NB: Hi Everyone, Tracy Marchini is a former colleague of mine and she recently self-published a nonfiction guide to publishing terms, Pub Speak: A Writer’s Dictionary of Publishing Terms, and a middle grade novel, Hot Ticket. She’s guest-posting today to share her experiences with self-publishing. Enjoy!
Since the news that one indie goddess and one traditional publishing guru were switching their publishing strategy for the other’s, the buzz about self-publishing ebooks has been incessant. And now that Pub Speak: A Writer’s Dictionary of Publishing Terms has been out for about two months, I thought I’d whip out a big ol’ can of wasp spray and share what I’ve learned in the indie ebook world.
Crossing The Line
The first thing I’ve noticed is that there’s still a mental division between the indie world and the traditional world, despite many authors having success on both sides of the line. The most astounding part of this to me is that most of the really successful indie authors, started by publishing their traditional backlist.
Don’t get me wrong, I think this is brilliant. If you have a book that was already edited, reviewed and is languishing in your reverted rights pile, then why not put it back in circulation as an ebook and hit a new audience? But sometimes I think people miss the distinction between a successful indie that started with a traditional backlist and an indie that is starting from absolute, 100% scratch. Obviously, it can be done (see: Amanda Hocking, Victorine Lieski, David Dalglish), but it’s a completely different animal, for sure.
In going indie, what you give up for the total control of your book and manuscript is the distribution and visibility that a traditional house can give you. So if you have already been established by the traditional houses, there is already a fan base that has read and loved your work. That is no small potato. (In fact, that is a farm of potatoes.)
An indie that starts from scratch is going to have to hand-sell at least their first hundred books. This means that they are going to have to make a personal connection, talk about their book, and hope for a purchase. This is done through blog tours, book reviews and other methods. Getting reviewed as an indie through the traditional reviewers (Booklist, Kirkus, School Library Journal, NYT) is all but impossible, unless you’re willing to pay for Kirkus Indie. And because most indie book review sites don’t have the name recognition and following that Kirkus or The New York Times does, you’re going to be doing a lot of research and subbing to try and find the same audience.
Book reviewers that are open to indie books are, as expected, becoming swamped with potential titles. If your book is accepted for review, you can expect to wait at least one to two months for that reviewer to get to your title. The most successful indies have given away at least a hundred copies, if not hundreds of copies, of their book. Building “word of mouth” is a long, hard process, and most indies notice that it doesn’t really start to take off until their seventh month. (For some, it’s the fourth month, and for others, the book might never take off.)
Paying For Publicity
There are, however, plenty of people willing to take money from aspiring authors, whether you’re seeking traditional or indie publication.
Yes, as an indie, you will have to invest in a cover artist, editor and copyeditor/proofreader. If you can’t format the book yourself, then there are affordable options there as well. My advice when it comes to advertising though — if you can’t afford to lose the money, don’t spend the money. Yesterday, I received a packet in the mail that offered me television and radio exposure for just $498 a month. I’ve heard of other services that charge a monthly payment for a year of publicity, and will charge a large penalty if you cancel early.
The truth is though, that any advertising money you spend before you’ve spent the time to get reviewed by both book reviewers and customers, is like lighting your wallet on fire. Let’s say I spent $498 to put my brand new middle-grade mystery, Hot Ticket, on the air. Here are all the reasons I would not see any money from that investment:
1) Hot Ticket has been bought, but not reviewed yet. People are leery of making a purchase on Amazon that hasn’t been reviewed.
2) Hot Ticket retails for $2.99. I would have to sell 250 books per month just to equal the TV and radio investment.
3) Hot Ticket isn’t currently available in paperback, which means that I would have to find a radio audience that has a decent number of ereader owners.
4) There are too many steps involved between hearing about the book and making the purchase. You hear the ad in the car, then you have to remember when you got home that you wanted that book, then you have to remember the title and author and look it up… etc. Unless you’ve already been established as someone’s favorite author, chances are, they’re not going to be thinking about your book when it’s time to go home, eat dinner, and watch some TV.
5) Note the ad promised exposure, but you’re not buying airtime for $500 a month. The truth is, nobody can promise you radio or TV time unless they’re a producer or you’re flat out buying advertising time. A PR person could do their very best, but if there isn’t a newsworthy angle, then there isn’t a story for that radio or TV show.
