams; then I wrote to pass my courses by handing in essays and potential papers; then, when I was a full-time academic, I wrote for the “publish or perish” world of academia, churning out articles (90) and reviews (70) on topics that were tied to my research projects. My writing, in other words, had a purpose and a direction. I knew why I was writing and I was conscious of the areas and places in which my publications would be acceptable and accepted.
At the same time as I wrote for the academic world, I indulged in creative writing. I have always written poetry. I have always been aware of my vocation as a poet. However, I was also aware that it was very difficult to earn a living as a poet. We’ll talk more about that later. The academy, research, and teaching gave me enough free time to indulge my dream of being a creative writer. It also permitted me to put food on the table and to keep my family warm and comfortable during our cold, Canadian winters.
So, the first question you must ask yourself is: why am I writing? What do I hope to achieve as a writer? Who do I want to read my works? Why do I want to be published? How do I want to be published? Your answer to these questions, and others like them, will determine your relationship to the publishing process.
Traditional Publishing
It isn’t easy to become published in the traditional fashion. In the first place, there are fewer major presses out there, and those that do exist are very large and powerful indeed. They want only the very best work. Not only that, they want the best work that will make them the most money. Good writing isn’t always guaranteed to sell well and thus to make the most money, remember that. In the second place, there are some excellent smaller presses, but they tend to be niche presses tied to a specialized corner of the market. Academia is a niche market. My own area of academia, Spanish Seventeenth Century Literature, is a very small niche market indeed. In order to get published in the traditional manner, a great deal of research into the niche area and the presses that publish therein is needed.
Most major presses will not look at up and coming writers unless they are represented by an agent. Few agents will take on an up and coming writer. This is a chicken and egg conundrum: how do we get the experience to be represented when we need the representation to help get the experience? All writers must solve this problem in their own fashion. There is no easy answer. Novels that have the potential to be turned into films: these will attract an agent and a big press, because that’s where the money is. How many of us are capable of writing them? Short story collections used to be a reasonably safe bet, but it appears that fewer presses and literary magazines are publishing them. Poetry generates little or no money, hence it also belongs to a highly specialized niche market with very small circulation figures. Once these realities are understood, then we can consider the alternatives.
Self-Publishing
Self-publishing is no longer associated with the so-called Vanity Press, a term used to denigrate it. Not so long ago writers who paid for their writing to be published were considered by many to be ‘poor’ writers, ‘vanity’ writers. This is no longer true and The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) now accepts self-published works as genuine works of literary merit, always provided that they are well-written. The advent of the computer revolution made all forms of writing, printing, and publishing so much easier. The ensuing advances in desk-top publishing allowed anyone to be a published writer and a writer’s life was suddenly that much simpler.
I published two poetry books with traditional presses in 1978 (Last Year in Paradise) and 1986 (Broken Ghosts). In 1990, following the death of my parents, I felt a deep desire to write and to be published once more. I had poems published in small literary reviews and magazines and I had a track record of wins and honorable mentions in writing competitions, but nobody wanted to publish another book of my poetry. I papered my walls with rejections … and I got nowhere. Therefore, in 1990, I started to self-publish.
My first six books were simple: I typed out the poems, ordered them the way I wanted, and took them to the local print shop where, for a small sum of money, the books were printed and saddle-stitched. This was a cheap means of production, so cheap, that I didn’t need to sell the copies so I just gave them away to my friends. Between 1990 and 1996 I published six of these little paperback chapbooks: Idlewood, In the Art Gallery, Daffodils, Secret Gardens, Iberian Interludes, and On Being Welsh. The runs were small, ranging between 100 and 200 copies, and very cheap, often less than a twonie (two dollars aka ‘loonies’ from the loon on the coin) per copy.
All the initial work for these books was done by me: writing, selection, typing, and editing. The printers did the rest: copying and binding. In the case of these first self-published books, the covers contained typed titles and the author’s name and nothing more. In 2000, I was very fortunate. I met a genuine editor who agreed to work with me to publish my poetry via a small university print-shop. I wrote the poems and typed the text. My editor, a wonderful lady, then edited the text and prepared it for printing. My beloved (aka my wife) designed the covers for these books. Between 2000 and 2012 we (self-) published six of them: Sun and Moon, Though Lovers Be Lost, Fundy Lines, At the Edge of Obsidian, Obsidian 22, and Monkey Temple. These were genuine paperback books, with an ISBN. They were all limited editions and again I gave them away to my friends.
2008 saw Nashwaak Editions, the book division of the Nashwaak Review, publish Land of Rocks and Saints, a book of poetry that I wrote while in Avila (Spain). Again I funded this printing myself and again I gave it away to my friends and colleagues. I was devastated on several occasions to find signed copies of these books in second hand bookstores, that which I had given away for free had been sold for money. The receivers of free gifts had gained more cash than the books’ writer.
