One Writer’s Journey: Adventures in Publishing
This sounds strange to most people when I talk about it, but I have never pursued a traditional book deal. I mean that. Never in my life. I sent my first novel, The Lost Village, to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in New York in about 2001. A nice editor got back to me and commended me on the ambitiousness of my novel, said I was a promising writer and that The Lost Village was actually a great book, but, no one would publish it because it was too long. 258,000 words. He told me there wasn’t a publisher in the land that would touch a first time author with a book of that length. He qualified that and said that if I was a celebrity author like King or Patterson it would be fine, no problem, I could publish my laundry list and it would sell. But I wasn’t King or Patterson, I was an unknown. And publishers wanted nice tidy little eighty to one-hundred-thousand word books from unknown authors. Please send something else along that’s at a more appropriate length.
Well, that was that, fuck you very much. I never sent another thing to that agency or any other agency for that matter. Maybe I’ve got a thin skin, but I was not interested in going through my writing life having to endure rejection after rejection. No way, no how. I was keenly aware of the statistics. One writer friend of mine had been rejected so many times he was on the verge of suicide.
So, this is what I did. Way back in the dark ages before kindle and nook and all those other reading devices we now take for granted were invented, I decided to self-publish my magnum opus. This was before Amazon or any of the other booksellers were selling e-books. If you wanted to self-publish a book you needed to go through one of those “vanity” presses that charged for services. That’s what I did. I brought The Lost Village out in hardcover and trade paperback and sold downloadable copies from my website to those who were willing to read an enormous book on their computer screens. The book actually came out pretty well. It was formatted nicely, had a good cover. I signed up with the New England Horror Writers, did some group signings, made some friends, and, to my amazement, the book began to sell. Before long I was receiving some nice reviews from fellow authors as well as readers, and low and behold I found out that several ‘respectable’ authors with ‘real’ published books had recommended to the HWA (the Horror Writer’s Association) that The Lost Village be nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. But of course it wasn’t nominated. Back then, and even now, the HWA has a very hard time recognizing anything self-published. They love their legacy publishers, and if your work isn’t sanctioned by one of them, well. They claim they consider all published works, and I believe they do, but it’s been my experience that very few independent books have ever been nominated, let alone won an award. No matter, they are for the most part, a good and beneficial organization and their current president Rocky Wood is a super nice guy. But I believe that if they continue on their present course they will soon become as irrelevant as bookstores and legacy publishers.
The Lost Village sold well without the benefit of being sanctioned by a legacy publisher, or being recognized by the Horror Writers Association.
In the meantime I wrote several other books and was doing okay publishing short stories in various magazines and anthologies.
Then two and a half years ago, on a whim, I sent my novella, The Haunting of Sam Cabot to the small press, Damnation Books. Now this is the important part. Are you listening? It was the first time in my writing life that I had ever sent a manuscript to a book publisher. You heard me right. The very first time. I really liked being independent. At the time, Kindle was a brand new concept and I had never heard of it. Damn my error. Well, I heard right back from Damnation Books that they wanted to publish my book. Wow! First time. Couldn’t believe it. They subsequently published two more of my books and re-issued The Lost Village. I signed five year contracts on each of those books. I wish I never had. It was just about the time Kindle exploded and I was suddenly tied down to a publisher who priced my books much too high to sell well on Kindle. Even so, The Haunting of Sam Cabot has done very well. It has been a consistently good seller for more than two years. The others are hit and miss. To my utter chagrin they priced The Lost Village at $9.95. Celebrity authors can get away with selling e-books at that price, unfortunately nobody else can. Try telling that to my publisher. Even so, The Lost Village sells consistently at that price, (usually managing to stay in the top 100,000 sales rank) but I know in my heart that if it had been priced at $2.99 where it should be, it would have been a Kindle bestseller by now. I’ve begged and pleaded with my publisher to just try it but they won’t budge. Too bad for them because they have lost me as an author. When my book contracts run out I will not be renewing with them. Not that they probably care much anyway, they have a stable of hundreds of authors now, most of which seem quite satisfied to earn 17.5% of the list price instead of the 70% they could earn as independents. Go figure. I guess the prestige of having a REAL publisher outweighs everything else including earnings.
I have since self-published a collection of shorts for kindle Servants of Darkness that’s been doing very well for a collection (Collections aren’t supposed to be good sellers) and I’ve published several other novellas, and a bunch of short stories, and I have two new novels coming after the first of the year that I will most definitely self-publish.
So, here I am, right back to square one. I have always been a strong advocate of self-publishing. I fell down once and signed with a publisher, but unless I’m offered a huge amount of money and great e-book terms I will never ever do it again. I’m having too much fun on my own.
As I said in a previous post, this is just me. Each writer has to find his or her own path. I feel that my own writing journey is just beginning. The time has never been better for the independent author. Any way you do it takes time and patience. If you decide to self-publish, make sure you have a good book, a good cover and a great description. Hire a good editor and listen to what that person has to say. Once all that is done, put your book out there and promote it until you’re exhausted. With all of those things and a little luck maybe you will become the next Kindle bestseller.
November 26th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Thanks for sharing this post, Mark. It was very educational, especially for someone like myself who is just getting started. Good to make your acquaintance.
-Jimmy
November 26th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Good to make your acquaintance as well, James. I wish you every success in your writing and publishing journey.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:22 am
Great post, Mark! I’m totally with you on not signing rights to books away. I’ve been there, done that as well and I’d have to be offered a pretty huge deal to go there again. Even with my shorts now, I don’t submit unless it’s purely one time print rights they’re after. Authors should keep control over their own work.