I’ve noticed that the one thing that’s sold the most copies of Pub Speak for me, was a stroke of luck. I wrote a blog post during the Pub Speak blog tour that was picked up by Visual Thesaurus, a subscription website with a large following.
Okay, it wasn’t completely luck. I had to set up the blog tour and write the post. But just like traditional publishing, what takes off and what doesn’t can sometimes be attributed to the stars aligning. Amanda Hocking wrote what she loved, and she happened to do it in a time when YA paranormal romance was on fire. I’m not saying that she wasn’t working her butt off, because I’m sure she was. But if what she loved to write was biographies of the Presidents for children, I don’t think she’d have nearly the same career path.
Indie and Traditional Publishing Have Both Mid-lists and Outliers
One thing to note about Lieski and Dalglish though, and which I think is amazingly encouraging, is that you don’t have to be Amanda Hocking to make a living as an indie. Lieski and Dalglish aren’t millionaires (yet), but they’re writing full time and supporting their families. That’s amazing, and it says to me that indie authorship is actually more similar to traditional publishing than one might think.
Some will rise to the very top, some will languish at the bottom, and some will make a comfortable living doing what they love. The difference between the two is when a book sees the chunk of sales. In traditional publishing, the focus is on pre-selling to retailers and trying to launch the book as successfully and large as possible. For most books, that big push in the beginning is going to determine what happens to the book for the rest of its shelf-life.
In indie publishing, most authors see the opposite sales pattern. It might look more like this:
Month 1 – 10 books
Month 2 – 37 books
Month 3 – 100 books
Month 4 – 300 books
Month 5 – 800 books
What you’ll notice is that all of the marketing is cumulative, and the jumps that a successful indie sees will become larger and larger.
It seems to me, that most indie authors have to be popular to become popular. And what I mean by that is that people have to be talking about your books when you’ve stopped handselling, in order to really see the groundswell of activity that someone like Hocking, Lieski, etc. is seeing.
Still, you’ll note that in five months, there have been less than 2,000 copies sold. The traditionally published author might sell 10,000 copies in that same timeframe. But since the indie author’s sales patterns tend to look more like bell curves, rather than that initial push and then a lower plateau, they have time to catch up.
(And, before you get all excited about selling 800 books in a month, consider that 800 books at the $0.99 price point that many indies start a series at, is $280 in royalties.)
Growing A Dedicated Audience
Trade in a Lieski for a Konrath (who was originally traditionally published before going indie) and suddenly you notice something else about successful indies: they each write in just one or two genres, have at least one series, and are extremely prolific. Konrath has over 40 books, Dalglish and Hocking around a dozen. Their release dates are within weeks or months of each other, instead of about a year apart. To be honest, I still don’t know how anybody can write a finished book every month. It’s truly astounding to me. But the key word there is finished. Or you could replace it with good, excellent, publishable, etc.
Am I worried that because of all this press for successful indies, suddenly everybody is going to fill Amazon and B&N with books and the whole industry will turn to a pile of crap? No. And here’s why. Indie authors have to be:
— excellent writers and moderately good marketers
— moderately good writers and excellent marketers
— zombies who don’t ever sleep, and are both excellent writers and marketers.
If the book isn’t well written and well marketed, it will fall to the bottom, and won’t affect traditional publishing at all. It would reinforce the stereotype that indie publishing is a bunch of authors with crappy books who were tired of being rejected by agents and publishers. But hopefully this stigma will change over time, too.
Because in the future, I think we are going to see more and more authors using both traditional and indie publishing to build their careers. And I think this is good news for traditional publishing, too.
Tracy Marchini can be found at www.tracymarchini.com or on Twitter as @TracyMarchini. She is a former Curtis Browner turned freelance editor and author. Pub Speak: A Writer’s Dictionary of Publishing Terms is available in print and ebook format at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. Her new middle grade mystery Hot Ticket is available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.
Jericho Ambrose says
Wow. Thanks Tracy for the wealth of information.
I really enjoyed how you took a firm stance and said to not really bother with advertising till the book was reviewed. I always worry that if I went the route of self publishing the initial investment would be too large. I also had no clue that some book reviewers required money from the authors. That was a shock. I always assumed the free book was what most needed from the author.
Thanks for also showing a distinction between advertising and Marketing. That was definitely food for though.
