Self-Publishing Success

Elwyn said:

After reading this, I am somewhat convinced that self-publishing may be the only way for some of us to break into this game.

What say ya’ll?

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I think you're looking for support for something you've already decided to do, instead of analyzing the information you've been given. Elwyn, self-publishing makes sense only under a specific set of circumstances, and your situation does not fall into that set. I don't know how to be more explicit than that.

Elwyn said:

Oh, one more thing. I haven’t read anybody’s ideas on how to promote books other than the traditional methods. Cannot the Internet be used more effectively for promoting self-published books?

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The Internet is but one method. People still have to know who you are and what your book is about—and what makes you qualified to write it.

I went to your website and was impressed by your graphic. But when I clicked on your chapter excerpt link, I got nothing. Your links don't work. If I can't read a sample or find out more about what the book is about, I won't be interested. Also, if I don't know what things you have already written—or what your qualifications are to write this book, I probably won't read much further than the first page of your site.

Info on your page says the book is for "10 to adult." Why not say 10 and up? Otherwise, it sounds as if adults wouldn't enjoy it. What niche does your book fill? Self-publishing and POD only work if you're filling a niche. If your target market is middle-schoolers, for instance, you need to do a lot of readings/appearances in the classroom and in various educational markets (library reading programs, book fairs, etc.). I assume you've already "test-driven" parts of your book with young people. If you haven't, why not? Can you write lesson plans that you can post on-line or give to teachers so they can use your book in class?

FYI—self-publishing is cost effective if you can sell at least 1000 copies. POD works best if you sell 200 to 999 copies. I have self-pubbed once—albeit my first press run was partially funded by an arts council— and PODed 3 times. My latest POD, for example, is pretty specific for my county and a couple of counties around me. It's designed for a specific age group in a specific regional area. You can take a look at how I debuted that book at http://home.infionline.net/~rmushko

Elwyn, if it was easy to self-publish and promote books and be successful doing it, everyone would be doing it. It isn't. Any "new" method you think you've come up with to make your book a bestseller is something somebody has already tried.

I'm not a rabid anti-self-publishing person, but at the same time, I think for fiction, it should be a last resort. If you think you've got a decent book and you can't find a commercial publisher, then yes, why not self-publish rather than have it sit in a drawer. But the key is to consider it only AFTER you've knocked on every publisher's door, not before.

The Internet could be a good tool -- only if people know where to look and they care. Perhaps you write for an eZine? Or you blog and have a fan base, etc... but the Internet can only help so much -- there are literally millions of websites and blogs out there.

Eventually, you'll still need to advertise. And it costs money. Without a legit review or press exposure, it's difficult for people to know who you are and what you have to offer.

Most people succeed in self-publishing write non-fiction/niche. They already have their exposure (they're speakers or experts in some fields or special interest groups, etc.) and they can sell their books at seminars and conventions. It's tough for fiction...

Elwyn, try this: Go to your bookshelves, and see how many self-published books you yourself have bought. See how many books you bought because of Internet promotion. Probably none to very few, yes?

So why assume it will be different for other buyers and your self-published, Internet-advertised book?

Everything you're thinking about has already been tried, by lots and lots of people. It didn't work for them, and it won't work for you. Self-publishing only makes sense under certain circumstances, and you're not in those circumstances.

Elwyn said:

I had no idea that it was so difficult to get a book published by a major publishing house.

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It's a cakewalk compared to the self-publishing experience.

Seriously, self-publishing is hard. Really, really hard. You will have to learn marketing and accounting, in addition to the details of publishing in general and self-publishing in particular. Self-publishing is not any easier than publishing with the established publishers; you're just trading one set of difficulties for another. You have to understand that, whether you decide self-publishing is right for you or not. You have to know what you're getting into.

Other difference: The gamble with publishing is a few stamps and a stack of paper; with self-publishing, it's potentially thousands and thousands of pounds for something that may never sell outside of your family.

Also: The links on your site don't work in Safari.

Elwyn said:

I had no idea that it was so difficult to get a book published by a major publishing house. A person could spend years of painstaking research and go through major rewrites, etc. just to have his or her work end up in the trash - because he or she can't get a break from a major publisher. That's the message I've gotten so far. It's a VERY big gamble..

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It's not a "gamble." It just takes time. And if your book is good, it will happen. It has happened to thousands of first-time authors.

I'm a first-time author. I got a contract. It could happen.

(but if your bool is bad, no amount of self-publishing effort is going to make it successful)

The problem is, an author spends years of painstaking research and rewrites... YEARS... then he expects acceptance and success in months! Talk about discrepency of expectation. There's probably some ego involved, too -- "hey, I spent so much time writing this, it has to be brilliant and everyone should fall in love with it immediately!"

