Novel Writing Made Less Impossible - The Joys of Self-Publishing ... Sort Of ...

Last week, we walked through the process of getting your finished manuscript published via the traditional route of finding a publisher who will work with you to get your manuscript ready for print, then sale. Oh, and you'd probably pick up an agent along the way.

However, there's another path ... and it's not for everyone. It takes a little extra moxie, but the results can be so very worth it, in my opinion. In fact, my opinion was formed when I discovered this six years ago. All I saw was potential, both creative and financial.

Self-publishing gets a bad rap from some corners. You'll hear the criticism that "it's all crap." Well, my own work aside -- which isn't crap ... at least that's what my readers tell me -- there IS a great deal of it that's crap. Then again, so is a lot of what rests on the shelves at almost every bookstore in America, in my opinion.

You'll hear that the indie work is riddled with grammatical errors and typos. I have several friends who go through books from The Big Five Publishers* and not only look for, but FIND numerous misspellings and poor grammar.

In fact, a friend of mine who's a proofreader used to work for one of the Big Five. She turned in a job past the deadline and when her editor wanted to know why, my friend replied that she went through the manuscript thoroughly and finding all the errors took more time that she was allotted. The editor told her, "I don't want you to read it. Just skim it. That's what all our proofreaders do." She quit on the spot.

So we know the big companies let errors skate through. We also can tell they aren't exactly the "gatekeepers" of fine literature from all the books with "Kardashian" or "Kanye" all over them, or purported to be by them. But no one calls for discouragement of the major publishers, right? Why the hate for the independents?

I think part of it stems from what's called "vanity" press. There used to be -- and sadly, there still are -- printers who tell would-be Hemingways that their book DESERVES to see print. They would take money from hungry-to-be-seen writers, or those whose work was rejected by a publisher, and print the work for them. Unfortunately, the writer would have to pay for a print run of thousands of books.

The inventory might be whittled down by a few sales, maybe many giveaway copies, depending on the skill of the seller. Eventually, sorry to say, most of the copies would then wind up in garages, storage units, or landfills. This left the writer poorer and more discouraged from all the expense and futility.

In recent years, some printers have developed what's called Print On Demand, or POD. Previously, the printing technology didn't allow for really short press runs that were profitable for the printer him/herself. Now, however, current printing equipment could do ONE COPY with professional standards at a reasonable expense. (On the other hand, one could still get volume discounts for larger print runs) Now, there was no reason for huge stockpiles of unsold books. The publisher of note could print just enough copies to keep the business running, either from in-person sales or mail order. This way, the writer could also keep more of the rights to their work. Also, there would be NO excuse now for a book to go out of print.

I won't say that being your own publisher is always profitable, nor is it easy. But for many of us, the benefits of self-determination outweigh the control we surrender when working with another publisher.

*The current Big Five Publishers are, for the record, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. There used to be a LOT more of the majors, but attrition and getting bought out by various media conglomerates have winnowed down the field. On the other hand, if you count the independent publishers, there's THOUSANDS of them ... and no excuse for you not to be one of them.

Next week, I'll do a side-by-side comparison of the benefits, and shortcomings, of both traditional and self-publishing.

​NEXT WEDNESDAY: Comparison Career Shopping

TOMORROW: Why Do I Love the Public Domain?

SPECIAL NOTE: My newest book, The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove, is currently on sale. It's part memoir, part grimoire. The first half deals with my entry into writing indie comics and joining Silver Phoenix Entertainment. I print four of my comic scripts for The Haunting Tales of Bachelors Grove, three of which have not been produced yet. Then I add four horror prose tales, three of which are NEW. All this behind a great cover by my Art Sherpa, Trevor Erick Hawkins, over 300 pages of terror and history for only $19.95 in paperback, $2.99 in e-book (FREE if you belong to Amazon Prime).

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to this blog. We're going to put out something every WEDNESDAY morning or you'll know the reason why. We plan to beef up our output to five times a week this year. Yeah, that's another goal.

As if this isn't enough, I send out a monthly e-mail newsletter around the first week of every month. There's news, graphics (when I have them), personal appearance information, and the occasional cool money-saving offer. You can sign up HERE!

And of course, I'd love for you to purchase my books.

I'm also on Twitter and Instagram.

As long as you're at it, give a LIKE to my Facebook page for Vulcana.

And every Monday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, I host a live interactive broadcast entitled NEVERMIND THE FURTHERMORE on my personal Facebook page. If you show up live, you can leave a link to your business or charity. Plus, you make comments, I talk back to you, we have a real conversation.

#Publishers #SelfPublishing #Hachette #HarperCollins #RandomHouse