[Writing] Self-publishing
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celestineangel attempt to be coherent!
Today, while reading a discussion on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing, I was left with a few questions. Here, my questions, let me show you them:
1) What makes anyone think agents have time to go crawling through all the dreck on the internet to find the few things worth publishing?
2) For that matter, what makes anyone think publishers have the time to go crawling through all the dreck on the internet to find the few things worth publishing?
3) I wonder how much self-marketing the self-publishing advocates are not only willing to do, but able to do?
4) And, most important, who said that just because someone wrote something that it's good enough to be published?
See, numbers one and two are attitudes I ran into during the short time I owned and operated an e-book publisher, this misconception that if you just plop your shit out there some enterprising editor will find it and offer you a contract out of the clear blue sky. Sure, editors sometimes go to authors and request a tailor-made story or ask after one they knew the author had already. But these are authors they know. Editors generally do not make a practice of going around asking random authors for stories or novels when the author never submitted to their magazine or publishing house. Why would they? They have no idea of knowing if that author is any good, or if that story on their website is of consistent quality with the rest of their work or hell, even if it's that author's work (which, yes, is always a concern, but still). The authors I went to and requested they submit to CDP? Were authors I knew, and whose work I knew I would like, and was pretty sure my co-owner would also like.
Number three is a big thing for me when it comes to self-publishing, especially "assisted self-publishing." Okay, so, you've paid this "publishing company" hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars up front to provide all the services a traditional publisher provides basically for free.* Now what? Now you've got a book, and no marketing. Or, the "publishing company" is willing to provide marketing help (sometimes actual marketing, sometimes only coaching you on how to do it yourself) for even more money. If all you get from them is coaching, then you'll most likely still have to keep paying for adspace, venues for talks and signings, and who knows what else. Word of mouth? Only helps if people know about your book, baby.
And if you self-published through some service that doesn't ask for payment right off, then still what's your marketing? It's on their website? Okay, great, now how to you make certain people actually go searching for and find your listing out of the thousands (millions, perhaps?) of listings on the site? How do you make sure you do this enough and get enough people interested in your book to buy enough copies just to reimburse the financial investment you made? We're not even talking about profit, here, we're just talking about breaking even.
And if it's a service that doesn't ask for any payment upfront, and will only print your book as demand dictates (POD, Print on Demand), then okay, maybe you didn't throw hundreds or thousands of dollars into this, but there's still a very slim chance of actually becoming so well-known as to be financially successful.
Maybe you don't care about financial success. Maybe all you wanted was to see your words in print, maybe have something shiny to show to friends and family. Maybe that's all you need to feel successful. If so, that's seriously awesome. More power to you. I admire you.
Most of us? Most of us want to actually make a living at this one day. And most of us don't have an established reader-base to make a self-publishing venture worthwhile. Some people do. Some people have had enough success through traditional publishers to warrant an experiment in a crowdfunded project (which is a child of, but not necessarily the same as, self-publishing).
yuki_onna is a very good example of this. Some people are internet famous, and thus have a readerbase from that to ensure a mild to moderate or even extreme level of success on a self-publishing venture.
cleolinda comes to mind.
cleolinda also has had a traditionally published book.
Me? I am not internet famous, nor have I had any level of success in traditional (or even e-book) publishing. My fans are pretty much limited to my friends. For me, a self-publishing venture would not be successful. I have no delusions about this.
But I also don't expect an editor to plop out of the sky and offer me a contract with absolutely no evidence that I can write something worth selling. It's a nice dream, but here's something no one likes to hear in the world of artistic endeavors: grow up. Just a little. Keep dreaming, but understand thos dreams come at a price, and they don't come without effort.
*Almost forgot this footnote. What I mean by "basically" here is that there is no cost to the author upfront. Yes, the publishing company will take a large percentage of the profit for themselves, a larger percentage than what will be your royalties. But if your book tanks? Then they will still be out a lot of money that they invested in your work because they believe in it, and will not be able to earn it back. They took a risk, and lost. They take on the risk, so you don't have to; companies who ask you to pay them for these services are taking no risk because in this case the author (that would be you) takes most if not all of the financial risk. If that's okay with you, then great. But don't be an ass to those of us who can't or unwilling to take that financial risk, okay?
celestineangel attempt to be coherent!
