I'm in a quandary. Three books down and I'm debating if I've got it in me to create a fourth. I know I can write it. I know I can edit it. I know I can get it to a stage where I think it is a publishable manuscript. But can I go through the process again? Can I spend a year of my life doing all of the above, only to have the next six months with various people telling me that it doesn't quite cut it? I'm not sure I can and more importantly I'm not sure I want to.
If I'm honest, I was one of those writers (and possibly still am, hence the quandary) who did slightly poo poo self publishing. I wanted and still want the validation of the traditional publishing world - an editor saying to me ' You can write and guess what, we're going to pay you to do it!' To me, vanity or self publishing could never deliver that, so it wasn't an option. If I wasn't good enough to get published through the agent/publisher route, then, perhaps I just wasn't good enough, full stop. Perhaps I should keep writing, hone my craft, until I was...
Years later and I'm confused. Although there are many fabulous stories of success with people I know who've travelled the traditional publishing route, I'm also hearing a lot of variations on a theme. Rather than the ideal complete picture - that is, writer gets agent, agent gets deal, publisher gets sales = everybody happy, I've heard a few tales of writer gets agent, agent doesn't sell book = everybody pissed off and disappointed.
At the same time,increasingly, I'm seeing success via the ePublishing route. I'm hearing stories of people who have, with well crafted, publishable manuscripts succeeded in this way. I have also, alas, while debating with myself what to do, downloaded some questionable writing...
So what constitutes 'success' with this route? Yes, the manuscript is 'published' in that it is out there with an instant audience available to buy it through a digital medium. And yes, assuming one can amass some fairly respectable sales, kindle allows a very favourable royalty percentage. But how exactly does one get from ground zero where the send button is pushed launching your baby into the digital world, to a world of actual sales? For me, it is only sales, real readers buying the novel, real readers leaving comments that they enjoyed it, that could possibly replace the validation of the traditional publishing route, which, after all, should end up with the same result. And how exactly in a world of thousands of books can one stand out? How can a prospective reader determine the difference in the digital world between a well written novel and the inevitable lesser written ones that are available too... One has to hope that good writing will win out, word of mouth etc but how, how, how does one create a working launch pad in the digital world?
It's a whole new world. One of catchy hooks to catch your reader. One of being able to write a pithy pitch. One of self promotion and flogging your blogging to death. Oh, hang on a minute, don't I do that anyway?!
Am I up for it? The jury here is still out but I think I am...
7 comments:
I'm not as far along as you, Fionnuala, so I don't have much to say. Except one of my friends, Mel Sherratt, self published her book on kindle and it is doing really well. Currently number ten in the crime charts or something. It is doing really well and hopefully is getting her noticed. This is her post about getting to number ten. I find it very inspiring. http://www.highheelsandbookdeals.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-visit-to-number-10.html
Thanks so much for that, Helen, heading over to read it now!
I must admit, I always felt the same as you about self-published books, Fionnuala, and wanted the validation of traditional publishing.
But it doesn't have the stigma it used to, and I wouldn't rule it out. Some self-published writers seem to be doing well and building up a good readership.
So, I dunno - helpful, eh?
Talli Roland (self-published author) wrote this about it today, which might be more help:
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/self-publishing-is-easy-2
Thanks Clodagh, I saw that from Talli earlier today - she's a big fan and has helped inspire me that it may be the route to go?
I'm kind of neutral on this. I think if you want to self-publish (not vanity publish because you will get paid for it and you're not paying them) on Amazon etc and are prepared to do the marketing and editing legwork, you think it's the right place for your work, then brilliant. After all, that's all we pay agents and publishers for isn't it?
My questions are: Will you still write? Will you write specifically to self-publish? Or will you sub each novel you write until you feel it's done the course, then self-publish?
Someone with experience and a great take on it is this guy, Ian Hocking
http://ianhocking.com/2011/11/03/ebook-q-a/
His whole blog is about his writing but he particularly focuses on his ebook publishing and is interesting.
Good luck if you do decide to do it, I'll be reading your book x
Thanks Jacqui. Not sure how to answer the questions but will try. Will I still write? Absolutely, if I could stop writing, I think I would have by now! If kindle were to work out once I'd try it again but I would perhaps also try the traditional route again. Sucker for torture, me.
I'm on the fence with this too, really. I do think if you want to make decent money from Kindling then you need to a) do your research and b) really put the legwork in.
If you look at someone like Cath Ryan Howard (and you MUST read her Self Printed book before you do anything) or Talli Roland they've spent a lot of time on building up a fanbase/platform, etc. What I'm trying to say is there'll be no leaving your blog for a year... ;)
Post a Comment