I continued writing and now had several manuscripts that I thought well worth publishing. Armed with a genuine list of publications and prizes and with excellent letters of recommendation from established writers, I again tried the traditional approach. Alas, I got the traditional results. Two small trade presses who agreed to publish my work both went out of business before they could do so. Agents, if they bothered to reply (and most of them didn’t), turned me down. I got to final judging with a famous niche press, but their marketing department said the book wouldn’t sell and they refused to market it … I didn’t know where to turn.
I had for some time been getting e-mails from houses that, for a large sum of money, would publish my new works for me. However, I was by now retired, and didn’t have those ‘large sums of money’. Publishing costs varied from $1500 US to $3500 US to £3000 (sterling). Well, I wasn’t that desperate, especially when I was suddenly subjected to regular e-mails, constant phone calls, and targeted advertising. I got tired of sales reps ringing me up and asking “are you read to go to press now?” There had to be easier and cheaper ways to get published.
2016 saw a major change in my self-publishing. A new friend, now a very close friend, suggested I try CreateSpace on Amazon. He came over one afternoon to give me a demonstration and we had a manuscript up and running that same day. It cost me nothing. I still haven’t sold a copy of that particular book. But it is up and available on Amazon. I buy copies at a relatively cheap rate and, you guessed it, I still give them to my friends. I now have nine titles on Amazon, two new titles* and seven rewrites and expansions. These include Monkey Temple, Bistro*, Though Lovers Be Lost, Sun and Moon, Obsidian’s Edge, Empress of Ireland, All About Angels, Iberian Interludes, and Avila* (my first book of poetry in Spanish).
Marketing is still a problem partly because I just don’t have (nor do I want) what it takes to be a salesman. I still give copies of my books to my friends. I guess I’ll never make any money worth speaking about from my creative writing. But that has never worried me: I have never written for money, only for love. I write because I love writing. I publish so I can give copies of my books to those friends who ask for them. I am a poet, whether I want to be or not. I am also condemned to my fate: I am a book writer and a book self-publisher and I’ll never be a businessman.
Is it all worth the effort? Yes, I think it is. Can (other) people make money from self-publishing? Yes, they can, especially if they are willing to advertise, market, and sell their books at every opportunity. This is something that I just cannot bring myself to do.
Quality Control
Are self-published books capable of being genuine works of art? Indeed they can. Bistro, although being self-published, has just been confirmed as one of three finalists in the NB Book of the Year competition (2016). Several of the stories in Bistro were either published separately in literary magazines or were part of larger manuscripts that received recognition in one way or another for the quality of their writing. Parts of several of my other books on Amazon have been published or awarded prizes or honorable mentions in competitions. My creative work has a track record of respectability.
I am an academic, trained to assess written work and to maintain quality control on my own written work as well as that of other people. Not everyone is born to be an editor, let alone a self-editor. How do we get to the level of self-editing necessary to be confident in our own quality control? Enter your work in competitions. Submit your work to literary magazines. Take writing workshops online and in person. Consult with other writers and join a good writing group or form one yourself. Be careful of submitting your work to the opinions of your best friends and your family: they will only tell you how good you are. Remember that your granny may be your favorite person, but she is not your best critic. Seek always the objectivity that allows you to stand back and criticize your own writing from a distance. Seek the opinions of others who are objective and will do the same.
Summary
- Think about why you are writing and what you want to achieve with your writing.
- Consider the different ways in which you can publish or self-publish and decide which is better for you.
- Research your market / niche market as carefully as you can and target the area in which you wish to work.
- Writing is a long-term commitment: you must make that commitment and stick with it.
- Remember that there is no substitute for high quality writing.
- Remember the words of Dewi Sant, St. David, the Patron Saint of Wales: “Keep the faith.”
- Don’t give up. Keep moving forward. If you stop writing, you will never achieve your goals or finish that book.
Hi Roger. I am forever grateful for your encouragement in this direction. I am still thinking that some of us just want that one copy of our own book … nice to see others read it, of course. Kindle was more of a challenge to me than paperback, but I persevered and now I have a Kindle version of my book ( my difficulty was sizing of images). Would be good if you did a blog post on local niche!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great idea, Jane. Would you like to work with me on this? Meg Sorick is also interested. There might be others. A joint post would be good and you certainly have first hand experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sure! It would get me to try some new marketing methods. Could do in three sections with a post on each of our blogs! Jane
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll run it past meg and see what we come up with.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for you encouraging words to keep our creative language alive!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is an additional thought, ‘keeping our creative language alive’, for it is the micro-languages that we lose first, those of the family groups and the local village. Standardization has its benefits, but it also brings its losses, and we rarely lament them. Thank you for your valuable comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent information, Roger. On my novel, I hired a professional editor. This was expensive but valuable. I learned a lot from the process, and that book is polished. I would encourage inexperienced writers to do this. I’ve grown as a writer and continue to change things on the story and am now putting the characters in a new format.
