Will You Consider My Self-Published Book?

This is a question I get a lot in query letters. "Dear Scott, I am submitting to you my Regency romance, The Duke and the Alien Vampire Bunny for your consideration. This book as been self-published and has done really well, but I would like to consider moving toward more traditional publishing..." or something along those lines. You get the idea. Inevitably, the next question will always be, "Do you consider authors who have previously been self-published." 

The fact is, this is a pretty common question that is asked of editors and agents all of the time and the answer is always "Yes". Of course, when you hear that answer in person, there will be a bit of a tone in our voice that indicates there is a "Buuuuutttttttt......." that follows it. 

Sure, we will consider self-published books, but you have to consider a few things that we are seeing from our end. Remember that quote I frequently bring up here on the blog? "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Well, that is coming into play here. When we hear that the book has been self-published, our minds start racing with a whole bunch of questions:

• So if the book is doing this well, and the author is making a lot of money, why on Earth would someone now want to start giving a cut of that to an agent or an editor?
• What made that person go to self-publishing in the first place?
• Was this book rejected by everyone in traditional publishing and they gave up and ran to self-publishing?
• Is this book doing so poorly in self-publishing due to the quality of the book and the author thinks simply having an agent or an editor will miraculously fix things?

Do you get the idea here?

One of the things I always say when people want to submit a book that has been self-published, or if the author has been previously published is to "show me the numbers!" Don't show my your Kirkus reviews or your rankings on Amazon (#1 in Kindle books in Regency romances, with Aliens Vampire Bunnies, that are set only during the month of March), or those 5 Star reviews that only 30 people have reviewed. Show me the sales numbers. Show us units sold! Tell us when you were published! 

I get it. Some people who have been self-published realized the made a mistake. That's fine. You can tell us that in your query letter. Maybe sending us "that book" might not be the best one to send at first. Send us your BEST book. 

So, in the end, will we consider you? Heck yes! Buuuuutttttt, just know, we are considering a few things.

Considerations On Self-Publishing and Warnings for New Authors

Self-publishing is certainly an option for authors out there today. There are a ton of opportunities from companies that allow you to work through their platforms to authors simply doing it all on their own and creating their own companies. These options really started to rise after 2008 with the recession as publishers started cutting back on who they were signing and the number of authors they signed. Today, companies are offering authors the moon (or at least they are claiming this).

One company I saw made the claim, "Have you written a book and want it published? We can make sure you make a profit immediately through our program." Really? I don't know one publisher, editor, or agent out there who can make that promise, simply because we cannot control who spends the money to buy your book. Needless to say, self-publishing is not for everyone.

In an article that popped up last week from THE GUARDIAN that sort of went viral on social media started to warn of some other sides of this business. This focused on the number of scams out there really taking advantage of authors.

This article did highlight a lot of big name authors who were getting nailed on scams involving plagiarism and "book-stuffing" but I think there is a bigger picture here, and one that should seriously considered by new authors out there. Please understand, this article really focused on trying to shoulder the blame on specific programs and authors intentionally taking advantage of they system to ramp up sales. While these are certainly issues that do need to be addressed, I think there is another side of this that is being overlooked and it is also something I have been screaming about over here on the blog for sometime.

Authors, in today's publishing world, are simply not educated. They have gone out, written a book, and are immediately diving into the professional side of publishing without a clue of what they need to do to be successful, or for that matter, things they need to do to protect themselves from scams such as this.

As an author, it is up to you to not just write the books, but to also know how your books are being marketed, who is having access to your books and to watch everything going on with your career. While the article makes a comment from Amazon about a warning to the scammers, "“you are responsible for ensuring that no tactics used to promote your book manipulate the Kindle publishing service”, and that any manipulation “may” result in “termination of your account and loss of royalties”." this is also a warning that authors who CHOOSE to put their books out there unprotected need to be aware of. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.

Many of my authors spend time regularly scanning the online bookstores to see new releases and where their names and titles show up. Like the article noted, every now and then, some scammer slips through the cracks. As soon as we discover situations such as this, we launch into a full attack, contact the publishers and within 48 hours or so, the problem is solved. Why? Because we were responsible to pay attention to this, but on an even bigger level, we had publishers with knowledgeable legal teams trained for such a situation.

When you read the article, you will notice that the high named authors out there ALSO were people who had been around the business for a while and were trained professionals. They still had the legal teams from their publishers there to help out.

I am not in any way saying people should not try this on their own. What I am saying, and trying to do so loudly, is to make sure you are smart. Make sure you are trained. Make sure you are educated. Bad people are out there, but if you are clued out to the business of publishing, you will be the next target!

Who Pays For Publishing Your Book?

I often hear authors interested in self publishing arguing that a big factor is that the fact that they get 100% of the profits. No agent commission. No publisher taking part of the money. It all comes back to the author. While this is sort of correct, I did want to take the time today to discuss a twist to this that is often not brought up.

