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(Note; from July 2014 I believe that I originally wrote this in the summer of 2012, but I'm trying to hop back in here and keep the information updated from time to time! Also, I've since self-published Flat-Out Matt and Flat-Out Celeste.)
I am an unapologetic fan of self-publishing. Massive, foam finger-waving fan. But, for the record, I realize that it’s not for everyone. Big publishers have obvious distribution and marketing power that authors don’t have. They edit your books, provide covers, and more. Well, sometimes more.
But there are huge downsides: advances are minimal these days, royalty rates are crummy, and we wait a year or more after a book has been completed to see that book go up for sale.
The money, let’s face it, is often completely crummy. Terrible. Pitifully small amounts dolled out over time and delivered alongside truly incomprehensible royalty statements.
Did I try to sell FLAT-OUT LOVE to a publisher? Yep. For me, there was still something to be said for having a big publishing house stand behind your work, so I thought it was worth seeing what kind of offers I could get. I wanted that New York validation. I wanted to hear, “We want you.”
My agent loved this book and was confident that she could sell it. Editors loved this book, too. But what I heard over and over from publishers were two things: 1. The heroine is eighteen years old and categorically too old for a young adult book, and 2. (I’m not making this up.) There are no vampires. “Realistic fiction” has taken a dive in the market and nobody cares about real people.
Okay, I’m paraphrasing that second one, but that’s the gist of it. Look, I enjoy a good vampire story, too, but that doesn’t mean that… Oh, whatever. Then I had editors from adult divisions saying that, while there was so much to love about the book, and it really “resonated” with them, the heroine is too young for mainstream fiction, and they didn’t know what they could possibly do with my little book. (I had a few ideas about what they could do with the book, but I’ll keep those to myself.)
This all seemed silly to me. Am I the only person to have written a book about a college freshman? It’s such a pivotal time in life. Why is this age so shunned in the publishing industry? Flat-Out Love is a unique story, but very often publishers don’t want unique. They don’t want to take on what they consider to be a “risk.” They want as close to a “guaranteed” bestseller as possible.
So I was annoyed. And really angry. I hate, absolutely HATE having to tout my own book, but the truth was that I knew I had written a very strong book, and I knew that it deserved to be published. The feedback I got from publishers about my book confirmed for me how totally out of touch they were with readers because I knew, absolutely knew, that there would be an audience for my story.
Before I had heard back from more publishers (a girl can only take “I’m head-over-heels for this book but we won’t buy it” so many times), I decided to self-publish. The rejections I’d amassed from pubs were, in almost every way, an enormous relief. I’d felt an obligation, almost, to try for a big New York deal. That was dumb. It was solely an ego thing. I realized that I’d been dreading getting into a relationship with a publisher, and I cared about this book too much to give it away for a next-to-nothing advance and then be forced to wait however long to get it on shelves, where it would then likely be hideously overpriced. I love my agent, and it was a little tough to tell her what I was doing, but I knew that I had to make a business decision. As much as I love her, I couldn’t leave the book with her just because she’s such an awesome person. That would’ve been crazy.
Self-publishing gives you massive control over your own work, which I find incredibly appealing. I get to choose my price and cover, and I can make changes to those and to the text at any point. I’m in charge of everything. I get paid monthly, whereas large publishers pay you (theoretically) every six months, and only after you’ve earned out your advance.
Self-publishing has made me more money than I made writing five books for a large traditional publishing house. A lot more. I obviously can’t guarantee these numbers for every self-published book, but even if you sell a fraction of this, you can still earn good money.
The three most important things to focus on if you go this route are: 1. Get a strong cover. If your book isn’t selling, change it. And then change it again if you want. 2) Price your book smartly. I wouldn’t do anything over $3.99—maybe, maybe $4.99–for an ebook. 3) Pay for a good editor. Or more than one good editor. Don’t put up a totally sloppy book. Even professionally copyedited books have errors, and we’ve all read books published by a huge house that have mistakes. It happens. But you run a much greater risk of racking up errors trying to proofread your own work. I cannot tell you how many times I have read my own book and missed blatant mistakes. You need to get as many people as possible to read your work, including non-professionals (who are great at catching missing words!), because it’s impossible to see typos and such in your own work. I’m sure I still have some, but I certainly hope that my final products are nothing close to frightful messes.
You’ll be doing your own marketing when you self-publish. Frankly, you’d be doing this anyway (unless, that is, you’re already such a huge success that you can just sit back and watch your sales numbers skyrocket). Bloggers are the powerhouse of reviews these days. I thought that writers were a generous bunch, but even that incredible group is getting a run for their money because book bloggers routinely offer to do whatever they can to promote your book. It’s really amazing. As the population as a whole is learning so much about the book industry (note: See six million articles about Amanda Hocking and Barry Eisler), bloggers and readers are becoming much more open to reviewing and buying self-published ebooks. More often than not, if you ask, bloggers will help and readers will buy.
