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By April Hamilton

E-books are of interest to self-publishers because of low production costs and distribution efficiencies, particularly at the global level. Below are April’s opinions on DIY. Others’ welcome! – D.R.

Author April L. Hamilton At WorkYou’ve been honing your craft for years, you’ve placed in some contests, and maybe you’ve even managed to land an agent.

New York editors say they love your work, yet they’re not offering to buy any of it.  Which of these wives’ tales, half-truths or outright lies is keeping you from self-publishing?

#10 – The only author who resorts to self-publication is one whose writing isn’t good enough to get a “real” publisher.

Once upon a time this was probably true, but these days more manuscripts are rejected due to commercial concerns than due to quality concerns. In much the same way movie studios aren’t interested in producing "small" films, publishers aren’t interested in producing ‘small’ books.

A rumor circulating around BookExpo America in Los Angeles last month holds that no large publisher will offer a contract to a new author unless that author can demonstrate a significant online presence and a following of at least 25,000.

The thing is, I have it on good authority that for at least one major publisher it’s not just a rumor at all, it’s unofficial policy.  It used to be perfectly respectable to sell between 10K–20K copies, but these days sales on that scale are deemed a failure by big publishers. Yesterday’s "midlist" author is today’s self-pub candidate.

#9 – Readers are biased against self-published books.

Readers are biased against bad books, no matter how they were brought to market. It’s only publishers and other writers who are biased against self-published books. No reader gets pulled in by jacket copy or an excerpt, only to glance at the spine and hurl the book to the floor in disgust, exclaiming, “Why, this book was published by Joe Bob’s Falafel Hut, Bait Shop and Press, not a real publisher at all!”

Moving primarily in circles of other writers and publishing professionals, writers tend to forget what it’s like to be a “mere” reader and can scarcely remember a time when they didn’t know the names of every major imprint in the free world.

The crossover success of originally self-published books like Eragon, The Celestine Prophecy and Diary Of A Wimpy Kid is proof enough: if you write it well and get the word out, they will read.

#8 – Self-published books are instantly recognizable as inferior because they don’t hew to mainstream publishing standards for layout and typesetting.

This is another example of a viewpoint held by publishing professionals which is totally irrelevant to ordinary readers. So long as your book looks more or less the same to the casual observer as a similar mainstream book, and the text is easy to read, the typical buyer won’t know (or care) if your gutters are 1/16 of an inch wider than standard, or that by using the Garamond font, you’ve broken a cardinal rule of manuscript typesetting.

#7 – Self-publishing is expensive, because you have to order a minimum quantity of books up front.

Some publishers do require their author-clients to order a minimum print run, which can cost thousands, or even tens of thousands, of dollars. However, true print-on-demand publishers don’t require their author-clients to order any books. I wasn’t required to buy any copies of the books I’ve self-published, beyond a single proof copy of each for my review prior to each book’s release.

#6 – Self-publishing is expensive, because you have to pay for professional services.

I lay out and format my own books in a standard word processing program.  I design all my own book covers, using a consumer-level photo editing program—judge them for yourself, here, here and here. In addition to trade paperback editions, I publish my books in Kindle™ and various other e-book formats, using simple, free, online tools that do the conversions for me. I promote my books, using both old-school and new media techniques, most of which are free. Only one of my books was professionally edited. 

Since I proof and edit my manuscripts using checklists acquired from various books on grammar and usage, the proofing tools provided in my word processing program, and the usual rounds of peer review, by the time the manuscript landed on the editor’s desk it was pretty clean. The draft came back with so few corrections I decided not to pay for professional editing on any of my subsequent books.

People who have more money than time will still choose to pay for professional services, but for an author with basic computer and Internet skills (in other words, anyone reading this), along with the willingness to learn, it’s optional.  If I can do it, how hard could it be?

Based on their specialized knowledge, publishing professionals would probably find any number of ‘amateurish’ imperfections in my books, but none of these things would be noticed by a typical reader.  A local independent bookseller who stocks my books says that to his eye, apart from the lack of a recognized imprint logo on the spine, my books are indistinguishable from mainstream books.  Keep asking yourself, “Who do I need to please, publishers and other writers, or readers?”

#5 – Self-publishing is expensive, because you have to pay large set-up fees.

Some publishers do require their author-clients to pay set-up fees which can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars. However, there are publishers that don’t charge any set-up fees at all, thereby allowing authors to publish for free; Lulu™ and CreateSpace™ are two examples. Publishing to the Kindle™ is free via Amazon’s Digital Text Platform™, and publishing to various other ebook formats is free via Smashwords.  I’ve never paid set-up fees for any of my self-published books.

#4 – It’s hard to succeed as a self-published author, because unlike mainstream authors, self-published authors have to do all their own promotion.

The only authors who get significant promotion budgets and support from their publishers these days are best-selling and prestige clients. Everyone else is on the hook to do their own promotion, regardless of who published them.

#3 – It’s hard to succeed as a self-published author, because you’re an unknown quantity and there’s no quality-control system in place to help buyers ferret out the best self-published books.