In the traditional publishing model, authors are often given an advance for their book. This is simply a prediction of how much the publisher thinks the author will make on the book after sales. That is the easy part. Now, the author is not getting 100% of the profits from those sales. The publisher is taking a piece of that pie. But where is that money going?

The publisher is responsible for the legal side of things including ISBN numbers and so forth. The publisher also handles much of the marketing, the printing, the editing, the copy editing, they cover work and so forth. The publisher will also likely be marketing your book to foreign markets, the movie industry and the like. This is built into that contract you sign when you work with that publisher.

If you decide to do this on your own, guess who picks up that tab? That's right! You! When we hear authors talk about taking home all of the profits, this is GROSS PROFITS. What we often do not hear about are the outside expenses that author has to put out there. In many cases, they are paying for a PR person to handle the marketing. They may be hiring outside editors, cover artists and so forth. All of those services are now your responsibility.

I would also add that you now have a time factor to consider. If you do traditional publishing, please understand that you will lose some of your writing time for that marketing you do on your end. You may also have expenses for book marks, and other advertising that you have found to be successful for you. But for those of you doing this on your own, you will likely lose a lot more of that time.

I think it is important to remember that publishing is not an easy gig. There are no free routes and there is nothing glamorous about this. I also wanted to take the time to remind those of you being swayed in the direction of self-publishing to understand that, all that you have heard, my not be the full picture.

Why Many Independent Authors Fail

I am reminded of joke my wife and I talk about all of the time. She will read a really bad story and then tell me I should read it too. We then say it is like opening up that carton of milk in the fridge that

is now cottage cheese, and then handing it to someone to have them take a sip to see if it is really bad.

One reason I have heard a lot of authors head to independent publishing is not because the traditional route does not pay well and they can make more money on their own (yes some authors do this). It is however, because those traditional editors and agents simply don't want to represent their work. They are tired of the rejections and simply feel that the traditional professionals don't really have a true sense of what is going on.

Even after I try to argue that these people, with their huge marketing departments and meta-data probably do know what is going on, these authors will still argue that they don't. This is like politics. People will believe what they want to, regardless of the facts sitting in front of them.

But, this is the angle I want to take with this topic today. It actually stemmed from a comment that an author made to me after I passed on a project that was submitted.

The author noted that It was probably time to head to the independent market. This person has been submitting projects for several years now. The book I read was a third book in a series. The first two were in the middle of huge revisions after being rejected by numerous editors and agents, but this third book was "amazing."

I passed on it.

For me, it just was not something that truly connected with me (see one of my prior posts about the subjectivity of the business).

But here are the things we need to really look at. This is a premise that the first two books relied on and numerous editors  and agents have said no to. Note, I do not know the full reasons, but when you see a trend, you have to start to wonder. The thing is, the premise is not working, so the odds are, book 3 is probably going to do the same thing.

And here comes the independent publishing angle.

The author replied to me saying that even though this particular genre was not a current hot seller in the market, the author was going to take all of the books and try the independent publishing approach...

What??????????

Let's consider this.

Numerous people have said the writing is not going to work. These are people who have the marketing departments in their corners saying what things work and don't work. We have a track record of several other books that have had the same success. We have an author who knows the genre is not a hot seller...

And now the author plans on going this alone.

I am just going to leave it right there and let the words speak....

Look, I am not going to say the independent publishing approach does not work. I am not going to say that someone cannot make a career outside of traditional publishing. What I will say is if you see that something is not selling and the market is clearly screaming at you that this is not the right approach, why do you think you can do this on your own and somehow have better success?

Please, stop and think before you dive in. I want to see people succeed and I don't want you to see failure, both professionally and financially.

For Sale By Owner: The deceptive side of self-publishing

DISCLAIMER: In no way am I saying self-publishing is bad or good. Like everything out there in publishing, there are multiple approaches for doing things.

Let me be the first to admit that when I have sold a house in the past, and when I sell a house in the future, I use a real estate professional. Why? They know what they are doing. They have the connections. They have the time to make the sale for me. I also know that when we are out looking at houses (we do this for fun some times) we only visit homes for sale that are being represented by real estate professionals. Why? Because we know the house have been prepared for sale, and we know that when it is time to do the paperwork, the professional will know the most effective and efficient path for everyone.

And yes, we know we pay for this service.

The same goes for buying food. We pay to have someone process that ground beef for us from the raising of the cow to our plate.

At restaurants, we pay to have someone prepare that fantastic meal.

At the market, we pay those farmers to grow the carrots and so forth.

At the auto repair show, we pay the mechanic to fix that transmission.

Again, it is because they know what they are doing!

When I got up this morning, I scanned through my email and my various social media outlets. On Facebook, there was a company proclaiming the fantastic benefits of self-publishing. The slogan they had?

SELF PUBLISHING MADE EASY

AUTHORS RETAIN ALL RIGHTS AND KEEP 100% OF NET SALES!

