Getting your Writing Published PART TWO –Is "self published" still a slur?

GETTING PUBLISHED CAN BE SCARY

My last blogpost looked at ways of getting started on the road to gaining a publishing contract as a writer, and especially at whether to get an agent, and, just as important, HOW to get an agent. 

Submitting work for publication is a bit step and thinking about it can take place a long time before you actually even need to submit. So, as you start your first novel, you might be be thinking of submitting short stories, especially to prestigious competitions. Once your name is out there, it becomes a lot easier.

Most of the books on a bookseller’s shelves come from long-standing publishing houses. You can find most publishers, from local, specialist, and editor-owner firms right up to global companies such as Simon and Schuester, Penguin, HarperCollins and Macmillan, listed in The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and The Writer’s Handbook – once you’ve made the decision to look for a publisher or agent, you need to own the most recent copy. Read each listing carefully and only approach those who deal with your sort of work. Check whether they actually take new submissions, and if they will accept unsolicited submissions. Each new year, use the updated handbook to look for arrivals in the market places – new or expanded publishers and agents may be looking to fill their books.So why not send your work straight to the commissioning editor, rather than accept a 10% or more cut from your advance? After all, a. publisher…: 

• Market your book – although they will still expect you to invest time and some money into marketing yourself. 
• Will take on the details of producing, printing, distributing your book
• Has the kudos of a known publishing name. 

There are drawbacks, however:

•     The publisher takes control of your book               
•         Publishers drop authors who fail to sell well

•       The various protocols and traditions can feel frustrating 

 

• The big advance may turn out to be full of clauses – for example, that £200,000 first book deal may actually cover an entire four-book deal, with moneys put aside for possible film versions. It may actually net the writer no more than £5,000 for their first book. Writers are more often offered a low advance with the possibility of royalties later.

 

• and the final, huge drawback to going straight to the. horses mouth;

• THE SLUSH PILE.

Editorial offices used to be littered with unsolicited submissions. But no more. The pile of through-the-post manuscripts has diminished. Nowadays it's far easier to SEND work to a publisher; you just ping it over as a Word Doc attachment. But easier, isn't necessarily more successful.

When there was a towering pile of packages to work through, the office junior was duty-bound to at least open and peer into the envelope. Only peer, you ask? In a busy office the allowed junior might  barely glanced its way as they lifted your work from its envelope and placed it, with the horrid little rejection slip, into the SAE. If you were lucky, you’d get a few lines of feedback. But why should they bother? They didn’t ask for it, and they may neglect to return it. 

That was then. Now, an email can get so quickly lost. Imagine the morning inbox of a commissioning editor. Hundreds of 'new mail' and all of them asking...begging...to be read and considered for publication. 

Unsolicited work via email probably won't be printed off. That poor office junior will probably be responsible for that first read, on the screen They will not pass on anything that they consider poor writing, a shaky start, or badly edited or presented  work. However, that member of staff will be adept at spotting something interesting. Once they’ve read enough to be confident, they will ping the email attachment over  to the commissioning editor, who will read it themselves and contact the writer.

They'll be asking that lucky writer for more. Because don't forget, no one wants your entire book straight-off. They want first three chapters and a synopsis (and a covering email; polite, brief and informative. 

Once the longer attachment arrives, with the rest of the novel, they may flick through it, but quite quickly. it will be farmed out. Editors employ a reader to spend time on these manuscripts; and again their job is to sort wheat from chaff. The reader will furnish the editor with a report or review. At that point, the editor will finally read the manuscript themselves if they are to take it any further. With large firms, this usually means one of the regular commissioning committee meetings. When an editor rejects work because ‘our list is already full for this year’, they may mean precisely that.

Editors are experts. Treat any communication outlining what is wrong with the submitted work like a golden opportunity. Editors don’t spend time writing unless they believe there is some merit to the work. If they’ve taken the trouble even to scribble something in your rejection email, read it carefully and take note of it, both the particular and the general. If they’ve  outlined what’s wrong, pay even more attention. Details that specify changes are particularly important. Address the changes in your manuscript, then do a market analysis of further publishers. 

