To quote the guy in the 80s movie, Splash, the one where Darryl Hannah is half-naked and making keening noises (I am pretty sure it was not Ferris Bueller): What a week I'm having. I'm meeting people (digitally), including publishers, reviewers, and ton of fabulous and supportive fellow writers. My calendar is filling up with all sorts of writerly activities, and I'm generating an active interest in my work. People are following me on Twitter and FB, and more people are reading the novel. It's been hectic, but I'm up to the challenge.
Long ago, in a college writing workshop far far away, I was given a very valuable bit of wisdom: you're a writer if you say you are. To that end, I remained reluctant to call myself a writer until I had one completed work of fiction under my belt. Not a few short stories, not a couple of articles, not the dozen or so half-finished manuscripts stuffed in my closet. One novel. That's all it would take. So, I guess I'm a writer now. Thank effing G-d.
Shortly following the release of Messiah of Monsters, a few nay-sayers emerged from my sea of friends (you know who you are) to object to my choice to self-publish my first book. They said things like: "well, surely it must be good enough for a regular publisher," "that'll never work," and "don't sell yourself short...you're too impatient." At least the last of these is partly true. Ultimately though, seeing as I had never finished anything, and I found myself on a sudden and unexpected roll, I gave the proverbial finger to all of these people and plunged in. However, I still took time to consider all the options, which I break down a bit for you below.
Vanity Press - you pay a guy who puts your book into print. They do all the work, as little or as much as you pay them for. Sometimes they edit for you, arrange your cover, typeset, and "market" your book. Meanwhile, you sit back and hope you spent that $300- $2000 wisely.
Desktop Publishing - you do this at home, print at home, the whole deal. This is the way many small zines go, and some low-graphic content comics, as well as chapbooks and smaller works. Since you pay for every piece you print and do all of it yourself, it can be time consuming AND expensive in the long run.
Print-on-Demand - this is what Lulu and CreateSpace are. Basically, your book is a file that hangs out until someone thinks it sounds keen and buys it. Then it prints. The printer takes a cut of the final price to cover their sales and make profit, and you get the leavings. You also do most of the work, though the process is (somewhat) simpler than it sounds.
Small Press - these are the little guys. These are the guys who can't afford to offer you big royalties, but they are your first stop on the road to a best seller. They operate in similar fashion to the giant publishing houses, though some aspects remain largely do-it-yourself. They don't have the giant funds to send you on a book tour, or get you a review in the New York Times. You still have to wait around for them to read your work, reject it, request edits, and then send you a contract. It takes time. Also, small presses tend to specialize, which is great for the genre-savvy reader (and writer!), but it leaves some of us outliers in the cold. Show me one publisher that's looking for LGBT erotic horror, and I'll show you a unicorn.
Overall, I am glad I took the path I did. I've learned some very valuable lessons in the last few weeks, a few about people and even more about self-publishing. I'm going to share with you the things I've learned that stand out as those I will take with me into my next project, whether it's self-published or no.
1. Self-publish your book? Who are you paying to do that? Aunt Sue did that once. Remember the 500 copies of "The Dream is Over," which we used for kindling at the old lakehouse?
As I described above, Self-publishing IS NOT the same as Vanity Press. It surprises me that vanity presses still exist...but the reason they continue to exist and rip people off is because somehow, somewhere, someone managed to convince folks that VPs were still superior to self-publishing. This is far from accurate. In case you were born after 1990, the VP concept predates the sophistication of the interwebs and inexpensive print-on-demand/desktop publishing. Hint: most "small presses" that require the author to pay a fee up front as opposed to granting you an advance or at least handing you a contract that details how YOU will be paid are actually VPs.
In this digital day and age, there is no reason in hell that you should be paying someone to publish your book. And if you think that having a name that is not your own appear as the publisher somehow helps you to gain fans, think again. Remember Aunt Sue? That name that published her tripe is associated with her shoddy work as well as your fine masterpiece.
2. Self-published books are badly written, which is why these people can't find a publisher.
Sometimes you don't choose to self-publish. It chooses you. For me, there were multiple factors which played into my decision to self-publish, rather than seeking a traditional publisher for my work. First and foremost, my chosen subject matter was a risky one, especially for a first-time author. The small press route was an unlikely gambit that would just eat up my time and my resolve with rejection letters. More and more people find the process of publishing unappealing, but they can tell a good story just the same. Yes, there's a lot of junk out there - but it's a good bet that some of the small presses create a fair amount of it, too. It's the dark side of this beautiful world we've created....I am a bit of a jerk, so I spend a fair time laughing at some of the atrocious shit out there, while at the same time I have to kick myself for not having picked up the gauntlet as fast as they did. Industrious little bastards.
3. Fame. Glory. Riches. You'll never see these in self-publishing.
And guess what? Most traditionally published writers don't see them either. The Stephen Kings and J.K. Rowlings are few and far between, my friends. The majority of writers get by with day jobs, or leach off a willing and gracious spouse. Some of us are lucky enough to do enough freelancing that our mundane life becomes a minor intrusion on our creative condition.
Seek opportunities everywhere, write every day, and write good shit, but don't expect a best seller. It's 99% who you know, so there are probably a million undiscovered Hemingways out there. Get over yourself. I can bet neither one of the authors above expected much from their work, either. Surprise. This part was not too hard for a self-depreciating lunatic to figure out. I'm still shocked at the attention I'm getting now.
4. Don't try this at home, kids.
Get an editor. A real one. Even if you do some editing work yourself like I do, I can't underscore this enough. It still irks me to admit some aspects of my novel are rougher than I would like because I did not follow this rule. Sad to say, I could not afford one. I still can't. I had people read it over before it was released, other writers who admitted that they were not up to the task. At least I knew I had a good story. I spent grueling hours putting it to task myself - the first 15 copies grabbed by friends on the first day illustrate how even thorough proofreading doesn't always make for perfection. However, no matter what distance you can put between yourself and your product, nothing compares to a fresh read-through by a trained eye.
One thing that I benefited from, that enabled me to see my own mistakes more clearly, is seeing the book in it's final print form and then reading it cover-to-cover. Make use of on-demand like CreateSpace, even if you never publicly release the book in a self-published format. I can't tell you the difference it made, seeing those words in a new format, reading it like a reader would. Some things worked, some didn't, some things I could change, some I just had to let go.
5. You self-published because you are nothing. No one will buy your book. Because Penguin didn't put its stamp on the cover, and Simon and Schuster did not give you the time of day, neither will anyone else.
One great reason to self-publish is that it defeats the age old conundrum: you can't get an agent before you publish something and you can't publish something without an agent. I am very happy to report that many formerly self-published authors are now living it up with contracts in nice little homes with small press and the big leagues alike. Heck, I guess one of them even got a movie deal recently. Way to make us all look like slackers...but also, thanks for putting us on the map with norms. It's been a long time coming.
The biggest thing self-publishing has given me is momentum. Drive. A will to live...well, not exactly, but I would say it has given me the will to persevere. And I've proven to myself that I can do it, that I can finish something. For awhile there, I was almost sure my tombstone was going to read: R. A. Dunn, the girl who couldn't call anything done. It feels good enough that I am ready to do it again...and again. This time, surely, with more precision. And maybe an agent or a contract...but I'm not going to be so fast to decide that. I want to know my options first. However, I do know that publishing one book will not sustain me.
After seeing your words in print, it DOES in fact get easier. This is the number one reason to self-publish. As this last week has shown me, I am much further into the game then I expected to be. <deep breaths>
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