Why we self-published the sequel to Stranger

Jan 06, 2015 08:55

Hostage, the sequel to Stranger, is out now. The e-book is $4.99; the paper book will be released in a few months.

Sherwood has put up a detailed post about why we chose to self-publish Hostage. It’s well-worth reading in full, but the short version is that we finished Hostage a year ago. If we stayed with Viking, it would be two more years before ( Read more... )

my book: stranger, my fiction, writing

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Comments 32

asakiyume January 6 2015, 17:14:52 UTC
It's a great post; I thought it was excellent that Sharyn contributed. I've linked to it on my LJ, and I've got some tweets up for you to retweet.

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rachelmanija January 6 2015, 17:22:20 UTC
Thank you! I thought it was very interesting and unusual to have her perspective.

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fengi January 6 2015, 17:18:49 UTC
Hey, is there still any service which allows you to buy e-books via a bricks and mortar store? The last time I read about that is before I had an electronic device so I didn't pay attention.

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rachelmanija January 6 2015, 17:21:49 UTC
Good question. I have no idea. Is there a specific reason why you need to do that?

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fengi January 6 2015, 18:25:45 UTC
I just want to keep supporting stores as I buy books digitally - Women and Children First used to have a program but I haven't checked in a long time.

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asakiyume January 6 2015, 17:26:39 UTC
Some independent bookstores have ways for you to do this. I haven't ever taken advantage of this myself, but I know some in my area have links with, for instance, Kobo. If you have a bookstore you like, you might try asking them.

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lyda222 January 6 2015, 17:56:40 UTC
I read (well, okay mostly skimmed) Sherwood's longer post and my feelings about this are mixed. I think it's really important to take care of yourselves as writers. Being able to put out a book in a reasonable amount of time seems like one of those things that ought to be an industry standard. (As a point of research/data, I never waited more than a year between book delivery and publication when I worked with Penguin USA. On the flip side, covers were presented to me for comment, not correction or input.) So, yes, being able to have readers find your next work ASAP makes a whole boat load of sense ( ... )

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rachelmanija January 6 2015, 18:10:40 UTC
Thanks, Lyda. (You're not all-capsy! I put in the warning because this sort of post sometimes attracts a lot of random drive-bys of the !!!HITLER!!! sort.)

Being able to put out a book in a reasonable amount of time seems like one of those things that ought to be an industry standard. (As a point of research/data, I never waited more than a year between book delivery and publication when I worked with Penguin USA. On the flip side, covers were presented to me for comment, not correction or input.) We did have cover input, and made some corrections - the initial cover was basically the same, but the central figure was posed differently, the buildings looked like European castles, and the eater roses looked like tentacles. I love the cover. And by pure coincidence, the silhouette made it much easier for us to continue in a similar vein. There was no way we could afford a photo shoot, and there are no stock photos of a Korean girl and a Latino boy posing together in non-modern clothes, even if we painted in a chain ( ... )

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lyda222 January 6 2015, 18:49:17 UTC
Yep, that's me. (Sorry, Rachel, but I have to squee.)

SQUEE!

Glad you found me!!

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egelantier January 6 2015, 19:33:12 UTC
i'm just so happy there wasn't a three years waiting for hostage, and we won't need to wait ages for the next book as well. i don't know, the waiting periods sherwood cites in her post seem insane, even if you've told me some of this before. like, they're illogical; it looks like the publishers are set on intentionally failing. a pretty sad state of things, and i'm glad there's a self-publishing way out of this loophole. and i, of course, as always wish you all the best with the series ♥

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rachelmanija January 6 2015, 21:45:26 UTC
Three years is unusually long. But yeah, it's often an odd business model in that most books will fail without publisher-driven publicity, yet most books don't get that publicity. It seems to me that if only a few books will get promoted by the publisher, they might as well only buy the books earmarked for promotion. I'm sure there's much I don't understand, though; perhaps the small number of books that succeed on their own makes buying a number of sink-or-swim titles worthwhile.

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lenora_rose January 7 2015, 05:55:55 UTC
I *know*, because editors have pretty explicitly said so, that in earlier days of publishing, the editors eagerly hoped for the income from bestsellers to fund all their beloved "will-probably-only-break-even-but-it-deserves-an-audience" projects. What seems to have changed is that there's less and less ability for them to even attempt to draw that audience, even in a modest way. (Or, in other words, the midlist continues to shrink).

I think, like in all instances where the middle ground is in danger of vanishing (I'm finding it eerily close to income disparity issues, if less urgent to most), this will eventually hit a change-or-die crisis point, and may already be there.

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sartorias January 7 2015, 13:30:07 UTC
Yeah--the old "let's slowly build your numbers" attitude has pretty much been taken away from the corporate bean counters at the top, at least that's my understanding.

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wordsofastory January 6 2015, 20:51:58 UTC
I was very excited to pick up a copy of Stranger in a brick-and-mortar store, but it's great that you'll be able to bring out Hostage so much sooner. I'm really looking forward to reading them both!

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rachelmanija January 6 2015, 21:41:42 UTC
Thank you! I hope you enjoy them.

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