Self publishing and the reviewer
From: Daily Beast
Recently I have been thinking more about self publishing. When I created my review policy two years ago the only self pub pitches I were receiving were completely off the mark of what I read and completely unedited. The self publishing game is changing and I wonder if my policy isn’t out of date.
The Big Six keep me booked up and have for the past two years. I have been working hard to accommodate books that are outside of those six publishers and I have been very happy with the quality of the books I am getting from other presses. Can I be just as happy with a self published author’s work?
I have been pitched for books that sound perfect for me, that have been edited professionally, the author has paid for cover design and in some cases the author has an agent – and the agent is the publisher. My policy states that I don’t accept self published books because I can’t be entirely sure of the quality and I don’t have time to discern the quality of these books and I rely on the gatekeepers to make these decisions for me due to my limited time.
If the author is agented, or has spent a good amount of time and money with and on an editor – then surely I can expect quality, oui?
Lifting my self publishing ban could be like opening a floodgate of irrelevant pitches. However, I get plenty of pitches that are ridiculously off kilter anyway and I have always been able to discern what is wanted or needed from those emails.
I have accepted two so far, both agented authors. So, I suppose I will see how this goes when I read them. For now, what are your thoughts? Are you thinking of lifting the ban now that self publishing is more than self help books penned by authors who had their mother’s edit the book?
Guest Post: Why I self publish by G.L. Drummond
G.L. Drummond writes amazing fantastical stories and shares them with the world. I have had the pleasure of buying and reading a short of hers and was blown away and wishing for more. She can be found on Feral Intensity and links to all her other stuff are on that site as well. Follow G.L. on Twitter!
Mentioning that you self-publish can cause sneers of superiority and whispers about failure. After all, everyone knows you’re not a real author until you’ve been traditionally published.
To be honest, I never considered the traditional publishing route. The days of an author receiving a hefty advance and being able to quit the old day job to pursue writing full time have flown. It’s the lucky author who has that sort of success in the times we’re living in.
Having read around quite a bit over the past several months, I’ve seen it said that traditional publishers don’t really make any promotional efforts for most of their authors’ books; that a $4,000 advance seems to be typical for a first book, and that six months to a year can be how long it takes to pay back an advance before royalties start trickling in – if they ever do.
If your book doesn’t earn back its advance, in most cases, you can kiss getting another book traditionally published good-bye.
Why anyone would torture themselves by submitting manuscripts, being continually rejected, and then maybe not being rejected, to end up with only enough money to possibly take care of a month or a few months’ worth of living expenses is something I really can’t fathom.
And newsflash: I’ve seen it stated by people in traditional publishing that a lot of work is rejected, not because it sucks, but because of other reasons that all have to do with business. It’s good, but it’s not mainstream enough. They don’t have room/funds to risk on an unknown right now. Etcetera, etcetera.
Self-publishing isn’t always the choice of the wannabe author whose been rejected hundreds of times because their work sucks ground glass.
Sometimes, it’s the choice of those who don’t see any sense in wasting their time going through that process, losing the rights to their work for years and having no choice about whose fingers are in the pie.
It isn’t for every author, of course. You don’t have backup in the form of an agent, professional editor, cover designer or get a check that will ease your financial woes, however briefly.
There are a lot of services offered by self-publishing businesses that will fill in those blanks, but the cost for each can be prohibitive for most authors. In most cases, you can find less expensive alternatives with a little time and effort.
I self-publish, mainly ebooks, though I have published a couple of print books, and will publish more in the future.
My writing doesn’t suck, though of course it’s not to everyone’s tastes. I write fantasy, usually involving preternatural, supernatural or paranormal characters and events.
That’s actually the first thing every author should learn: Not everyone’s going to love your work.
Deal with it, or find something else to do. Getting into arguments with reader/reviewers is pointless. You’re not going to force them to like it by doing so. You’re just going to come across as a big jerk.
My reasons for self-publishing are:
1. Less wasted time.
2. Being able to select my own support staff (in my case, my editor).
3. Retaining control of my rights to my work.
4. Controlling both cover price and distribution platforms.
5. Not being forced into using DRM on my ebooks.
6. Picking the fingers that get stuck in the financial pie.
7. No waiting around for next work to be published.
Being traditionally published doesn’t guarantee success. Self-publishing doesn’t negate the possibility of achieving success.
I released my first ebook at Amazon on December 12, 2007. My first sale was a month later.
Since then, I’ve improved as a writer, and have learned new skills to present my books more professionally in regards to formatting. I’ve also found an editor who does a great job of polishing my work while teaching me what my most common mistakes are, further improving my writing skills.
I do everything but final editing on each of my titles.
Am I earning money hand over fist? No – but then I wouldn’t be if traditionally published either, so that’s not really a selling point for seeking traditional publishing for me.
I’d have to sell a lot of traditionally published books in a short period of time to keep my work from disappearing into the void where I could do nothing with it until the contract ran out.
Self-publish a book, and barring it being pulled from my selected distribution platforms for some reason, it’s out there until I decide to pull it because it hasn’t had a sale in months or whatever reason I may have.
There’s no pressure; no ‘it has to sell 60,000 copies within two weeks of release or my writing career is over’ angst going on.
It can sink or swim, because I owe no one (except my editor!); I continue writing regardless. To me, that’s the definition of being a successful writer: continuing to write.
I’m not going to apologize for taking the self-publishing route and skipping all the rejections and wasted time. I don’t understand why other authors even care who is self-publishing or who isn’t.
When you think about it, the route you chose still has the same goal: finding people who want to read your work.
As a self-publisher, I just don’t have someone breathing down my neck while waiting for those readers, and the only people judging my work are those readers.
An Open Letter to Self Pubbed Authors
Dear Self Pubbed Author,
It’s not that I hate you or your book, or even that I don’t want to review them here on my site. Because I do really I do. I know how hard you work to try to get the word out about your product, and I understand how hard it is to continually hear the words no over and over. However some of these no’s you are bringing on yourself.
If you read my review policy it clearly states that I do not accept e-books at this time, so do not email me asking me if I would like to have a pdf copy of your book. The answer is no. If you read my policy it tells you the genre we review here on bookalicio.us, which is YA fiction, even with some names of authors that are comparable. This is because these books are what the target audience at bookalicio.us expect to see. So when you send me a review request for your financial strategy manual, again the answer is no.
A couple of more things before I go. Please do not use Twitter/Facebook/Myspace or any other social media to ask me for reviews, that is to say hello and to let people know what you have going on as an author. I have an about page with a policy and an email address. Oh and don’t spam me, and you know how I know. It’s when I see “undisclosed recipients” instead of my email address there in that little box that says to in the email.
So please bring me your tired, your hungry, and your weary, YA fantasy and fiction self pubbed authors. The rest quit spamming my blog and the blogs of others. Take time to read the review policies and word will get out how awesome you are for doing that.
Thank you,
Pam van Hylckama Vlieg
