Self Publishing Pitfalls

My opinion of self-publishing is that it’s largely a dead-end.

One exception to this is when an author knows his/her non-fiction MS will appeal to a particular pre-established audience. I’ve a small number of acquaintances whose self-published philosophical works have fallen into this category, and they seem to have enjoyed modest success. But be assured that their market was already waiting, and that their publicity was aimed clearly at this specific market.

The other exception is when an author simply wants to make a gift of their work for family and friends, and maybe sell a copy once every blue moon.

Going It Alone

For serious writers, the importance of publicity, promotion and marketing should not be underestimated. Turning an MS into a physical book is only a small part of the whole publishing process. If an author is determined to go it alone, then they will need to invest huge amounts of time and capital to continually promote themselves and their work.

Even then, they’ll be stone-walled by most bookstores. Prime window and in-store display sites aren’t arrived at by chance; they’re paid for. Smaller stores might accept a sale-or-return deal - but this will still require the author/supplier to buy many copies of their own book from the vanity publisher.

In the case of free POD publishers who say they’ll promote your uploaded MS via their website, just take a look at how many other self-published books are there already - millions. Your MS will be like a tiny bit of straw in the biggest ever haystack (of mostly inferior writing.)

Mousetraps!

Shining tales of self-publishing successes are laid out like mousetraps. Be wary of sales blurb, always. The very few genuine success stories often disguise the presence of a pre-established traditional publishing career and/or connections. Just remember that there is a lot of money to be made off the backs of starry-eyed dreams and illusions.

As with many fields of life, that which seems to be a short-cut rarely is.

Fun vs. Career

If you’re writing purely for fun, none of this matters; you’re totally free to write to your heart’s content, to do your own thing and be happy with it. If that’s your bag, I wish you well with it. Really, I do.

But if you want a career, then you need to do your research. You need a strong web-presence (i.e. a demonstrable potential buying audience.) You need to master and develop your craft. You need to know the business. And none of these issues can be achieved instantly.

Even if you have these in place, you will meet with relative indifference as the majority of people (readers, agents and traditional publishers) consider self-published novels to be of poor quality.

Jack of All Trades, Master of None?

Whereas traditional publishers employ professional editors and proofreaders, a person intending to upload an MS onto a POD site has to do this themselves. Unless, of course, you’re willing to pay an employee of the site to do it for you - which means it’s no longer free.

Also, note the cost of an ISBN number and barcode, which you will need if you’re planning to enable people to order your book from anywhere other than the POD site where you uploaded your MS.

Consider the front cover. Are you an artist? A graphic designer? Have you a good working knowledge of advertising and the importance of a book’s cover in winning sales? Traditional publishers have a specific department staffed by qualified and experienced people who deal only with this one aspect of producing a book.

A split-second glance at a the spine of a front cover is often the only chance that book has of attracting a potential sale. If you are planning to self-publish, you will have to handle the design by yourself - unless, again, you are willing and able to pay someone else to do it for you.

Check the Details

As with all legal agreements, do read the small print. Be absolutely sure of what you’re agreeing to, and which rights are secured. Unless you’re a lawyer, you’ll need to hire a lawyer. To be fair, you would need to do this with a traditional publisher also.

And then there are the dreams of vast wealth! If that happens, great! But the reality is that most authors, including many whose names you might recognise, have an ordinary job as well, or they have a partner who is willing and able to lend financial support. You may wish to deny that as it runs contrary to sparkly illusions which you hold dear.

So much for myths, hmm?

This article was written towards the end of 2009, before the rapid rise of ebookswhich 2011 has seen. The lower costs of ereaders seems likely to increase the popularity of ebooks.

So, some writers have stopped jumping through the hoops that traditional publishers hold up, and are making reasonable - or even good - money by themselves. They've abandoned traditional routes of sending off submissions, waiting for months on end only to receive a pro forma rejection. Are these all bad writers? No, they might be brilliant; but any publisher can only afford to accept an increasingly limited number of new works. And so the rise of ebooks is changing the options available to writers. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.