Publishing is a slow business. Keep writing, keep polishing, keep revising while you wait. Like good wine, if your book is good, it deserves some time, patience, and TLC.

Aconite said:

Elwyn, try this: Go to your bookshelves, and see how many self-published books you yourself have bought.

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Actually, I have a fair number of self-published books on my bookshelf. But they're all non-fiction. I don't have any self-published fiction.

brinkett said:

Actually, I have a fair number of self-published books on my bookshelf. But they're all non-fiction. I don't have any self-published fiction.

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Then if you're interested in self-publishing nonfiction, you're probably a better candidate than most. I've got some self-pubbed nonfiction books, too, all on topics with a small, highly specialized audience. But of the thousands of novels on my shelves (and this is after severe pruning), only one was self-published, and that was only because someone else in the house ordered it out of pity.

I have exactly one POD fiction on my shelf -- a friend of mine wrote it and went with iUniverse. Truth be told, the story wasn't bad, but I couldn't see it published by a traditional house (needed significant editing).
p.s. oh, and I also have Atlanta Night.

Marketing is the answer

The marketing of any book be it through the usual channels or the self publishing route is the key to success.

I advise you not to self publish if you don’t have the promotional money to back your publishing route effectively. I work hard at my promotions. My web site novel supported by six of my sites including www.keithhoare.com are at the top of the search engines and my book is sold by the big names on the web. This is a lot of effort and doesn’t come cheap both in time, effort and money I even give away goodies to attract callers.

And no it’s not about good or bad books, many professional books are poorly written as well, thousands of them consigned to the bargain basement shops.

So yes get it self published the rejection stamps could cost more believe me.

Quackers - No offence but you are yet to make any ranking on amazon at all - while I know amazon rankings are not the be all and end all, where exactly are your sales? If you have six websites pointing to amazon what's going wrong? Your book seems reasonably priced and quite interesting.

ps. what are gazelle distributors like?

Karen came to a halt at the alter, a lump had formed in her throat, her religious upbringing suddenly overwhelming her as she realized she was stood, gun in hand ready to kill, at the same time facing her God. Her eyes wondered over the gold framed icons surrounding the huge cross, glowing and flickering with the large number of candles, placed by worshippers on racks either side of the alter.

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Aside from the grammatical problems with this portion (run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers and punctuation, "was stood," and so on), um...I'm going to put this as delicately as I can...are you personally familiar with the faith of the church you're describing, and have you much experience with the layout and practices of churches of that faith?

James D. Macdonald said:

Surely you meant soul, altar, and wandered?

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ow...

Elwyn...I too have considered POD because you don't have to worry about all those fees and such. Plus there are some POD's that don't require you to pay anything. There's one here in the state I live in (North Carolina)...actually it's not too far from where I live

" Oh, one more thing. I haven’t read anybody’s ideas on how to promote books other than the traditional methods. Cannot the Internet be used more effectively for promoting self-published books?"

There are numerous things I have and am trying:

I put press releases out at Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, and as many local newspapers I could Google. I Google about 1 major city a night getting e-mail addresses and names of the editors and personalize a heading for each one.

At my university - there are three major and over a dozen smaller universities in my area - I received permission from the office of student life to post flyers (8X14) about my book and any signing events (the first is Thursday so I'll report on the new Diggory thread on that). I also printed up several hundred 8X11 flyers to insert in the school newspaper - the one with the article about me. The flyers all in full color equaled about $40 in ink and $12 in paper (500 8X11 and 500 8X14) They are allowed to remain for 1 month on boards and doors and so they advertise the book as well as the signing event. I will also post on how many sales I think the flyers brought in.

I am going to repeat the above at the other two major universities first and then the minor ones. Since I also have relatives in Little Rock I will set up interviews with the local and college newspapers there and repeat the above.

In the meantime events tied to my topic are happening frequently: the Kansas Board of Education, the 38 Nobel Prize winners challenging them, the Pennsylvania case, etc. Everytime something new develops in the Creation/Evolution/Intelligent Design debate I tailor a new press release and get it to all the media outlets. Now that I have all the e-mail addresses this only takes a few hours and sooner or later I believe it will pop. (sounds a lot like submitting and resubmitting a manuscript doesn't it?) anyhow when it pops I stand to get between 60% and 75% royalties rather than 7%-12% like most traditional publishers pay.

Keep in mind what everyone here says though - You do have to have the 'just right' kind of book for this to work. In your case Elwyn I think any cutting edge technology can be converted into a non-fiction format and put out in a 130-200 page book at a very reasonable price with a real focused and catchy title. That sounds kind of radical - but its just an idea.