April 28, 2010

Last week I received this question in my email from a blog reader: “I wonder with the proliferation of print on demand companies reducing the need for inventory, providing on-line marketing capabilities, and the writer keeping a higher percentage of the book profits, what in your opinion, is the best route to go and why?”

 If you read my other comments on self-publishing in “The Four D’s” or “Publishing Confusion,” you probably guessed that I am negative about self-publishing. [Do read those articles-there are links to various websites where you can become more informed-and warned.]

Some of my opinion comes from personal experience: none of my 35 books were self-published. Some of my opinion comes from seeing writing friends and students get burned by false promises. (Yes, the writer gets to keep a higher percentage of book profits, but often those profits are miniscule. Fifty percent of a meager amount is still a pittance.) And some of my opinion comes from what I’ve heard agents and editors say (their negative perceptions of self-published books and authors.) I’m afraid that in at least nine cases out of ten, self-publishing turns out to be a very disappointing (and often expensive) experience.

Good Option for Some

Are there times that self-publishing something makes sense? Definitely so. Perhaps you’re a frequent speaker for a national organization like MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), and you speak to large audiences many times per year. If you have a nonfiction book that this group would love, then a print-on-demand book (POD book) could be a good idea. You have a built-in audience and credibility as an expert through your speaking. (I’ve heard of many professionals-from agents to landscape gardeners-who’ve been able to sell hundreds of books when they speak at conferences.) But they had credibility first-and a built-in large audience for their books. 

My One Experience with Self-Publishing

For the above reasons, I decided to e-publish a couple of $7 e-booklets this month. [See "Don't Re-Invent the Wheel."] I had the credibility first. Most of my published books are novels, so “50 Tension Techniques” was easy to put together from a workshop on that subject that I’ve done at many SCBWI events. And since eleven of my published books are mysteries, I had the credibility for “Writing Mysteries for Young People.”

And my built-in audience? I’ve had a website for many years, a blog for four years, and already had friends on my Facebook and Twitter pages. Everything was already in place for “e-sales.”

And (this is key to me), it was almost free to set up. I just added information pages to my website and blog. (If I had used PayPal instead of ClickBank, it would have been totally free to e-publish them, but my Google research turned up a lot of disgruntled PayPal experiences, so I opted to pay the one-time $49 ClickBank fee.)

What About Self-Published Fiction?

Self-published nonfiction out-sells self-published fiction by an enormous margin. Few people starting out as novelists have a speaking platform where they can sell their books. Few have a huge following online-and you must have if you expect to market your novel online. Otherwise you are stuck marketing the book from the trunk of your car, begging a few small bookstores to stock your self-published novel (the chain stores won’t), and arranging your own autograph parties and signings where you will probably sell fewer than a dozen books.

With self-published novels you won’t have the kind of support you get when published by traditional publishers. [For example, my latest publisher has nine of my books on their website, which I'm sure gets a lot more hits than my website! They have separate pages for the mysteries and the devotionals.] In addition, the four mysteries and one devotional are all getting new covers in May and another “publicity push” from the publisher. Traditional publishers can do that-they have whole publicity and promotion teams who work on such things.

Publicity and Promotion

When you self-publish, remember that you are the publisher (or you pay for it), the art designer (unless you pay for that service too), and your book’s publicity/promotion/sales team. Most of the on-line promotion packages that self-publishing companies want to sell you are things you could do for yourself for FREE.

And unless you already have a big following, your sales will be minimal. Most self-published books are way over-priced. Why would a stranger take a chance and buy a novel from an unknown self-published author when the same money will buy him a famous name author’s novel? Once self-published authors have run through their friends and family members, the pickings are slim when it comes to sales.

Be Extra Careful

If you are considering self-publishing, please thoroughly research the pros and cons first. Do Google searches on “self-publishing scams.” For each company that wants to “publish” your book, Google them. Contact other authors they’ve “published” and ask about their sales and what the “extra services” (like editing, marketing, book jackets) cost them. (Remember: with a traditional publisher, all those services are free to you and done by whole teams of professionals: editors, publicists, sales reps, promotion, etc.)

Do not let your blind faith or impatience to publish make you naïve. Take time to get your facts. Self-publishing is very risky business for an author. Except in rare cases (like those mentioned earlier), I can’t recommend it.

January 18, 2010

Every week I get questions like this: “I don’t have a book out yet [or my first book came out last year], but do you think I need to have a website, a blog, a newsletter, be on Facebook and LinkedIn, and also tweet on Twitter daily? Is all this self-promotion necessary?”

I wish I knew!

A Voice of Reason

If you believe everything you read that “they say,” you might think you needed to do all that self-promotion. However, I’m inclined to think James Scott Bell in his new book The Art of War for Writers is closer to the mark.  In talking about self-promotion, he said, “The more anxious you are about forcing success through self-promotional effort, the less creative energy you have for the writing itself.”

Why? “Because,” Bell says, “the most important promotional tool you have is your best book. Period.”

Creating that “best book” of which you’re capable takes hours and hours of writing and revising, learning new skills, honing your craft, your heart and soul, your blood, sweat and tears. He cautions writers not to dilute their strengths by obsessing over promotion. (Isn’t that a breath of fresh air?)

Good, Better, Best

Bell gives an interesting list of the “ten best forms of self-promotion.” Only one item on the list deals with the Internet. He simply calls #4 on the list your “web presence.” Guess what SIX of the items on the list are. Your book. He says that a good book-and the word of mouth it generates-will do more for your sales than all the Internet marketing efforts put together. That has been my experience personally, but it’s rare to find such a successful author say so. Rare and refreshing!

Concerning the questions I receive weekly about Internet promotion: I think I’m going to start quoting Bell’s book from now on. His simple guideline for “how much” self-promotion to do is this:

“Do what you can without (a) taking away from the quality of your writing time; (b) taking away from the quality of personal relationships, and (c) taking on debt.”

Now that’s food for a lot of thought.