Today, while reading a discussion on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing, I was left with a few questions. Here, my questions, let me show you them:
1) What makes anyone think agents have time to go crawling through all the dreck on the internet to find the few things worth publishing?
2) For that matter, what makes anyone think publishers have the time to go crawling through all the dreck on the internet to find the few things worth publishing?
3) I wonder how much self-marketing the self-publishing advocates are not only willing to do, but able to do?
4) And, most important, who said that just because someone wrote something that it's good enough to be published?
See, numbers one and two are attitudes I ran into during the short time I owned and operated an e-book publisher, this misconception that if you just plop your shit out there some enterprising editor will find it and offer you a contract out of the clear blue sky. Sure, editors sometimes go to authors and request a tailor-made story or ask after one they knew the author had already. But these are authors they know. Editors generally do not make a practice of going around asking random authors for stories or novels when the author never submitted to their magazine or publishing house. Why would they? They have no idea of knowing if that author is any good, or if that story on their website is of consistent quality with the rest of their work or hell, even if it's that author's work (which, yes, is always a concern, but still). The authors I went to and requested they submit to CDP? Were authors I knew, and whose work I knew I would like, and was pretty sure my co-owner would also like.
Number three is a big thing for me when it comes to self-publishing, especially "assisted self-publishing." Okay, so, you've paid this "publishing company" hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars up front to provide all the services a traditional publisher provides basically for free.* Now what? Now you've got a book, and no marketing. Or, the "publishing company" is willing to provide marketing help (sometimes actual marketing, sometimes only coaching you on how to do it yourself) for even more money. If all you get from them is coaching, then you'll most likely still have to keep paying for adspace, venues for talks and signings, and who knows what else. Word of mouth? Only helps if people know about your book, baby.
And if you self-published through some service that doesn't ask for payment right off, then still what's your marketing? It's on their website? Okay, great, now how to you make certain people actually go searching for and find your listing out of the thousands (millions, perhaps?) of listings on the site? How do you make sure you do this enough and get enough people interested in your book to buy enough copies just to reimburse the financial investment you made? We're not even talking about profit, here, we're just talking about breaking even.
And if it's a service that doesn't ask for any payment upfront, and will only print your book as demand dictates (POD, Print on Demand), then okay, maybe you didn't throw hundreds or thousands of dollars into this, but there's still a very slim chance of actually becoming so well-known as to be financially successful.
Maybe you don't care about financial success. Maybe all you wanted was to see your words in print, maybe have something shiny to show to friends and family. Maybe that's all you need to feel successful. If so, that's seriously awesome. More power to you. I admire you.
Most of us? Most of us want to actually make a living at this one day. And most of us don't have an established reader-base to make a self-publishing venture worthwhile. Some people do. Some people have had enough success through traditional publishers to warrant an experiment in a crowdfunded project (which is a child of, but not necessarily the same as, self-publishing).
yuki_onna is a very good example of this. Some people are internet famous, and thus have a readerbase from that to ensure a mild to moderate or even extreme level of success on a self-publishing venture.
cleolinda comes to mind.
cleolinda also has had a traditionally published book.
Me? I am not internet famous, nor have I had any level of success in traditional (or even e-book) publishing. My fans are pretty much limited to my friends. For me, a self-publishing venture would not be successful. I have no delusions about this.
But I also don't expect an editor to plop out of the sky and offer me a contract with absolutely no evidence that I can write something worth selling. It's a nice dream, but here's something no one likes to hear in the world of artistic endeavors: grow up. Just a little. Keep dreaming, but understand thos dreams come at a price, and they don't come without effort.
*Almost forgot this footnote. What I mean by "basically" here is that there is no cost to the author upfront. Yes, the publishing company will take a large percentage of the profit for themselves, a larger percentage than what will be your royalties. But if your book tanks? Then they will still be out a lot of money that they invested in your work because they believe in it, and will not be able to earn it back. They took a risk, and lost. They take on the risk, so you don't have to; companies who ask you to pay them for these services are taking no risk because in this case the author (that would be you) takes most if not all of the financial risk. If that's okay with you, then great. But don't be an ass to those of us who can't or unwilling to take that financial risk, okay?