I had a long conversation recently about self-publishing and how readers perceive it. I personally occupy a weird space: I am a blogger, reader, reviewer, published author, and with every month that I run this site, I learn more about publishing than I knew when the site began over 5 years ago. I interact differently with self-published books than most romance readers. Most of the time, they are pitched to me for review.
Case in point, this book, which is on sale now at Fictionwise: Touched By an Angel by James Trivers. Mr. Trivers emailed me with the blurb to his book to request a review. I explained that I didn’t have any room on my to-be-reviewed schedule, but that I wanted to reproduce his blurb here, and he agreed:
I find there is greater freedom into what you want to write with online fiction. You can go to darker places. I have a new ebook called “Touched By A Charlie’s Angel.” A bisexual hack writer sells a script to Charlie’s Angels and is invited to snort cocaine with Robin Doe, the newest angel, when the two-person party is crashed by a star-struck lesbian cop. To avoid being busted-they kill the cop, mince and dice the corpse and make it mulch for the actresses garden. The writer flees LA for the Mojave where he hides out from the law as a born-again Christian. Two years later, Robin Doe, emerges from rehab and after given a governor’s pardon (she is a celebrity who, after all, is friends with Jerry Brown) decides to do her Ninth Step with Barbara Walters on nationwide television. Upon doing so blows our hero’s cover. What he does to save himself-you have to read it to find out.
Say it with me now: 0_o?
I honestly read that paragraph three times to make sure I didn’t miss a plot point. “Darker places” doesn’t begin to cover it. Holy holy holy. Faster than you can say “star-struck lesbian cops” my perception of self publication changes.
But thinking about this pitch, and the many-layed cake of WTFery going on in there, made me think about the conversation I’d had about self-publishing, and how readers perceive it.
My perspective is someone skewed because I find out about most self-pub books either because they are pitched to me for review, or because an author has written online about going for self-publication instead of accepting a publishing contract. I have never to my knowledge stumbled upon a self-published book in a store, or encountered one outside of the confines on my inbox or my Google Reader. And I’m really curious about how you, a reader of Romance (the very best genre in the entire world! Without hyperbole! Of any kind! With or without star-struck lesbian cops!) encounter self-published books and what you think of them.
There is so much discussion about self-pubbing, from publisher standpoints, from author standpoints, from financial standpoints, and yet, while I read stories in online news articles about the mythological author who sold books out of the trunk of her car then got a six figure publishing deal, I’ve never actually seen said author, or the trunk of her car (and if it looks like mine, those books had to share space with a stroller, a few bottles of apple juice, and some spare wet wipes). Authors who ponder self-publication, digitally or in print, are facing a lot more competition from other books, both from publishing houses and from other self-publishing authors. I’m therefore really curious: how do you, as a reader of books, view self-published books, and what do you think of those you’ve seen – if you’ve seen any?
So: I have created… A SURVEY. Oh, I can hear the excitement from here. Try to contain yourself. I’m really curious how you as a reader of romance have encountered a self-published book – if you have – and what you thought. I’d so appreciate your input. As usual, my surveys are entirely amateur (I let the survey program do the math for me) and utterly unscientific. My science is tight, but that’s about it.
Please let me know your point of view, or share in the comments what you think. And if you are a star-struck lesbian cop, please, PLEASE leave a comment. OMG. PLEASE.
ETA: I have to take the survey offline to compile the results – but please feel free to continue to discuss in the comments!
This.
When I started reading this post, the first name that jumped into my head was the African-American writer E. Lynn Harris. He self-published his first book and sold it from the proverbial “trunk of his car.” He later got a book contract and had ten consecutive books on the New York Times best-seller list. One of the rare Cinderella stories in the self-publishing world.
The perception of self-published books is that they are full of clunky prose, misspellings, grammar mistakes, poorly-conceived characters, massive plot inconsistencies, and/or are bullhorns for the author’s political/social/religious theories (usually of the paranoid/conspiracy variety). On the other hand, I’m sure most of us have read traditionally-published books can also fill that bill. However, because money and reading time are limited, you have to take some steps to separate the wheat from the chaff—and often, fair or not, one of the filters is to avoid self-published books.
That blurb sounds like fun.
Obviously a dark farce.
Whether it is good or not depends on the execution.
All of you who are pledging on the souls of your first-born to never look at a self-pubbed book are just plain nuts.
That said, most self-pubbed books are crap. In fact that blurb shows more imagination than you’ll find in any random group of 100 self-pubbed books. But so what? Why such a hard line? Who knew romance addicts were such connoisseurs of fine literature?
The real conundrum is how does the mountains of crap in print get through the
publishing process?
I bought my first self-published book because it was a series that the author decided to continue on her own. I was really engaged and decided to continue reading it despite my misgivings. The second book was okay, the third, not so much and the fourth was unreadable. The lack of continuity was absolutely insane, and I absolutely LOVED this series. I’m sure there are authors out there who don’t need editors, however, I’m not one of them and unfortunately neither was this writer.
