I hear many people say, "I've
always wanted to write a book." It seems to happen every time I
mention the fact that I'm an author.
It's an urge that many people share but
up to now it's not been strong enough to encourage the same
individuals to write a cookbook, short story or novel. After all,
when you've done it, put the effort into the writing and finally
possess a finished manuscript, who will read it?
Having a reader is important. Most (if
not all) writers possess a yearn to be read that transcends earning
money or making a living at writing. Although I can't speak for all
writers, that's been my experience.
To be read, you need to publish the
work, get it in front of an audience. In the past there were only two
ways to do that, seek a traditional publisher or publish it yourself.
Established publishers could distribute
the book to a wide audience because they controlled the distribution
sources. If you self-published, the burden was on you. Many people
who tried it beggared themselves using unscrupulous vanity
publishers, and the negative connotation along with the miniscule
number of successes discouraged the practice.
But then the internet grew to maturity.
Web publishers offered an alternative to the traditional route,
giving people who wanted to try writing, a path to a huge audience.
At first, traditional publishers ignored the web-publishers, treating
them like annoying insects that would eventually fly away or could
easily be crushed.
Now the web-publishers have become more
like a pack of hungry prowling wolves. If traditional publishers
can't or won't change, the pack may select them for their next meal.
Writers who seek the traditional route
to publishing success are frequently lonely and confused. Almost a
hundred percent of their tentative efforts to seek traditional
publication will be met with form letters, if they receive a
reply at all. They'll flounder around in the dark with absolutely no
knowledge as to why they were rejected.
Traditional publishers hold their cards
close to their chest and frequently the hand they hold is a pair of
deuces. The writer may be rejected, not for the quality of the
writing, but for economic reasons that the would-be author doesn't
understand and which may not hold validity.
Nevertheless an impersonal form letter
provides no enlightenment at all.
So we'll suppose that some of the
replies from agents and publishers have resulted in more than the
typical rejection. Perhaps they've seen something in the writing that
triggered a personal reply and encouraged by the response, the
would-be author continues to send out queries. (This could consume a
significant fraction of the writer's life.)
Of a sudden, bam! The author gets an
offer from an agent or publisher and with trembling hands stroking
the keys on the computer keyboard, he or she responds. After all,
success is just around the corner, isn't it?
Not so fast, prospective author, now
come the hurdles. You're racing toward the finish line but you're not
there yet.
Is the offer legitimate? Is the agent
or publisher set to help you become an author, or are they just out
to rob your wallet? There are more scam artists out to fleece wannabe
authors than there are legitimate agents and publishers.
Let's assume you've done your homework,
and verified that the offer is real. If you're like most people it
may have been the only offer you've had, so you decide to take it.
If you're not careful and you don't
understand the in and outs of contracts, you may just be selling your
life away. When you sell a book you give up your right to it. Once
it's sold, unless you're really adept at contract negotiations, you
own it no longer. It's your baby and you've just peddled it to the
only bidder. You've sold your soul to a devil you don't know and
can't understand.
Okay, you've signed the contract and
turned your fate over to the agent or publisher. Everything has
worked out, and now the only obstacle remaining is to get it to the
bookstores.
Be prepared to wait, in fact, be
prepared to wait a long time. In the case of an agent, it may take a
long time to find a publisher and the agent may request substantial
changes to the manuscript to make it salable. If you've contracted
directly with the publisher, you'll need to satisfy the editor,
approve the book cover (assuming you negotiated that in your
contract), pour though the proof copy and make corrections. It's time
consuming.
Finally, a year later, your book is in
the bookstores, and then it's time for the readers to vote with
their dollars.
Maybe it's a best seller or maybe it's
a mid-list, or maybe it doesn't earn enough to repay the advance (the
most likely outcome, assuming you got an advance).
To complete the above process may
consume five to ten years of your life.
You could have learned all that in a
couple of months if you'd self-published it and could have earned
substantially more in royalties than agents or the traditional
publishers offer.
To understand why the writing is
accepted or scorned, the writer needs to be read. Maybe it's the fact
that the work is bad, or just maybe it will strike a chord with
readers. Either way, you've learned something, because readers don't
hesitate to pan bad writing or reward good writing, a fact I've
learned from experience. The question is, how do you get read,
because in the final case, it's the readers that matter, not an agent
or publisher.
Is self publishing easy? No, but it's
not as daunting as you might think, and I guarantee it's easier and
faster than seeking an agent or traditional publisher. If you're
competent or can become accomplished in a few areas, including
editing, cover design and formatting, you won't have to spend one red
cent to become self-published. If you're not, there are hundreds of
people who can help and the costs are more than reasonable.
There are many free options to get your
work in front of an audience like Smashwords, Feedbooks (free books
only!), Pubit! (Barnes and Nobel), Lulu (print on demand) and AmazonKDP to name a few.
Feedbooks, Pubit!, Lulu and Amazon
limit your exposure to their sites or a couple others, while
Smashwords distributes to multiple book sellers.
(Don't be caught by crooks who want to
charge a lot of money to publish your work. If you're asked to spend
in total more than the mid three figures, including editing, cover
design and formatting, you're likely being ripped off.)
In the end you need to be recognized
and reach readers. Self-publishing can accomplish that, it can give
you an idea of whether or not your work is appealing to the readers.
If there's an expressed interest in
this subject. I'll post future articles on formatting, cover design,
pricing, and the overall strategies you can use to get your work
self-published.