Seeing a add like this sounds amazing and the reason is clear. We see several concepts jump right out at us: EASY, RETAIN ALL RIGHTS and 100% OF NET SALES. Add in all of those authors who tell us at conferences or write these amazing articles of the millions of dollars they are making in self-publishing. They have told this to me as well. "You know Scott, this book has brought in more sales this month than my traditional books have."

But there is a catch to this and it all goes back to the words we are not looking carefully at from this add. 

Let's start with the 100$ concept. Note the one word here. It says NET SALES! I have to admit this is one of the first times I have seen this word used. I know I have never once heard those authors proclaiming their great sales figures using the word NET. We have to remember what the concept net sales means. This is the figure AFTER all of the other discounts, allowances and other dollar figures are taken out.This also includes any of the expenses. 

In publishing these expenses do include all of the discounts, allowances and returned books, but this is also including items such as advertising expenses, cover design, editing, copy editing, formatting and so forth. Therefore, when that author is talking about all of the amount of money that book has generated, what they are often leaving out is the amount of money they paid up front for the book, the amount of money they have personally spent out of pocket for cover design, external editing and so forth. 

And companies like this one I saw online will make you pay. It is a business. They are not going to give this away for free. In fact, this company openly admits on their home page that they will do this for you with as little as $89.00 a month. Did you catch that? That comes out to "as little as" $1068.00 a year!

But now we move to another level that many inexperienced authors miss, but this advertisement (and other proponents of the DIY approach) take. IT'S EASY!

Yes, doing this on your own is easy if you are someone who understands how to develop your own book cover, how to get your books to the book buyers, how to edit your book, how to get it to those international markets or audio book markets. It's easy if you have the technology at your fingertips to digitally format your books and so forth. 

Are there people out there who can do that? Yes there are. Are there computer programs you can "purchase" to do that? Sure! The basic price of PHOTOSHOP is around $80.00. This company, like all of these other companies have a template they let you download to type your own work into. That part is easy, but if you are like so many people out there today, you are probably pretty weak when it comes to understanding that computer technology. Remember, we aren't teaching computer skills in the public schools any more (or at least a limited amount). 

And yes, you do keep all of those RIGHTS for your book, but what are you going to do with those rights? Do you have the connections or know how to get that book into the international market? Are you going to fly to the London Book Show, or the Frankfurt Book Show and market your book? Do you have the connections to get your book to an audio format? The list goes on and on. 

This goes right back to my comment about selling houses. Why do I have a real estate person take care of this? Because they know their stuff and yes, I am going to pay for this through their commissions. When it comes to publishing through a traditional route, consider this. When that editor buys your book they are giving you an advance. They just paid you $3000-$15,000 for our book up front! The bigger the advance, the more work they will put in to making those sales happen for you. They take care of the marketing, the cover design, the printing costs, the distribution, the rights, etc. And you are sitting there with that cash in your pocket!

Again, let me say that there is no right or wrong way to approach publishing. You can do it yourself or you can go through agents and traditional publishers. But remember, to do this on your own means you have the knowledge and the resources. And also, when you do this yourself, this does not mean there are no expenses. It WILL come out of those book sales. 

So, you new authors out there. Please be careful when you decide to publish your book. Know all of the facts. Know the costs. Know your skills. Know the experience of those you are working with. This is your book you have worked so hard on and you want to have success. 

A Reason For Self-Publishing That Might Be Flawed Thinking

At a recent conference, it became very clear that the self-publishing route vs. the traditional publishing route is still alive and well. This was not so much an issue of one group claiming the other group was right or wrong. It was just a huge issue. I get it. When the number of authors out there far outnumbers the spaces available for publishing (the old supply and demand model from economics), it is clear why so many jump into self-publishing.

But, with that said, I heard something said numerous times that really concerned me. The reason so many people argue why self-publishing is better was time. "It takes so long to take the traditional approach." In other words, it was all a matter of getting that book out there faster.

Sure, I did hear (and have heard in the past) that some authors argue the self-pub model works better for the type of story they are writing. This is very true for many small niche projects. But the real concern was the number who viewed expediency as being their main reason for publishing.

Hearing this approach, it got me thinking of a similar approach for high school students known as Running Start. For those not familiar, this is a program where students, as early as 10th grade (but most start their Junior year) take classes at the college level. By taking a class such as English 101, they earn both a college credit and 1 year of high school English.

The program was originally designed for those students who were ahead in credits and simply wanted to get a little head start on the college work. But now students, mostly pushed by the parents) are deciding to take this route for a single reason - to save money. Students can now graduate from high school with both a high school diploma AND an AA degree, saving the cost of 2 years of college, because the state is paying for the Running Start program.

Although this sounds great, far too many students are not graduating any earlier, and, in fact, are struggling more in those later years of college.

So what does this have to do with publishing. Many authors are now thrust into the world of publishing far from ready. They don't know how to market. They don't know how to get sales going. They don't know the basics of editing, book design and so forth. The end result? Poor sales?

One author I spoke with told me the number of hours she is spending running around to so many small bookstores (she can't get into the Barnes and Noble and Powell's book stores) doing book signings to get those sales going. Each weekend, she said she was lucky to sell 8-10 books. That was it!