Thanks for taking the time to share your wisdom!
Richard Mabry says
Tracy, You certainly didn't pull any punches, and that's much appreciated. So far, this subject has generated a lot more heat than light on some of the blogs, and factions are forming between those who say self-publishing is the wave of the future and those who maintain it's a tool of the untalented. I appreciate your sharing your own experience with us, and I wish you luck with this venture.
Nathan, as always you provide helpful information. Thanks.
Laura M. Campbell says
Great advice. I knew indie publishing required a great deal of work from the actual author, but I didn't know the specifics. Something I need to think about a bit more.
I recently went to the Pennwriters Conference and participated in a Read & Critique. The Cathy Teets, president of Headline Books, suggested I think about making my novel into a series (2 or 3 books). They want to ensure they can sell more books with the amount of money invested in the author. My whole game plan changed and now I'm trying to stretch out my character arc and come up with two more mysteries for my main character to solve.
I'm going to check out Tracy's book. My plan is to be as prepared as possible when it comes time to agent and publish my mystery novel.
Mr. D says
For me, anyway, the only option is traditional publishing. But good luck to everyone who self-publishes.
Megg Jensen says
I am ridiculously happy with my self-publishing experience. As a freelance journalist, I know what it's like on both sides of the fence. Publishing, no matter what side you're on, is hard work.
Thanks for a post from the indie side Nathan! 😉
Megg Jensen
DarkSide Publishing
Matthew MacNish says
Fascinating stuff!
A Tale of Many Reviews says
Excellent post and true from what I've observed with Indie & Trad as well. I hope one day it's not a "vs" but a co-existence with writers choosing the best path for them.I think there is a place for both and glad to read a post that isn't blasting one or the other, but putting solid truth out there about both.
lbdiamond says
Interesting info, thanks! Congrats to your success! 🙂
Anonymous says
Great post about self-publishing. But I do think using the term "Indie" is misleading. I was expecting a post about getting pubbed by a small press. (I skipped over Nathan's intro and was halfway into the actual post when I had a WTF moment.)
I understand there is a trend by self-pubbed authors to classify themselves as "Indie," however, for those who are not up on the trends it is misleading.
Whether or not "Indie" with regard to self-published will stick I don't know. But there are many links about the topic and more than a few opinions. Here's one: https://jongibbs.livejournal.com/181742.html
Frankly, if I were a self-published author I'd embrace the term self-published and I wouldn't want to be classified as "Indie." Mainly because it is so misleading to those of us who don't follow trends.
Sean Thomas Fisher says
Great hands on post! I had a feeling that book bloggers would get swamped after Amanda Hocking let the black cat out of the bag. Fortunately, my zombies are excellent writers, marketers and wakeboarders.
Carolyn Abiad says
Great points! I'm comfortable with the fact that I am a) not a zombie and b) only a decent marketer. I don't think I have the stamina required to be self-published. BUT I do like that self-publishing allows for more than just the one platform. As you said, what works for one may not work for the other.
Tracy's book of terms is a great primer for both indie and traditional publishing, btw.
David Kazzie says
I have an agent, but I decided to self-publish my debut novel as an eBook (a decision I reached with my agent). The book just went on sale in the last few days.
Getting the book ready to go live was a TON of work, but overall I enjoyed the process. I made this decision based on what I thought would be best for my longterm career.
Anonymous says
The title of this post is misleading — self-publishers may want to co-op the term "indie publishing" but it already exists and means something else: independent publishing houses. Coffee House is an indie, a self-publisher is not. Same for BOA, Red Lemonade, Wave, Milkweed… It's a category to itself, and it's curated, which self-publishing is not.
Susan Petrone says
Tracy, great analysis of indie publishing as it currently stands. I write literary fiction, am publishing short fiction in journals large and small, have one novel that was published by a (very) small press, and am querying agents and larger presses for the next novel. In short, I'm am still plugging away at the traditional publishing model. People ask me why I don't self-publish, and a large part of the reason is that I'm not sure an emerging/new fiction writer who is not working in a genre and writing oodles of books in series is going to self-publish as successfully as some of the most high-profile examples of indie authors. At the same time, if I were a mid-list author with a few books to my name from one of the majors and no current contract, I would seriously consider going indie. I don't think it's for every writer at every stage of her or his career. (Sometimes I wish I were though.)