Joe Konrath’s blog is simply fantastic. Spend some time on his site and read as many of his posts as you can, particularly the early ones. He’s a genius. Google is your best buddy, so do your research and figure out how you want to present yourself, who your market is, and what you can do to get book reviews. Think outside the box. There are no rules. You wrote a book about swimming? Go find swim clubs, fitness centers, pool cleaners… anyone! Plug your book (nicely and politely). Book review blogs and such are simply wonderful, but they are not the only way to get your book in people’s hands. Be creative. You were creative enough to write a book, so don’t stop now!
The market for self-published books is growing, and more and more readers are finding that self-published books are not junk books that were haphazardly uploaded because they weren’t good enough to be traditionally published. Talented, skilled authors are choosing this route and intentionally bypassing the exhausting, often miserable, experience of working for a publisher.
Do I have plans to seek out a New York publisher again? Yes, maybe. Of course, after everything I’ve posted online about them, I can’t imagine that they’d want me anyway. That’s okay, though. I like working for myself. I have no deadlines, no one to answer to, no nodding and smiling at tragic covers, no wincing when my ebook is priced at $9.99…. None of that.
I am free, I am empowered.
There are some truly wonderful, talented, supportive people who work in traditional publishing. Some authors have great experiences with houses. and some have made very good money. What I unfortunately hear most often are the ways in which authors are struggling with their publishers, and I have friends who have nearly stopped writing because of what they’ve suffered at the hands of publishers. This is not an exaggeration; it is a painful reality for many authors. Money can only buy so much happiness, and relinquishing control and caving to the demands of others can be very challenging for former indie authors. .
When you sell your book to a publisher, that book is gone. These days, you are unlikely to ever get the rights back, and you will have no control over what they do with it. You may be okay with that, and you may prefer to have someone else in charge of your book. Now that I know what self-publishing can do for me, it's tough to give up control of my work. Watching others make decisions that I don't agree with and know will hurt my work and my sales does not rock my world in any kind of a good way. But give me enough money, entice me with your skill and your smarts, and then we can talk... .
Now, if you are selling incredibly well (stupendously well!) and a legacy publisher offers you millions of dollars, you may be smart to take the money and run. If you are having trouble getting sales for your self-published book, you may do better with an agent and a big publisher. Literary fiction, for example, can be a difficult market to write for (it happens to be one of my favorite genres, but it’s a tough sell), and these books can do better agented.
After Flat-Out Love, I wrote Left Drowning, and had I been contracted for a few books through a legacy publisher, it's very likely that I could not have written that story. That book has stronger language and sexual content that puts it into a different category from Flat-Out Love. I know my readers, I know my audience, I know my market. I know what’s selling. I had a story that I wanted to tell, and I do not want to be controlled by the constraints of a traditional publisher who in all likelihood would never allow me to stray this far from Flat-Out Love.. To Amazon Publishing's credit, they had no concerns about my switching things up when they bought FOL and LD.
Do I hate publishing houses? No. Not all of them. Amazon Publishing is a different story in many ways. They are not anything like The Big Six publishers and they operate under an entirely different model. Will I self-publish again? Yup.. And I did. In May of 2014, I self-published Flat-Out Celeste and have plans to publishing my next standalone the same way.. Will I sign more books to Amazon Publishing? To another publisher? Possibly. I have no idea what my future holds, but unless The Big Six publishers make some major changes, or they hurl enough money at me that I can walk away from my books and let them do what they will. BUT, let me also be clear again, that I desperately want to love them. It would be great to have a true support system because indie publishing is a rough road. It's been really exciting to see publishers such as Atria really get on board with working productively with authors and to see them understand smart pricing and marketing. They're learning from authors, and that's a beautiful thing.
There are no guarantees that you’ll do well self-publishing, but there are also no guarantees that you’ll take off via a legacy publisher. The point is that you have options. You do not have to go through an agent and the looooong process of submitting to a legacy publisher. And you do not have to sign your book away. Self-publishing is a very viable option. Be professional, market yourself well. Work your tail off, just as you would with any job that means something to you.
I’m happy to answer SPECIFIC questions that you may have for me, but I cannot tell you exactly how to market your book, how to get reviews, how to get sales, or how to upload to Amazon/Smashwords/PubIt. I just don’t have the time. I don’t know exactly how Flat-Out Love took off and did so well, but I do know that there is no magic formula. I carved a path for myself, and you’ll need to carve yours.. And have fun with it!
