A Defence of Self Publishing Part 2

This is the final article, and the second of two pieces defending self publishing, that I wrote before the blog was taken apart by a hacker.

Ha! The beast awakes.

After three years of my pitiful blog lying alone and ignored (with good reason, I never updated it) finally it seems I’ve found an audience with my last posting about self publishing. Which is good, because it came from the heart and I stand by everything I said.

In fact, there were a few bits I left out (it was a Sunday night after all).

I’m not sure I really hammered home my key message: most self published writers head down the DIY route because they feel they have no choice. They don’t think, “Hey, book publishing: how hard can it be? Turn the thing into a pdf, knock up a cover and roll on a liquid lunch.”

At least, that’s what I did. I so wanted to find an agent who’d hold my hand and work with me to make my writing even better and then help me find a publisher. I still do want this.

But it never happened, despite (I think) my best efforts. And I’m pretty convinced that it never will. Not because I don’t have faith in my own abilities as a writer but because of the way the system works and the attitudes or so many within the industry.

I may be about to start ranting, so bare with me.

I know agents have to sort the wheat from the chaff. There’s a lot of dross out there after all. But what if the conventional system actually ends up throwing out too much of wheat?

Hmm… crap analogy but I’m sure you get my point. It’s not beyond reason that a system where those trying to get into print are treated with utter contempt, might just have a few flaws.

A couple of illustrations:

Back in 2007, when Chosen was a finished but unpublished manuscript and I was desperately chasing agents, I blagged my way onto BBC 5Live to talk about trying to get into print (see previous blog posts from Jan 2007). I agreed to put one chapter up on this site so that listeners could text in either to “Bin” or “Publish”. Roughly 75% said “Publish”, which was a pat o the back.

As part of this, I made an audio diary of a trip to the London Book Fair. The LBF is not normally a place where unpublished authors are meant to hawk their wares but I turned up anyway, BBC microphone in hand. I interviewed six representatives of big publishers and gave each of them a package contained a covering letter, synopsis and sample chapters. They all said, on tape, that they’d read the contents and get back to me.

How many of them did? Having been on national radio, how many of them actually got in touch, even to say a polite, “No thanks?”

Er… that’ll be none then.

Two years later I made a return trip. Not to hunt them all down with a sharpened, pointy stick but to see if I could generate any interest in a (by now) self-published Chosen. Again, this is not a place where writers are meant to set foot but I snuck in anyway and set about peddling myself.

To be fair, some of those to whom I gave a copy of my book did eventually reply to gently let me down but there was one person who really stuck in my mind. This was an editor – let’s say The Editor – of a big publishing house who was really friendly and seemed happy to take a copy.

I was even given The Editor’s card and I sent a follow up email which received a fairly brusk, “Look, I’m really busy I’ll get back to you when I can”, reply. After that: nothing. No replies to any more emails and no response to the occasional voice mail.

Scared of appearing like a stalker, I called it quits. But how hard can it be to send a short email saying you’ve read someone’s work and it’s not what you’re after? I appreciate that people are busy – I run my own business and know that that’s like – bit it’s not that hard. This episode had me longing for one of those eighth generation photocopied rejection slips that I’d always hated.

There’s a danger here that I simply end up sounding like a bitter and twisted old soul who’s sitting in the dark, venting his spleen at the nasty book people.

Oh, actually I am sitting in the dark. Let me just go and turn the light on….
….I return.

But even if I am bitter, the point remains as valid. People should not be mocked and pitied for self publishing when what they are actually doing is refusing to give up in the face of arrogance and indifference. I may sound naive, but aren’t writers the lifeblood of the industry? No writers equals no books equals no liquid lunches.

Which once again brings me to the whole ebook / digital distribution thing. If things really are going to fall apart for the publishing industry, am I supposed to feel any sympathy at all?

As if.

A Defence of Self Publishing Part 1

This was one of the two posts I made before the hacker struck. Luckily, I kept an offline copy. I’ll post the follow up in a short while.

I keep reading articles and blogs, often linked to from Twitter, knocking self publishing. This isn’t entirely surprising because it’s always had a bit of a bad press (if you’ll pardon the pun). But recently they seem to imply that it’s something that people should stop doing; that authors who self publish are misguided fools who need redirecting onto the proper path. There’s also an increasingly strong whiff of sour grapes; as if some in the book publishing industry view the growing number of self publishers as an affront.

This last point in particular has prompted me to write this.

Oh, by the way, if you’re reading this because I posted it on Twitter or Facebook and have never looked at my blog before I have to apologise and confess. Yes it is the worst blog in the world written (very, very occasionally) by the laziest blogger in existence. Me.

So who am I? I’m a 40 year old who runs his own audio business, working mainly in the video games industry. That’s been going on for ten years. Before that I was a BBC journalist. I only say this because it shows I do understand the principles of good writing and crisp editing and have an understanding of the commercial world. My day job involves dealing with the likes of Sony, Disney, Ubisoft and Sega. I know something has to be sellable to sell.

I also know two key things about a lot of self published books:
1. They are about buses. Or trains.
2. They are crap.

Mine is neither. It’s an urban fantasy that sits on the shelves of Waterstones (and Borders before they went down) and has had some very good reviews. I’ve had readers, complete strangers who’ve parted with their own cash to buy my book, email to say how much they enjoyed it.

But hang on. If it’s so good, why hasn’t it been “properly published”?

