Whenever people find out that I've written a book, they ask me who is going to publish it. When I say that I'm going to self-publish, they ask me what that means. I explain the process to them and they are very concerned for my future... They don't see any possibility of success without a large, well known publishing house in my corner.
I then remind them of this unknown author named J.K. Rowling and a lesser known series built around this wizard kid named Harry...
Now why is that even interesting? Rowling didn't self-publish. It's interesting because the traditional publishers rejected Harry Potter for nearly five years, and finally in what might have been a last ditch effort for the struggling author, a relatively unknown publishing house printed 500 copies of the book because the owner's daughter would not stop pestering him about the book. He had not read the manuscript. He gave it to his child instead.
Traditional publishers said the book was all wrong. It was too long, too traditional, too old fashioned, too telling instead of showing, too slow to start, the first characters you meet are not likeable, it doesn't start in the right place, and it's politically incorrect. It's a fantasy with humor and very dark - an odd combination with the child reader in mind.
Now all of these things caused her book to be rejected by all of the UK's mainstream publishers, and we all know how that worked out in the end.
If she had self-published, would the book have been the wild success that ultimately defined the series? I think the answer is yes, though the timing was problematic.
Turn the clock forward to today.
How many of you have received the same type of rejections for your work? Do you rewrite or just move to another publisher? J.K. Rowling moved on, keeping her work essentially the same in every submission, rejection after rejection. Imagine how difficult that was for the hard working but very poor author.
My favorite, established authors are now self-publishing their most recent works. Yes, they have a track record and a following and people look for their books and eagerly await their release. Will that happen with my first novel? Not in any way, shape or form.
The odds of writing a best seller are what? 10,000 to 1? 20,000 to 1? 100,000 to 1? Has anyone ever done the math? Most books never sell very well, even if they are published by a major, well known publishing house. Why? Is it perhaps because the cookie-cutter approach that gets your work accepted isn't what the readers really want? Maybe the work is just not that interesting, or readers never really find the author even when a major publisher picks them up. I don't know the answer there, and I suspect there are as many reasons for failure as their are failed books in print.
My book is long. Too long to get by any of the "rules" that I keep reading on this and other writer's forums. OK. I get it. As a print book, it would be unwieldy. As an eBook however, it weighs the same as if it had half the number of words. It will still be available in Print on Demand, however I don't expect to ever see it on the shelf at Borders.
My beta readers loved it, almost without exception, and have insisted that I leave it at is current length. The length allowed me a depth of character development and back story that I find missing in many books, and multiple tracks - even though at times it can be a challenge to remember where one character left off since it's been several hundred pages since you read about that person... The shortened version was panned by all but one of 30 readers... OK. I listened.
I paid a copy editor to go through the first three chapters and though she was very professional, I did not find the value. Yes, I use very too often. I know that. I talk that way as well. Yes I end dialog sentences on a preposition. So do most people when they talk... Yes I write with run-on sentences. Not all of the time, but enough that you can identify several in each chapter. OK. If I can read it aloud and it sounds like it flows well, then I leave it in place. I read every chapter aloud in the editing process. I find that a great way to get a feel for the flow.
Yes, I am a first time author at 57 years of age, and I am certain that there are many more talented writers out there who could remove half of my words and tell the same story. Wonderful. Let them write their own books in their own way, and let me write my books in my own way. You can love their books and hate mine, I won't take it personally. I write the way I write, and that's not likely to change much in the future.
One of my beta readers asked me to include his brief review in my book, and though he is not the New York Times or USA Today's book reviewer, he is an avid reader who buys dozens of books a year in my genre. What he wrote made me blush, and is certainly higher praise than I deserve.
He wrote, "Very enjoyable read. Tim's storyline ranks right up there with some of the classic fantasy writers such as Brooks and Goodkind. Excellent first work."
WOW. I mean WOW. Yes it's only one data point, and it's not from a professional book reviewer, and I suspect that none of you would think the same if you read it, but really. If he represents the typical fantasy fan base, I could not be more pleased.
Now my challenge of course is to get my book in the hands of as many readers as possible, and that will be a big challenge indeed. I've read much of the marketing advice on this and other forums, and I'll be working as many of these avenues as make sense that I can.
What I probably won't do is to give away my book or sell it for $0.99. Why? Because I want people to value my work and take it seriously. There are plenty of free books out there that people can add to their libraries if that's what they want. I'll try a different approach, and charge money for my book. Novel approach, I know. I'll pay to market in ways that make sense, and treat it like a product and a business. I've had success selling products in the past, and hopefully some of that success will spill over to this product as well.
So why am I self-publishing again? I want the freedom to do this my way, with no one to be accountable to other than my readers, and no one to blame if things don't go as planned.
I'm in it for the long haul, having already written the first 30,000 words of Book II in the series, with an outline that extends to Book III and IV, then jumps to prequels that define the world in which these books take place. Two books a year is my writing schedule right now, and I'll see how that works out by early spring when Book II should be ready to go.
For anyone who has managed to read this far, thanks for taking the time to do so. I hope you have great success in whatever manner you choose to make your books available to the public, and should you decide to give away 100,000 copies as your way to get your book out to the masses, you have my complete support. My goal for next year is to sell an average of 50 books a day, spread across three books and all of the possible outlets.