I’m so excited about Bistro for you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent feedback and comments, Tanya. Thank you. I did quite a bit of academic editing throughout my career, so the editorial process is quite familiar to me. I find I am making more mistakes as I grow older. Failing eyesight and a lack of concentration I guess. “You don’t always get what you want!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was grateful that someone made the suggestion to me for the novel. A good editor makes for a wonderful teaching experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is absolutely true. A good editor is in themselves a creative artist and their help goes way beyond merely correcting the spelling and the punctuation. Good editors: worth their weight in gold.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine was particularly skilled at looking for plot holes and missing information on top of all the grammar. I taught me to look at the story through different lenses.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s what good editors do. The story line is so important and we often miss the details that an objective (non-immersed) reader / editor picks up. Mind you: we have to be willing to learn!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A very informative and interesting read. Thank you 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a wonderful comment, thank you. I have indeed followed the self-publishing path in my creative writing and I am willing to help others who wish to walk the same way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey, Roger. This is a fine article, filled with facts, detailing your path, coincidentally, while offering a timely subject. Very interesting to read. Chuck Bowie
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Chuck. I think the publishing world has opened up a lot. However, the same problems as always exist: quality writing, acceptance, marketing, sales, and distribution. Thank you for reminding me about the need for quality writing AND objectivity.
LikeLike
Thank you, Roger.
Victor
LikeLiked by 1 person
No problem, Victor. Finish your book and we’ll get it published. Don’t stop writing now. Keep the faith!
LikeLike
Ah, Roger this is the perfect thing to hear. I feel exactly the same way about being a salesman. I have no stomach for self promotion! Even on the days I’ve released new material I feel awkward even announcing it on my blog! Anyway, I am going to try the agent route again. And I may use amazon’s own marketing services if I find out a little more about it. I will always write. At this point, I’d feel like something was missing if I didn’t write. Thank you for this article!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for your encouragement, Meg. Many beginning writers ask me about self-publishing and I thought it was time to get something up there on the topic. In fact it was something we discussed at the last meeting of our Thursday night writing group. The problem always is quality control … as for the marketing and the sales … I was never able to do that. hence the giveaways!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know… the downside of self publishing is getting lost in the sea of new authors. My fear is not being able to justify the time I spend on it if it doesn’t make at least a little return.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We d get lost … there are something like 4,000,000 books on Amazon. We are drowned in the tidal wave. So what sets us apart? That is key: hence the niche publishing and the keeping of the texts before the audience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have to find a niche! Romantic suspense is the Laurentian Abyss of the ocean!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll think about this. Romance, yes; suspense, yes; local region, yes; do you have a local film society that could put one of your novels up on the screen? Film potential, yes; recurring characters, yes; there must be a common thread that will find you a spot. Does the local library stock your novels? They should. Make that plural: do the local libraries stock your novels? Any chance you could break into the local school English reading groups and classes? Local university campus close by? Regional lit? Keep thinking! Any local awards open to you? Are you stocked in the local bookstore(s)? Can you do local readings at schools, libraries, bookstores??? Any local literary society or reading group? Whoa: I might manage a blog on this!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my word! All great ideas! I haven’t had the local bookstores stock any of my books because I’v only used Create Space for print copies. However…. now you have me thinking… Will ponder my options this week while I’m away!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Think about it, make some notes, and maybe I’ll do a post (a joint post?) on this topic. The local region may be the niche you want. Think local newspapers and friends who can develop this with you. Maybe you have found your niche: Doylestown!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really should take advantage of some of this stuff. The Bucks County Library system is huge… Also Pearl S Buck’s house is here and The James Michener Museum. I have to summon up my courage!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Think it over carefully during your Ireland trip. That’s #1. Then make notes of possible ideas. That’s #2. Run them past me when you get back (if you wish). That’s #3. We’ll do a joint post on the subject (I’ll do some thinking too). That’s #4. Then you can print out the post and take it or send it to selected possible outlets. This is your niche. Seriously: let’s exploit it. You have FOUR Bucks County novels with a fifth on the way. AND they are GOOD novels. Think carefully now. We’ll act later, step by step.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Packing notebooks and post it notes! My weapon of choice! But yes you are right, this is a good plan to enact. I’m on board!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pointless getting on boar tonight, Meg. Your flight doesn’t leave till tomorrow. I think we have something here. Think it out carefully … and all best wishes for the holiday and the “plan”!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Roger!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good advice from one who has been there, and continues to go there. Soldier on, Roger. -j
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Jan. E-mail on the way.
LikeLike