Well let me tell you why I self published. It certainly wasn’t on a whim. After spending two years writing and redrafting my novel (called Chosen by the way) I then spent another 18 months sending submissions out to agents.

Three chapters, a synopsis and a covering letter. All stuffed into lovely white envelopes.
The responses I got ranged from a couple of properly written letters, through pro formas and postcards to eight generation faded photocopies. But they all had one thing in common: they were all rejections. Fair enough, that’s an agent’s job. But often the sample chapters came back in such a pristine state that it was obvious they’d not been read. In the end I stopped including an SAE and let them shred the material. One agent even asked if I’d like to buy her book on how to submit. No thanks.
Bitter? Moi? Well yes. But it was as simple as that, then Chosen would still be nothing but a manuscript in a desk drawer. As it is, a suggestion from my wife that I get at least one copy printed, to show my kids, led to me finding York Publishing Services. One thing led to another and I signed them up to print Chosen as a paperback.

This is where I think I did better than some self publishers. Firstly, I handed YPS a couple of “proper” paperbacks and asked them to mirror the typeface and layout style. A shocking number of self published books are laid out by the writer. Big mistake. It’s a hard job to get right and who wants to be faced with a blizzard of text on the page?

Secondly, I took the cover seriously. I didn’t ask a ‘friend who’s a really good artist’ to put something together. I asked a friend who happens to be a professional graphic artist and illustrator. And I paid him for his time and skill. Believe me, it was worth it. That cover art is what has drawn people to reach for a book written by an unknown writer, sitting amongst hundreds of other titles on the bookstore shelf.

When the book came out, I asked my local branch of Borders (RIP) if they’d sell it. They said yes, as long as I did a signing. This led to more Borders signings and ultimately to head office ordering copies for every branch. This is turn helped persuade those fine people at Waterstones to take it.

That’s when I hit a snag. Some chains and a fair few webstores will only sell books they can order direct from the big wholesalers. The really big ones. The ones I won’t mention. But They (no names) won’t stock Chosen without proven sales.

Chicken – egg.

Even when I persuaded staff at two of the biggest online retailers to ring Them and explain that they would be taking Chosen, as long as it was stocked. But that fell on deaf ears, so two big retailers were lost to me. The wholesalers I won’t name admitted this was ironic (no stock equals no sales) but just shrugged their shoulders.

So where am I going with my little tale? Well the point is, I certainly didn’t enter into self publishing as a first choice. I would still love to see Chosen taken up with a publishing house. But it really annoys me to read blogs and article that imply that what I am doing is “wrong” or stupid.

Which brings me to the next step: ebooks. As digital publishing grows in popularity, you can see the conventional publishing industry tying itself in knots.

If I don’t have to get hundreds of copies printed and don’t have to rely on a wholesaler to help me reach my customers, it’s going to be brilliant. Chosen is going to be turned into an ebook (thanks again to YPS) and then I’m going to use every weapon at my disposal to get it out there. The industry I work in by day, video game development, is undergoing the same revolution. I recently attended a conference about game self publishing and could see the similarities. If my book is good enough and if I can spread the word (which I’ve been doing for the last 18 months) then it’s a golden opportunity. The stacks of disinterested rejection letters can fade into memory.

There are already ways for a self published ebook author to reach the people who really matter – the readers – and these are going to grow in number over the next few months and years. So instead of wasting time attacking writers who’ve poured their heart and soul into something, why not come up with some ideas that move the whole industry forward?

Evening all…

I think it’s probably worth a little catch-up, for anyone reading this blog for the first time. Given that my previous entries were trashed by my hacker friend, you may well be wondering just who on earth I am and what all this writing nonsense is about. Here’s a potted history.

2005 – I start writing an urban fantasy (one that’s at least partly set in the real world, or as my friend Huw says “fantasy without the hobbit shit.”)
2006 – I finish my first draft of Chosen.
2007 – I start hawking it about to agents and even blag my way onto BBC 5Live, to talk about trying to get published. That’s where this site comes in: I upload a chapter for listeners to read and text vote on. 75+% say they want to see it published.
2008 – Still not even a whiff of interest from agents so I consider getting ‘a couple of copies bound’. This evolves into full-on self publishing with the help of York Publishing Services. Chosen is born in October 2008, the same week as my youngest child Daniel. He’s much cuter.
2009 – Chosen is now on sale in all branches of Borders, after I do some signings in various branches and head office become interested. Waterstones follow suit a short time after. One other chain, Wesley Owen, like the book a lot but can’t stock it because it’s “heretical”. Crikey.
2010. I finish book two, provisionally entitled Ghosts. Chosen now has its own Facebook groups and is still selling in Waterstones and various indies. Borders have now gone bust. The ebook world now beckons.
2011 – Not yet written.

Springing back to life….

Hoorah! Like a Phoenix from the ashes, my blog rises once again!

Thanks to some nasty little hacker who’s probably never seen a grown woman / man naked (abusive I maybe, sexist or homophobic I am not) my previous blog died a horrid death. Many thanks to Paul Moss for helping set things back up again. He’s also the man behind the cover design for Chosen, by the way, and a truly top chap.

I did keep backups of my last two blog entries, which coincidentally were quite widely read. Hmm… maybe that was the beginning of the end..

Anyway, I’ll restore them tomorrow. They were basically mild rants in favour of self publishing, despite a lot of negative press. Worth a quick read.

Well, things are up and running…. pip pip!

It’s good to be back…

Sorry to anybody trying to access this blog recently, but we got hacked!