Cathy Yardley says
Great post. It breaks down the issues in a very realistic and understandable way. I think that having a "blend" of traditional and self/"indie" pub might be one of the best ways to grow a career — especially if you can produce a lot, and get comfortable marketing. It's a lot of work, but if it were easy, everybody would do it, right? 😀
Nathan Bransford says
We had a discussion about who gets the "Indie" banner a few weeks back. I use the terms self- and traditional publishing and use indie to refer to small presses, but this is Tracy's post so I defer to her on the verbiage.
thirdculturekitchen says
I think it's early days yet and what everyone needs to realize is that this whole media/publishing world is undergoing a HUGE transformation and no one knows anything yet. It's morphing and both indie and traditional are trying to figure out how to make it all work without being at loggerheads.
It's the same between blogs and magazines now – instead of rejecting blogs as "unprofessional", magazines are working side by side with them.
One thing never changes – quality content. That should be the focus. Otherwise, I think it's a fantastic time where there are so many new options to choose from.
Professor Oddcabinet says
So let me get some terms straight. Do you mean "Indie" as in "Independant" publisher? Or is "Indie" being used here as a euphemism for "Self Pubbed E-Book"? Because I thought those were different.
Megg Jensen says
Professor,
I use the terms:
self-published book
indie author
I usually don't mix the two when it comes to my work. Everyone has different view on this though. There is no hard-and-fast rule and I think it's just another part of the system working itself out.
Megg Jensen
DarkSide Publishing
Phoenix Sullivan says
What I feel is missing from the whole equation right now is what average sales numbers are. I know where my books stand in Amazon and B&N rankings. I know how many books I've sold over the past two months. What I don't know, not being at the Hocking end nor down in the 6-digit rankings, is what expectations I should have for my ebooks or how far off the mark I am from average, whether above or below.
Tracy's sales pattern matrix is interesting, but the trouble is, it's just random figures thrown out for the sake of illustration. Putting real figures to those monthly patterns will be a huge help, I think, for self-pubbed authors trying to gauge the market. Traditional publishers have access to historical figures for their entire stables of authors, so they have an advantage in figuring out what success means for a book in a particular genre targeting a specific audience.
I'm hoping more self-pubbed authors who are going out cold (without name or backlist) will publish their sales figures publicly. I've committed to do just that, by the month, and I'm looking for others with that same commitment. Knowledge is power, and all that.
Unfortunately, while I appreciate what Tracy has to say, she doesn't back up her counsel with any real sales figures of her own. Until we lose the mystery and the stigma, I think the self-pubbed will have a long haul in figuring out how to do as good a job as publishers who have access to those proprietary numbers.
K. C. Blake says
Great post, Tracy! I just wish there was a way for me to know how well my book is doing in relation to other books. When I published with Harlequin, my editor kept me informed. Now I have no idea how Vampires Rule is doing in relation to other Indie books. I have sold over 150 in five weeks. Is that good, so-so, what? I have no clue.
Megg Jensen says
Phoenix & K.C. –
I've sold nearly 700 copies of Anathema in just over three months. It's a YA traditional fantasy.
YA paranormal and YA romance tend to sell at higher levels than mine.
I'm thrilled with my results!!!
The reason we don't have solid databases of sales results are because the industry is so new. Within a few years I think there will be a better grasp of what sells well.
However, trends will always skew the numbers.
My opinion? Write something awesome and you will sell. Books are sold by word-of-mouth, not by past sales records.
Good luck both of you!!! 😀
MeggJensen
DarkSide Publishing
Megg Jensen says
For everyone interested in seeing more sales info, check out this awesome post on Victorine's page:
https://victorinewrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/sales-growth-over-time.html
Megg Jensen
DarkSide Publishing
Anonymous says
I think wiki gives a good solid definition/explanation of the difference between self-publishing and indie…or small presses…here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_press
Candace Rose says
Wholeheartedly agree with this statement:
"Because in the future, I think we are going to see more and more authors using both traditional and indie publishing to build their careers. And I think this is good news for traditional publishing, too."
Publishing isn't EITHER/OR anymore, and that is really exciting! I can do both, and I plan to!