I'll let you know this time next year if I was able to pull that off or not.
I then remind them of this unknown author named J.K. Rowling and a lesser known series built around this wizard kid named Harry...
Now why is that even interesting? Rowling didn't self-publish. It's interesting because the traditional publishers rejected Harry Potter for nearly five years, and finally in what might have been a last ditch effort for the struggling author, a relatively unknown publishing house printed 500 copies of the book because the owner's daughter would not stop pestering him about the book. He had not read the manuscript. He gave it to his child instead.
Traditional publishers said the book was all wrong. It was too long, too traditional, too old fashioned, too telling instead of showing, too slow to start, the first characters you meet are not likeable, it doesn't start in the right place, and it's politically incorrect. It's a fantasy with humor and very dark - an odd combination with the child reader in mind.
Now all of these things caused her book to be rejected by all of the UK's mainstream publishers, and we all know how that worked out in the end.
If she had self-published, would the book have been the wild success that ultimately defined the series? I think the answer is yes, though the timing was problematic.
Turn the clock forward to today.
How many of you have received the same type of rejections for your work? Do you rewrite or just move to another publisher? J.K. Rowling moved on, keeping her work essentially the same in every submission, rejection after rejection. Imagine how difficult that was for the hard working but very poor author.
My favorite, established authors are now self-publishing their most recent works. Yes, they have a track record and a following and people look for their books and eagerly await their release. Will that happen with my first novel? Not in any way, shape or form.
The odds of writing a best seller are what? 10,000 to 1? 20,000 to 1? 100,000 to 1? Has anyone ever done the math? Most books never sell very well, even if they are published by a major, well known publishing house. Why? Is it perhaps because the cookie-cutter approach that gets your work accepted isn't what the readers really want? Maybe the work is just not that interesting, or readers never really find the author even when a major publisher picks them up. I don't know the answer there, and I suspect there are as many reasons for failure as their are failed books in print.
My book is long. Too long to get by any of the "rules" that I keep reading on this and other writer's forums. OK. I get it. As a print book, it would be unwieldy. As an eBook however, it weighs the same as if it had half the number of words. It will still be available in Print on Demand, however I don't expect to ever see it on the shelf at Borders.
My beta readers loved it, almost without exception, and have insisted that I leave it at is current length. The length allowed me a depth of character development and back story that I find missing in many books, and multiple tracks - even though at times it can be a challenge to remember where one character left off since it's been several hundred pages since you read about that person... The shortened version was panned by all but one of 30 readers... OK. I listened.
I paid a copy editor to go through the first three chapters and though she was very professional, I did not find the value. Yes, I use very too often. I know that. I talk that way as well. Yes I end dialog sentences on a preposition. So do most people when they talk... Yes I write with run-on sentences. Not all of the time, but enough that you can identify several in each chapter. OK. If I can read it aloud and it sounds like it flows well, then I leave it in place. I read every chapter aloud in the editing process. I find that a great way to get a feel for the flow.
Yes, I am a first time author at 57 years of age, and I am certain that there are many more talented writers out there who could remove half of my words and tell the same story. Wonderful. Let them write their own books in their own way, and let me write my books in my own way. You can love their books and hate mine, I won't take it personally. I write the way I write, and that's not likely to change much in the future.
One of my beta readers asked me to include his brief review in my book, and though he is not the New York Times or USA Today's book reviewer, he is an avid reader who buys dozens of books a year in my genre. What he wrote made me blush, and is certainly higher praise than I deserve.
He wrote, "Very enjoyable read. Tim's storyline ranks right up there with some of the classic fantasy writers such as Brooks and Goodkind. Excellent first work."
WOW. I mean WOW. Yes it's only one data point, and it's not from a professional book reviewer, and I suspect that none of you would think the same if you read it, but really. If he represents the typical fantasy fan base, I could not be more pleased.
Now my challenge of course is to get my book in the hands of as many readers as possible, and that will be a big challenge indeed. I've read much of the marketing advice on this and other forums, and I'll be working as many of these avenues as make sense that I can.
What I probably won't do is to give away my book or sell it for $0.99. Why? Because I want people to value my work and take it seriously. There are plenty of free books out there that people can add to their libraries if that's what they want. I'll try a different approach, and charge money for my book. Novel approach, I know. I'll pay to market in ways that make sense, and treat it like a product and a business. I've had success selling products in the past, and hopefully some of that success will spill over to this product as well.
So why am I self-publishing again? I want the freedom to do this my way, with no one to be accountable to other than my readers, and no one to blame if things don't go as planned.
I'm in it for the long haul, having already written the first 30,000 words of Book II in the series, with an outline that extends to Book III and IV, then jumps to prequels that define the world in which these books take place. Two books a year is my writing schedule right now, and I'll see how that works out by early spring when Book II should be ready to go.
For anyone who has managed to read this far, thanks for taking the time to do so. I hope you have great success in whatever manner you choose to make your books available to the public, and should you decide to give away 100,000 copies as your way to get your book out to the masses, you have my complete support. My goal for next year is to sell an average of 50 books a day, spread across three books and all of the possible outlets.
I'll let you know this time next year if I was able to pull that off or not.