I am an unapologetic fan of self-publishing. Massive, foam finger-waving fan. But, for the record, I realize that it’s not for everyone. Big publishers have obvious distribution and marketing power that authors don’t have. They edit your books, provide covers, and more. Well, sometimes more.
But there are huge downsides: advances are minimal these days, royalty rates are crummy, and we wait a year or more after a book has been completed to see that book go up for sale.
The money, let’s face it, is often completely crummy. Terrible. Pitifully small amounts dolled out over time and delivered alongside truly incomprehensible royalty statements.
Did I try to sell FLAT-OUT LOVE to a publisher? Yep. For me, there was still something to be said for having a big publishing house stand behind your work, so I thought it was worth seeing what kind of offers I could get. I wanted that New York validation. I wanted to hear, “We want you.”
My agent loved this book and was confident that she could sell it. Editors loved this book, too. But what I heard over and over from publishers were two things: 1. The heroine is eighteen years old and categorically too old for a young adult book, and 2. (I’m not making this up.) There are no vampires. “Realistic fiction” has taken a dive in the market and nobody cares about real people.
Okay, I’m paraphrasing that second one, but that’s the gist of it. Look, I enjoy a good vampire story, too, but that doesn’t mean that… Oh, whatever. Then I had editors from adult divisions saying that, while there was so much to love about the book, and it really “resonated” with them, the heroine is too young for mainstream fiction, and they didn’t know what they could possibly do with my little book. (I had a few ideas about what they could do with the book, but I’ll keep those to myself.)
This all seemed silly to me. Am I the only person to have written a book about a college freshman? It’s such a pivotal time in life. Why is this age so shunned in the publishing industry? Flat-Out Love is a unique story, but very often publishers don’t want unique. They don’t want to take on what they consider to be a “risk.” They want as close to a “guaranteed” bestseller as possible.
So I was annoyed. And really angry. I hate, absolutely HATE having to tout my own book, but the truth was that I knew I had written a very strong book, and I knew that it deserved to be published. The feedback I got from publishers about my book confirmed for me how totally out of touch they were with readers because I knew, absolutely knew, that there would be an audience for my story.
Before I had heard back from more publishers (a girl can only take “I’m head-over-heels for this book but we won’t buy it” so many times), I decided to self-publish. The rejections I’d amassed from pubs were, in almost every way, an enormous relief. I’d felt an obligation, almost, to try for a big New York deal. That was dumb. It was solely an ego thing. I realized that I’d been dreading getting into a relationship with a publisher, and I cared about this book too much to give it away for a next-to-nothing advance and then be forced to wait however long to get it on shelves, where it would then likely be hideously overpriced. I love my agent, and it was a little tough to tell her what I was doing, but I knew that I had to make a business decision. As much as I love her, I couldn’t leave the book with her just because she’s such an awesome person. That would’ve been crazy.
Self-publishing gives you massive control over your own work, which I find incredibly appealing. I get to choose my price and cover, and I can make changes to those and to the text at any point. I’m in charge of everything. I get paid monthly, whereas large publishers pay you (theoretically) every six months, and only after you’ve earned out your advance.
Self-publishing has made me more money than I made writing five books for a large traditional publishing house. A lot more. I obviously can’t guarantee these numbers for every self-published book, but even if you sell a fraction of this, you can still earn good money.
The three most important things to focus on if you go this route are: 1. Get a strong cover. If your book isn’t selling, change it. And then change it again if you want. 2) Price your book smartly. I wouldn’t do anything over $3.99—maybe, maybe $4.99–for an ebook. 3) Pay for a good editor. Or more than one good editor. Don’t put up a totally sloppy book. Even professionally copyedited books have errors, and we’ve all read books published by a huge house that have mistakes. It happens. But you run a much greater risk of racking up errors trying to proofread your own work. I cannot tell you how many times I have read my own book and missed blatant mistakes. You need to get as many people as possible to read your work, including non-professionals (who are great at catching missing words!), because it’s impossible to see typos and such in your own work. I’m sure I still have some, but I certainly hope that my final products are nothing close to frightful messes.
You’ll be doing your own marketing when you self-publish. Frankly, you’d be doing this anyway (unless, that is, you’re already such a huge success that you can just sit back and watch your sales numbers skyrocket). Bloggers are the powerhouse of reviews these days. I thought that writers were a generous bunch, but even that incredible group is getting a run for their money because book bloggers routinely offer to do whatever they can to promote your book. It’s really amazing. As the population as a whole is learning so much about the book industry (note: See six million articles about Amanda Hocking and Barry Eisler), bloggers and readers are becoming much more open to reviewing and buying self-published ebooks. More often than not, if you ask, bloggers will help and readers will buy.