I’ve bought a few more that came highly recommended and ran into the same problem. For me it’s not so much the typos, but the tendency to go off on unrelated tangents. I get it, we fall in love with these characters and want to share every detail. We’re fascinated with our research and want to share that too. That’s where a good editor comes in, to cut through all that fluffery and get back down to the bones of the story. I can’t ever imagine self-publishing without hiring a good editor, and since I can’t afford one I don’t think I’ll be self-publishing anytime soon.
Roslyn, that’s actually why I’m running a Kickstarter campaign, because I want to be able to afford a good editor. Click on my name to learn more about Kickstarter and my project. I’m determined to release a quality product and fight against these negative self-published experiences mentioned in the other comments on this post.
Self-publishing authors can be a good thing, if they take the time to do it right.
It’s frustrating that when someone gets on the bandwagon 85 more jump on. Why limit yourself and say never? Just like the publishers in NY, if a reader goes to Amazon or Smashwords they’re going to have to wade through a lot of coal to get to the diamonds. But it’s there. Oh, wait, sounds a little bit like when we go to a bookstore.
I haven’t bought self-published books before the internet as they basically never came my way, but I’ve discovered some authors that were regularly published who have books they have digitally published themselves. Most visible example: Book View Café and Closed Circle
So far my experience has been that if I liked their published books I would enjoy their self-published ones. Case in point: Ann Somerville who has quite a few books out with Samhain and others and whose brilliant epic fantasy series Darshian Tales is self-published (and now available via Smashwords). Being a fantasy fan, I actually think it’s the best work I’ve read of hers and reading her blog, she has said herself that she considers this her masterpiece so far.
In finding review and book blog sites I have also read comments by self-published authors and explored their sites (with big excerpts) the most successful example for me being Moriah Jovan commenting and being mentioned by Jane from Dear Author and having huge excerpts of her two novels up on her site.
I bought the more traditional second book, Stay, first and was quite fascinated – it worked as a romance but included topics such as the beliefs of Ayn Rand and Mormonism which were completely outside my knowledge zone.
The first book, The Proviso, was a really dark family saga a la Dynasty/Dallas but with a core of fascinating couples who had to worke their way toward a happy end, which they did get. Only one irredeemable villain by the way, which I thought pretty cool.
Or there’s suddenly a review from trusted Book Bloggers which will make me develop interest in a self-published book. The Book Smugglers reviewed Michael Hicks In Her Name and now I own the Smashwords edition of the first book in the trilogy.
Of course, it’s hard to separate the good stuff from the people who only jump on the bandwagon… but it is possible with some effort.
I have only bought one self-published book and this was because the author was somewhat local and appeared at the local library. I went to her ‘author talk’ and bought an autographed book for my mom’s birthday gift. I never even read it. That said, I am not ruling out the possibility. I don’t think all self-published books are awful or riddled with errors any more than I think that all traditionally published books are perfect.
I have bought some Ellora’s Cave books that I thought were terrible. Also, in Robyn Carr is a successful print author and I enjoyed her books, but in some of the Virgin River books there is a grammatical error that keeps popping up. (For the life of me I can’t remember now what it is.) Because I read these books one right after the other, I think I noticed it more. I came to the conclusion that either the author or editor (or both) just didn’t know the rule since it was broken more than once. I’m just giving this example to show that there can be good or bad in both publishing routes. Odds are, however, that there will be less errors/bad plot, etc. in traditionally published works.
As a writer, I have yet to submit anything for publication and have decided against self-publishing, I am not going to judge those who choose that path.
I usually don’t buy self pub books because of bad editing and usually bad stories. Only one author I know writes a well written self published book. But I’ve also had horrible experiences with e pubs. I will have be courted to ever do another one. I do not want an e reader of any sort. Just another device to plug in. Yes, they are fantastic for people who live in confine spaces but I’m not impressed by anything other than their catchy tune on commercials. No, I want a book to hold, to curl up with, and yes to carry along. They don’t make cavernous purses for nothing! Like anything in life, one must pick and choose. Besides, I know too many people who still do not have computers. If everything went to digital, we’d disenfranchise so many people. We are already becoming a nation of no readers. More would be the pity.
All of the self-published books / booklets I have read have been factual. By and large they have been about a particular place or subject, and while they may be by a single author there has clearly been editorial input from others. The authors have been in love with the subject, keen to share their love and humble enough to accept correction (well I assume the latter given the lack of mistakes, it’s difficult to edit/copyedit your own writing).
I don’t have a digital reading device, if I did I would be prepared to expand my reading of self-published books provided I could read samples, I always want to read a sample of new-to-me authors.
Already commented high up but I wanted to mention that I want self pub to be a viable option for writers. This is the biggest reason I keep trying self pub books. Writers should get a better percentage on their own work than the industry allows. If someone hits several bestseller lists two or three times, she ought to be able to quit her day job. Debut authors very seldom have the option of negotiating from a position of strength and I wish that would change. Self-pub should be a choice. A good choice.
But I am just a normal person. I don’t want to dig for the good stuff- not at the bookstore, and not on Amazon. I don’t shop at T J Maxx for the same reason. I don’t care if the good stuff has a big house publisher’s name or not, but I don’t find nearly as high a percentage of my DNFs come from traditional publishing.
