I recently attended a book clubs summit where, for a weekend, participants gathered to meet and greet writers from around the country.
Authors signed books and thanked readers for support of our work and artistry between giving individual talks, and participating in panel discussions with other writers.
Many of the reader participants belonged to book clubs in the cities where they lived. Many stated that the books written by us and that they purchased, would go on to form the reading list for their book club in the upcoming year. Attending the summit was as much a matter of marketing as promotion.
In that you were working alongside colleagues, an author’s participation in the summit offered opportunities to meet and network with fellow writers. As has become the norm, both traditionally published and self-published authors comprised those attending this event.
Yet one noticeable quality caught my attention. While the traditionally published authors often spoke of the staggering number of titles bearing their name, and that their publishing company had issued in the previous year, it was the self-published authors who appeared most relaxed, and in command of practicing their artistry.
This is not to say that the traditionally published authors lacked skill. Quite the opposite. Their years of experience encircled those of self-published authors new to the business.
Yet it was in listening to an experienced author who had been successfully published for over two decades explain why they chose to start their own publishing company, that I came to understand the grand change that has been subtly overtaking publishing.
“I wanted to feel respected. I also wanted to work with industry professionals whose artistic decisions reflected commonsense marketing and business savvy.”
The author turned publisher then detailed how for over 25 years, they like other authors, and despite being paid a 6-figure salary, had experienced the dispassion exhibited towards them by employees of the publishing company with whom this author had been contracted.
The author explained the growing frustration with decisions and changes made concerning the marketing of their book that apparently held no clear goal at increasing sales, and attracting more readers.
Change for the sake of change, would seem to form the basis for alterations made concerning the book covers, titles or strategies for reaching readers versus observing what had worked well financially in the past.
I listened to this author speak on a panel with other authors, all of whom had self-published at some point in their careers. Slowly I became of aware that self-publishing offers the writer/author not simply an alternative way to get your stories into the hands of readers, but also an opportunity to learn about the business of writing and selling your work. That these authors, both self and traditionally published sat and comfortably shared their stories of achieving publication from various angles was endearing to watch.
One author had chosen to self-publish after having had several of their titles traditionally published. Yet another author, after having successfully self-published, had gained the attention of a publishing company, and a book contract.
I could not help but recall what I heard Alan Rinzler, the editor of Jossey-Bass Publishing, state in late July, that, “Self publishing has become a very respectable way of seeing your work in print.”
The self-published author must be intimately involved in both the creative and the business side of writing and publishing. And despite what many like to think, the two go hand-in-hand when considering how to achieve successful story creation, and long term sales.
Possessing the knowledge required to successfully self-publish puts the author who chooses to underwrite the publishing and printing of her or his work leagues ahead of most writers and authors who seek and achieve publication through the traditional route, and nearly all the people working in traditional publishing.
Would you like to see your work published, and if so how and why?
Have you ever read a self-published book?
Anjuelle,
Recently, I attended a book festival and met a fellow author who also had the experience of self publishing her new novel because the company which she had worked for had issues with her contract and she is a bestselling writer. After overseeing my own book event, it’s quite evident that self-published authors want to have their own control and not feel disrespected by a mainstream company. Each year, I receive more self-published authors than mainstream and they are quite comfortable with their works and the fact they did it by themselves. As the economy is going through its own set of changes, I wouldn’t be surprised if more mainstream authors turn towards publishing their own works for the reasons you stated above.
Despite the work required to self-publishing requires, authors who underwrite the publication of their works are beginning to appear more at ease with the whole aspect and particularly the business side of publishing than those who are with traditional publishing companies.
There are still those authors who have lucrative contracts with large publishing companies, but the numbers are shrinking. Researching their careers and/or listening to them speak, you quickly figure out few, if any, are overnight successes. These authors have been writing for quite some time, often with contracts underwritten by small publishers that paid little or nothing.
As the economy shrinks and less and less of these small publishers will remain. The improvements in internet, and computer have streamlined the process of bringing a book to print, making the printing process of self-publishing so much easier.
The challenge as always lies on garnering the know-how and refining one’s skill and craft at writing fiction and finding editors who help you shape and revise your work and from whom you can learn.
But even traditionally published authors have, in the last decade begun to hired their own private editors.
As with “The Tale of Two Cities” so it is with the two main ways of bringing our works to print, “It is the best of times and it is the worst of times.” But for those who love to write and are committed to creating the best work possible, all will be well.
Thanks so much for commenting.
I turned to self-publishing for two reasons:
1) it gave back my self respect as a writer, and
2) it gave me total control over my projects.
I struggled for years, living the starving novelist cliche while submitting manuscripts to dozens of publishers with no success. It took the passage of years for me to realize that the people wading through slush piles were just that: people. They were entitled to their opinion that my manuscripts just wouldn’t sell, or weren’t quite right for the publisher.
But that didn’t mean their opinions were any better than mine.
When I did finally get published, the experience wasn’t fun. The editor was clumsy at best, and blind at worst. Yet there was an imbalance of power that, as a new author, I couldn’t address. The published result was in no way a reflection of what it could have been.
I now publish my own work, using the internet as both a source of knowledge about what will sell and the vehicle for those sales. So far, I’m more than satisfied with the results, and I have to rely on no-one other than me.
I’m happy enough that I understand the business that I’ve made what was originally intended just for me into a service I’m offering others. I’ve taken the step into being a publisher for real, accepting submissions, taking the risk, and publishing those that I think will sell.
Seems like a good turnaround, really.
Thanks so very much for responding. I think that many writers, good writers struggle with confidence and the issue of self respect regarding the quest to attain publishing of their work by traditional means. But as you so eloquently and simply write, “the people who wade through the slush piles are people like you [and me] and they are entitled to their opinion,” and no more, I would add.
Too often we as writers who had worked hard and diligently to hone our craft hand over to those working in the large publishing companies more than is due them, and I would submit than they ask for.
Again, thanks so much for sharing.