Self-Publishing: Valid Choice? Part 1
Part 1: My Mom Made Me Do It
Is self-publishing a valid choice for a writer?
Yes.
No.
Maybe.
I guess it all depends on two things: whom you talk to and what your expectations are.
This subject has been fought on many battlefields so let me say up front that my intention is not to engage in another battle or to offend anyone so if you’re easily offended and think you have to defend your own personal choice, please stop reading now and move to another arena where someone might be willing to engage in hand to hand. I won’t. This is my blog so I’ll present the facts as I know them to be true and give my opinion based on those facts. You don’t have to like it or even read it, but that won’t change the accuracy of the facts. More on all this in the days to come as I continue this series.
You may well wonder, after that long speech, why I’m even interested in self-publishing. It’s my mom’s fault. So first let me tell you why I’m involved in self-publishing.
My Mom Made Me
A few years ago after my dad died I talked my mom into writing about the past in order to keep her interested in life. I was also interested in her past as a child during the Great Depression. I published her essays on my website until her collection outgrew the space I’d allotted. So I told her that perhaps we should put them all into a book that she could give to all her friends, her children, and her grandchildren.
My intention was to print them up nicely on my computer and spiral bind them. She had other ideas. In fact, Mom had it all figured out. She thought she could publish them and people would throng to bookstores to buy her memoirs. Unfortunately, I had to tell her the hard truth: unless you’re a household name, no publisher is interested in your memoirs no matter how fascinating your story.
Backup Plan
Of course, Mom had a backup plan. She figured I would put the whole thing together, and get it self-published. What can I say? Mom was an only child. She’s used to getting her way. So I spent several months in 2007 researching all the various self-publishing companies that utilize print on demand (POD) technology.
Zero to Hundreds
Companies like Lulu, Word Clay, Booklocker, and Create Space all had their advantages and disadvantages. How much you wanted to spend determined how much of the work you had to do yourself. If you farmed it all out, it could cost a lot, but if you were willing to do all the prep work, for instance, write, format, layout, and cover art, you could get a book published for zero with some of the companies. That way, you pay nothing unless you order a copy. You don’t have to purchase inventory or deal with shipping either. The customer orders and pays at the publisher’s website who also takes care of shipping.
Test Sample
Of course, you have to know what you’re doing, or you end up with a cheap product that no one wants. Unfortunately, that probably describes 90% or more of self-published books. When I became interested in self-publishing, I ordered a representative sample of the self published books from various sites. I chose these books based upon the web page for that book. If the cover looked decent, the description sounded good, and there were no grammatical errors on the web page, I ordered the book. Of about 10 books, only one was really worth reading. It had a great story and was well written, but the grammatical errors and typos drove me crazy.
Even though my mom’s memoirs which she titled Memory Lane were just for family and friends, I wanted the book to look as good as if it had rolled off the presses at Doubleday. Since I’m a good writer with a good esthetic sense, I wasn’t worried about making it read well and look good. However, layout and format had to be specifically created in PDF files. My word processing software could save in that format, but I invested in the Adobe suite, used by professionals, because I didn’t want to risk having the uploaded files be rejected.
Professional Help
Another asset I had was my daughter who is a professional artist. I told her how I wanted the book to look. She made the font selections, did the layout, and designed the cover. I’m proud of the end result.
Bottom Line
All of this is a long way of saying: create a professional looking product. If you don’t know what you’re doing, pay someone to help you. If you don’t know how to find someone like that, ask on writers’ web sites. I know I would try to help if someone asked me for advice. So don’t be afraid to ask.
All of 2008 was spent editing my mother’s stories in order to make them accessible to a broader audience. Since I spent my spare time on this, it took most of the year. Before Thanksgiving I had the files ready. Since all he publishers I’d researched used the same 6 X 9 trade paper format, I didn’t have to change the layout.
In the end, I chose CreateSpace because they provided a free ISBN and bar coded the project. The other self-publishing companies I studied charged for the ISBN.
Come back tomorrow when I’ll talk about the lessons to learn from self-publishing that will help you in your writing career.
Takeaway Truth
Explore all options to determine if they have value.
