I was recently in a spirited discussion with a couple of battle-scarred writers about book deals, publishers, marketing, and the various successes and challenges that our colleagues have faced. I have friends and acquaintances who have “traditional” book deals and I have friends who’ve self published. And then there are the tempting vanity presses. Being as this blog is called The Self Publishing Notebook, I’m going to have a bias toward the self publishing model, but I’ll admit it’s not for everyone. If you have a better chance at a book deal than my cat (which I don’t), go for it. And, frankly, if a publisher walked up to my door and offered me an advance, I’d be all ears. ( Having done time as a door-to-door salesman, I’m a softy for street peddlers — to my wife’s dismay.) The point is that self-publishing is a legitimate and often more successful vehicle for writers who stand little chance in the beleaguered world of traditional book publishing. (Particularly fiction.) The reason I chose self publishing was that I wanted to write fiction — not query letters.
But I do have a confession. Somewhere along in my journey — I’m not even sure how they got my number — I had a conversation with a person from a well-known vanity publisher. They called to tell me that they were interested in publishing my book. Flattering! Although I had literally nothing out there that they could have read. Perhaps my undergraduate treatise on Canadian labor economics had them convinced that I was going to be a successful novelist (given my knowledge of the topic, it probably could have been filed as “fiction”). The person was intent on having me hire them to edit my book and design a cover — and get their foot in my door/wallet.
I got off the phone, Googled the company’s name and didn’t have to go far to find horror stories of people getting ripped off for tens of thousands of dollars. Other than the testimonials on their own website, I could find absolutely nothing to suggest that it was a good idea. I found stories of people who shelled out $20,000 and got a royalty check that wouldn't buy you lunch. As far as I can tell, they take money, provide you with a few books (so fun to hold your very own book written by you! Happy day!), and spend their most valuable (gullible) clients’ money advertising in the New York Time Book Review. The ads are terrible. This outfit is so sharp that the amusingly named “Carl,” who has a thick Hindi accent and a few hundred people talking in the background, left me a voicemail the other day to see how my book was coming along. Carl, I finished it more than two years ago; you can find it on Amazon. I have only a little sympathy for the writers they ripped off, since they couldn’t take the time to do their research. Worry not, they can recover their losses with their Zimbabwe lottery winnings.
I shouldn’t have to say this, but you should never get involved with a publisher who needs your money. You want to hire an editor, a designer, or a marketing agency? It’s a great idea — but you are the publisher in that situation. Revenue from sales comes to you. If someone is selling your book and paying you royalties, you do not give them your credit card number. Ever. As far as I can tell, the only difference between vanity presses and those places that sell dance lessons to seniors is that the broke writer still can’t dance. (Honestly, I just used them for a free lesson so I could dance to a Michael Bublé song at my wedding.)
On the traditional side, rates of success and failure seem to be similar. I have friends with traditional book deals who love their relationship with their publisher, even if it has its tense moments. That’s life. It doesn’t seem to matter if the publisher is huge, or small — it takes an immense amount of work to market a book successfully.
I’m learning some of this as I go and I’ll admit I’m a little nervous about it. With my first book, I really didn’t do much promotion since my plan was to follow the advice of other self publishers and invest in marketing once I had multiple titles. I had zero expectations. When someone offered me a little help in promotion and my book climbed the Amazon rankings, it was just fun. There was that one day that I was ranked next to The Great Gatsby… Granted, Gatsby has been out 90 years and still sells like hotcakes — buy hey, my book hasn’t become required reading for 11th graders… yet.
Self publishing isn’t about doing everything yourself. Unless you are a professional designer, I’d highly recommend not having a DIY book cover. And it is very difficult to copy-edit your own work — but some people do it. Self publishing is about retaining control over these steps. It’s work and it takes time, practice, repetition, and likely a few books to become successful (just like traditional publishing). I’ve said it before: I strongly encourage you check out the May 2016 Author Earning Report. Get familiar with who is making money as a writer and how they're doing it. If you’re thinking of sending big money to a vanity press, call me, I’ll do it for half — and teach you a few dance moves.
When Jonathan Kile isn't leaning back and opining with a knowing look, he encourages you to check out his adventure thriller, The Grandfather Clock, which is in the top 30 Free Adventure/Suspense eBook for Amazon Kindle (just ahead of a book that shamelessly swipes its title from a Jame Bond film). The sequel, The Napoleon Bloom, will be out in 2017. He promises. Jonathan gets his email at jkilewrites@gmail.com.
This article appears in Jul 20-27, 2017.