Allaboutwriting

Kelly Ansara, self confessed book nerd and junior publisher, continues the discussion around publishing and answers the question ‘What is the holy grail of all publishing projects?’  

Imagine standing before Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Jennifer Lopez, Gareth Cliff and Randal; your very own Idols panel. Except you aren’t about to start belting Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas’ in impossibly high heels and re-dyed hair; you are holding your manuscript before them. The square, sharp-edged, paper-cut inflicting baby that took you approximately 475 hours (for fiction) and 745 hours (for non-fiction) to create. The one you neglected family birthdays, lunches, dentist appointments and even forgot to feed the dog for. You stand there as the panel of judges berate and dramatically tear your manuscript to pieces in front of you.

BUT THIS IS YOUR DREAM?

This is an experience every writer can tell you about. The nervous wait for feedback; the undeniable disappointment of the rejection. So you turn to Self-Publishing. Your story is saved, and your book is REAL!

So you begin every effort to market, sell and publicise your newly made gem in the world of books; you start a blog, begin a book club on Goodreads and tweet up a storm to your adoring fans. All the while fire-breathing, green-faced demon publishers become the punch line of all your jokes.

Perhaps I’m not coming across as sincere, but I am. Self-published authors work their butts off doing solely what an entire company does in a year; and they do it in mere months. From editing, proofreading, indexing, publishing, typesetting, cover design, permissions, printing, marketing, publicity, online marketing, financial costings, to pricing and logistics (I wiped my brow just typing that!) – imagine doing all of these things by yourself every day!

I respect self-published authors. Those who, in the face of rejection and defeat, manage to get up and point a proverbial finger at the publishing industry and laugh as they sell books by the thousands.

Authors such as Amanda Hocking, Colleen Houck and John Locke, all self-published authors, are racking up the sales thanks to the rise of the eBook and Amazon Kindle. Each of these authors has made it big, and by big I mean sales of their eBooks by tens of thousands per month. (Publishers, wipe that drool away and authors, don’t hurry away just yet). So why are traditional publishing houses not crumbling to the ground?

Because, for every success story, there are always many self-published authors who never sell a single copy. Self-publishing is Hollywood for paper – you have the elite who rake in A-list status on the one side, and then you have young, struggling waitresses, yearning for their dreams in forgotten diners on the other. So, I say in my best Jack Nicholson impersonation: ‘Truth? You can’t handle the truth.’

So why did Hocking sell her Trylle series to St Martin’s Press? According to Hocking: ‘People have bad things to say about publishers, but I think they still have services, and I want to see what they are. And if they end up not being any good, I don’t have to keep using them. But I do think they have something to offer.’[1]

So in the world of digital books and DIY publishing, publishers do still hold the gatekeeper’s key to quality. Sally Partridge, a South African Young Adult fiction author, said when asked publishing vs. self-publishing? ‘As long as a proper editor is involved, then why not?’[2]

Good editing is the holy grail of all publishing projects; it is the role in the process that can make or break a book. And though publishers are sometimes made out as hard-assed, money-making tyrants, when tooth comes to nail, publishers may still hold the key to success; they have the funds and staff to lay before an author’s feet, and they are good at marketing and publicising books, because they too, like any business, need to make money so that they can produce and sell more products.

Self-published authors need far more than guts to get by because having the book in your hand is the easy part, selling it and selling it successfully is the needle in a haystack …

Ever heard the saying, ‘Everyone has a book in them?’ Sometimes that story needs to stay in a deep dark cave and no amount of editing or self-publishing can salvage it.

Kelly Ansara is a 23 year-old Junior Publisher & stealthy book buyer who has a flair for overfilling her bookshelf and a talent of not bending the books spine. Read her blog  It’s a Book Thing and follow her on Twitter @QueenKelso.

On December 7 writer and speaker, David Chislett, gives his take on publishing, its perils and its opportunities. David’s Getting Published Workshop will be available online from January.

Further reading:

Alina Tugend, ‘Options for Self-Publishing Proliferate, Easing the Bar to Entry’, New York Times, http://tinyurl.com/3odyahh (Accessed 1 November 2011).