Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
Seeking a Publisher in the 21st Century
Part Three: Self Publishing
Self publishing is a ton of fun.
Up to a point.
Here’s a quick summary of the publishing process:
1. Write a book.
2. Edit the book.
3. Format the book.
4. Print the book.
5. Distribute the book.
6. Market the book.
Here’s a quick summary of how the process usually unfurls.
1. Write a book.
This part people love. That’s why they got into this mess in the first place, right? They have a story they urgently need to tell. Get it down on paper or into that computer! What a buzz! The publishers will be beating down my door to get it to the millions who’ll want to read it, just cuz it’s so cool!
Then when your door remains ominously silent, you decide, well I’ll just have to do it myself. That’ll show them.
2. Edit the book.
But if you’re going to take things that seriously, then maybe you have to give the story that flowed out so magically in such a rush a second look. This is the first point a lot of people lose interest in the project. What, I have to worry about spelling, and grammar, and the plot flowing properly, and all kinds of other annoying details like clarity and style? Bag that! That’s work!
But for those who persevere, you end up with an even niftier sounding piece than you started off with. And that feels good.
3. Format the book.
This is being creative again. A lot of people like this bit. Playing with fonts and layouts, planning covers, taking pictures, being arty again … Anyone who can survive editing doesn’t usually mind this stage.
4. Print the book.
A few people fall apart here. For the first time, you’ve got to spend some money. But it’s obvious the piece is brilliant, so others like to print plenty — and I do mean plenty — of copies. Gonna sell out that first printing for sure, after all.
And after this stage, a remarkably large number of ardent self publishers grind to a complete and ignominious … halt.
How many unopened boxes of self published books are sitting in closets, basements, porches, and attics even as we speak? More than are actually on the market in total, I’m betting.
Most people get the book printed, have a book launch party, sell copies to their immediate circle of family and friends, and then spend the rest of their publishing careers wondering why they thought it was such a smart idea to start off by printing a thousand copies of their magnum opus? Which they wrote so long ago they don’t necessarily even care about anymore.
The fact of the matter is, it is the rare individual who demonstrates a similar talent for the creative process of writing and the down to earth process of marketing. Yes, it’s true, absolutely true, that modern technology has rendered traditional publishers practically obsolete for the first four steps of the publishing process. But for most of us, they are absolutely vital for the final two: distribution and marketing.
Just like the publishers didn’t come beating down your door when the manuscript was finished, the book store owners don’t come knocking when your book is ready to go on the shelf, and reviewers and literary journals overwhelmingly do not get in touch with you on their own to tell the world and more importantly the book buying public how wonderful your writing is.
And even if you can manage to summon up the intestinal fortitude to track down thirty or forty addresses of people who nominally review books to let people know you exist, and you bite the bullet and absorb the costs of giving away thirty or forty review copies of your work and the postage to get them to the reviewers, there’s no guarantee anyone is going to look at what you send them, let alone write about it. And as well, if they do write about it, there’s always the chance they won’t like it. Even though the climate’s changing, there’s still a stigma about “self publishers”. A lot of journals won’t give your piece a second look after it’s established you put it out yourself.
Now, as I mentioned in an earlier instalment, there are any number of websites and agencies out there willing to help you — for a price — self publish your work today. I don’t doubt they willingly take you through steps one through four, and may even be quite helpful in the editing stage. I trust that they’re also quite helpful in getting you through the confusing economics of creating a marketable book, such as setting mark ups on the printing costs and the like so you can at least hope to break even some day on all the cash you’re putting out up front. I would hope some of them might even take things further, and help you through the distribution stage as well.
But I wonder how many of them do a thing for you marketing wise, or even give you anything resembling good advice on how to approach the task. I’ve been given plenty of good advice regarding the marketing process over the lifetime of the books I’ve had to push myself. Not a bit of it has ever paid off worth a damn. I don’t know what the answer is to promoting yourself, but I strongly suspect it means having a completely different personality than the one I do. Not that that’s a bad thing for those who do, but it does create rather an insurmountable obstacle for those like myself.
It seems you have to take just as much time or even more time than you spend actually writing working to get yourself noticed today, whether on paper or on the Internet. It’s not important to get your writing out there, it’s important to get your name out there, somewhere where people are going to see it and maybe follow it back to some of your genuine literary work. Writing is an art, being read is a business. The compromises between the two used to be clearer than they are today. For those on top of the developing scene, there is a wonderful world of opportunity unfolding for them. For the rest of us poor confused souls, there seems to be more frustration and rejection than ever.