November 27th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Yeah, Marissa, I don’t see any point in signing your rights away in an atmosphere where, 1: bookstores are closing at an alarming rate. 2: even if you do get a book deal, the advance is low or non-existent and the publisher can’t guarantee your book will be visible for longer than a few weeks before they pull it to make room for the next flavor of the week. 3: they make you sign away your e-rights, which today are the most important rights you have. 4: they pay you 17.5% when if you go it alone you can earn 70%. You can buy an awful lot of editing and book covers for the difference. That’s the problem. You keep paying long after those things are paid off. Mid-list writers don’t get promoted by their publishers anyway. Most contracts state that if you sign with them you are responsible for your own promotion. So what’s left? The only thing I can think of are bragging rights to your friends and family that you landed a traditional book deal. Wow. Big deal. If you sign with a publisher you are giving up all your rights to your own work for a very long time. I know, I’ve been there.
November 27th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Thanks so much for this post, Mark! I had two books published the traditional route and have recently published one on my own. Though I know there’s a lot of work that goes into any type of publishing, such as self-promotion, being an Indie feels empowering. My book’s barely hit the Amazon website and the Kindle version’s still being finished up, but I’m proud of the work. I hired an editor and a top-notch graphic designer and I’m glad I did. It’s quite a venture to self publish! I look forward to following your journey in publishing.
November 27th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Thanks for replying, Cindy. I wish you great success with your independent endeavors. I honestly believe that we writers have a better chance if we go it alone than we do with traditional publishers. If I didn’t believe that I would be turning my two new novels over to my publisher. Instead I am taking that leap of faith and doing what I’ve always believed in my heart is the right thing.
December 9th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Great post, Mark! Your common sense matches your great writing ability. I so love how you stress the editing and cover art that must be present to have a successful book.
While I have my own small publishing house, I am aware of the great benefits of total control of your “baby.” Personally, I don’t have the skills you have to go the route you’re going, so I hire great people to do these things for me. I’m merely a writing machine.
My co-owned Press is really a labor of love. I give authors a chance to showcase their talents, see what great editing and cover art is all about, and present their work to the world. I don’t intend to make much money for myself, but as long as we keep afloat, I’ll be happy. WE keep to first time rights only for anthologies and only a year for collections or novels. At 55% for the authors for ebooks and 25% for paper-not net, gross-we are for the authors. I only bring this up not as a plug for the Press, but to point out to people that not ALL small houses are bad. Do your homework.
The beauty of it all is that we’ll all be friends after all is said and done. And just maybe, a great author will think, “Hey, I was treated well with these folks, but I want to go alone the next time.
We’ll all be patting each other on the back. You too for all your great advice.
P.S. When can I read “The Haunting Of Sam Cabot,Two”? No pressure or anything.:D
Blaze
December 9th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Thanks for replying, Blaze. I fully understand your views on publishing and I wish your company much success.
In truth, it would be nice to just be a “writing machine” as you put it. There are times I’m dealing with promotion and video trailers and editing and a million other things that go along with being independent, that I’d just rather be writing.
But I’m lucky, I get to write from about eight in the morning until about noon or so, which gives me several hours in the afternoon to take care of all the other business.
As I said in the post, I would gladly give all that up to a publisher in exchange for a chance to do what I love most, and that is to write. Unfortunately we don’t live in a world where even legacy published writers have that luxury any more. At least not the mid-list kind. So for me, until that changes, this is the way it has to be.
By the way, I’m in the process of lining up Beta Readers for Apocalypse Island. Wonder if you might be interested. Of course, a Beta Reader gets to read the book first in exchange for an Amazon review. If there are any others over in your world who might want to be involved please let me know.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
great post. I wish I had read it before I had my novel published. I signed with a one person publisher and was thrilled when I held my novel in my hand with an excellent cover I had paid for myself. Unfortunately, that was probably the highlight of my experience. My publisher priced my novel at $4.99 on Amazon Kindle, which I now know was too much. I spent a great deal of time trying to get reviewers to read my novel, with limited success. I have obtained 9 positive reviews on Amazon.com for the paper book. But people don’t know that I’m there, and my sales languish. Fortunately, in the last two weeks I have been reading columns like this and become aware of how writers use twitter An unknown reviewers in the e-book world to sell their novels.my novel is going to be replaced at $2.99 on Amazon and Smashwords. I have renewed hope, but I will not let my expectations get too high.
December 13th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Hey, Neil, thanks for weighing in. As far as getting people to know you’re there. I don’t have a pat answer for that. The only way I know is through almost constant social networking, twitter, facebook, goodreads, linkedin. And then I would advise not pushing your books too hard. You’ll be labeled a spammer. It’s a catch 22 really. The best way is to make friends and take an honest interest in others. It’s a slow slog but if your book is good and all the right stars are in alignment it can work. If you haven’t already done it, check out Joe Konrath’s blog, A newbies guide to Publishing, and John Locke’s ebook, How I sold a million ebooks in Five Months. These are very helpful.
December 14th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Blaze would be honored to be a beta reader for your next piece of heaven-or hell as the case may be. Stacey Turner would jump through hoops at the chance: she thinks you walk on water.
Blaze
December 15th, 2011 at 8:47 am
That would be great, Blaze. It’s an honor. And tell Stacey I’d be honored if she too was one of the first readers.
The idea is to get as many Amazon reviews up as early as possible. As you know, the more positive reviews there are, the better the chance the book will sell well. I’ll let you know when it’s through edits and send it along. If you guys have Kindles I can save it as a mobi file and you can read it on the kindle just as if you’d downloaded it from Amazon.
Apocalypse Island is a mystery thriller with supernatural elements.
Thank you, my friend,
Mark