Writing a book is easier than it used to be. (Not a good book…just a book.) Most people have computers and can type now, you can photoshop a cover, and the internet makes it super easy to upload your book for free to Amazon where you can price it however you want. Or you can set up your own site and sell it there. Whatever. But with all the hoop jumping removed, there is an avalanche of dirty snow with a few pebbles of gold rolling around in it.
It is overwhelming for people like me, people who just want to start reading and enjoy every word instead of skim the first chapter of 15 different books until one chimes.
I think you’re going to find more and more authors self publishing, especially since the economy is making it even more difficult to sell books. Plus, a lot of authors are self publishing their backlists. And self publishing gives authors the freedom to write what they want.
I decided to self publish my next book when I realized that there were self published authors (who had never been published by NY) who were making way, way more money than I had with my little NY deal. Like many authors, I made very little money on my book deal and then spent the money I made doing ads in place like RT and RWA. So basically I’ve made no money. It’s crazy. By self publishing on someplace like Amazon, it costs me no money to do (ebook format) and I won’t have to spend any money on ads. Why not do it? Especially if you have a book just sitting on your computer.
And as for authors who are making it, there are many. Here are just a few:
MaryAnn McFadden is one woman who couldn’t get an agent so she self published her book (print) sold many, many copies on her own and only then was she able to get an agent and her book went onto auction.
Here’s a ya author who makes more than many NY authors:
http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/08/epic-tale-of-how-it-all-happened.html
Zoe Winters is another author making more money than me. She has consistently been in the top 100 on Amazon kindle.
these are just a few of the many authors who have had success. And there are many; the more I research the more I find. But my idea of success might be different than yours. If they’re making more money than I did with my NY book, I consider them successful.
I’m not saying all self published books are good, of course not. But let’s keep an open mind here. You can’t say all self published books suck. There are reasons why writers self publish other than their books sucked so much they couldn’t get a deal. With the book I’m planning to self publish, my editor wouldn’t even look at it because it has ghosts in it (they’re only secondary characters, but still).
Anyway, we’ll see what happens. I’m doing what I can to see my dream accomplished, and that dream is to make a living being an author anyway I can.
I think everyone just needs to take a deep breath and calm down. I’ve seen a lot of self published authors who are very bitter. And I’ve seen a lot of published authors who seem to have this desire to knock down self published authors. I know, I was there a year ago. I just don’t get why authors become so angry about it. If you don’t want to self publish, don’t do it. Move on. Work on your books and don’t worry about what self published authors are doing. And the same goes for self published authors.
You have to watch what you say because you might be back peddling a year from now. I see a lot of authors who ripped on e publishing who hare now going that way.
Anyway, I’m done. Now, let’s all take hands and sing Kum ba yah.
I don’t get why so many are saying “Don’t be close minded, all you haters of self-pubbed books!”
Several (negative) comments here are “I tried a self-pubbed book and it sucked/had typos/was bad and I felt ripped off.”
If I went to a restaurant, ordered chicken and it was horrible and overpriced, why should I go back? Why should I try it again? Just because you say that you enjoy that restaurant and don’t feel that it is overpriced, does it make my experience less? Am I somehow wrong because you disagree?
No.
Can’t some of us just not LIKE what a lot of self-pubbed authors are putting out? Why does it have to be that people are ‘close minded’? They tried it, didn’t like it, and don’t feel the urge to try again.
Frankly, the defensiveness of the self-pubbed author is a HUGE turn off and keeps me (as someone who was ‘burned’ in the past by buying poorly written/overpriced self-pubbed books) from trying more.
I’ve looked at the odd self-published book and in the print form and in my personal sample, it seems as if they have primarily been written by hypergraphic religious paranoid schizophrenics with a bad case of CAPS LOCK disease. So I have some bias to overcome against self-pubs in general.
I did buy a self-pub romance e-book once, but it was previously published and the author’s rights reverted.I happened to read the recommendation (from the author!) on amazon.com in one of their forums, and the description made it sound like something I might like. It was a good read. I would continue buy self-pub books by an author who had already published something, and whose previous works I enjoyed or if I *really* liked the book description and the sample wasn’t horrid.
I read self-published stories that have been recommended by friends and other writers, and will sometimes browse Smashwords or Lulu to see if anything catches my eye. I’ve found most people offer excerpts which give you a fairly decent idea what the overall story will be like. Having been-there-done-that with self-publishing, I feel a huge sympathy for authors trying to find an audience via the same route.
Thanks, Ann.:) (I would still be slogging away, entirely unknown, if not for this woman.) Let me correct one thing; Downtime was the book originally pubbed by Torquere (and yes, you’re right—the only editing they did was to correct my tendency to use Brit spellings of words like “traveled”. The rest of the editing was done solely by me.) Whistling I subbed to numerous presses (with numerous rejections) before deciding to self-publish it. Lethe picked it up because Ann was willing to read and review a self-pubbed book, thereby winning me a publisher’s interest. I never thought to sub to Lethe because I thought they published only literary fiction.)