Phoenix Sullivan says
Megg: I respectfully disagree that past sales figures are unimportant. An AUTHOR in traditional publishing does not have to worry about overall sales when they're part of stable where the stable owner is the one looking at the overall spreadsheets. But when the author IS the publisher, and is looking at self-pubbing as a business and not a lark, data is important. And having data that compares like books to like books is valuable in making decisions about which books to e-pub, which to print pub, and how to price to make a potential profit.
Newness of the "industry" has little to do with the dearth of data. Data generates from Day 1. It's a dissemination problem.
We need more people willing to provide figures in a standardized way. Victorine's site is good for anecdotal numbers and so are some of the conversations on the Kindle boards. Amassing that info into usable trends and collecting more is the next step. Hmmm… And someone who can do that, then sell the info on a subscription basis for a reasonable cost could potentially make some good money…
Kristan says
That last paragraph (about how more and more authors will use both types of publishing throughout their careers, and everybody will win) is what I've been saying all along.
Great post about the pros and cons to self/indie publishing!
Megg Jensen says
Hey Phoenix,
I guess that I don't choose which books to e-pub based on what others are doing. I write traditional YA fantasy because I want to – not because someone told me the numbers were good. I had agents offer to rep me if I switched genres (because of these numbers); I said no. They told me the market was small for my type of fiction. So be it.
For me it's not 100% about sales numbers. Right or wrong, a good part of it is about writing what I love. I wrote for the masses as a freelance journalist. For me, fiction is about what I want to write.
That's the best part about this new publishing world. We can all choose our paths for our own reasons. Solid writing, good editing, and targeted marketing will determine overall results.
If you can find a statistician to collate those numbers, that's great! I'm sure you're right, people out there will pay for it.
Best of luck to you and to everyone on the publishing path. Isn't it a great place to be? 🙂
Megg Jensen
DarkSide Publishing
Tracy Marchini says
Hi all! Thanks for your comments.
I should clarify that I use the term "indie author" here in reference to an author who has not signed a deal with a publisher to produce and distribute their book — whether large or small, owned by another corporation or not.
But I can see the confusion in using the term "indie" to describe an author versus to describe a publisher.
I 100% agree with anonymous that there is a difference between an independently owned press who is buying the rights and publishing the works of others (indie publisher) versus someone who is only producing their own works, without any transfer of rights to another (self-published/indie author).
But I think the term "indie" is becoming more fluid, and will continue to evolve as the industry does.
Mark Williams says
@Phoenix: real sales figures from a real indie.
We epublished in November 2010. Debut novel, unknown author, no publicity.
We sold almost nothing for three months. In February we started to pick up a few sales.
Three months on and we are now just short of 75,000 sales (yes, seventy-five thousand) and a top-five place in the Kindle UK charts.
Not with Konrath's forty or Hocking's dozen, but just one single debut title, from cold.
Sugar & Spice by Saffina Desforges – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sugar-Spice-ground-breaking-thriller-ebook/dp/B004AYDK22/ref=pd_zg_rss_ts_kinc_digital-text_3
A book the UK agents rejected time and again.
A book one of the most prestigious agents in New York last week called us out of the blue to discuss options.
If we hadn't e-published it would still be just another "failed" manuscript on the hard-drive.
Phoenix Sullivan says
Hey Megg:
If you're being pubbed traditionally, then writing what you love can be all there is to it. But when you're having to determine what (or if) to pay for cover, editing, and layout, then having some concept of what the return on investment can be is crucial.
The housing market in the U.S. tanked when investment promises (through institutions offering variable rates) didn't pan out. If a newbie author has unrealistic expectations that their 200K epic barbarian fantasy will sell 10,000 copies at 2.99 and earn them $20K in a year, they may not blink at dropping $2K to get the book edited, covered, and produced. When they discover the average sales for such books are (this is hypothetical) 500 copies, they're out $1000.
In some cases, unmarketable doesn't mean there isn't a market; it means the return-on-investment in that market is too much of a gamble.
But, as you say, everyone has their own risk tolerance in business, and yay that everyone can participate ;o)
Megg Jensen says
*bows down to Mark*
We should all be so awesome. 😉
Phoenix – I don't know one indie author who's spent $2,000 on producing an ebook. I spent around $200 and have already sold close to 700, so lucky for me, I'm good financially.
I have many traditionally published friends who aren't allowed to write what they want after their first novel. They're told what to write because the publishers, who are putting a massive financial investment into it, are in control.
