Reader questions

Last week I received an email with some great questions from a second-year English and Creative Writing student at the University of Bolton in the UK.

I ended up writing quite a lengthy reply and so I thought I might as well post it here in case anybody else is interested in my answers to the same questions, which are:

Was it easy getting your books out there?
If you could change anything, would you?
Are you self-published, or agent published? Also, who with?
Please could you disclose five tips for anybody out there, concerning publishers and agents?

I’ll post my answers, as I sent them to her, below. However, I also want to mention that if you’re an author, this student is looking for more authors to answer these same questions. If you’d like to help her out, just email me and I’ll connect the two of you.

Here are my (very long) answers:

3) Are you a self-published or agent published? Also who with?

I’m actually going to answer this question first, because I think it’s important for you to understand my background to understand my answers to your other questions.

My first novel, Objects in Mirror, was traditionally published, by a small Canadian press specializing in children’s fiction. I don’t have an agent, and didn’t require an agent to submit to this press. As you probably know, had I wanted to submit to one of the major publishing houses (Random House, Harper Collins, etc.) I would have needed an agent.

With my second novel, Appaloosa Summer, there were three ways I could have gone (broadly speaking). I could have stayed with the same publisher, as they were willing to publish APS. I could have tried to get an agent, and approach a bigger publisher. Finally I could have self-published.

After weighing all my options, talking with many people, considering my experience with OIM, and taking into account all the research I had been doing, I decided to self-publish APS.

So, a short answer to your question, is that I’m both self and traditionally published, but I don’t have an agent and, based on my current situation, don’t think it likely I will ever sign with one.

1)Was it easy getting your books out there?

I’m going to take the liberty of splitting this question into three, because in my mind “out there” could reference simply getting a book published, or it could refer to distribution and / or marketing and promoting a book.

Getting published:

This was, for me, and I think it’s fair to say is, for ninety-nine per cent of people who try, very difficult with a traditional publisher. There are hoops to jump through, rules (written and unwritten) to play by, and long, long waits at every stage. To give you a more precise idea, I completed the first draft of OIM in 2007 and it was published in spring 2013.

Self-publishing, on the other hand, is very easy. You decide which steps you’re going to follow, you follow those steps, and when you have a product you deem to be ready, you upload it and, in the case of Amazon, it’s available in often less than twenty-four hours.

Marketing and promotion:

This is about the same for both methods in that, unless you’re a huge star / celebrity, you will have to do pretty much all of your own marketing and promotion.

To give you some examples, with OIM I paid for my own book launch, I lined up, and paid for, my own author photo, I found a designer and paid for my own website. I paid for multiple review copies and sent them myself, because it took too long for them to be sent from head office, and I could never be sure they had been sent. There were also things that fell through the cracks because I didn’t do them, because I thought my publisher would, but my publisher didn’t, so nobody did.

With APS, my promotion has been less expensive, more effective, and I’ve had more options because I can do whatever I want to promote the book. I’ve given away well over a thousand free copies, and that has probably been the single most effective promotional activity I’ve done. Those copies have given me access to new audiences, have secured thoughtful reviews for me, and haven’t really cost me a cent. The book was already written, formatted, uploaded, etc. – I just had to choose which days to make it free on Amazon. This is not something I would have been able to do if the book had been traditionally published.

Distribution:

There is no doubt traditional publishers are still the best at print distribution. If you want your book in bookstores, traditional publishers have the sales forces in place to convince more bookstores to carry your book than you, as a single author, could ever reach on your own.

Having said that, your distribution “push” will almost always be limited to the first few months after publication. Many bookstores will order a few copies of your book when it first comes out, but after that – unless they have readers constantly coming in and asking for copies – they likely won’t order more, and the sales rep will have moved on to recommending other, newer books.

My experience with OIM was that a certain number of print books sold right away, and that was pretty much it. After that it slowed to a trickle, which is where it remains.

If you’re talking about eBook distribution, things are much different. It’s very easy to distribute digital books. Amazon, of course, is the main market, although there are others as well.

My personal belief is that self-publishers generally understand how Amazon works better than many traditional publishers do, and are able to price, describe, and categorize their book to sell more effectively than many publishers. My first book simply does not sell as an eBook because my publisher has not made it available on Amazon, has priced it VERY high ($12.99 – actually higher than the print book), and does not promote it in any way. APS, on the other hand, is available on Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited (“Netflix for books”) and costs $2.99, and sells steadily and consistently as an eBook.

