"Potential Self Publishing Mudholes"
by Ruth Nestvold
I
began it because a good friend of mine, another writer who was with me at the
Clarion West Writers’ Workshop in Seattle many years ago, got the rights back
for a traditionally published novel and now wants to self-publish. With all the
questions she was sending me, I realized that I couldn’t really do the subject
justice in e-mail, so I started “answering” them on my blog.
In
my series, I’ve talked a lot about what authors should do leading up to
self-publishing their work, but I’ve said very little about the mistakes they
can make along the way.
Perhaps this post will help some of those who are
considering self-publishing to weigh the risks against the advantages when
making a decision about how to move forward.
Needless
to say, these “mistakes” are a subjective list of things I have noticed in
myself and others on the road to indie publishing.
The beauty and the curse of
self-publishing is that it is so much easier and faster than going the
traditional route, which can take years and (most of the time) still result in
nothing. A fact that is often ignored is that self-publishing -- while faster
-- most of the time also results in nothing. Which leads me straight to the
first mistake made by indie authors.
Great Expectations
Most
writers considering self-publishing have heard the stories of outliers such as
Amanda Hocking, Hugh Howey, and H. M. Ward, authors who have landed bestsellers
with self-published works. Of course, we would all like to think that we could
be one of those outliers, but the vast majority of us never will be. More
ebooks are being published every day, and that means that there are more works
competing for the attention of readers, while the market itself isn’t getting
any bigger.
The
indie authors I know personally who are having the greatest success are publishing
several books a year, sometimes even one a month. And most of those successful
authors are publishing in some kind of romance-related genre, such as erotic,
paranormal or new adult. Authors publishing in niche genres such as Arthurian
fiction or literary time travel (that’s me, folks!) have little chance of
hitting the bestseller lists, no matter how good their work is.
Underestimating the work
needed
Like
any other art, writing is a craft that involves practice and training: learning
the essentials of plot, characterization, setting, etc.; developing a regular
writing routine; learning how to revise and edit your own work. As opposed to many arts,
writing is something you can teach yourself, although most writers can benefit
from taking courses in writing and/or workshopping their fiction. Critiques
from other writers not only help in catching problems in your writing, they can
help prepare the beginning writer for the reviews of readers who have paid for
the published work -- and which can be merciless.
All
of this, however, takes a lot of time and dedication. The advent of
self-publishing has made learning the craft of writing unnecessary in order to
publish. But the vast majority of those who have never spent much time honing
fiction writing skills will most likely end up with scathing critiques and few
sales.
Spending too much
This
mistake goes hand in hand with the first two mistakes I mentioned above. An
inexperienced writer who has not spent much time learning the craft and/or
researching the ins and outs of self-publishing can be tempted to put all their
faith in “packaging” -- i.e. hiring professional editors and cover designers to
hopefully make their work into a bestseller.
While
I am a proponent of making your book as professional as you can, there are a
number of questions a writer needs to ask herself before she plops down
hundreds of dollars for self-publishing services:
- Have
I run the work through a critique group, writing workshop, or beta readers and
seriously weighed the issues they found and tried to revise accordingly?
- Do
I feel insulted/misunderstood when someone I have shown my work tries to
provide constructive criticism? A writer who feels this way may not be able
to recognize when editorial advice is justified.
- Am
I writing in a niche/genre which has little chance of ever making back the
money invested in expensive editing services or high-priced cover art?
Spending too little
In
my experience, this tends to be a mistake more often made by experienced
writers who have been published in traditional venues. Unfortunately, having
already received one or more checks or Paypal payments for your fiction does
not make you immune to mistakes. Nor does it make you a graphic designer. But
as numerous bad self-published covers show, many writers prefer to believe the
old adage, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
While
that might be true, very few readers will be tempted to buy a book with a cover
that looks thrown together by someone who has no idea of graphic design -- and
little knowledge of standard programs like Photoshop or Gimp.
And
while a multi-published author is unlikely to make the same mistakes in the
text as a less experienced writer, we all miss typos, etc., in our own
work -- which is why we all need either proofreaders or very dedicated beta
readers, who are willing to take the time to point out the kinds of boo-boos we
were unable to catch because we were just too close to what we wrote.
As
with many things, it can be much too easy to overestimate our own editing and
design skills. We all need reality checks at times, and those can be provided
by critique groups or cover uploads to Facebook or blogs.
In conclusion
Writers
considering going into self-publishing should do their best to research the
market, read articles and books on the subject, and develop a plan. I highly
recommend KBoards as a place to start. Do your best to have fun along the way. Self-publishing is challenging, but if you can develop strategies you enjoy, that will help a lot in getting you to your goal.
Ruth Nestvold's latest book, Island of Glass, will be available on Amazon on October 28, 2014.
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Chiara
Dragoni is a master glassmaker of Venice, a position that is both a privilege —
and a trap. For the glassmakers of Murano are forbidden to ever leave the
islands of the Venetian lagoon.
When Chiara's uncle is
caught on the mainland and thrown into the dungeon of the Doge's Palace, she
must use all her talents, including magic, to help free him. But the gift she
creates for the prince of Venice has unintended consequences, and now Chiara
must decide whether to give up everything
— and everyone — she knows and
loves in order to save her dream.
Set in an alternate historical
Venice with alchemists, witches and magic, the story uses familiar motifs from
the beloved fairy tale "Cinderella" to tell a tale with a very
different message.
Island of Glass is a Young Adult fantasy novella of approximately
25,000 words, or 100 pages. It is the first book in The Glassmakers
Trilogy. Now
available for pre-order for an introductory price of only 99c!
A bit of background on Ruth: Ruth Nestvold’s
short stories have appeared in numerous markets, including Asimov’s,
F&SF, Baen’s Universe, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and Gardner
Dozois’s Year’s Best Science Fiction.
Her fiction has been nominated for
the Nebula, Tiptree, and Sturgeon Awards. In 2007, the Italian translation of
her novella “Looking Through Lace” won the “Premio Italia” award for best
international work. Her novel Yseult appeared in German translation as Flamme
und Harfe with Random House Germany and has since been translated into
Dutch and Italian. It is now available as an ebook in the original English.
Find Ruth Nestvold on the Internet:
Ruth's books are available on:
