My
First Journey through Independent Publishing
After years of catch as catch can
writing time, I
finally had a manuscript that didn’t embarrass me. After reading book after
book on how to write query and proposal letters, after scouring the writers market
book for appropriate publishers, I couldn’t seem to raise interest at the
traditional publishing houses, Baen, Tor, Dell, and Bantam to name a few.
Several rejection letters were encouraging me to keep trying. Many of my well
read friends told me that it was as good as anything out there. So I kept on. I always imagined that my hard work lay in
some dusty basement office under a pile of other hopeful works; while an over
educated underpaid associate editor rifled through titles in search of what they
deemed an interesting read – dictated by market standards, which were in turn
dictated by senior editors and publishers at large. All of this, while their Italian sub sandwich
sat upon a pile of unread, disrespected, and discarded manuscripts dripping its
oily dressing into the fine white carefully prepared pages.
To
make me feel even more hopeless; the few agents I held
interest with briefly, did not act as if representing me was any kind of
priority. I know I’m not Clive Cussler, for example but I do expect respect as
a client.
My
view of traditional publishing has been jaded,
as it is and has been with so many of us. So, with the birth of the internet
the ever morphing face of publishing changed again. This time favor goes to the artist—the author
At first I did not really want to go the
self publishing route. I thought
that if a traditional publisher didn’t want me then how would I become
respected with a loathsome self published book?
My perspective changed though when I contemplated what independent film
makers do. They gather interest in a project solicit funds and produce a film,
and if the project is good they gain respect with their peers. Still the
expense was hindering.
Although I had interest in the book, I
was unable to solicit funds from family or friends, due to the economy and the
current strife of almost everyone I know.
At the time that I published my first book I was a Midwest country girl
with no real industry contacts, (I still can’t say I have any industry
contacts) and I was a full time student.
So how to fix a cash flow problem and get the damn book published? Student loans you say? After some careful
consideration and several discussions with my then unemployed husband we
decided to go for it. I took several
months to research the market of print on demand publishers. The prices vary as do the services
offered. I compiled a spread sheet that
allowed me to compare the companies easily and then when I had three
possibilities I delved into online reviews of other books published, company
reviews, book reviews, Better Business Bureau ratings, and company website FAQ
pages, etc.
I finally settled on Outskirts Press out of
Colorado. They do have a submittal
requirement. I liked that they promoted that aspect of themselves. They don’t want to publish crap; after all
they do have a brand name to protect. So
do I, I don’t want to be associated with hacks either. The pre-publishing process
went well, but they like to function via e-mail and when there was something I
didn’t understand there were a few well worded e-mails from both sides trying
to kindly explain a position. It was all
ironed out and professionally handled in the end.
The thing about independent publishing is
how much money you can put up. My funds
were limited and so although Outskirts offers many high-end marketing options,
I could afford very little. I get a
marketing newsletter, which is very helpful with many easy tips about how to
handle getting reviews and generate sales, especially via Amazon. They
generated and submitted a press release and supplied me with a list of parties
interested in receiving the book for review. I get a notice any time the book
title is searched via Google (this can be a PR opportunity). All of these
things came at a cost, some minimal, $30-$50 others in the hundreds. With limited funds I was forced into doing my
own marketing, something that I have no experience with. So I am learning on
the fly, mostly I just explain the situation, pour on the charm, and if there
is a question I promise an answer and deliver as soon as possible. This got me a book signing and print on
demand books on the shelf of a major outlet where there policy is not to
display print on demand books.
Something I have learned about Press
Releases. I paid Outskirts Press to provide and submit a press
release. I found out later that I could
do this for free on PR log (www.prlog.org) and that the publisher used PR Log
do it. Just as an experiment I did a google search of each and got a wide range
of info. http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0004420.html
gave
me the top 100 papers in the U.S. listed by circulation, but I had to search
further for office contacts. I did another search by cutting and pasting each
papers name into the search window and adding
“offices” after that and that gave me very good results. Newpapers will publish this for free but you
are at their mercy for timing and space. However this would mean a lot of work on my
part, and I don’t need more right now. Outskirts did this all for me and the
fee was nominal, so I might choose that option again if I go with a print on demand publisher again.
PRLog will do all of this for you and more for $50 or even more for around
$400, (at the time of this writing they had a $50 discount going on. check them
out at www.prlog.org
I
did not pay for a service to track my sales, and found out
I can do that for free as well on novelrank.com. Simply cut and paste your
amazon.com link and your ASIN number,
author or title into the provided fields on www.novelrank.com. Do this immediately after your book is
released, because it will only go back as far as 90 days at a time.
I
discovered that all books, in order to be displayed in bookstores must comply
with the EPA no-lead laws, so be sure that no matter how you
choose to have the book printed that you comply. These regulations went into
effect in 2009 and are the result of The Consumer Product Safety Improvement
Act (CPSIA H.R. 4040) of 2008 — commonly called CPSIA. The legislation is geared toward child
safety, but children frequent book stores and so the stores take it seriously
and want all books to comply. In order
to have my print on demand books on the shelf of that retailer I mentioned, I
had to contact the publisher and have them provide documentation that they were
in compliance with the regulation. Later research showed me that all of the
publishers I had considered were in compliance, but I in no way covered them
all, so protect yourself and be sure. I will probably have my latest book
printed at a small shop, so I will have to be sure they are in compliance as
well.
I will be writing future articles on: Book signings at local libraries,
virtual book tours, compiling a pitch letter as part of a press kit, asking
respected people in various fields to read and review books. Of course all of
this comes with a learning curve so they will come as I find my way. Feel free
to share your own experiences so that together we can make this publishing
/marketing road easier for all of us.
Thanks for
you time, “see” you next time.
An earlier
version of this unrevised article was previously published on:
www.apolloslyre.com
E-zine
No comments:
Post a Comment