I could, of course, follow
the standard practice and send out query letters to literary agents. Most would
never get past the interns that cull through slush piles
seeking gems for the agent. Perhaps one or two of these readers would recommend
requesting the entire manuscript, but once the agent read it he would exclaim:
“There are no zombie vampires seeking BDSM-love in a dystopian future society
here! No one will buy this!” Even the best-case scenario would require paying
said agent 15% of my earnings for the life of the book just for getting it
accepted by a Big Six publisher. Pass.
I am also (sadly) not getting
any younger, and time matters. If and when a publishing house “buys” your book, it takes 18 to 24
months from that point before the thing sees the light of day. I have no clue
why the traditional publishing industry remains so unbelievably slow; Gutenberg
himself printed books faster than this, and he had to set the type by hand. I
calculate that even with editing, cover design, file creation and upload,
reviews, marketing, printing, and shipping (plus a 30-day Kickstarter project
to pay for all of the aforementioned items) I can have The Last Word on store shelves no later than mid-September, and
possibly much sooner.
Part of the knock against
indie authors/publishers is that the quality is low; this is very often true,
but should not be. Low quality (typos, grammar issues, book covers that look
like a kindergarten class drew them) is due completely to the laziness of the
individual author. Far too many would-be writers are content to slap together a
story and publish the first draft through Create Space for free, only to be
shocked when they never sell a single copy. It takes a good deal more effort to
publish the right way, but it’s worth it in the long run. After all, your name
is on the thing.
With the resources available,
every indie author/publisher can and should have their manuscript reviewed by a
freelance editor, the cover professionally designed (not made from some
cookie-cutter template), and the final proof checked by a proofreader. And
always have a group of “first readers” that will be completely honest with you
about whether the thing is any good or not. Finally, if your goal is to see your
book sold in bookstores (rather than just online), you cannot use one of the
many Print-On-Demand services that offer neither wholesale discounts to
booksellers nor the ability to return unsold books for credit. No store, from
your local indie to Barnes and Noble. will touch your book if those two things
aren’t in place. This is why I will be using Ingram: they offer wholesale
discounts to booksellers, returns, worldwide distribution, and have the
industry’s largest active book inventory.
Finally, there is the issue
of marketing. Whether you are traditionally published or indie published,
unless your name is John Grisham or Janet Evanovich or Dan Brown (good lord, Dan Brown) you will be doing every bit
of the marketing on your own. The margins are too thin for even the Big Six
publishers to spend marketing dollars on a mid-list author, let alone a rookie.
If I’m going to have to do this critical task on my own, I might as well do the rest as
well.
So after six long paragraphs,
I can sum up why I am taking this route in a single word: control. I will have
final say on everything from the title and the cover art (two things big publishers
love to tinker with) to the marketing to what the final price will be. Having
total control can be a little scary, but again, it’s my name on the thing.
I predicted the likelihood of
rants in this blog’s opening post…apparently this was the first.
The Last Word
is coming…stay tuned.
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