The question authors have to ask is if the speed of getting that book out there is worth it? Could the time it takes using the traditional approach be more useful, not just for learning the business, but also taking advantage of the resources that come from the publisher?

This is not something that people out the outside can answer for you. This is something that only the author can truly consider. But, it is a consideration that should not be avoided.

Self-published authors - Please Quit Picking Fights!

I was talking to one of my clients this weekend and she was saying how her chapter had a guest speaker who was once again preaching the line, "Fire your agents and fire your editors! Do it yourself!" I have to say, since RWA this year I am getting pretty irritated at this mantra we are hearing from authors out there.

Look, there is room for everyone. If you have this desire to self-publish then go for it! No one is stopping you!

I think what a lot of these authors are missing in their argument is that not everyone wants to take this approach. Not everyone has the knowledge of the business. Not everyone has an already built in following from their careers in traditional publishing. And yes, when we talk money, not everyone has the cash to pay for: an outside editor, a cover artist, a marketing manager... and so forth.

When I talked to my author about this, it was interesting to hear a few facts that might have been missed by those in the audience:

• The speaker WAS previously published and already had a following.
• The author was spending a lot of her own money to take care of things normally covered by a publisher.
• The author was spending close to 100 hours a week on the career just to keep it afloat.

When this first idea came out, there was indeed a huge fight (or maybe just a verbal war) between those who wanted to go on their own and those that wanted the traditional approach. But in recent years, that war has seemed to shift to a more one sided approach. The editors and the agents on the traditional side have pretty much stopped. No, this is not because, what I do believe some would think, "they realized they were wrong." Instead, they realized there was a place for everyone.

For myself, I have always thought of this like those people who decide to sell their home on their own vs. those who want to use a real estate company. If you have the time and the resources, and you understand property law and finances, then go for it. Sell your own house. But you know, there are still people out there who would prefer to leave the selling of their home to those in the business.

Now, does this mean if you sell your home one way or the other you make more money? Absolutely not! Everything is on a case by case basis. Sometimes a person selling a home on their own can indeed make a bigger profit. Sometimes they won't. The issue here is that it all depends on a lot of different variables.

I don't want anyone to think that right now, I am doing everything I can to "save my job as an agent." Nope, that is far from the case. My authors are doing really well!

What I am saying is that if you are a person who wants an agent. If you are a person who wants to take the traditional publishing approach, please don't let those other authors discourage you from taking the approach that works for you. Just remember to really listen to the variables the author is using when they talk of their successes taking that self-pub approach:

• Are they selling their back lists from traditional publishers?
• Are the using this as a supplement to an already existing writing career?
• Are they still bringing in royalties from those traditional publishers?
• How many outside resources are they having to pay (editors, cover artists, etc.) are they having to pay.

I think the only thing I want to leave you with today during this slight rant is:

...There is room for everyone. You have the permission to take whatever route you want to take with publishing. And just because someone isn't taking YOUR approach, it doesn't make them wrong!

P.S. And Romance Writers of American and other larger publishing groups - Please remember to continue to support those who don't just want to self-pub!

Thoughts On The Recent Announcement by Tablo and Apple's iBookstore

In an article that orginally came out March 4th via PR Web and the SF GATE, we heard of the latest in offerings for those authors interested in self-publishing. Tablo is going to make available for authors "to publish their books globally with a single click." As Ash Davies, the founder of Tablo points out, We've built a solution that allows any author to publish their books globally with a single click!"

I have to say, on the surface, this sounds like a great offering. We can now make this available to a lot of people who might have been limited as to where their books would end up for the readers. But, with all of this hype, the one question still remains that I think many of the self-publishing companies miss. How will these books be moved to the forefront of the readers? Does availability alone mean that sales will increase?

We have talked about this before here on the blog, and I know this has also been discussed at numerous writing conferences that I have attended. With the rise of all the self-publishing opportunities for writers, it has become even harder for many writers to rise to the surface and become recognized for their writing. With the number of authors out there, the chances of a writer being "stumbled upon" and "discovered" will become even harder.

This doesn't mean it cannot happen, but just because there are more sites for your book to be placed does not mean it will sell better.

I have to say, I get really frustrated when I see moves like this. I am someone who wants to create opportunities for writers to get their work published. I am someone who wants to see writers succeed. What frustrates me though, is that this seems to give a writers a sense that success is even closer.

As an industry, it seems that we need to find a way to focus on the marketing aspect of the books. How do we make people more aware of these new and upcoming authors? There is a lot to be said about the digital realm of publishing but in all honesty, this is one of those areas that I personally believe needs a little more attention.

A To Do List For Self-Publishing Writers

Since there is a huge influx of people wanting to take this route when it comes to publishing, I thought I would give you a few things to consider. I have always said that I want writers to succeed and frankly, there have been far too many authors taking the self-publishing route that have horribly failed. So, with that in mind, here are some things to certainly pay attention to.

FIND TWO GREAT EDITORS I am sorry to say this, but you need to find someone outside of your immediate circle to help with this one. Along the same lines, your spell-checker and grammar checker is simply not going to cut it. First of all, you need someone who knows the business of publishing and who can provide for you the content editing of your project to make it something marketable. Secondly, you need to hire someone who is a genius when it comes to copy editing. Again, that grammar checker is simply not going to work for you. And yes, when I say these people need to be from the "outside" I mean it. Because you have worked so closely with that project, you are likely going to miss a lot of things. These, by the way, are known as reading miscues.

CONDUCT HUGE AMOUNTS OF MARKET RESEARCH You need to really examine where the best market is at for your book as well as what will sell to those people. This has to go beyond the simple topic of your story. I'm talking finding the right voice for that group of people, finding the right sales approach, cover and so forth. Each audience out there is extremely different and what works for one may not work for someone else.

KNOW THE BUSINESS INSIDE AND OUT This means you need to simply have connections to things such as Publisher's Weekly, Bookscan and so forth. You need to become an expert in literary contracts and negotiations. Make sure that you understand the in's and out's of rights and sub-rights. Know what you can negotiate and what things you cannot negotiate. Don't get yourself hooked into a contract that you may be screwed over by when the company goes belly up.

HIRE A PUBLIC RELATIONS/MARKETING EXPERT Unless this is your profession, you need to make sure to hire someone who will create that website for you, get those promo's out to your audience, set up interviews with newspapers, get that manuscript out to the press for reviews and so forth. This is going to take up a lot of your own writing time and you cannot afford to lose that. Oh, and this person also needs to have media connections to deal with those film and movie right.s

MAKE INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS WITH PUBLISHERS TO SELL YOUR BOOK There is a huge market overseas and you need to build those connections. Since you now own all the rights to your books you have to get that book to those publishers. This will likely mean your attending the London, Barcelona and Frankfurt Bookfairs to build those connections.

FIND SOMEONE TO PRODUCE A HIGH QUALITY BOOK COVER You do judge a book by it's cover and therefore you have to find someone who knows how to create that truly marketable book cover. This is what readers look at first and if it looks like garbage, they will assume your book is also. Take the time to really make sure this is in great shape.

HAVE A LARGE FINANCIAL BASE TO START YOUR WRITING CAREER
This is a big one. One published author I know of at TOR already has a great marketing team behind her from the publisher and yet still puts out over $5000 for each book just in marketing alone. This doesn't count the money she spends to attend conferences and personally connect with readers.

HAVE A GREAT LAWYER ON STANDBY Not that there will be any problems, but should there be legal issues, or you missed specific paperwork with the IRS, you need to have a great literary lawyer there to back you.

This is just the surface, but these are certainly things you better have in place. You cannot take shortcuts on this. To be successful, you cannot simply live off of selling 500 copies of your book.

Best of luck with you on this!

Scott

Self-Publishing - A Delicate Balance Between "Control & Quality"

I have really been thinking about the changes in the publishing market. We cannot ignore the fact that there are a lot of new things on the publishing horizon. Yet, with all of these changes, there are many things that writers need to still consider.

When it comes to self-publishing, the biggest reason I hear of writers jumping into this business is to gain control of their writing. They want to say how it is written, how it is sold, and certainly the issue of how much of the profits they get from the sales of the book. I am all for this. I want writers to have a lot of success with their writing. Still, I do start to question the trade-off for this control.

I was sitting at the swimming pool this last Friday watching my kids go back and forth for a long time. So, I sat there and scanned through my e-reader to see if there was a great deal on a book. Why not? I had the time. I set the search function to scan based on price, lowest to highest, and frankly, I was shocked at what I found. Over 1000 titles of books being GIVEN AWAY FOR FREE. These were all from self-publishing sites. I should also note, I found several stories that had been submitted to me for consideration that I passed on. But here was the big concern I had - Here are authors who wanted control over the sales of their books; authors who wanted to put their story out there for people to buy - and they were giving the book away?

But, did I buy any of those books because they were free just to get "hooked" on the author? Absolutely not. I will say, this was not due to the fact that the books were self-published. It was because the titles were horrible, the premises were even worse, and some of the samples that I could read were beyond poorly written. What did this tell me? Well, these authors could now say they were published, but I have to say, I don't think it was worth it.

Now, many self-published authors tell me they are paying someone to do the editing for them. Hmmmm? First of all, based on the sampling I did, I wonder what the editing was? In several of the cases, a simple grammar checker would have caught those errors. But secondly, was there any editing in terms of finding a plot or story that truthfully would be marketable. Was there any consideration of finding a story that the author didn't just have to "give away" to create "sales"?

The more I thought about this, I was reminded of the comments that showed up last week here on the blog discussing the need for a potential shift for agents to take on more authors who simply want to take the self-publishing approach, but to do so from an editorial standpoint. This tells me (combined with the money people are paying for free-lance editors and critiques) that maybe the self-publishing people are beginning to recognize that the need for editors and agents still is there.