I really have to hand it to writers who choose to self-publish. It’s no simple matter to just toss your work out there. I’ve done it on Lulu, Smashwords, and CreateSpace and found it a bothersome lot of work, most of which I was not good at. I especially hated learning to format to specifications, and I still can’t do it properly.
To self-pub, you’ve got to have a knack for several things, including self-promotion (another fine bit of torture), or you need the money to pay someone else to do it. You’ve also got to want to spend the considerable time it takes to put everything together (and lose valuable writing time, too.)
I know some writers like (and probably love) being writer, editor, cover artist, and publisher of their work, but I’m devoutly hoping I won’t have to do it again (especially not with Amazon – oh my God, after six months and a dozen emails, they still can’t get my name right on the royalty checks.)
Because of my experience, I have a lot of respect for writers who can and do self-publish, especially writers like Ann who do it with such jack-of-all-trades skill. Seeing all the uniformly negative comments here is dispiriting. I agree there’s a lot of unreadable work being self-published, but the quality stuff is there, too, and I hate to see it all being dismissed as bad just because it’s self-published.
My impression, also, is that self-published books are much like a publisher’s slushpile—there’s some good stuff but you have to wade through a lot of junk to get there. Which is, IMO, what publishers DO to earn their keep.
IMO – Self publishing will get bigger than it has been, mainly due to improvements in the technology.
But – I think the main beneficiaries will be the big names. Dan Brown, Diana Gabaldon, JK Rowling. I’m not saying that they will, or that it’s inevitable, but these writers almost stand apart from their publishers. They have a market and a platform. If they employ decent cover artists and editors, etc, they can make a killing.
It also means that main publishers will have to do without their stars. Which puts extra pressure on them to retain their big names, which means they’ll have to offer them a bigger cut, or more benefits, which means less money for the other authors on the roster.
The other winners of self publishing will be the people with a built-in platform. The British ex Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has just made huge sales on his book. He isn’t exactly famous as an author, but his fame in another area pushes the sales. He could have done it without a publisher.
Then there will be legions of people who self-publish for a variety of reasons, mostly because they want to see their name in print and they believe the drumbeaters who tell them how good it is. That blurb is scary because there’s too much plot. No room for anything else. And no central focus.
I have to admit that I became a self-publisher recently. I published a free read associated with a release at Samhain (“Barbara’s Wedding”). So I will use Smashwords and Amazon from time to time, but only to publish stories that I can give away for nothing, or next to nothing. Annoyingly, I have to charge for the Kindle version, as they won’t let individuals give it away, but it’s a dollar or less. It’s linked with “Hareton Hall,” and there’s a good example of great editing. My editor said it was a lovely chapter, but it didn’t add anything to the central drive of the book, so she asked me to take it out, but suggested that it would make a nice free read. Me, I would have left it in because I wrote it and I loved it. I would have been wrong.
I need the promotion, the editing and all the other things my publisher does for me. I don’t have the platform or the fame to go it alone and make a success of it.
And as a reader, you bet I check the publisher, but only if I don’t know the author. I recently checked the Christine Feehan books I own and was quite surprised to see all the publishers there.
While I’ll never say never to a self-pubbed book (I’m lookin’ at ya’ll, Ann Somerville and Tamara Allen. Gonna check out you ladies!), let me illustrate the reason I tend stick with traditionally pubbed:
Generally the author starts by convincing an agent to read her book and love it, then the agent gets an editor to read the book and back it in a meeting where she has to convince the rest of the team of editors and marketers to read the book before they have another meeting where they may (or may not) decide to believe in the book and take it on… That’s a simplistic version of how it can go at a traditional publisher.
What that means to me is that a whole handful of people (at least) are recommending that book to me before it even hits shelves. And if I don’t like it, it’s more likely my personal taste or biases or whatever rather than actual quality of the book (at least in my experience).
As for self publishing? The author is the only “gatekeeper” for the public.
I see your worry and it’s clear that you were burned and badly, but…um…perhaps because different authors write different books? 🙂
It seems that you’re making the assumption that one or two bad (perhaps even excruciating) examples means that every single member of the entire group is that way, too. You wouldn’t assume that about a bad traditionally-published book, would you?
This kind of thinking, although understandable and human, reminds me of a few other examples of that “tarred by the same brush” thing going around. Seems to me that we have enough of that going on, even though the trad. v. self-pubbing issue ranks near zero on the scale of relative importance.
(This also reminds me of the NY pub vs. small-press pub debates from a few years back. Ah, the more things change, the more things stay the same.)
Yes, the big basket of self-published books as a heap o’ crap in it. Traditional publishing has some, too, though on a smaller scale.
But the thing about self-publishing is that each other is working for herself/himself. They’ll each do things differently. Is it quite fair, then, to assume they’re all the same?
Will you have to search a little harder to find good self-pub? Yes. Do good self-pub books exist? Yes.
To make the search easier, anyone with a Kindle or the free Kindle software on their PC/Mac/iPhone/iPad/Android can read a nice chunk of Kindle books before they buy. By all means, do that. Sample ‘em first. It’s a great benefit! Decide whether you like the style/voice/story/editing before you hand over your $.99-$2.99. Quality is crucial, and you should expect that as well as a good read.
