Notes from The Literary Consultancy's conference 2013 - Writing in a Digital Age: 5 Key Stages of Self-Publishing - Part III

In June, I attended a very interesting conference about how the publishing industry is changing now that it is easier for authors to self-publish. I've been writing a series of blogs about the conference, and hope they will be of use to authors, both indie and traditionally published, as well as readers who might want a bit of insight into how the publishing industry works.

One segment of the conference was called "5 Key Stages of Self-Publishing". You can see Parts I & II of this part of the series here:

Part I: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

Part II: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

Now on to Part III

Orna Ross was one of the speakers at the conference. She's an author and founding director at the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLI). She explained why she decided to go from being traditionally published (her books were published by Penguin) to self-published. She is now self-published because she prefers it.



One of the key differences she mentioned was that she always found it difficult to understand her royalty statements, but now with self-publishing, it's so much easier to have control over such things. There was a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing.

Advantages of Self-Publishing:

Higher royalties - the author doesn't have to pay a percentage of his/her royalties to a publisher. Of course, there are costs involved e.g. when you publish through Amazon Kindle, it is usual for the author to get 70% of the sale price. There are similar fees on other publishing platforms.

Creative freedom - in traditional publishing there are often changes made to the book and sometimes the author may not have particularly wanted those changes. In self-publishing, the author decides.

Clear sales and royalty statements - monthly or quarterly - easier to understand

Book never goes out of print - unless the author wants it to, of course. In traditional publishing, titles often go out of print. There is usually a certain time limit for when promotion is done for a particular book, but with self-publishing you can promote a title whenever you want.

Disadvantages of self-publishing

Bookstores
It is difficult to get bookstore distribution, especially front-of-store placement. This is usually reserved for bestsellers, and traditionally published books. Browsing in book stores accounts for a lot of sales, and indie authors are missing out on these.

There is a campaign that ALLI is currently running called "Open Up To Indies", to try to help change this policy in bookstores. They are currently seeking volunteers who can help with the campaign: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/...

Distribution
Distribution of books is more limited in general in the self-published sphere. It's important for indie authors to ask questions about distribution before they decide to publish on a particular site.

A couple of warnings were given about some unscrupulous services. Agent-assisted self-publishing is on the rise for traditionally published authors with a back list of books that may be out of print. Some of the services are good, but a warning was given that authors should research well. Some problems that have occurred include agents uploading the book in the agent's name and taking control. Also beware of fees charged for these types of services.

Another warning given was about digital-only presses, who offer to help self-publish. This is seen as a form of "vanity" publishing. Authors should avoid paying fees to such services as they are usually good for the publisher but not the author. Research should be done into what this service is actually offering the author.

It was also pointed out that authors should avoid publishing with companies who sell services more than books.

A bit of advice given to indie authors was: slow down -- when you write one book, put it in a drawer and write another, then go back to the original one you wrote to edit it so you can see it with a fresh eye.

Get a good editor and designer, and take time on the book.

Anyone can join ALLI, and there is self-publishing advice on their blog: http://allianceindependentauthors.org/

I hope you found some useful tips here!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------