Accepted Publishing Wisdom
If self-publishing a book, it's important to get it edited first, have a professional cover made and market it. That's the accepted wisdom from years ago in college, and it's more than true now. It's crucial. The best books have been carefully edited for many elements, such as spelling, grammar, syntax, flow, characterization, dialogue, point of view, and proportion. For a splendid book describing these elements, see Self-Editing for Fiction Writers (2nd. ed) by Renni Browne and Dave King. An eye-catching cover is important, and so it marketing to the widest possible worldwide audience. The self-publisher is doing what twenty people in a traditional publishing company do, so it's a miracle that self-publishing can happen at all.
But happen it can, and it did to me. The learning curve was steep, but we did it. I actually have physical copies and Slim Target is also online. I had my book edited by a conceptual editor, and a line editor who completely rewrote it (at Dream Your Book). A book cover designer made the cover, and then a computer whiz formatted it, and helped upload it onto Amazon's publishing arm, Create Space first, and then BookBaby and Lightning Source so it's out everywhere. All right, I'll admit, two daughters helped me design the concept of the plot before I wrote it, and one of them, with a computer science degree, helped format and upload it. Formatting is an under-rated clean profession, and miraculously replaces a dusty filthy predecessor.
I also applied for a Copyright, and spent an hour minimum on the phone to the Copyright Office of the Government. Understaffed, probably. So beware, and have your questions ready. Copyrighting is a process that takes months and is difficult to understand. But I finally succeeded and sent them paper copies. Waiting for the official Copyright Certificate. The publishing process was still expensive and rather time-consuming, but it was satisfying to be in control. In other words, at any point, the book project could have collapsed. But I did it my way. That's the important point. And I have a physical product at the end to prove it.
I chose not to use a literary agent, and didn't try to get one despite my perhaps desperate hope that my novel will be as widely read and commercially successful as any bestseller. With one-in-a-thousand chances of landing an agent, why bother? Too discouraging to face.
I also applied for a Copyright, and spent an hour minimum on the phone to the Copyright Office of the Government. Understaffed, probably. So beware, and have your questions ready. Copyrighting is a process that takes months and is difficult to understand. But I finally succeeded and sent them paper copies. Waiting for the official Copyright Certificate. The publishing process was still expensive and rather time-consuming, but it was satisfying to be in control. In other words, at any point, the book project could have collapsed. But I did it my way. That's the important point. And I have a physical product at the end to prove it.
The Publishing Process
I chose not to use a literary agent, and didn't try to get one despite my perhaps desperate hope that my novel will be as widely read and commercially successful as any bestseller. With one-in-a-thousand chances of landing an agent, why bother? Too discouraging to face.
Meanwhile, some novelists are just uploading books as fast as they can write them now. And they're selling well, although one can only trust they were properly prepared for the market.
Self-publishers certainly remind readers simply being published by a big publisher is not a guarantee of readers' enjoyment. Fiction, whatever the source outside of academia, tends to be chosen by whim and in hope of self-improvement, knowledge, entertainment and so on.
I think the most influential reasons I went with self-publishing were online articles I read, probably an accumulation of them over time, but one particularly called "How Amazon Saved My Life" in Huffington Post. It detailed how one author's financial needs were met when traditional methods had failed. The success of many prolific authors and fountains of knowledge such as Dean Wesley Smith, Barry Eisler, and JA Konrath were also influential in my decision to self-publish. Most of these self-published experts agree that agents and publishing houses have squeezed spongy authors beyond reason financially in the past and give numerical examples.
Huffington Post is itself a successful triumph of self-publishing in the news media, and I adore The Daily Beast, and many blogs. I turn to those before newspaper sites now. CNN, my television source, is still reliable, along with the New York Times and the BBC and NPR. Doesn't matter where we get our news and personal information. We've always used scattered sources when we think about it. Word of mouth has become one of the least reliable and last sources of news wherever the internet is available. Many of the traditional powerful sources of news, newspapers and television, have been reported as one-sided and neglectful more frequently in recent times. And it's quite refreshing to discover opposing views and news in comments and such--online--as a new service.
Next time, with my second novel, I'm tempted to go straight to BookBaby. They were most user-friendly and easiest to get answers from. Their website was easy to understand, too. I feel loyalty to Create Space, but little to Lightning Source. LS was the most difficult to understand of all the websites and had the most onerous paperwork requirements. They tried to be helpful, true, but their process is slow. Lightning Source, unfortunately, is one way to make books available in international (and national) Espresso book machines.
Self-publishers certainly remind readers simply being published by a big publisher is not a guarantee of readers' enjoyment. Fiction, whatever the source outside of academia, tends to be chosen by whim and in hope of self-improvement, knowledge, entertainment and so on.
I think the most influential reasons I went with self-publishing were online articles I read, probably an accumulation of them over time, but one particularly called "How Amazon Saved My Life" in Huffington Post. It detailed how one author's financial needs were met when traditional methods had failed. The success of many prolific authors and fountains of knowledge such as Dean Wesley Smith, Barry Eisler, and JA Konrath were also influential in my decision to self-publish. Most of these self-published experts agree that agents and publishing houses have squeezed spongy authors beyond reason financially in the past and give numerical examples.
Traditional Media Plays Catch-Up
Huffington Post is itself a successful triumph of self-publishing in the news media, and I adore The Daily Beast, and many blogs. I turn to those before newspaper sites now. CNN, my television source, is still reliable, along with the New York Times and the BBC and NPR. Doesn't matter where we get our news and personal information. We've always used scattered sources when we think about it. Word of mouth has become one of the least reliable and last sources of news wherever the internet is available. Many of the traditional powerful sources of news, newspapers and television, have been reported as one-sided and neglectful more frequently in recent times. And it's quite refreshing to discover opposing views and news in comments and such--online--as a new service.
Next time, with my second novel, I'm tempted to go straight to BookBaby. They were most user-friendly and easiest to get answers from. Their website was easy to understand, too. I feel loyalty to Create Space, but little to Lightning Source. LS was the most difficult to understand of all the websites and had the most onerous paperwork requirements. They tried to be helpful, true, but their process is slow. Lightning Source, unfortunately, is one way to make books available in international (and national) Espresso book machines.
My second book is being edited now, and the third is being rewritten, and in November the fourth is being written. They take years to research, write, edit, and every verifiable detail has to be correct. Not a good idea to mislead readers.
But mainly we fiction writers are supposed to entertain. Help readers escape the mundane. Give readers hope. Take the ordinary and make it extraordinary and enjoyable.
Keep writing