Rewrite your work and send the manuscript on to the next possibility. When an editor suggests that they’ll read a piece again if it’s amended, respond immediately. Rewrite your work as suggested and send the manuscript back to them with a covering letter detailing your thoughts and the work you’ve done. Do this as quickly as is physically possible; burn that midnight oil!

Editors sometimes ask to see more of your work. If you can send something new, give this a thorough rewrite and edit – don’t just stuff ping it off without a proper re-edit. But do this quickly – editors have short memories.

Self-Publishing

It might strike you as strange that anyone would opt to spend money on publishing themselves, when the time-honoured method via established publishing firms will reap financial benefits with very little personal outlay and less time and effort. But the lack of orthodox options has led a growing body of writers towards self-publishing.There are pros and cons to both routes, and most writers who have decided to become self-published do a lot of research first. As well as assimilating the information below, bring yourself fully up-to-date by scrutinising and analysing the route you might eventually chose to use.

Successful self-published authors, who mostly like to call themselves independent authors or ‘indie authors’, have so many alternative routes to pick from that at first the options seem overwhelming. Some writers only publish electronically, ebooks and Kindle. Some choose to print a number of hard copies to sell alongside the ebooks. Some take advantage of ‘print on demand’ which usually includes electronic distribution via internet sites such as Amazon, where a copy is printed off instantly someone orders it. This keeps costs to a minimum while responding to demand for your book and negates the need to store hundreds of copies of books. 

There are companies (don’t think of them as publishers) that will self-publish your work for you. They offer a range of services such as copy-editing, assigning an ISBN, book jacket design, author promotion and book marketing. Everything else can be bought at an extra cost... such as marketing materials, editing/proofing, expanded distribution, etc. The copyright of the work remains with the author. Some companies have an agreement to supply booksellers with copies. Check your agreement carefully for issues such as the cost of buying books upfront, you retention of copyright,  and other issues. Some lock you in to agreements you might not wish to be part of. Some companies will not help you redraft, rewrite or edit your book which makes it very easy for substandard books to flood the market. Don’t let yours be part of that trend. 

Indie authors also have to understand how to market their work. They have to build a strong online presence. They have to be able to commit a significant amount of time to finding creative ways to make sales. And they also have to be willing to invest money. The reality of all the legwork and cost can be disenchanting, especially as self-publishing still has a poor reputation in many cases, with readers, publishers and other writers continuing to regard it as the less valuable option.

Think of the self-publishing rout as a step-by-step procedure. Start by ticking off these steps as you take them. Try making notes about each of these steps. In fact, you may like to buy an up-to-date  manual on how to self-publish in the second decade of the twenty-first century. There's a lot of manuals out there, and a huge amount of advice to be had.

Here's your checklist.

1. Decide Why You Want to Publish a Book
2. Write Your Book
3. Get Feedback Before Publishing Your Book
4. Choose a Book Title
5. Hire a Great Book Editor
6. Design a Book Cover that Converts
7. Create Your Kindle Direct Publishing Account
8. Format and Upload your Book
9. Self-Publish Your Book
10. Price Your Book
11. Form a Launch Team
12. Maximize Book Launch Exposure
13. Celebrate Publishing a Book!

A final note; the Vanity Press 

 It's surpising to find that the vanity press still exist, but they do, and they are as outmoded and as overpriced as they ever were. They are not an option for any sensible clued-up person.By sending your manuscript to a vanity publisher for a large fee – up to £10,000 – you enter into a contract: the company will publish an agreed number of copies of your book and send them to you. The contract may also stipulate that the publisher will promote your book and pay royalties for each copy sold. In fact, once they have your payment and have delivered your order, they’re unlikely to do more than feature your book on their website. Vanity publishers will print anything. They don’t edit or give any advice with regard to how publishable – or how readable – the manuscript actually is. 

So think carefully before considering yourself ready to submit a book to a publisher. Think even more carefully, before deciding to move over to self-publishing. And never think about entering into a contract with anything that looks vaguely like a vanity publisher. 

Good luck, though! it can be done!

In the next in this occasional series, I'll be passing on tips for getting into the good position for finding a contract – everything from proofreading to winning competitions.