Steven Ramirez's Blog: Glass Highway, page 42
February 21, 2013
Being a Writer—Reality Check
February 18, 2013
Misconceptions About Writers
February 14, 2013
Happy Valentine’s Day—How About a Story?
February 7, 2013
Fun with Twitter for Authors
January 31, 2013
Let’s Talk Movies!—January, 2013
January 24, 2013
Words and Places Can Inspire Your Writing
January 17, 2013
Trolls Among Us
January 9, 2013
Blog Hop—The Next Big Thing
January 4, 2013
Forward
December 28, 2012
Self-Publishing: An Opinion
Diane Major is from the UK and took up writing in 2009. Since then, she has produced an impressive number of fiction titles. Her books can be found on Amazon. You can also find Diane at her website, blog, and on Twitter. In this post, Diane talks about her decision to become an author.
I self-published because writing a book was an ambition which I had carried with me from being a child, and was something I finally had the opportunity to fulfil. I am aware that I am not unique in saying that, nevertheless, this was the beginning.
I did not publish until I had retired from my working career. When I retired I had books which were almost finished and wanted to publish them. I then proceeded to read about other people’s experiences, and how difficult it was for them to find a publishing house. Consequently, I sent extracts to two establishments to try to assess what my chances might be.
One publisher said they did not publish fantasy adventure novels. The second stated that while what I had written was interesting, they weren’t publishing this type of book at the moment. Both wished me luck and directed me to a book I could buy which contained a host of publishers (I did not buy it!).
At my time of life, and having already submitted extracts and waited a considerable length of time for responses, I decided to self-publish.
While criticism around self-publishing might include the work has grammatical errors in the script, that some parts of storylines might need development, at times the author might stray a little from the plot, identification of typing errors (though a number of published books might contain one or several of these hiccups), it seems to me that self-published authors have to work twice as hard. It is even more difficult when they cannot afford to pay a proof reader or editor. It’s not surprising that many new authors in the book world, for various reasons, and due to personal circumstances feel they have no choice but to self-publish.
Yes, it would be great if my books were successful, but for me personally, someone who had always struggled with English Grammar, self-publishing my first two novels was a huge achievement. It also seems the publishing scene is dominated by those who are already famous (established authors, or stars who are writing their own autobiographies), and other people who succeed through having contacts within publishing establishments or the media. As a result of this only a minority of new authors have the energy and time, as well as needing a lot of luck to make it through the minefield to publish by traditional means. This has led to so many authors self-publishing.
Having never published a book before, I read about how to do it online. I then tried two publishing houses and moved on. Once I decided to self-publish I began to search the Internet, and from the many companies out there (vanity press). I was very naive and thought vanity press was the way forward. From those I discovered, I did my best to choose one that was well established.
When I approached them they had two offers available regarding publishing my work, however, the one I chose was a kind of ‘buy one, get one free’ offer as I had almost completed my second novel. What I did not realise throughout the whole process was that I should have taken charge of the process. Instead, I misguidedly and naively felt as if I had to meet deadlines. If someone telephoned, I would respond when I should have said I needed more time.
This meant that my two daughters who supported me throughout tried to check my books fairly quickly. It is my belief that we had probably become ‘word blind’ when checking my first novel from having read it so many times. I am sure we did a better job with the second one.
I chose my illustrations for the cover and the company, in my opinion, did an excellent job of creating it. When asked about a pen name my nerves jangled. I wondered if people, including my friends would think my books were rubbish and concluded what the heck. I had spent almost two years writing them! I tried to take everything into consideration and decided ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ and used my real name. I believed in my books and therefore I did not need a pen name.
As the process of self-publishing continued to the point where the books were to be made public I became extremely anxious and nervous. I asked myself, would anyone like my books? Would anyone read my books? However I have to say the moment I actually held my first book I felt amazing. Apparently the company I have used to date have earned a name for themselves, however, without them I don’t know if I would have ever published.
After publishing my third book through vanity press I decided to publish my last book myself. I was amazed at the support I received and must thank Nancy Sewell for doing the reading and author, L J Bush, for creating the cover. If it wasn’t for ASMSG, (Author Support and Social Media Group) that support would never have happened.
So, armed with lots of information I had gained from members of ASMSG and particularly Ruth Watson Morris, l created an e-book, paperback and Kindle edition. The process was not as daunting as anticipated even though I messed up the first time and had to go through the whole process again.
The most awkward and uncomfortable thing about publishing is putting oneself out there, but I did! To date I have generally had good feedback from family, friends, acquaintances and strangers… so far, so good. Have I sold many books? Answer, don’t think so, but it’s too early to make a serious assessment and it was never my intention to try to make money.
Marketing is also a key issue which is very time-consuming. Once again I had no idea that I should have been publicising my books before they were published, we live and we learn. It is really better to try to become part of some network, where other authors will help promote your work, although good networks are few and far between. This is another very competitive world!
Having now published four novels I have my up and down days. Sometimes I wonder if all the hard work is worthwhile, as well as the efforts made by others (my daughters and new friends). What does lift my spirits is when I read a 5* review from one of my books, in this instance, Enmitus, The Transformation which was written by a random reader that says, quote, “It was the book I read following 50 shades and although very different I enjoyed it sooooo much more. Can’t wait to read another book. It was highly interesting from start to finish. I loved the way it took me from my own world into another very exciting one.”
To all new authors, these are some of the things you will need to consider, think about and face if you self-publish. If you do publish, you will have to be brave!
Related articles
2012 – The Year of Self-Publishing. Christian Science Monitor #ASMSG (andyholloman.com)
Self-publishing and Guy Kawasaki (selfpubadvocate.wordpress.com)
Don’t Call It Vanity Press (time.com)
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