Another Author Flare-Up

I shouldn't be so amused and entertained by this sort of thing, but I am. A self-published author freaks out after a poor review on Amazon cites numerous typos, misspellings, and poor grammar. The entertainment factor kicks in by her response, which is full of... yup, you guessed it! Typos, misspellings, and poor grammar. I've got nothing against self-publishing. I actually admire folks who do it and succeed with it. But really, if you can't act like a professional, at least act like an adult.

Self-Publishing Gains Ground

An article on self-publishing and the various options offered by such companies as AuthorHouse, iUnivers, and Xlibris appeared in the October 15, 2007 Publishers Weekly. It's part of a Special Advertising Section, so it isn't without bias, but it is interesting in the way it sheds a light on these companies as providing a service varying from printing and leaving everything else to the writer to offering marketing, distribution, editorial services, cover art, etc. for books that exceed a set minimum for sales. Not much is said about fiction (okay, nothing specific was mentioned), but the value of getting books published this way for local authors and niche books (health and other non-fiction topics) is emphasized. There was also mention that libraries are considering such books. Charlene Rue, a manager in Brooklyn Public Library's materials selection office, is quoted as saying,

"Urban street lit would not have been published by mainstream publishers, but self-published authors found an audience in urban markets."

In a world where do-it-yourself is increasingly a factor -- in photography, in videos, in music, even prose -- the fuzzing of the borders between pro, traditional, and amateur publishing cannot be ignored or marginalized. Because it's not going away.

But I would still want every traditional publisher for my genre to reject me before I'd go that route.

Author Identity

I'm all for self-publishing. It can be a way for a niche book, especially non-fiction, to reach an audience. Small presses that at first blush appear to be vanity presses might work well as print-on-demand publishers and be part of the true future of publishing. I don't like to discount anything in this era of self-expression. I believe quality will rise to the top and those things of lesser quality will still find the audience that deserves it. I have no problems with that. I do have problems with misleading advertising.

So, it's stories like this on Making Light that give the whole realm of self-publishing and authors who go that route a bad name. The saga of Author Identity is a cautionary tale. Because right now, there is probably a larger percentage of people out to make money for themselves even if they have to mislead others than the percentage of people with talent who decide to brave the world of publishing on their own.

Self-Publishing

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I'm falling behind again and not just in blogging, but reading. Here's an interesting something about self-publishing from the January 8, 2007 Publishers Weekly.

Apparently, independent bookstores are doing events with self-published authors, especially ones local to their area. Most of the authors mentioned have non-fiction in print, but at least one novel was mentioned. The stores hedge their bets by charging the authors a stocking fee to carry their books and most insist on the copies being returnable if they don't sell. But a few quotes from the article show how self-publishing is gaining respect, albeit slowly.

From Arsen Kashkashian, a buyer and inventory manager at Colorado's Boulder Book Store:

"I think self-publishing is just going to keep growing. You ignore it at your own peril."

From Bill Petrocelli, co-owner of Book Passage Bookstore, in California:

"Self-publishing used to be a dead end. Now it's an alternative. When you talk about people who've written a book and they live in your community, they are your customer. It's important to do what we can."

I can't see this being workable in NYC, where everyone, it seems, is a writer, many are possibly self-published, and indie stores are getting very difficult to find. But it is an interesting view.

DIY Publishing

An article in Thursday's NY Daily News covered "Do-it-Yourself Publishing." Some interesting statistics.

In 2005, the 4 largest POD (print on demand) companies -- which according to the paper are iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Xlibris, and Lulu.com, which all btw, have different reputations, AuthorHouse being the one I've heard the worst about and Lulu.com the best -- printed 17,000 which is a 31 per cent increase from 2001. Bowker's Books in Print database is cited as the source of the info.

The usual frustrations are given for reasons: Agents don't take on books or even respond to queries, agents can't place books with publishers after years of trying, authors can't place books after years of trying. But at least, the pitfalls are realistically discussed.

Mark Gompertz of Simon & Schuster says:

"If you believe in your work, it may be possible that we're all wrong." Self-publishing gives authors "the opportunity to prove it."

But, "'Build it and they will come' does not work in publishing," according to Diane Gedymin, editorial director at iUniverse, which is refreshingly realistic given all the furor over self-publishing by POD services. She says, "You have to hustle." Well, d'uh, but not all, or very few self-published authors get that this is still hard work.

iUniverse stats show first-year sales of their books average 125-150 copies, hardly worth boasting about. The figures show that barely covering the printing costs. And, the article notes,

"A wide range in quality means self-published books still carry stigma, and most reviewers won't review them. Bookstores also shy away from stocking them because they typically can't return unsold copies as they can with a traditional publisher."

This quote from Bowker consultant Andrew Grabois is both pertinent and another d'uh statement:

"The reality is, there's a difference between being published and being sold."

But the quote that really caught my attention, because in an era of YouTube and other consumer created content, it might indicate a future for publishing that really does end up breaking with tradition, though I doubt it will happen on a large scale for quite a while. The quote is from Michael Stadther who put up $3 million (would we all have that kind of money to spend) to self-publish a book, then start a POD service called Everyone Gets Published.

"You're letting the buyer determine the quality of the material rather than some intermediary. There are huge groups of people out there that deserve to get published."

Well, yeah, maybe. But that intermediary is better trained than most people, including authors and their family and friends who are enamored of their words to discern what really is publishable. Sure, they can be wrong, but probably are less wrong than the average newbie writer.