So, if agents start taking a more active role in serving the needs of the self-published authors, how will that change things? I see several issues here:

1. Agents will take on these responsibilities, but, because they are doing more work on the editorial side of things (including copy editing which we normally don't do), the commission we set will have to be higher for us to compensate for the time spent on the project. Hey, don't be shocked at this. If you are willing to pay $2 - $5 per page for an external editor to do this, then agents should certainly be considered in this equation.
2. The issue of supply and demand will again take a toll on the writers. Remember that most agents have a limit/cap on the number of authors we handle. These are the authors that are in it for the long haul and are looking for those larger contracts. Filling those holes with "self-published" authors will reduced the number of agents available.
3. That control issue may change. As an agent, we would likely be doing more than simply copy editing your books. We would be looking at structural changes as well. Like you, we want to see the book succeed since that is the only way BOTH of us would make money. The better the quality book, the better the chance the book will sell. This of course means that you would have to listen to the agent and make those changes he or she recommends.
4. Contract negotiations would now be controlled. First of all, I have to stress that the self-publishing contract is not something that can be negotiated so don't expect more publicity and what not from your company you decide to go with. Agents would not negotiate anything here. Secondly, and this is the more important element, I am betting agents would now say "no more giving away your book". Do current traditional publishers do this? Yes, from time to time, but it is always in exchange for generally a flat-out fee paid by the publisher, or a link to a current book out there, or sometimes just the re-release of a book that didn't sell so well the first time, but now it is used for publicity.

In the end, self-publishing does get you some more freedom, but the question is still - "at what cost?" Sure, this was the story "you" wanted to tell. The story that the "editors and agents" weren't smart enough to see the potential, but is it really the best quality?

Do I see a potential need for agents to take over more responsibility for providing services to writers who wish to self-publish? Sure, but the question is, are you, as a self-published author, willing to pay for it, both financially and, more importantly, in terms of giving up that control you have screamed about?

Scott

What Is Your Take? Should Agents Represent Self-Pubs and E-Pub Authors?

I know there is a lot of talk out there about the role of agents working with writers. This is especially true with authors who are wanting to go the route of self-publishing or e-publishing. I know just yesterday, there was a big article on NPR (that featured one of my favorite publishers Dominique Raccah from Source Books) and there was the talk that many of these self-publishers don't offer any form of editorial work for the author.

IMHO this is one of the biggest problems with many of these markets. There are authors shoving things out there that really could use a serious look over from an editor-like person. I am sorry to say it, but spell-checkers and grammar checkers have serious limitations. Grammar checkers, in particular, require you to know grammar to fix the problems since it only finds "potential" situations.

So the question for you is simple.

Should agents open up their lines to represent authors wishing to pursue self-publishing and straight up digital publishing?

Let me clarify one thing though. The agent SHOULD assume the role of editor in this case. In no way am I saying an agent should take any money of any kind without doing some of the work. My question implies that an agent WILL be involved with the editorial concept.

I want to hear from ALL of you on this. Forward this to your friends and collegues. Let me know your thoughts.

Scott

Another Reason For Having An Agent

On Tuesday, an article came out describing how author James Crawford reported losing royalties for 5,104 books from the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform. This author found out that Amazon had slashed the price of his book without his permission. I don't want to discuss so much the issue of whether or not Amazon should have done what they did, or for that matter why the change happened. The real issue here is what we often talk about when it comes to self-publishing. You are simply on your own.

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not the role of agents will disappear with programs such as the Amason KDP program. I honestly have to say, that situations like this will increase the demand for having that extra person on your team as a writer. It will also likely lead to a shift of how agents will run their businesses. No, this does not mean they will take more and more things, but who they sell their projects to and the commissions they take will certainly be different. They won't be on your team for free you know.

I am sorry to hear about the situation James Crawford had to deal with. It is what it is. But I do wonder if he would have found himself in the situation had an agent been there to cover his back. Of course, with that said, if Mr. Crawford does have an agent, where is he or she in the whole mix of things.

Best of luck to Mr. Crawford to work through this situation. Along the same lines, best of luck to all of you writers that are taking this new approach and want to do it on your own. And in the words from HILL STREET BLUES "Be careful out there."

Scott

Is Self-Publishing Giving People A Misconception On Publishing

I have been thinking about this for some time and thought today would be as good a day as any to bring this up. I do know, as I type this, that there will be many of you that think this is a slam against the self-publishing model. Please note, this is in no way a slam, just a perspective.

In recent years, we have seen a huge increase in those self-publishing opportunities for writers. A lot of writers are all diving on these options as a way to A) get published finally; B) get something published that traditional publishers might avoid; and C) to have a chance to learn about the business. It is this last option I really want to look at.