But this is just my experience and it's been a good one, so I'm happy with it. 🙂
Good luck!
Megg Jensen
DarkSide Publishing
Amber says
I think this post brings up some good points for authors considering self publishing, but the radio ad example was misleading. Of course spending $500 a month on a radio ad for your indie genre fiction novel is a bad idea. Did anyone need to see the breakdown to figure that out? A more helpful breakdown would have been the costs for professional editing/proofreading, cover design, website setup, and possibly ads on review blog sites in your genre.
Anonymous says
Konrath says he pays $500 for cover art, $230 for proofreading (note this is NOT full-blown editing) and $200 for formatting.
Mira says
Very interesting article, Tracy! I really appreciate that you talked about some of the nitty gritty in detail.
Looking at the details makes it real and concrete, which is very helpful to those who are considering indie publishing.
I am curious – although you may not wish to answer – about whether your decision to leave Curtis Brown was connected to your choice of launching an independent writing career?
Nathan, I also really want to thank you for hosting an independent author – very upright of you!
Again, I'm not surprised at the underlying tension to this topic – people get really emotional about this one.
Thanks for your courage and forthrightness in talking about all this, Tracy! I really wish you luck, and I hope you have a very successful writing career!
Megg Jensen says
Hi Amber,
Since I'm blabbering on here today, I might as well continue (everyone else can ignore me if you want).
I spent $100 on one ad just recently.
I spent under $200 on cover art.
I format my ebooks and paperback.
I created my own trailer.
I created & manage my own website.
I spent nothing on editing/proofreading.
However, I am blessed to have an extensive network of traditionally published authors, indie authors, and librarians on my team. I've also been consistently published as a freelance journalist since 2004, so I have more than a rudimentary knowledge of the nuts & bolts of writing. My novels usually go through AT LEAST five extensive revisions before publication. I don't rush anything to market.
I'd love to be one of those people who writes a book in three weeks and publishes it the next day – but I'm not. 😉
I would also love to have the resources behind me that trad published authors have, but I don't. I do the best I can to make up for it.
The choices in self-publishing are endless. You have to ask for help on your weaknesses and exploit your strengths.
Good luck!!!! 🙂
Megg Jensen
DarkSide Publishing
Neil Larkins says
A person who self-publishes an e-book (whether on Smashwords – like I just did – or elsewhere) is the publisher, unless stated otherwise. Therefore, you, the writer, are not only the author, you ARE the publisher, an independent publisher, thus an "indie publisher." Did this help or make things less clear?
Rebecca Stroud says
Tracy – Thank you for a perfect post!!
As a self-published author, I've found it slow going. However, I believe it's because I am woefully inept at PR and also because – to date – I've primarily written short "dog" stories so I'm not exactly a "hot ticket" (couldn't resist that one..:-)
Yet I'm more than willing to give it time, hoping word-of-mouth will find me. Especially since my next book will be more mainstream (horror/thriller novel).
In addition, although I am an experienced wordsmith, I've not been traditionally published nor do I ever expect – or want – to be.
Yes, I get frustrated but, as a professional writer, I realize full well that finding my audience is part of the job.
No, I'll most likely never find the success that authors of the "genre du jour" have enjoyed but that's okay, too. I'm writing what I love and it is seeing the light of day…admittedly just a sliver, but light nonetheless.
Christopher says
This was a great blog, thank you. I just released my first two books and fit exactly into your one month sales chart. The marketing is the hardest part for me. I know I nave to get better. Like most people the day job, the writing, the blog, finding the time is the trick.
Compass Book says
Love it! Nice lunch read.
What works for one does not always mean it's going to be best fit for the next author. It's a good idea they have good advice and really evaluate all avenues to find what works for their scenario.
Best,
Nate K.
Compass Book
Rebecca Burke says
Excellent post. It was nice to have my thoughts on the selling pace of ebooks confirmed. Glacial in the beginning, bumping up slowly over time if you do immense amounts of marketing. I also agree that if you don't write series in certain genres (paranormal, fantasy, sci fi, thrillers, and of course porn), you won't do as well.
