Self-Publish…Or Don't

Some of the letters in response to last month’s column told me flat-out that I didn’t know what I was talking about when I asserted that A Writer Is A Writer, whether published or not.

Many of these letters made the argument that publication isn’t the measure of a writer—money is.

Typical of these letters is the one that follows. (Please note: Not a word was changed, not even the signature. I’m tickled that the writer has caught the less than reverent spirit (virus?) of this column.)

Q: "When people ask me what I do or what I am, I tell them about my job, or my dog, or my tennis game, but in my head I say, "I'm a writer." Why don't I tell them I'm a writer? Because, I've never been paid. If I'm not being paid then I don't have a way to gauge the value of my writing. So, what makes a Writer?"
Signed, All Typed Up and No Place To Go

A: As a radical laissez faire capitalist (In therapy; making progress; please don’t be concerned.) I am the first to say that money is a wonderful invention. It allows us to trade, to transfer ownership, temporarily or permanently, without having to first kill or marry one another. And, while I recognize that money is, indeed, how most societies and individuals now inhabiting this planet determine who and what is "valuable", I think all those societies and billions of individuals are dead wrong.

Listen, All Typed Up: I have compassion for the deep insecurity, the denial of self-worth implicit in your being ashamed to declare yourself to be a writer because no one will pay you to be one. There are times, dark, lonely, godforsaken times, such as every morning before my first cup of coffee, when I share your shame, and your complete inability to "gauge the value" of the writing for which so few people have chosen to pay me so little.

But let me ask you, has your husband/wife/lover paid you for making love to them? Are only prostitutes true lovers, since they get paid for the work? What’s the going rate on reading a bedtime story to a child? Do the kids under ten get a discount? And what about the beds those kids are sleeping in and those pajamas they’re wearing—how much did they pay you for those things? Other than George Bush’s last tax kickback, has anyone paid you to vote? Has your neighbor ever paid you for saying hello, when you are out walking the dog? And for that matter, are you being paid to walk that dog? Some people do get paid to walk dogs, but I see an awful lot of amateurs on the streets when I’m walking my dog—are we all not dog walkers, too?

Dang, All Typed Up! If I could only be paid for making love, telling bedtime stories, voting, being a neighbor, and walking my dog—then I could afford to spend the rest of my time writing and giving my work away for free!

More Questions…And Questionable Answers
(letters have been edited for clarity…names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Q: Dan Poynter makes self-publishing look easy. Is it? If I plan to do my own marketing, does it make sense to self-publish?
Signed, Hungry Like the Wolf

A: Alex Rodriguez makes baseball look easy. George Washington made tactical retreats look easy. Alexis D’Touqueville made brilliant cultural insight look easy. My dog makes being in a constant state of joyful good will toward all creatures (except squirrels) look easy.

Dan Poynter has done more to promote and professionalize self-publishing than any one person has. It’s also how he makes his living—he created the job title, Self-Publishing Guru.

You can follow Dan’s detailed how-to instructions and self-publish your own work. But where, Hungry Like the Wolf, did Dan say or write that it’s easy? He has repeatedly said it’s rewarding—if it’s right for you, and if you are right for it. And yes, he does make self-publishing look like a heck of a lot of fun. I suspect that is because he’s having such a good time making a lot of money doing it.

About your second question: If you plan to do your own marketing then you’re the lead wolf, and way ahead of the pack. Whether you go with a publisher, or self-publish, the work of marketing is now and shall henceforward remain, the work of the author. And what’s so bad about that? Who would work harder to sell your book, an employee of a publishing firm 3,000 miles away who has to spend her day marketing twelve other books and spend her night writing her own book—or you?


Q: I have had [my book manuscript] reviewed by competent editors who encouraged me to send it to agents and publishers. I did. Most agents have rejected it. Publishers have not commented yet after 2 months. My editors [also]suggested self-publishing… I can see the benefits. My biggst concern is time to print. My message is needed now. It is very timely and current.
Mary Gough-Round


A: Time is not always of the essence, Mary. But sometimes, it is. Making a book is faster than ever before. With the viable options of Print on Demand and short-run digital technologies, books of low to excellent quality can be produced in a few weeks, or even in a few days, instead of many months.