I do believe that a lot of authors who self-publish are missing out on understanding many things that go into a true business approach to publishing. Because they are, in many cases, in complete control of everything about their book or books, they fail to see things that would only come about by working in the traditional model. For example, they may be missing out on a real element of market research. Sure, they can talk to their individual group of close friends and determine if a book will sell, but what about the larger picture. Along the same lines, how is the book adapted to different markets to increase sales.

I would also add that the editorial side of things might also be limited. Having the editors, who are really focused on both content and grammatical issues may be out of the loop if the author is working on their own.

I guess I bring all of this up because I have heard (and read) far too many authors who are self-published teaching other authors methods, skills and what not that really don't work at all. For example, I heard one author at a conference talking about how you would use social media like Twitter and Facebook to pitch your stories to editors. "This is what they like." I later found out that the "publisher" this person worked through only ran operations off of a Facebook account. Now here is the problem. The writers in that room listening to these comments walked away thinking that was what to do. In her case, she had missed out on that education that might have made her a bit more successful with her writing.

Again, please understand that there is nothing wrong with self-publishing. This is certainly an option that may work for you and might be the only approach for your book. With that said, I do believe that whether or not you take the traditional or the self-publishing approach, it is crucial that an author takes the time to really understand the business and the craft. Regardless of the model you use, the skills are all the same.

Just some thoughts.

Scott

No One Is Forcing You To Publish A Certain Way

I think there is this increasing belief (most likely an unconscious belief) that agents, publishers and the business of publishing is forcing authors to have to follow a certain path. It seems as if I am reading more and more authors blogging, or commenting on the web, implying that they are being forced into decisions and that their creativity as an author is being hampered. I am sorry to say this, but the reality is that no one is forcing anyone to do anything.

Traditional publishers are not forcing writers to limit their writing. As I have said before, they have a market. They have done their market research and they know what sells to THEIR market. If they pass on your story, it is not because they have a limited vision of the business, it is simply a matter that your story did not fit that model.

Agents are not out there just to make people change their ways or write a certain way. They are there as an option for those writers that want to use the agents. Again, I have said this here on the blog before, but having an agent is just like working with a realtor when buying or selling a home. Do you need to go through a real estate office? Absolutely not. But, because you are doing it on your own, you not only increase your work load, but also have no one on your side if something goes wrong.

I fear that there are many authors out there trying to pick a fight and make this an all or nothing argument. If you take the traditional route to publishing, you're good or bad. If you e-pub, you're good or bad. If you go with an indie publisher or the self-pub route, you are good or bad. This is far from the case. This is a decision you make as an author.

I have said all along, and I will say it again, writing is for everyone. There is also a place somewhere in this publishing world for you. It may be self-publishing at the local Fed-Ex Kinkos or it may be on the New York Times Best Seller List. The decision is entirely yours.

And with that said, we also have to remember that if something doesn't go right with your personal writing and your personal project, it was you who made the decision and it is not the entire system's fault. Sales may be low because you went with someone who doesn't have a mass distribution. You self-publish and no book store wants your project. You want to write for a traditional publisher and get your project returned because you don't have an agent and don't want one. You sign with an agent that you don't know anything about and are "taken" in a scheme. All of these decisions were yours and in many of the cases, the problems may have resulted from you missing something in the submission and writing process.

Scott

Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should

I want to begin by saying something I have told hundreds of writers at conferences, and, I believe, I have mentioned here on this blog. I believe writing is one of those few activities that everyone in the world can do. This is one of those few activities of creative self-expression that your ability level does not come into play. With art, you have to have a sense of color and shape; with music - a sense of sound; with dance, a sense of rhythm and movement; but with writing, it is just your thoughts taking shape on the page. But, when I bring this up, I am talking about writing and not publishing. There is a huge difference between the two.

Recently, we have all seen the huge wave of self-publishing opportunities for writers popping up almost daily. Either in e-pub format or in POD format (and yes, a couple of "independent" presses). The problem I have with many of these outlets is that there seems to be no quality standard being put into place. Sure they claim to have people editing these manuscripts. Sure they may have an art department and I.T. department to insure the writer's project "looks good," but, in terms of the stories I question the quality of the project.

I have heard many authors tell me they went this route because:

• Their story was unique and fell outside the "restrictive" guidelines of publishers.
• Their story was misunderstood by editors.
• Their story needed a "special" form of marketing that editors wouldn't take.
• Agents were too concerened about money to even consider their "unique" project.

Now, while this might be the case for a few projects out there, in most cases, the real issues is that the story is just something that is not marketable. This does not mean you can't sell the project, it simply means that there is likely no market out there beyond your friends and family purchasing the story. Local bookstores in your own community might sell the project on the table market "Local Authors" but that is about it.

My concern about many of these publishing outlets is simple. They are simply printing anything that comes across their desk, regardless of the true quality of the writing. In the end, however, the message that is being received by far too many authors out there is that this is an opportunity to either be published since the traditional publishers don't know their butt from a hot rock; or a chance to get published without being "fleeced" by those entrenched in the system (i.e editors and agents).

Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying EVERY one of these formats for publishig is bad. I am great friends and have great respect for several editors/publishers that work in this business. What I am simply saying is that if we want to talk about people "fleecing" the author, we need to stop and consider what these presses are really doing. They are simply making a profit off of writers with writing that is probably less that quality and, in the end, hurting many of these authors professionally. They are learning bad habits about the business. They are not seeing success. They are getting a false sense of success with their writing. And, when they do have a project that might have potential to do real things, they won't see it and may ruin that project as well.

I want to stress here that there is a place for markets such as this (this includes vanity presses). Maybe you have a project that you simply want to look better than something you print at your local FedEx Kinkos store. Maybe you want to memorialize someone or something. Maybe you have a church, team or school that wants to have something they can remember a special moment with. Maybe you are a creative writing teacher at a K-12 school that wants to produce a yearly Student Literary Magazine. These opportunities are FANTASTIC!!! But, for the serious writers out there, we need to stop and think.

(Wow, maybe too much coffee this morning).

Scott

New Moves in E-Publishing

I just read this morning about a program now available to self-publishing authors. According to an article in the Washington post...

"CEO Jeff Bezos previously announced a self-publishing program in which authors can sell Kindle books on the site and keep 35 percent of the proceeds...

Look, those of us in the publishing industry have gone over this time and time again. There is a place in the world for people to self-publish, but in this case, in my humble opinion, this is just a way for companies to prey on those writers out there lacking the knowledge of the business. These authors have seen a rise in e-book sales (in fact many probably got their own at Christmas), and now they think tons of people will go out there and buy their books simply because they have an e-book reader. Heck, according to the same article, e-book sales out performed regular book sales this year.

I know, I know, e-publishing gurus and media moguls are screaming, "see, I told you so" and the self-publishing people are screaming "See, the mass market is interested in what I have to offer." Sorry to say it, but this is far from the truth.

We have to consider several things here. Work with me on this one because I am still waiting for the coffee to finish brewing (this is a no coffee article).

• Obviously ebook sales would go up. Who would want to give someone an e-reader without something to read on it. This is like giving a kid a Wii system and then saying it is up to them to spend their own money and get the games.
• The true test is to check back in 6 months and see how many people are still reading. I am thinking here of that post holiday let down. We see the same thing with kids. Play with a toy and by Jan. 1st, they are already bored with it.
• The self publishers are just being sucked along with this media frenzy. Time and time again, I have heard self-publisher say they took that route because the traditional publishers just didn't have a market for their writing? Huh? What do you mean people in New York or London don't want to know about the underwater pottery making industry of Bodfish, California. Hey, if they don't want to buy the book in hardback, they won't in e-book.
• But now it is available world wide on the internet! Again, how will we find you. Sorry to say it but I (along with a lot of other readers out there) don't just surf Facebook for a random new author on something obscure. And when I go to any online retailer, I am looking for something specific.

I still have to say, I honestly do not believe the book industry is being taken over by the e-book thing. I am more likely to pick up random books at the books story simply because it is sitting on the shelf next to the one thing I went in to get. Come on, I know you are all the same way, I hear it all of the time: "I went to Borders to get one thing and walked out spending $200.00."

Sure, the e-book thing is great. I love my reader and use it when reading all of my author's work. However, I have to say, this new move to bring in the self-publishing people, although it sounds very generous, just has a funny smell to it, at least from my perspective.

Ahhh, the coffee is finished. Off to get that well deserved cup. Oh, and when I am in the kitchen, I may browse the left-over Christmas cookie treats. Who knows what I will find there (hmmm, that sounds like a reference to a book story excursion).

On Self Publishing

At the request of a follower of the blog, I thought I would throw my 2 cents worth in on this.

Self publishing is always an option for writers, but I think for many, they fully don't understand all of the aspects of self-publishing as well as the pros and cons of this approach.

First of all, with self-publishing, it is entirely up to you as an author to work through the project. This includes not only the editing (although some places will provide some feedback) but marketing of the book. This, in no way means you will make more money because you don't have to pay someone. In fact, it often means a lot of extra work for you that you didn't know you would have to do.

Secondly, many authors believe that if they are self published this moves them further up the "food chain of publishing." In reality, it does nothing to move you and actually, in some cases, becomes a negative for you. If, for example, someone comes to me procaliming all of these books they have written, I do check to see where the books were produced. Many times I find people who are self published and the books have already been submitted to many editors and agents with a ton of rejections before they dove for that option.

Next, many authors will use the self publishing as a way to produce something that is far from ready for the market. In other words, the document is something that just will not sell (for whatever reason). Putting it with a self-published group doesn't suddenly make the story marketable.

Now, on the other side, the self-published market is great if you just want to see your book in a well formatted project. Sometimes, you simply want to produce a document that you are proud of. Nothing wrong with this approach.

The thing with self-publishing is:

a) you will not make more money than if you go through a publisher (without a heck of a lot of work and a very serious market for your book).

b) it does not make you a more marketable author when pushing other books.

c) it is a lot more work than you would imagine.

Still, it is an option.