While it’s true that as a self-published author you’re an unknown quantity, it doesn’t automatically follow that implementation of a quality-control or rating system is needed.

Self-published authors can overcome the "unknown quantity" barrier exactly the same way mainstream authors do: by allowing potential buyers to pick up their books and start reading before deciding whether or not to purchase. Even if your book isn’t shelved in any brick-and-mortar stores, you can provide lengthy, free, online excerpts easily enough on a blog, author web site, or online service such as 1 Chapter Free or Smashwords.

Why waste time and effort pursuing elaborate self-pub rating or quality control systems, when you can simply reach out directly to readers and let the work speak for itself?

#2 – It’s hard to succeed as a self-published author, because you can’t get your books into major brick-and-mortar bookstore chains, and presence in those stores is crucial for success in authorship.

This is yet another of those areas where publishing industry insiders are calling the tune and self-published authors dutifully step in time, not stopping to think how accurate the publishing insiders’ assertions are or how much their opinions really matter in terms of the authors’ own future success.

When the only place to buy quality books was a bookstore, and the only way to get your book into a bookstore was through mainstream publication, this assumption was definitely true. Today, in the era of e-commerce and discount super stores, it’s a notion that would seem quaint if it weren’t so vociferously defended by publishers and many authors.

Remember Licorice Pizza, Musicland, Tower Records, et al?  As soon as consumers could (reliably) find a wider selection of music at a lower cost online, as well as in discount super stores, those chains were done for.  They’re all long gone, and hardly missed.

Now that we’re down to just two national chain booksellers, and one of them is faltering, retail history is repeating. According to a poll released by Zogby International on May 29 of this year, 43% of respondents most often buy their books online, 32% primarily shop for books in chain bookstores, and 9% buy most of their books from small, independent bookstores.  Preferred book retailers aren’t named for the remaining 16%, but that 16% definitely isn’t buying most of their books in chain bookstores.

In other words, 68% of respondents do not see brick-and-mortar chain bookstores as the best place to go when they want to buy books.

Capturing the attention of a market share that currently stands at 32% and is steadily shrinking can hardly be deemed ‘crucial’ in any marketing endeavor, and even if deemed important, doesn’t justify expending the majority of one’s resources.

In fairness, when asked to list all the different places they’d purchased books in the past year, respondents in the same poll most often named online retailers (77%), chain bookstores (76%) and independent bookstores (49%).  Percentages ranging from 16-39% also named drug stores, supermarkets, warehouse clubs, big box stores and airports.  Even so, these numbers demonstrate that consumers are just as comfortable buying books online as in chain bookstores, and nearly half are also regularly buying from independent booksellers.  Any way you slice it, chain bookstores no longer dominate the bookselling landscape.

#1 – Self-publishing is fine for hobbyists and family keepsakes, but I intend to have a career.

For mainstream authors with major publishers, career longevity is entirely under the publisher’s control. Such an author’s future prospects are only as good as the sales on his last book, and given that only 1-2% of all books published each year go on to become bestsellers, there’s an awful lot of career wreckage piled up at the margins of the industry.

If your book doesn’t earn back its advance, or sells only modestly beyond the advance threshold, your publisher won’t want to publish your next book. You’ll be viewed as damaged goods by every other imprint of that publisher, as well as by every imprint of the five other major publishing houses in the U.S.

Given that only best-selling and prestige clients get any significant promotion help or budget from their publishers, selling enough copies to convince your publisher that buying your next manuscript will be a good investment is no mean feat. And unless you’re a brand-name author like Stephen King, regardless of past successes, one failed book can spell the end of your career. After scaling the mountain to ‘legitimate’ publication, the  majority of authors find themselves more or less blackballed by the mainstream when their books fail to ‘break out’—worse off career-wise than if they’d never published at all.

A self-published author’s career, on the other hand, isn’t over until that author chooses to stop publishing. There’s no sword of Damocles hanging over the self-published author’s head, no hand-wringing over sales figures, no advance to earn back, no editors who stop returning their calls. The self-published author’s career flounders or flourishes on the strength of the author’s work and the author’s willingness to keep writing, publishing and promoting.

People often warn  that it’s rare for a self-published book to become a bestseller, and my response is always the same: it’s  rare for any book to become a bestseller.  Mainstream-published authors have an edge in the numbers when it comes to the likelihood of best-seller level success, if for no other reason than the fact that the mainstream’s publicity machine can be brought to bear for them the moment there’s any sign of a breakout hit.  But self-published authors can take considerable comfort in the fact that their careers don’t hinge on repeatedly hitting the best-seller lottery.

The next time you’re in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, look around and take stock of all the books you’re not buying. Browse the bargain tables and note all the authors and titles you’ve never heard of. Remember: every one of those books represents the outcome of an author, and every one of those authors expected to have a long and satisfying career. Care to join them, still?

April Hamilton is a writer based in Los Angeles.  Her latest book is The IndieAuthor Guide, a how-to reference book on self-publishing.

 
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