This week in writers corner I'd like to talk about publishing. These days it is no longer just about the big six, it's about should I just publish this myself. The world is connected, and we can go online a do our own promotions, in some cases better that the publishers will. I was contemplating this question when I came across an old article from 2013 that shared some incite on traditionally published authors that are now going indie. And Independent publishing has grown by leaps and bounds since this was written so it is even more applicable today.
For the original article please check out
Indie Reader
Indie
publishing is a growing trend. According to Bowker Books in Print and
Bowker Identifier Services, over 235,000 print and ebooks have been
self-published as of 2011.
What’s even more interesting is that many traditionally published
authors are also going indie, all for a variety of reasons—some because
they were unhappy with their publishers’ marketing efforts, others
because their publishers no longer wanted to publish their books. But
after talking to six traditionally published authors who have since
turned to self-publishing, it became clear they all had one common
motive for making the switch: they wanted control.
Barbara Freethy ,
author of 34 books including the Wish series and the first author to
sell one million books on both Nook and Kindle, said that she has been
writing for 20 years, via four different publishing houses. Then in
2010, she got the rights back to her backlist books and decided to
self-publish the ebook versions.
“Once I saw how
well my self-publishing books were doing and how much more attention
and focus I could put on my own books, it was a pretty easy decision [to
continue self-publishing] because those books have been doing so much
better,” she said.
Freethy said
that she prefers self-publishing because she has more control and power
over her own product. She can also publish her work more frequently.
“I’ve always
written more quickly than my publishers have had spots in which to
publish my books,” she said. “To put out three books in a series in one
year is a fantastic opportunity.”
John Harnish started his self-publishing career in 1972.
“Back then, self-publishing wasn’t even a term,” he said.
He wrote a
300-word essay called “The Immortalization of Fuck,” and printed and
mailed copies to buyers. Through an interesting turn of events, Pinnacle
got a hold of his essay and printed it in one of their books. Just
before the book went to print, an employee at Pinnacle noticed that the
essay had been copyrighted, and they called John in a panic to obtain
his permission. He has been writing and publishing books ever since.
Harnish said he
likes the freedom of being able to price his own books at affordable
rates, and owning all the rights. Last year, he was contacted by a
Danish publisher who wanted to sell one of his ebooks.
Barbara Morgenroth
said she likes indie publishing because she no longer feels pigeonholed
into a specific genre. She has written YA, romantic comedies,
mysteries, cookbooks, and photography essays.
“I wasn’t allowed to explore everything I wanted to do in traditional publishing,” she said. “Now no one cares.”
Originally
published under multiple publishing houses and imprints, including
Atheneum, Berkley, Alpha Penguin, and Avalon, Morgenroth has been
self-publishing since 2008-2009, and currently has 15 indie books out.
“Traditional publishing was ridiculously easy to abandon,” she said.
Marie Force,
author of USA Today bestseller Fatal Deception and 22 other books—15 of
them self-published—has been self-publishing since 2010. Next year,
she’ll be writing and publishing three to four new books in her
McCarthys of Gansett Island series.
She said she
decided to self-publish because she had completed a few books, and
though no traditional publishers were interested, readers were clamoring
for them.
“I published
the first of my 15 self-published books in November of 2010, and I’ve
never looked back,” she said. “Self-publishing has been the best thing
to ever happen to me as an author. I’m delighted to have a way to get
books to readers quickly and efficiently.”
Force prefers indie publishing because she can control every aspect of the book, she said.
“I love being
able to offer a sale any time I want and having the ability to
experiment with different strategies to sell books,” she said. “I love
finishing a book in November and having it on sale in December, rather
than waiting six months to a year for a book that readers really want
now.”
Helga Kleisny,
an author who has been published by Bertelsmann in Germany, started
indie publishing by offering two of her books on demand. The first book
accompanies her lectures to journalism students, and the second book,
titled Why Flies Get Bored in the Movies, is a humorous book on
bionics. She said she plans to continue self-publishing, starting with
the fiction book she will be writing next year.
Kleisny said
she was unhappy with her publisher because they had promised to print
one of her books in color, but it ended up being printed in black and
white. Because the book was full of pictures and diagrams Kleisny had
created herself, she felt black and white did not do her work justice.
“I want to
decide how my work goes to the readers, and not be restricted by the
company because they think the book market is not big enough or they
want to put their money elsewhere,” she said.
Having control is important to her as a self-publisher, she said.
“If you bake a
cake, why should somebody else tell you what color the icing should be?”
she said. “You baked the cake, so it’s your product; it’s your book,
it’s your heart that goes into it. So somebody else should bake his or
her own cake.”
James C. Martin published two of the three books in his trilogy, Push Not the River and Against a Crimson Sky,
with St. Martin’s Press. Although the first book has done well and gone
through nine printings, St. Martin’s told Martin they would not publish
his third book, The Warsaw Conspiracy, citing low sales numbers for his second book.
Martin’s agent convinced him to self-publish The Warsaw Conspiracy,
especially since he had a fan base waiting for its release. Both of his
books have been bestsellers in Poland, where the story takes place.
“More and more I’m hearing this whole area of doing it yourself is growing like crazy,” he said.