I have a two-time RWA Golden Heart® finalist that got three agent offers. I signed with one who shopped it in NY, but it didn’t fit comfortably into the fantasy vs. romance marketing boxes. It did receive two small press offers.
I ended up publishing it on Amazon for many reasons, including the chance to have control over my own sales terms/price/cover and to do some quiet and interesting marketing (like excerpt exchanges with authors of other quality books), the opportunity for readers to sample my book to see if it’s their cup of tea, a 70% royalty per ebook sale, and because I heart the Kindle platform (I’m on my third Kindle now).
Will I only self-pub? Someone else once said (and I wish I could remember to whom credit should go): why does it have to be either/or? Why can’t it be whatever works for that book and that author?
The industry is changing and more and more authors will take advantage of the new publishing options in the next few years. If someone doesn’t want to consider any self-pubbed book now, no worries. It’s possible that in the five years, even that reader’s auto-buy authors may be doing it.
My anti-spam word was finally99. Prescient? 🙂
The first self-published book I purchased was in the late 1990s, when Vince Flynn was selling the self-pubbed version of Term Limits out of the trunk of his car. He came to the independent bookstore where I worked and asked if he could do a signing there. The owner went ahead with it—we weren’t out anything, because Flynn supplied the books and the publicity—and it was successful enough that Flynn used that signing to set up a signing at a chain bookstore, where his second signing was even more successful. By the time he came back to our independent store a couple of months later for another signing, he’d gotten a contract to publish Term Limits and another book with a major publisher (Bantam, I think). Now he’s written, what? More than a dozen novels? I think all of them have made the NY Times best-seller list.
I haven’t purchased any self-pubbed romances, mostly because I don’t make the time to seek them out. But I should do so, because I think my tastes are becoming more esoteric (specialized? non-traditional? I don’t know), and e-presses and self-published books are more likely to have what I’m searching for, especially with so many big-time publishers staying with more conventional books.
My self-published novella Space Junque just came out on Amazon a few days ago. I’ve gone with indie publishing for a number of reasons. I hate the degrading query process. I love the control I have as an independent.
I have a professional cover. My book was edited by USA Today bestselling author Anne Frasier/Theresa Weir. She likes it enough to let me use her name in the credits.
Self-publishing is like many paradoxical things. It can be very easy. But I don’t think it’s easy to do it well. There’s a lot of resistance to SP work, and with good reason.
And yet I believe more and more authors will choose this route. It’s so much more fun than reading snarky #queryfail-type digs, and I will never be embarrassed by my cover. I can see instantly when a sale is made, so I can see what works as far as promo goes.
Am I happy I did it? Yes, yes, yes.
I started to fill out the survey, as I’ve read, enjoyed and reviewed a number of very good self-published ebooks recently. But then I realised that I haven’t actually paid for any of them. They were all free or on special offer at the time I read them. It might be interesting to run your survey again with the question ‘Have you ever read a book that was self-published by the author?’ – to see if that produces a different picture.
What irritates me the most about the (very few) self-published authors I’ve had dealings with is the lengths to which they go to avoid having to admit they’re self-published. This in itself speaks volumes to me. For example, a personal acquaintance of mine used iUniverse to self-publish her novel. However, nowhere on her website and (extensive) marketing materials does it say she is self-published. Instead, iUniverse suggested she incorporate a “micro-publishing” company. So, she insists she is not self-published, but professionally published through this company (which has to my knowledge only published one book: hers). This pisses me off royally.
The other thing that aggravates me is when people insist on comparing themselves to Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence, as in the following examples: “Virginia Woolf was self-published. No one would publish her work so she started her own publishing company and published her own books.” “D.H. Lawrence was self-published. No publisher of the day in their right mind would touch his pornographic material and so he had hundreds of copies printed and distributed at his own expense.” (these are quotes from actual conversations I’ve had. With … oh alright, you got me, it was the same person who self-published through iUniverse that I mentioned above.)
Them: “So, as a self-published author, I’m actually in the same category as Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence.” Me: “Uh, no. No, you’re not.”
I never have bought a self-pub, but I won’t say I never will. But, time reality being what it is, it’s not likely to happen unless someone whose reading taste has proven to be twin of my own raves up and down and sideways about a self-pub. I have an entire closet full of TBR paperbacks, several books checked out and on order from the library at any given time, and books I’ve downloaded that I’ve not yet read. Hell, I pre-ordered the latest Nora hardback and even it sits to collect dust. So the odds of me searching out unknown and unheralded authors are slim to jack at the moment.
Okay, that is one badly socialized fan!
You don’t approach the talent with fanfic.
You don’t make money on fanfic.
You damn sure don’t publish fanfic commercially!
It figures that he’s male. He probably thinks he’s doing something new and awesome and is unaware of net fandom. Women tend to be better socialized in fannish norms and keep their fanfic where it belong: on the net and in zines.
As for self-pub, I’m not sure. I do print re-issues of my short stories that are out of contract. However, these are just that: re-issues of previously published short stories, meaning they have been accepted and edited and re-edited.
