Derek Parker, for many years the editor of The Author told me years ago that there was one subject on which he got more submissions than any other: how it feels to be accepted by a publisher and finally see your work in print. Given how profoundly most authors feel about the validation that comes from being published, it is likely that the inbox of the current editor receives just as much material on the same theme.
So please forgive me for adding to a much over-written about subject. My reasoning is this. Today is the publication date for The Naked Author, a guide to self-publishing (Bloomsbury) in the US.
OK the date is largely arbitrary. It was published in the UK last October, and I have meanwhile been communicating via Twitter (@alisonbav) with a growing number of writers, and writing support groups, in the US. The foreword to my book was written by Mark Coker – founder of smashwords.com – whom I visited in California last year, and who is increasingly hard to pin down as he tours North America giving seminars and taking part in conferences on self-publishing – indeed we are next getting together at uPublishU in New York next month. But from today, my book becomes officially discoverable in its own right in the US; has its own place in the catalogue of books available from US publishers, and can be ordered and commented upon in bookstores (and associated fora) of all types.And yes, this is exciting.
Writing a book is often compared to the process of pregnancy and childbirth – you deliver, snuggle the output and after a suitable period hand it over to others who will help it make its own way in the world. Initial separation anxiety can be enormous – Truman Capote said ‘finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it’. But even though today the author can influence its reception in new ways, for example by blogging, tweeting and using other social media, what you offer still stands (or falls) largely on its own. You deliver up the best you can do – how it will be received is beyond your control. And if those who read it don’t like it they have all the same channels available to them to let the world know.
The US is an enormous market and a country I have visited at least a couple of times a year since 1980 (we have family in New Jersey and Washington). And just as my husband and I now go out to see our eldest son living in Madrid, and love being shown around a city we barely know by our offspring who is entirely at home there, I now have a mental image of my book, Dick Whittington-like, gazing at road signs and wondering where it will go next. Until I catch up with it in New York and Washington in June, I hope it behaves itself.
In the longer term, my hope for the book is that it becomes both established – and used. A lot of research time went into its compilation and so it would be a huge pity if all that effort went to waste. I am delighted to say that so far it has been consistently well reviewed, but perhaps I should hope that it becomes respected – rather than a classic. After all, as Mark Twain (who incidentally also experimented with self-publishing) said ‘a classic is a book which people praise and don’t read.’
This is interesting, but I think there may be a danger of underestimating the sophistication of self-publishing services available today, and the way in which they get used. Many writers use social media to raise the profile of their work, and in the process demonstrate that there is a market - before approaching the traditional industry and asking for external investment (which is what you are doing when you ask a publisher to handle your material).
The boundaries are also blurring. We are both blogging and this may encourage others to look at our work. So are we already self-publishing, in that we are making content available, or marketing? It's a fast changing environment. I think the key thing to hang on to, as you so rightly imply, is that the work at the centre of all this activity must be as good as you can make it.
By the way, there is a forum at Birkbeck College, London tonight (Thursday 17thMay) on self-publishing. 6.00pm at 30 Russell Square (room 101). Do come along if you want to debate this some more....
Hi Alison.
The world of self-publishing has exploded, but it is in its infancy. It does not inspire me as it obviously does you. I intend to use the traditional route to try and publish my first novel. I feel more confident about using the well tried and trusted formula.
I can understand the appeal of self-publishing to those that have suffered multiple rejections of their work. They may be determined to publish, because they refuse to believe their work lacks the quality, or originality that traditional publishers are looking for.
How many of these new opportunities are vanity publishers in another guise?
Some authors will prosper through self-publishing. But to my knowledge, there are few previously unknown authors who have benefited from self-publishing. However, I sincerely hope that the number increases if this is the beginning of a massive growth industry.
Unknown authors with the best chance of recognition, appear to be those who have friends or good contacts in the industry.
I may be proved wrong, but self-publishing seems to be the main domain for established authors to maximise their earning potential.
Good luck with the launch
I wish your book every success.
Good Luck with the American launch. I feel sure that after the recent self-publishing successes in the market, there will be plenty of people looking to read about exactly this. The guides to writing and publishing seem to have been a huge growth area in the last few years. More and more people are ignoring the industry entirely and taking their dream directly to the reader. Interesting times!