But production is only one challenge. What consumes even more time is the very belly of the beast we call publishing: distribution. Getting the book into the reader’s hands is the name of the game.

Enter the World Wide Web. In theory, the moment you have your working website online, you can potentially distribute—sell and be paid for—your book.

But to build real distribution, even on the Web, takes real time. Utilizing many of the same tools as the print self-publisher, the web self-publisher must promote, promote, promote. All of this work takes time and energy and intelligence and integrity and persistence—the very same stuff that non-Web publishing takes.

And all the above is futile if your content isn’t compelling. Just like print.

So, if urgency is the defining quality of your book, you have more tools available than ever before. Consider the Web, consider ebook publishing, consider HTML newsletter publishing, and consider combinations, such as integrating Web-based distribution with Print on Demand production.


Q: I am leaning toward self-publishing. My biggest concern is getting a good content editor to suggest changes and revisions before we print. My editors are more comfortable with grammar and syntax. Any suggestions on getting good content editorial while self-publishing? This can get costly too. Any suggestions on sharing in
sales proceeds to an editor?
Cher D. Wealth

A: Shari: You’ve exposed a central problem of all authors, and even more so of self-publishing authors: how do I get my work thoughtfully read, and analyzed, and responded to, before publishing, so I can make it stronger?

In the old school, many believed that the Publisher fulfilled this role, nurturing, analyzing, suggesting, proposing and posing, all to enable, to assist, the author in making a stronger book, so that they both might earn more money. Maybe that still happens somewhere, sometimes, once in a while, maybe with smaller publishers who devote the time and energy to offer thoughtful analysis to authors they’ve already accepted, or are working to accept, for publishing.

New school: the author contributes to, and is often solely responsible for, just about everything. Even in roles traditionally fulfilled by the publisher, e.g., marketing, these days the author is the driving force that will make or remainder any given book.

Finding a competent first reader, or several first readers, is one of the most important jobs of any serious writer who is building a support team for their career. It's worth paying for. And there is no shortage of professional editors who will take your money.

Yet money is not always what will connect you to an insightful, creative, engaged first reader. Sometimes the author’s literary agent fulfills this role. Sometimes, rarely, the author’s spouse is the perfect content editor.

Gerry Williams, a San Diego film maker I’ve interviewed, has a circle of writer-friends that come to his studio and do an informal staged reading of his screenplays. He has found that not only does the group reading bring the material alive, it shows him the weaknesses, the places where people stumble, or their interest flags.

My best content editor I’ve ever found is a freelance greeting card artist and worm rancher in Oregon.

Sometimes, a person who has expertise in the field(s) covered by the book, even if they are not professional editors, are the ones to approach for content evaluation and analysis, or at the very least, for leads to those editors who can offer the same.

As to your idea of inducing a good content editor to work "on a percentage" of (hoped-for) sales of the book, as opposed to being paid their fee up front—it’s a fine idea to explore.

Once you’ve found her.

Q: I have 30 years of experience in management. I have a BA, MS, Ph.D., MBA and some post doctoral training. I managed a publishing company and published several books during this effort.
-Manny DeGrees

A: Hey, Manny: You’ve got more resume than any self-publisher I know. And there is always the chance that some, or all, or none of your education and work experience will help you succeed at self-publishing.

No one can tell you what to do, what’s right for you.

Consider all your goals and abilities and creatively visualize what it might be like to self-publish your book. If you can see yourself making mistakes that take money out of your own pocket, not your employer’s pocket; making an ass out of yourself on radio and television and in front of small gatherings of strangers; being told by someone that you, through your book, made their life different, even better—and feeling a quiet sense of purpose and satisfaction when doing all the above—then maybe, and still only maybe, self-publishing is for you.

It's your choice: Self-Publish…Or don’t.

Just who the heck is buying books, anyhow?
According to the American Booksellers Association:

• 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book in the past year.
• 70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 58% of the adult U.S. population never reads another book after high school.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book after graduation.
• Adults in the U.S. spent $25.6 billion on books the past year.
• $5.4 billion was spent on movies in 1995.

What that guy named Dan Poynter has to say about these statistics:

The total amount of knowledge is doubling more quickly each year. The pessimist might say the market is small and shrinking. The optimist might say look at the size of the untapped potential market.

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