I have some books where I’m not sure if they’re self-pub or not. The author is the only one that house handles, so far. Or the house was started by the author’s husband, but takes other authors as well. Or the author has a financial interest in the house that’s run by a good friend.
Small press can get weird.
For me, I’ve read so many terrible traditionally published books in the last two years that I’ve stopped buying paperbacks. The typos, weak, recycled plots and over-sexed characters make it too expensive to plunk down my hard-earned cash for a book that is mostly one boring sex scene after another.
So I bought an e-reader and am happy to report that I’ve found plenty of indie books to read. I’m not bothered by the occasional typo, I have yet to read a book with zero errors. But I can read 3 or 4 e-books for the price of 1 paper book. The tradeoff works for me.
I can appreciate where those who are wary of independently-published books are coming from. The non-existent barrier to entry created by epublishing (specifically Amazon/Kindle) has resulted in a flood of self-published work. Some of it is really quite good. The majority of it isn’t.
I’m a traditionally published author who is seriously considering going the indie route in the future. While I plan on sticking with my publisher for the genre I currently write, I’m interested in branching out to different types of novels, and though I feel I would have a better-than-average chance of being traditionally published in this new genre (given my experience, etc.), I’m not convinced that there isn’t something to indie publishing.
There are a lot of reasons why someone might make this choice. Sure, there are people out there whose work has been rejected by traditional publishers for good reason. But that’s not the only reason someone would self-publish. Personally, I like the idea of hanging on to my rights (after a bad experience with my first publisher, I know firsthand how horrible it can be for your work to remain the property of someone with whom you have a strained relationship). I also like the idea of earning 70% royalties on ebooks instead of the 10-15% (based on total number of copies sold) that my current publisher offers.
After publishing five novels and even more short stories, I have enough experience to take on self-publishing with confidence. Editing, cover design, etc. will be no less important to me if I’m producing my own work. It will require more effort on my part, but I guess that’s part of taking a bigger slice of the profits.
Again, I totally sympathize with a lot of the perceptions of self-published work. Those negative opinions are not without a basis in reality. But it’s silly to assume that all self-published authors have the same motivations or skill level.
The great thing about epublishing? Samples. Use them. Love them. 🙂
I’m not even sure where to start, there is so much I want to say. I’m an Indie author, self-published and proud of it. I had my own reasons for wanting to go Indie, none of which had anything to do with being turned down for a publishing contract. For me it was mostly about control. I write romantic suspense, and I do not have paranormal characters. I tend to write closed-door sex scenes, and right now, my style of writing just isn’t popular with publishers. I do not want to be pressured into putting vampires or erotic sexual scenes in my books just to get sales. I realize that if I did include those elements, I’d have sales out the wazoo. However, the inclusion would be for gratuity’s sake, wouldn’t add anything to the plot, and I won’t make my story a farce just for sales. For the record, I have nothing against vamps or erotica. They just don’t fit with this particular series I’m talking about.
I’ve produced a solid product, and I’ve worked my tail off to do it. My covers are professionally designed, albeit in-house. I am lucky enough that I am married to a man who has a small, professional, graphic design business on the side, and he does my covers, website, layout of books, etc. On average, we spend about 40 hours per book doing layout and design, and it takes me 4-6 months to write one book from start to finish. The book goes through several revisions, beta reader testing, and through an editor whom I pay. No freebies from friends here. When I am writing, I commonly spend upwards of eight hours a day working, six or seven days out of every week. I have a trusted circle of friends who are not afraid to tell me when I produce something that should only line the bottom of a bird cage, and I do not put anything out there for public consumption unless I know it is as good as what NY produces.
I’ve networked with other Indie authors who feel the same way about their books as I do, that if we can’t produce a professional product, then we’d rather not put anything out there. We know that success rides on the back of professionalism as well as luck, and we encourage other Indies to embrace that practice.
That being said, there is a lot of self-published work out there that isn’t professional, and the authors are okay with that. For whatever reason, whether it be ignorance of grammar and style, budget constraints, or the authors just not giving a damn, their work is released to the public in the form of something that would get a fifth grader a very marked up C-. I understand the frustration you all have shown. No one wants to pay good money for a book, only to find out that it was not as advertised, the editing sucks, the grammar is horrible, the dialogue is stilted, and the plot sounds like a cross between Salvador Dali’s dreams and Mystery Science Theater. That is why the best option Indies can offer to readers right now is sampling. Smashwords is the best place to do that, because we can offer up to 50% of our work for free over there.
I’ll volunteer to be a guinea pig and challenge anyone interested to read my books. Be honest, give me feedback. If they suck, I want to know. If there are problems, I want to fix them. You can read enough of my work free at Smashwords to make a judgment. Message to take away from this post – please don’t give up on Indies. There are many of us who are dedicated to our work. You might be surprised by what you find.
T. L. Haddix
Yeah, I woke up this morning and realised I’d mixed the two histories up. Sorry, dear – but it only underlines what an achievement Whistling in the Dark is. I’d say to anyone, if you can find a better romance than WitD published anywhere, then you’re damn lucky.