The sales trends are also very different with eBooks – an eBook is never “sold out” or off the shelves (unless you take it off). So, whereas OIM initially sold about one thousand print copies, and will likely never sell many more, APS initially sold just one or two copies a day, but has been not only staying steady, but growing month over month as more people have time to discover it. So, the sales trends for many print books would be a sharp spike, sharp drop-off, and then not much else. For a strong eBook, it could easily be steady and solid growth – or maintenance of steady sales – over a long period of time.

2) If you could change anything, would you?

Definitely. If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now, I would change one of two things; when I got the publishing contract for Objects in Mirror, I would:

a) Pay a lawyer to review it. When you’re signing a contract, you (almost) never think you’ll want to break that contract. This is why a lawyer is essential. They aren’t emotional. They’ve seen lots of people who want to break contracts. They have the knowledge, and objectivity to help you create a contract you won’t want to break or, if you do eventually want to, one you have an exit strategy from.

b) If I was unable to get certain concessions written into that contract, I would walk away from it. I grew up in a time when a publishing contract said you were a “real” writer. I definitely had that point of view and, at the time of signing that contract, I felt recognized. However, looking back now, I know the sign of being a professional is doing business professionally. If you can’t get what you want in a contract, you shouldn’t sign it.

4) Please could you disclose five tips for anybody out there concerning publishers and agents?

Here are my tips for anybody deciding to publish their work:

1) Think hard about your personality and your goals. What do you hope to accomplish by getting published? Do you want recognition and awards? Do you want to reach individual readers? Do you want to reach a targeted audience? Do you care how much money you earn on each sale? Do you expect to be a bestseller? How independent are you? How confident are you?

Traditional publishing, for example, is probably your best bet if you want recognition and awards. I would say self-publishing is better if you want to reach individual readers.

2) As part of the above, think about your timelines. There are exceptions to every rule, but for ninety-nine per cent of people pursuing traditional publishing, it will be a multi-year endeavour. It would not be unreasonable for it to take a year to secure an agent. It could then take many months / a year, to secure a publishing contract. After that, it will likely be at least a year before your book is published. And this is all IF you secure an agent and / or a publishing contract. Many, many writers never do. This risk / length of time may seem reasonable to you – after all, you’ve probably spent a long time writing your book – if so, great.

If not, you can self-publish on a timeline of your choosing. Some people bring out a new book every month. Some four times a year. Some, every couple of years. Right now, I’m aiming for a new book every nine months.

3) What are your expectations? In the majority of cases it is reasonable for you to expect that a traditional publisher will provide you with a cover and design for your book. However, you will not likely have any say into how those look. It’s reasonable to expect that a publisher will assign you to an editor and then, after that, a copy editor. You will be expected to work with those people to make the book suitable for publication according to the publisher’s standards. It’s also reasonable for you to expect your publisher’s sales force to sell your book into the bookstores they have relationships with.

Unless you have a specific reason to believe otherwise, I would say you should not expect that your publisher will do very much marketing for you. This is likely mostly going to fall on your shoulders.

So, if you want a publisher so you don’t have to source, and pay for, an editor, and so you don’t have to source, and pay for, a cover designer, that’s great. If you want a publisher so you don’t have to market and promote your book, I think you will be disappointed and find you have to do that anyway.

4) No matter which route you take, make your book the very best you can. It’s a tiny number of unsolicited manuscripts that ever get traditionally published and, for yours to be one of those, it already has to be very polished by the time you send it to agents / publishers.

If you’re self-publishing, the readers will be your judges. If nobody thinks enough of your book to recommend it to their friends, you can do all the promotion you want, and sales will grind to a halt. On the other hand, even without promotion, it’s possible for a book to sell if readers are moved by it, and take it on themselves to recommend it to friends.

5) Please don’t give your rights away lightly. Think hard before you sign any contracts, or commit to any agreements, no matter how you publish. You worked long and hard on your book – you will be very sad if you find you can’t sell it the way you want because somebody else has the rights to it. An example I’ll use is the terms for entering into Amazon’s Kindle Select program. Amazon agrees to give you xyz benefits in return for you granting them exclusivity to sell your Kindle book for ninety days. This is very important. Of course you want to make sure the terms are fair in the first place, but even if you find you don’t like them, you can be out after ninety days, and make a different choice. Be wary of people who want lifetime commitments from you. A lifetime is a long time!