Martin said he
will wait and see how his journey into self-publishing goes before
deciding whether or not he will stick with it. In the meantime, he is
working on a fourth book, which will serve as a prequel to his trilogy.
So far, he said, he likes that he has more control over his book, especially when it comes to the covers.
The Changing Publishing Industry
Harnish said he thinks that downsizing has hurt the traditional publishing industry.
“Traditional
houses have gotten sloppy,” he said, commenting that he saw a lot of
typos in a Tom Clancy novel he recently read. “There are a lot of really
good editors, downsized out of a job, looking for freelance work.
They’re affordable [for indie publishers].”
Kleisny also
said she prefers to find her own editors. “I think that because the
times are changing, the better people in the bigger companies leave the
companies, and make their own [way].”
Marketing was another major reason these six authors decided to go the indie route.
Kleisny said
she was not happy she had to do a lot of her own marketing to promote
the books published by traditional publishing houses.
“Why do they
get 80 percent of the income of my book if I have to do it all by myself
anyhow?” she said. “I’m just a number for them […] Just one author. One
book. So why do too much for just this one book? But for me, it’s my
book. It’s my nights I have spent for this book. And I believe it’s
good. I know it’s good.”
Freethy said that when she was with a big publisher, her books did not see as much marketing efforts.
“As an
independent publisher, I’m focusing on my books all the time, and I’m
not done after three weeks or one month,” she said. “The book hasn’t
gone off the shelf, because it’s digital. So I can continue my marketing
efforts over the course of a year or two years.”
The Indie Publishing Learning Curve
Force said there was a huge learning curve for self-publishing.
“It doesn’t end
once you figure it out the first time,” she said. “The technology and
the retail offerings are changing and evolving all the time.”
Freethy urges all authors to learn the process of self-publishing.
“It’s very
empowering,” she said. “Whenever you give up any kind of control to a
publisher or distributor, you can get less emphasis on your own book.”
Harnish encourages all authors to get help with self-publishing, especially when they’re just starting.
“There are so many authors who will help other authors getting started,” he said.
Having written
on a variety of topics, including erotica, tornadoes, and ebooks,
Harnish said he often works with authors who contact him, especially if
they have read one of his books about publishing.
Harnish, who
was until recently the Vice President of Author Services and Special
Projects Director at Infinity, said he recommends authors use companies
such as Smashwords, because they do a lot for authors and only take a 15
percent cut.
He also likes
Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and sells his 12 different e-books
primarily through them. In the future, he’s looking to use CreateSpace
for print-on-demand.
“I like
Amazon,” he said. “I like what they’re doing. I like the 70 percent
royalty they pay. I like the fact that I get paid monthly and they
deposit it right into my checking account.”
For
international authors, indie publishing may have a bigger learning
curve. Kleisny said she has not yet published her books digitally,
because restrictions on the book market in Germany make it more
difficult than publishing in the U.S. For example, she said a book must
be sold everywhere at a set price, and certain retailers, such as Apple,
require international authors to obtain a U.S. tax number in order to
sell through their store.
The Keys to Successful Self-Publishing
One piece of
advice Harnish has for authors is to take books with them wherever they
go, in case people ask what they do for a living.
“You say you’re an author,” he said, “and then they ask what you wrote, and you can show them a copy of your book.”
A big reason Freethy attributes to her success is the fact that she has a lot of books to offer, she said.
“I’m going to
continue releasing new books, because I see the value of new books,” she
said. “I think the biggest mistake a lot of starting out writers make
is they write one book and spend a year trying to sell it, when they
should have been writing more books.”
Later this
year, Freethy plans to launch her books on the Callaways, a family of
firefighters living in San Francisco. There will be eight connected
books.
“What sells books is more books,” she said, “and that’s how you build a fan base.”
Freethy said
she spends about 65 percent of her time writing and 35 percent working
on the business of indie publishing. She said it’s important to pay
attention to the numbers.
“It’s a really
long selling process,” she said. “Your books are up there forever, so
you don’t have to make your money in the first two weeks.”
Freethy also said she checks how her books are doing every day.
“Really successful indie publishers work really hard,” she said. “Not just at the writing, but at everything else.”
The Benefits of Traditional Publishing
One benefit of
being traditionally published, according to some authors, is print
distribution. Freethy said she’s hoping that in the future publishers
will be more open to print only deals, and that they can take the
success of digital authors and translate it into print. This is already
starting to happen, as seen with Simon & Schuster’s deal with Hugh
Howey, author of the Wool series.
Martin said he misses certain aspects of being traditionally published as well.
“There’s a sense of insecurity,” he said.
Working with
publishers also means that authors can focus on what they do best:
writing. Best selling indie author Amanda Hocking wrote on her blog that
she sold some of her books to St. Martin’s Press partly because she
wanted to spend more time writing.
“I’m a writer,”
she wrote. “I want to be a writer. I do not want to spend 40 hours a
week handling emails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc.”
Harnish admitted there was only one thing he missed about being traditionally published: the parties.
“I loved that,”
he said. “I mean, good grief, some weekends I would be at one party on a
Friday night, and then go to an afternoon soiree out in the Hamptons,
and maybe do another cocktail party or dinner party that night. It was
neat.”
