A Defence of Self Publishing Part 2
Posted: June 4th, 2010 | Author: jerry | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »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Back in 2007, when Chosen was a finished but unpublished manuscript and I was desperately chasing agents, I blagged my way onto BBC 5Live to talk about trying to get into print (see previous blog posts from Jan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 The LBF is not normally a place where unpublished authors are meant to hawk their wares but I turned up anyway, BBC microphone in hand.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.