And let's face it, as is mentioned in the article, a pro book deal coming from a self-published book is the ideal, the holy grail. We all like to think we're good enough, not just to be published but to earn enough readers to keep putting out books. We'd like affirmation of our skills, be it from reviews or sales or simply an agent or editor saying, "Wow, this is great." We bypass the latter by self-publishing and need to work extra hard to get the former, requiring our time, money, and energy.

I've been of mixed feelings on this topic for a long time. Sure, I print up my little spy stories, written with a couple of friends, but the most readers we've had at our peak is 35-40. That's not even enough to be a blip on the radar. And I certainly don't have time to really promote a novel. I understand having so much faith in your writing that you'll put time and money into getting it to readers, but which is the better option: Doing it yourself or selling it to a publisher who will do a lot of that other work for you? Will they promote your first or even second book as it deserves? If it's good, either can work. If it's not good, nothing is likely to work.

It always comes down to quality, quality as perceived by the many, not the few.

Miscellaneous Posts about Publishing

From Publishers Weekly, 5/23/05 (Yes, it's old. I pulled it out to read later and uh, forgot about it.)

"Reads Well With Others" by Bill Goldstein.

Using Adraina Trigiani as an example, the article explores the new synchronicity between publishers and book buyers via book or reading clubs, with some help from booksellers. Trigiani meets on average with four book clubs a week by phone and considers it part of her job. Other authors are following suit.

"Emboldened by their growing power to turn books into bewstsellers — and extend the sales life of titles far beyond that of most bestsellers — reading groups are making demands and transforming the way publishers, booksellers and authors market titles. It's as if the readers most vital to publishers and booksellers — the dedicated book buyer looking for at least one new book a month and hoping to talk about it with a dozen or more friends who will therefore need to buy it too — have unionized, forming little locals around the country and doing a kind of collective bargaining on behalf of their members. They've asked for and received reading group guides, other supplementary material, and, most of all, direct access to writers through book-club tours, in-store appearances and remote visits via -mail or phone."

Statistics were citing, mainly the success of A. Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, and K. Hosseini's The Kite Runner, all of which got big boosts from word of mouth and their popularity with book clubs.

"Today, many reading group members troll the internet for information about authors and books in order to plan their selections up to a year in advance."

I guess those author websites are a good idea, eh?

"The rise of reading groups' importance coincides with the shrinking of space devoted to reviews and other book coverage in many publications, making these clubs all the more crucial to publishers..."

There's more! According to the article, readers sign up in the thousands for publishers' emailed newsletters and have been asking for and are starting to receive advanced reading copies or gallies. There is much more direct contact between book buyers and publishers and between book buyers and authors. I even signed up for Minette Walters' newsletter and I subscribe to a feed for Michael Marshall Smith's news updates.
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I'm catching up with my Publishers Weeklys which were accumulating during my vacation. In the May 30th (2005) issue, an item called "Books Without Buyers: Cranking it Out" caught my eye. Bowker annually compiles the number of books published in the US and the latest tabulation revealed that while there was a significant increase in titles published, sales didn't increase significantly to match that. According to the article, book production is up 30 per cent, while sales gained less than 5 per cent for that period. The increased production was attributed to small publishers and self-publishers, whereas the larger publishing houses increased book production by less than 10 percent for the same two years. This trend was visible when the years between 1999 and 2004 were compared. The increase by genre was concentrated in Adult Fiction, Religion, Travel, and Home Ec.

Another interesting statistic is that Bowker reported 11,458 new publishers registered with the US ISBN agency last year. That's a whole lot of publishers, folks, and how many do you wanna bet were self-publishers?

It boggles the mind. All those books vying for reader eyeballs. I want to be one such published writer someday, but given how many books are published each year, how many mss are submitted in that time, and how much competition for readers once a book is published (not just among other books, but all the other entertainments out there, including blogging), it's getting harder and harder to be optimistic about the process. But I'm not giving up on it yet. And then again, here I am, with J, trying to make something out of fannish style original fiction books. But no ISBNs yet. Need more folks wanting them before it can become a business, methinks. Hey, it's a niche, right? :)
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According to Publishers Weekly, 4/4/05 issue, Amazon is pairing a known book with an unknown one. For ex, people purchasing Dan Brown's Angels and Demons will get a discount on Sheryl Jane Stafford's A Deadly Exchange. Never heard of Stafford? Neither have I. She had her book self-published with Writer's Showcase Press, a company known for its bestsellers, NOT. How did she manage this packaging feat? She paid for it.

Apparently, Amazon will pair any unknown author with a known one if the unknown is willing to pay a fee. And this can be a good thing because it can raise the awareness factor for small press books. A good author with a good book but no track record can get instant attention and reach a wider audience. Unfortunately, things are never that simple. Because along with the worthy books meeting the requirement (paid fee) will be a lot of drek, unedited atrocities of the sort PublishAmerica puts out (which isn't to say all PA books are drek, but when you have no standards, odds are the majority of your books are going to have serious problems).

According to PW, the program is known as BXGY for Buy X Get Y, and can be found on the site under "Best Value." The "Best Value" program has been around for a few years, but lately, it seems a lot of lesser knowns have figured out how to take advantage of the situation, by opening their wallets. And there's no way to tell on the site that this is different than the "Better Together" deals that are not sponsored and are book pairings made by Amazon, itself.

I already distrusted Amazon for its odd reviews (anyone can write them, including an author's family, without making mention of personal connections) and the often outright weird listings in "People who bought this book also bought these." Now I have yet another reason to be wary of what I find on Amazon.com.