I won’t convince anyone that most selfpubbed books aren’t dreadful, because they are. And I’m just as wary as anyone else about them when it comes to mainstream genre books because I figure if you can’t sell a perfectly ordinary romance, mystery or crime book, then there’s probably a good reason (Which is why I was so skeptical about one of our local ‘journalists’ who kept using the local paper to puff his self-pubbed crime book, and his courses on how to succeed in self-publication.)
But self-pub (sorry T L Haddix and co, I just can’t use ‘indie’ – Zoe Winters and her friends made me allergic to the term) comes into its own when the book doesn’t fit any tight genre requirements. Too long? Romance falling outside the ‘boy meets boy/girl/ginormous big cat, boy loses boy/girl/ginormous big cat, boy and boy/girl/ginormous big cat live happily ever after in cosy bliss’ plot limitation? Romances/relationships which take multiple stories to develop? Or god forbid, really good stories you were stupid enough to put up on the web for free because no one was buying them at the time? All these aren’t going to fit into the narrow requirements of most publishers – but that doesn’t mean the stories suck. Self-pub lets you read books that are a little unusual, and still interesting. (It also lets you read some truly psychotically crazy stuff, but hey, someone must like that too, right?)
T L Haddix is right though – buying from Smashwords is damn close to risk free. If the author doesn’t offer a substantial sample, don’t buy from them. If they do, then try them out before you spend a cent. No epublisher lets you read 20% or more of their books before you buy them – but I do. Can’t say fairer than that, guys.
Can I give a shout out to two other self-pubbed authors – both who offer their books free on their site – one who is still self pubbed, and the other who’s issuing her books through a small press (which ironically set up as a way for the owner to self pub – as so many of them do.) M. Chandler’s Shadow of the Templar series (http://mchandler.org/sott/), and Manna Francis’s The Administration series (http://www.mannazone.org/). Very different books, stunningly good and well edited. Again, you’d be incredibly lucky to find books of this quality from a regular publisher. Try them, I beg you. You won’t be sorry.
BTW, I was having problems linking to my article about my books because the SBs server hates self pubbed books too 🙂 Sarah suggested I tinyurl it, so I have – link here: http://tinyurl.com/3y2furw
Google made me come here. To the gentleman above who mentioned my books as an example of good self-pubbed work: thank you! Your comment cut through my usual early morning stupor.
And thanks, Sarah, for raising the subject. I have nothing new to add to the discussion, but I won’t let that stop me.
In my naive, all wide-eyed innocence, early forays into the world of self-publishing I did stumble across some dire stuff: more confessional (and not in a good way) than narrative, and having only a distant acquaintance with such niceties as grammar and correct spelling. But now that I’m more experienced in the ways of the world, Dear Reader, I’ve found many gems under the indie banner.
How I find a book I might enjoy:
– An author whose works I’ve enjoyed in the past
– Recommended to me by someone whose taste is similar to mine
– Reviewed and recommended by someone who makes a good case for it
For me at least, this is the case for both traditionally and self-published books. The main difference is that reviews for self-pubbed work are more likely to be found on blogs than in print or on the radio.
Nobody owes me a read, but I owe my readers. I owe them the best writing I’m capable of, and books that are thoroughly researched and carefully edited. But then I owe that to myself as well.
Is music better if it’s owned by a corporation? Is food always better at a chain restaurant than at a mom and pop’s?
It’s true, when reading an independent book you may indeed run into some crap. And it’s true, you are more likely to run into spelling errors. I personally find that particularly disappointing. All published work needs to be at the highest level before being released.
But its not true of all independent artists. Gross generalizations simply aren’t often true. I’ve actually been impressed by the independent authors I’ve read. Yes, I recently published my own first work independently. And when I went into this I honestly expected to be the one guy with actual talent in a sea of misguided, if earnest, amateurs. It wasn’t true! There is real talent out there in the realm of independent books. I promise!
I would never buy a book by an independent author without reading the free preview first, but then again, I’m not likely to buy a book by a traditionally published author with my eyes completely closed either. I usually read the beginning chapters in the store before making the purchase.
Well that answered my doubts about self publishing my two books. Like many other writers I don’t want to wait, mess with an agent, publisher etc. But these posts have said basically what I think about the subject…if it was that good someone would have grabbed it and done it right.
Dara and Estara, thank you so much for the shout-out!
I try not to get into these discussions, as they’re problematic from all angles, but, like Ann, I was name-checked, so I wanted to say thanks much!! 🙂
As it happens, my books have paid for themselves and they earn me a respectable residual income, but what happened *for me* was I got a new career: ebook formatting and interior print design.
And let me tell you, I format a lot of books (all self-pubbed). About half of it’s fiction. And you know what? About 80% of what I see really isn’t that bad. Not eye-grabbing, but decent stories. That said, the last (fiction) book for which I did the interior design work, I ended up reading all the way through and forgetting I was supposed to be WORKING on it. It was that good, but it fit NOTHING. NOWHERE. There is no bookstore shelf on which that book could have comfortably rested, but it was well written, well edited, and excellent all the way around.