Is there any way around this? I haven’t found one yet. So where does that leave me today, in the face of the modern publishing industry, combined with the fact that I’m writing more and better material than I have at any other time in my life? Ready to self publish, ready to dwindle away in obscurity, or still trying to find some other legitimate way to have my voice reach the readers that I’m certain must be out there? Tune in next week for what isn’t an answer but what’s happening anyway.
Live Event! Coming Soon!
Cinco De Mayo Poetry
A people’s holiday event featuring Mexican Poetry
Read in Spanish by Liliana Romanowski and in English by John H. Baillie
And new and selected poetry by Winnipeg activist poet Ron Romanowski
author of Incantations from the Republic of Fire
Monday May 5, 2014 7PM
McNally Robinson Booksellers
1120 Grant Avenue, Winnipeg
In the Atrium
Admission is free
*******
REALITY FICTION UPDATE!
And what is Reality Fiction, you may well ask?
Simple. The concept of the Reality Television Series translated to the printed page. 40 characters from my backlog of generally unpublished material are gathered together to compete in a different theme each Episode, with one or two characters being eliminated each sequence until there are only two left to fight it out in the final. The winner gets a short novel of their own as the grand prize.
But somehow, things always seem to go horribly wrong ...
What’s happening now?
The engaging mistress of all things Steampunk, Scintillisha Evans-Holyrood has been holding back her personally chosen category since Episode One. Finally, the cat’s out of the bag. But what else was lurking in that bag that might be coming with it? Tune in for the beginning of Episode Twenty-Eight: Lovecraft, this Friday at:
http://realficone.blogspot.ca/
REALITY FICTION TOO! EPISODES TO DATE
EPISODE TWENTY-SEVEN: GIANT INSECT
“That Was No Lady Bug! That Was My Wife!”
EPISODE TWENTY-SIX: SUPERHERO
“The Professor Evil Sessions”
EPISODE TWENTY-FIVE: JUNGLE ADVENTURE
“The Third Eye of the Many Legged Python”
EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR: PULP FICTION
“The Red Moon of Pango Pango”
EPISODE TWENTY-THREE: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The Imp of the Reverse
EPISODE TWENTY-TWO: FAIRY TALE
Princess NoName
EPISODE TWENTY-ONE: THE WEDDING
Dearly, Beloved
EPISODE TWENTY: EXISTENTIALISM
Face the Hangman
EPISODE NINETEEN: ABDUCTION
Abduction/Apperception
EPISODE EIGHTEEN: MELODRAMA
“Terror in Tarnation! A Thrilling Narrative in Three Acts”
EPISODE SEVENTEEN: POETRY
“landescapes”
EPISODE SIXTEEN: SILLY EUROPEAN SPY SPOOF (DUBBED)
“Diet Ray of the Stars!”
EPISODE FIFTEEN: EROTIC SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE
“The Shadow of Her Passion”
EPISODE FOURTEEN: FLYING:
“Sky Calling”
EPISODE THIRTEEN: SLAPSTICK:
“The Phantom of the Werewolf”
EPISODE TWELVE: DAIRY FARMING:
“Early One Morning”
EPISODE ELEVEN: BURROUGHS:
“Chapter Nine”
EPISODE TEN: WEREWOLVES:
“The Silver Solution”
EPISODE NINE: WRESTLING:
“Suckerslam XIV”
EPISODE EIGHT: JANE AUSTEN ROMANCE:
“The Proud and the Senseless”
EPISODE SEVEN: THE JAZZ AGE:
“The Bucky-Dusky-Ruby Red Hop!”
EPISODE SIX: SUBMISSION:
“Re-Org”
EPISODE FIVE: MASQUERADE:
“The Eyes Behind the Mask”
EPISODE FOUR: SELF HELP:
“Sausage Stew for the Slightly Overweight Presents:
Some Several Suggestions Guaranteeing Success for the Mildly Neurotic”
EPISODE THREE: NUDIST:
“If You Have To Ask ...”
EPISODE TWO: FRENCH BEDROOM FARCE:
“Un Nuit a Fifi’s!”
EPISODE ONE: STEAMPUNK:
“The Chase of the Purple Squid!”
A J.H.B. Original!
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