Writing in the Digital Era

When I started writing, I did my homework. I read publishers marketplace, attended conferences, and followed agents on twitter. I learned what agents and editors do, and tried to figure out what I needed to do myself in order to fit into their world. Then their world changed.

I signed with my former agent about a month before Borders went bankrupt. It was a very dark time for traditional publishers. And a very bad time to go out on submission as an author. I got relatively positive feedback, all the rejections I received were supportive. People just weren't buying debuts.

Once Penguin and Random House merged, turning the Big 6 into the Big 5, it seemed even more clear to me I was playing the wrong game. Technically, the Big 5 are still taking on debut authors, technically. But compared to even two or three years ago, the number of debut authors Big 5 publishers are willing to look at is minuscule. Instead, agents are selling their debut author's works to smaller "medium sized" presses.

Small presses have been around forever. Self-publishing has been around forever too. But until recently, small presses were at a serious disadvantage. The bigger publishers can afford larger print runs. They can buy co-op space in bookstores. They have the marketing connections to get books reviewed in the New York Times.

But print run size doesn't matter if everyone reads ebooks. And co-op space at B&N today is about as valuable as co-op space was at Borders three years ago (not worth much). People buy books on-line. And they choose what to read based on amazon and goodreads reviews far more than newspaper accolades. The big press advantage doesn't exist anymore.

But I was invested. I'd done my homework, and found a New York based agent able to broker big press negotiations. Giving up on that dream was a hard pill to swallow. Eventually, I accepted reality, my agent wasn't working for me, she was clinging to a dying industry. So we parted ways.

My plan was to submit to small presses on my own. Which any author can do. And if you are currently at the querying stage, that is my #1 suggestion. Don't query agents, just submit straight to small presses and skip the middle man. I didn't know all that much about small presses though, so the first thing I did was research.

What I discovered was that I could do it all myself. I didn't need a small press, or a big press, or any press period. I could do what 400,000 other authors did last year and publish my own book (yes that is correct 400k books were self-published last year, and 1/3 of all New York Times best sellers and Amazon sale rank best sellers were self-published).

I didn't want to be a hack. It's very easy to post an unedited story that has no market on Amazon and then go on to sell zero copies. And the average self-published title does still sell fewer than 100 copies in the lifetime of the book. I didn't want to be that writer. So I founded a small press, Elliott Books, and published myself.

From the beginning, my goal was to turn Elliott Books into a boutique style publishing company smaller and more nimble than the Big 5, but still playing by many of the old rules I thought I knew and understood. I just started on my own book, so I could make all my mistakes on myself before taking on other authors.

Now I've done it. Counting to D has been out for almost a month now. It's not topping any best seller lists, yet. I have sold significantly more than 100 copies though, so at least I'm better than average. The next step should be clear, I need to open up Elliott Books for submissions and start taking on other authors. But I don't want to.

Not because I don't want to help other authors reach their dream of publication. I absolutely want to do that. I've just published a book now, and know what publishing a book actually entails. I know there is no reason why any author should want to publish their book with me, or any other small press. And I wouldn't feel right taking a share of some other writers hard earned royalties to do something they could easily do themselves.

A year ago, I had a huge ah-ha moment and figured out there is no longer any advantage to going with a Big 5 publisher over a smaller press. That's why I opted to part ways with my agent. But now I've realized something even more important, there is a very clear advantage to indie publishing over using a small press. Money. If you self-publish, you don't get a percentage of the profits from your book, you get all the profits from your book. If you have a book that is good enough to be picked up by a traditional publisher, at a time when publishers are very leery of debut authors, why would you want to share the profits of sales for that sell-able book?

I've been convinced. 2013 was a tipping point year, and in 2014 the indie market is going to completely explode. There are currently far more traditionally published authors trying to figure out how to break their contracts and get their rights back so they can self-publish their own books than there are pre-published authors trying to sign with agents and sell their rights to publishers.

If you are lucky enough to be a pre-published author, get excited. The world is changing. It's already changed. And you can do this, without any gatekeepers. Elliott Books will not be opening to submissions, because you don't need me. Instead, I'll try to post my publishing lessons learned here on a semi-regular basis. Because I do want to help you, I just don't want to take your money.