The Lost Edens Project: Mentor Publishing
I don't know the total dollar amount I've spent making Lost Edens turn from a bound manuscript into a published book. I'm going to need to know come tax time but for now I'm a bit more occupied with making sure I can pay for groceries. Once I know, I'll share because I think it's important for aspiring authors to know just how much of your own time and money goes into mentor publishing.
Mentor publishing is one of the great turns in publishing in the last few years. It's a cross between traditional and self-publishing. From beginning (an acquisitions editor) to end (distribution) my publisher acts like, well, a publisher. I have their imprint on my book and they did everything you would expect a publisher to do from page design to editing to proofreading. Where's the difference?
I wrote the checks.
I expected to spend around $10,000 and I think the ballpark number is easily twice that, possibly edging closer to three times that.
So where's the upside when I could have self-published for a couple grand? I had help from professionals at every step and yet always had total control of the project (which turned out to be a really important piece), I kept all the rights to Lost Edens, I was able to publish a quality book in 18 months versus what would have been years at a traditional publisher, and even though I had professionals to guide me through each step, I keep the profit from sales.
At just 42,000 words I knew that I wouldn't find a traditional publisher as a first-time author, which is why I first started looking at alternatives. I always believed the story was strong and that there would be an audience and I was more interested in finding this audience than finding the vehicle to the audience. Mentor publishing was the perfect solution and I think it could be for a lot of writers out there, too, but with a warning:
With mentor publishing you must approach it in one of two ways: (a) you have money to kill and are looking for a hobby, or (b) you are starting a small business with exactly one product. With mentor publishing you have to always keep in mind: (a) at the end of the day your publisher is simply providing credibility and an imprint, (b) you're paying for an education in publishing, and (c) once you have a book in hand your publisher's work is completely done. Completely.
Self-publishing is, of course, an option. Look at Lisa Genova or Amanda Hocking and then note: they both signed with larger publishers after initial publication. Being successful at self-publishing and mentor publishing is crazy hard and you don't get much of a chance to be a writer because you're way too busy getting a small business with just one product off the ground.
I used to dream of being an indie artist and making a grassroots effort to expand a readership but now I dream of finding a big publisher who will swoop in and take care of things so that I can be a writer. But then, that was also the point of a mentor publisher--it was the best way I knew of to produce something that showed my potential, what I was capable of. The best case scenario is that Lost Edens can be a calling card of sorts so that a big publisher could do just that someday: swoop in, love Lost Edens, and let me just be a writer. For all of us who dream of publishing, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Being a writer?
Mentor publishing is one of the great turns in publishing in the last few years. It's a cross between traditional and self-publishing. From beginning (an acquisitions editor) to end (distribution) my publisher acts like, well, a publisher. I have their imprint on my book and they did everything you would expect a publisher to do from page design to editing to proofreading. Where's the difference?
I wrote the checks.
I expected to spend around $10,000 and I think the ballpark number is easily twice that, possibly edging closer to three times that.
So where's the upside when I could have self-published for a couple grand? I had help from professionals at every step and yet always had total control of the project (which turned out to be a really important piece), I kept all the rights to Lost Edens, I was able to publish a quality book in 18 months versus what would have been years at a traditional publisher, and even though I had professionals to guide me through each step, I keep the profit from sales.
At just 42,000 words I knew that I wouldn't find a traditional publisher as a first-time author, which is why I first started looking at alternatives. I always believed the story was strong and that there would be an audience and I was more interested in finding this audience than finding the vehicle to the audience. Mentor publishing was the perfect solution and I think it could be for a lot of writers out there, too, but with a warning:
With mentor publishing you must approach it in one of two ways: (a) you have money to kill and are looking for a hobby, or (b) you are starting a small business with exactly one product. With mentor publishing you have to always keep in mind: (a) at the end of the day your publisher is simply providing credibility and an imprint, (b) you're paying for an education in publishing, and (c) once you have a book in hand your publisher's work is completely done. Completely.
Self-publishing is, of course, an option. Look at Lisa Genova or Amanda Hocking and then note: they both signed with larger publishers after initial publication. Being successful at self-publishing and mentor publishing is crazy hard and you don't get much of a chance to be a writer because you're way too busy getting a small business with just one product off the ground.
I used to dream of being an indie artist and making a grassroots effort to expand a readership but now I dream of finding a big publisher who will swoop in and take care of things so that I can be a writer. But then, that was also the point of a mentor publisher--it was the best way I knew of to produce something that showed my potential, what I was capable of. The best case scenario is that Lost Edens can be a calling card of sorts so that a big publisher could do just that someday: swoop in, love Lost Edens, and let me just be a writer. For all of us who dream of publishing, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Being a writer?
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