It probably helps that the readers for lots of the above genres may be early adopter types who have ereaders. I doubt very much if my ideal audience–teenage girls, and in particular Latinas–has ereaders in great numbers yet. Someday…
My agent could not find a home for my realistic YA novel, WHEN I AM SINGING TO YOU, so I self-pubbed, rather than spending more months seeking a small publisher or just letting it linger eternally in digital purgatory.
It doesn't have to be expensive a la J. A. Konrath (who knows he'll get his investment back in sales). I found a formatter for $35, on a list given out by Smashwords, hired a graphic artist for $25 (my daughter's talented friend needed to beef up her portfolio–win-win!), and that was it. I didn't hire an editor on this one as it has been through so many revisions for my agent and others, not to mention I'm a professional editor and former writing teacher.
Tracy, your book for MG readers looks like a lot of fun. Good luck with it!
Rebecca Kiel says
Great post. With all of the buzz about self-publishing and indie publishing, information as direct and knowledgeable as this post are vital. For the greatest potential for success, writers need to be informed about their choices. Thanks for posting this.
Tanya Reimer says
This is such a great post, thank you so much for sharing all this! We learn everyday in this business, and you brought some great points to light. Should fire up a few discussions.
Lindsay says
The marketing is definitely cumulative, and it's a slow slog for most of us. I've gotten to the point where I sell books whether I'm doing any sort of promotion that week or not, and that's a nice spot to reach. A long ways to go reach bestseller status (or a full-time income!) though. 🙂
"An indie that starts from scratch is going to have to hand-sell at least their first hundred books. This means that they are going to have to make a personal connection, talk about their book, and hope for a purchase."
Giving away a free ebook (I did a short story and included an excerpt from my non-free novel with the same characters) can be a big help in the beginning.
~Lindsay
Ebook Endeavors
J. T. Shea says
A self-published book about publishing? How very postmodern! But the title PUB SPEAK could be misunderstood, particularly here in Ireland…
'Zombies who don't ever sleep, and are both excellent writers and marketers.' So those zombie books so popular at the moment could be autobiographical?
Many thanks to Tracy Marchini and Nathan!
Cozy in Texas says
Great post. I found that after self-publishing the second book (High Tide) in my Lowenna series that I sold a lot more of the first (A Graceful Death). A Book blog tour definitely helped. Also, Kindle sales were considerably higher than the printed book on Create Space.
Ann
Moses Siregar III says
While I'm considering what else I might want to add to the discussion, I'll point out that Victorine's last name is spelled "Lieske," not "Lieski."
Nancy Lauzon says
Tracy, good blog. I agree, I think mediocre books will naturally fall by the wayside while the better quality books (better written, well-edited and well-marketed) will rise to the top.
Thanks for sharing your insight.
Nancy Lauzon
https://nancylauzon.blogspot.com
The Chick Dick Blog
allanbard says
Good post, advices! Thanks for sharing! I'd like to add also another advice: never use the services of a literary agent who asks for money to "ëdit" you manuscript! Such people are cheaters, their real job is to find a publisher and after the publication to receive their percentage… Not to add a comma, or a word or 2…
And another on: using sites like zazzle.com, cafepress. com, fiverr? They could be a good way to promote your works and to help "remove" stupidity in the streets like headlines on t-shirts, fridge-magnets, cups, etc: My Boyfriend kisses Better Than Yours, FBI – female body inspector, etc. Not everything we see and think of should be about sex, right? It would be much better if there were more nice pictures (even of mythical creatures), good thoughts, poems (from any genre are welcome I guess), etc? I'm allanbard there, I use some of my illustrations, thoughts, poems from my books (like: One can fight money only with money, Even in the hottest fire there's a bit of water, or
Let's watch the moon, let's meet the sun!
Let's hear soon the way the Deed was done!
Let's listen to the music the shiny crystals played,
let's welcome crowds of creatures good and great…
etc). Best wishes to all writers! Let the wonderful noise of the sea always sounds in your ears! (a greeting of the water dragons' hunters).
Sarah Woodbury says
I think you have to be frank with yourself about what you're looking for in indie publishing. Lots of people have been banging their head against the traditional publishing wall for years. Indie publishing is an opportunity to finally share my stories and move forward with my career.
As long as you go into it with your eyes open, and put up the best product you can, the indie route can be fantastic.
And since someone asked for numbers (again anecdotal and just for Amazon US):
Jan: 22
Feb: 50
March: 272
April: 2038
May: 2445 (so far)