Joe Konrath’s blog is simply fantastic. Spend some time on his site and read as many of his posts as you can, particularly the early ones. He’s a genius. Google is your best buddy, so do your research and figure out how you want to present yourself, who your market is, and what you can do to get book reviews. Think outside the box. There are no rules. You wrote a book about swimming? Go find swim clubs, fitness centers, pool cleaners… anyone! Plug your book (nicely and politely). Book review blogs and such are simply wonderful, but they are not the only way to get your book in people’s hands. Be creative. You were creative enough to write a book, so don’t stop now!
The market for self-published books is growing, and more and more readers are finding that self-published books are not junk books that were haphazardly uploaded because they weren’t good enough to be traditionally published. Talented, skilled authors are choosing this route and intentionally bypassing the exhausting, often miserable, experience of working for a publisher.
Do I have plans to seek out a New York publisher again? Yes, maybe. Of course, after everything I’ve posted online about them, I can’t imagine that they’d want me anyway. That’s okay, though. I like working for myself. I have no deadlines, no one to answer to, no nodding and smiling at tragic covers, no wincing when my ebook is priced at $9.99…. None of that.
I am free, I am empowered.
There are some truly wonderful, talented, supportive people who work in traditional publishing. Some authors have great experiences with houses. and some have made very good money. What I unfortunately hear most often are the ways in which authors are struggling with their publishers, and I have friends who have nearly stopped writing because of what they’ve suffered at the hands of publishers. This is not an exaggeration; it is a painful reality for many authors. Money can only buy so much happiness, and relinquishing control and caving to the demands of others can be very challenging for former indie authors. .
When you sell your book to a publisher, that book is gone. These days, you are unlikely to ever get the rights back, and you will have no control over what they do with it. You may be okay with that, and you may prefer to have someone else in charge of your book. Now that I know what self-publishing can do for me, it's tough to give up control of my work. Watching others make decisions that I don't agree with and know will hurt my work and my sales does not rock my world in any kind of a good way. But give me enough money, entice me with your skill and your smarts, and then we can talk... .
Now, if you are selling incredibly well (stupendously well!) and a legacy publisher offers you millions of dollars, you may be smart to take the money and run. If you are having trouble getting sales for your self-published book, you may do better with an agent and a big publisher. Literary fiction, for example, can be a difficult market to write for (it happens to be one of my favorite genres, but it’s a tough sell), and these books can do better agented.
After Flat-Out Love, I wrote Left Drowning, and had I been contracted for a few books through a legacy publisher, it's very likely that I could not have written that story. That book has stronger language and sexual content that puts it into a different category from Flat-Out Love. I know my readers, I know my audience, I know my market. I know what’s selling. I had a story that I wanted to tell, and I do not want to be controlled by the constraints of a traditional publisher who in all likelihood would never allow me to stray this far from Flat-Out Love.. To Amazon Publishing's credit, they had no concerns about my switching things up when they bought FOL and LD.
Do I hate publishing houses? No. Not all of them. Amazon Publishing is a different story in many ways. They are not anything like The Big Six publishers and they operate under an entirely different model. Will I self-publish again? Yup.. And I did. In May of 2014, I self-published Flat-Out Celeste and have plans to publishing my next standalone the same way.. Will I sign more books to Amazon Publishing? To another publisher? Possibly. I have no idea what my future holds, but unless The Big Six publishers make some major changes, or they hurl enough money at me that I can walk away from my books and let them do what they will. BUT, let me also be clear again, that I desperately want to love them. It would be great to have a true support system because indie publishing is a rough road. It's been really exciting to see publishers such as Atria really get on board with working productively with authors and to see them understand smart pricing and marketing. They're learning from authors, and that's a beautiful thing.
There are no guarantees that you’ll do well self-publishing, but there are also no guarantees that you’ll take off via a legacy publisher. The point is that you have options. You do not have to go through an agent and the looooong process of submitting to a legacy publisher. And you do not have to sign your book away. Self-publishing is a very viable option. Be professional, market yourself well. Work your tail off, just as you would with any job that means something to you.
I’m happy to answer SPECIFIC questions that you may have for me, but I cannot tell you exactly how to market your book, how to get reviews, how to get sales, or how to upload to Amazon/Smashwords/PubIt. I just don’t have the time. I don’t know exactly how Flat-Out Love took off and did so well, but I do know that there is no magic formula. I carved a path for myself, and you’ll need to carve yours.. And have fun with it!