So…you know, I’m looking at this from the point of view of being immersed in the production of some pretty good, if not stellar, stuff. Of the clients who aren’t so pretty good, they’re trying to be. They ask questions. They take advice. They learn. They get better. It’s just…they’re doing it in a more public forum. As time goes on, the overall quality of the work coming through my shop is getting better and better.
I use the sample feature to “test drive” every book I purchase on Kindle store. It works.
I’ve purchased many self-pubbed books that were high quality. Check out Karen McQuestion (she’s now been signed to Amazon Encore), Amanda Hocking, Ellen O’Connell. There are many other self-published works that are highly ranked on the genre bestseller lists, but I don’t have time to read them as I’m busy writing my own books for publication on Kindle store.
The problem with telling someone if they work harder at finding the right indie author then… is that it misses the point.
People that don’t want to work harder won’t. They don’t have time/desire to read samples. They want the experience of having found a publisher whose line roughly meets their reading list, and they don’t want to risk their money or spend their time sifting.
Some people love that sort of thing. The ones that don’t never will. I think the initial sample of this was very honest, and I think it reflects a great many readers who stay silent because they’re not out to hurt anyone’s feelings or argue about it – they simply aren’t interested in the experience.
(Captcha is telling me I must69, I think it’s ready for the weekend.)
The publishing industry is changing so much so quickly that I don’t think it’s fair to state that if a book is self-published it’s because it’s not up to par with the rest of the books on the shelves. Agents are afraid to take a chance on new and even established authors. Publishers are cutting imprints left and right. And the ones really getting the raw deal are the authors themselves who’ve spent months, sometimes years, working on a novel. When an author gets handfuls of rejections from agents stating that her voice is fresh, her writing is fun, and her story is unique, but they still aren’t willing to rep it, what’s she to do? Of course, there are those out there that truly have a poor quality book and low rent production to go with it. But, peruse a couple paragraphs and you’ll figure that out pretty quickly. I, for one, never purchase a book, any book, without reading the first page. If I feel compelled to keep reading, I buy it. If not, I don’t. And I couldn’t give a damn who published it. A good story is a good story.
Well no. Lots of very very good books are never picked up by publishers because of the economy, cowardice, false perceptions about reader taste, poor judgement, and because a lot of genres are very narrow and rigid. And lots of unappealing, poorly written dreck gets published for the same reasons.
I didn’t just write a book and go, hey, I’m a genius! I will sell my bookses and make lots and lots of moneys! I put most of my books up on line for free, and it was reader feedback from complete strangers which confirmed that I was, in fact, a genius 🙂 (and yes, in one way, I’m better than Virginia Woolf because my books don’t make my readers want to slash their wrists.) I built a readership, I honed my craft, and when I finally subbed one short novella to pro publishing, that experience helped me hone it some more. But that first book really is very good. I’d never have had the gall to charge people for it at the time, but now I do because I’ve proved to myself and my readers that my stuff is worth paying for.
A lot of self publishers (and vanity published authors) aren’t prepared to wait, to build the audience, to learn from their mistakes. They wrote a book and they want money now, damn it. And that why there’s just so much dreck. It doesn’t mean none of them have talent, but a lot of them haven’t any patience, and patience is as much a necessary virtue to an author as the ability to write and learn the craft. So is being realistic – if you know your book is never going to fit a publisher’s narrow niche (and they become narrower and more stupid all the time), then test the waters with readers who don’t know you, and then if the response is positive – why not self pub?
That’s ‘doing it right’ as much as any other way, at least for some books.
“they simply aren’t interested in the experience. “
That’s probably true, and another reason why self-pub works for subgenres where there is less choice of good material, than in saturated genres like mainstream Romance. All any author hopes is that if a reader *is* looking for good stuff in a less crowded genre, that they won’t overlook self-pubbed books out of prejudice.
Meoskop,
I’ve never been able to assume a book would be good based simply on who published it. It would be a lot easier if that worked for me! I’ve never known any way to find a new author that I will like, independent or traditionally published, without reading the opening pages and checking for myself.
Your experience and taste may be different than mine.
There are so many reasons a book might not be picked up by a traditional publisher which have nothing to do with quality. The book might be interesting and perfectly well written but if, for example, the publisher doesn’t have an open slot on their list or the marketing department doesn’t think that Walmart / Target will buy it for their book aisle that book isn’t going anywhere no matter how great it is. Given that there are fewer and fewer publishers to shop and not all of them represent every genre and you can quickly run into a brick wall.
Yes, and I made that point in a subsequent comment.
BUT….
When someone can’t sell a genre novel AND they’re trying to make their money by selling courses on how to make it big in self-publication, their credentials based solely on their experience trying to sell one book…my spidey-sense starts to tingle, and I’m thinking ‘scammer/desperate and untalented wannabe’, rather than ‘talented author who doesn’t fit easily into the few and narrow slots’.
It all comes down to track record. And since this bloke is an undistinguished git of a journalist writing for a free local rag, with no sign of any great fluency or skill in English or writing, I’d bet the income of at least a month of my own publishing income that his books sucks donkey balls. Because, like so many others here, I’ve been burned too, and I want some evidence of ability before I spend a cent or second of my time.