[From the Archive] Things They Don’t Tell You About
This is from really late 2009 or really, really early 2010… And now back to the revisions.
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With the internet and advances in technology, many new and aspiring writers are bombarded with new way to get their brilliant prose and poetry into the marketplace. The new options scream that you don’t need to go through traditional publishers and suffer the sting of rejection. You are brilliant and can be published now without sharing a dime with those Greedy Old Publishers.
HOWEVER…
There are things “they” don’t tell you!
For instance, the reason traditional publishers take a large chunk of the author’s “money” from each sale of the book is because they’ve made the biggest financial expenditures on the author’s behalf. Advances? Are just that…advances. Loans. Like cash advances you can take out on your credit card. It still has to be paid back. Then there’s printing, transportation, marketing, etc. That all costs money – in this case the publisher’s money – and the money has to come from somewhere.
If you go out on your own, this is all on you and out of your pocket. There is no advance. There is no magic book showing up in your mail and in your bookstore. You have to pay to have that happen. AFTER you’ve paid to create your book to begin with. Now, I’m not talking about a “vanity” publisher here, I’m not saying “pay to have your book published through ‘X'”. I’m saying making physical copies of your book costs money. To get money to flow to the author, you must first have something to sell.
Also, there’s something else publishers have that a majority of authors do not – me included. And that’s design, layout, and technological experience. I’m technically literate. I can do just enough on a computer to get by. I know the basic functions of most office software and word processors. What I did not know until I started work on my independent project is that there’s more to putting together one’s own chapbook or other book than create in Word and send to Kinko’s. Yeah. No. Miraculously, I have a husband who knows how to take things apart and put them together again in word processing to make a print layout of my book that can be taken to a printer and done. He’s been working on the technical design of my chapbook for a whole day. It’ll take two days to get the ebook versions ready to go live on my website. Luckily he knows how to make PDFs that are searchable and bookmarked and stuff that makes my eyes glaze over, and I’m probably a fairly typical writer. Though I know there are many who are computer geniuses out there who are probably laughing at me RIGHT NOW.
You’re also responsible for your cover. For copyright notices. For pricing your project out to not be more than the market will pay and yet still cover your expenses and make a profit. You also have to do ALL your marketing, all your promotional work. Everything. You can choose to go through a POD service like LULU or CreateSpace or one of the other print-on-demand companies. This makes layout and design easier. It’ll get you an ISBN without having to pay through the nose for one (I opted against one – even though it means it’s not available through online retailers). HOWEVER, you will be restricted to their sizes, bindings, and price schedules. You may be able to set your own price, but they’ll end up getting a piece of your action too. The thing with PODs is that you don’t have to buy in bulk and find a place to store copies. They’re printed and shipped when someone orders them — but you have to get people to order them.
It’s all in the fine print. It really is. I chose to do a independent project because – 1) I wanted to do an ebook/download experiment, and 2) the subject matter is such that can be commercially viable but not in a strictly traditional sense (humor fantasy – hard commercial sale because of the subjective quality to humor). If I was going to do something on my own, this would be the vehicle.
So, when it comes to your brilliant prose and poetry, take the time to sit down and really think through what you want, what you’re capable of, and remember – there are things they don’t tell you about. I still believe traditional publishing is the way to go – whether through a major house or a smaller independent. They’re more capable and used to the technical and boring aspects of publishing. Doing it yourself? It takes a lot more time and energy than you might think. Trust me. I know.