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).

Perhaps that in itself could be the starting point for a story. (Just an idea.) But why is it that so many people start out on their first novel with such enthusiasm, put so much effort and time into it, and then …?

They lose momentum. They lose confidence in their abilities, or in their work. It could be the idea isn’t thought through, so they lose direction. And some people are simply not prepared for the loneliness, the agony and slog.

Gene Fowler, an American journalist and author, once said: “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”

You’ve probably heard it a million times, but it’s still one of my favourites largely, I suppose, because people who have never tried writing a book do sometimes think there’s no great effort involved. “Easier than a real job, hey, nudge, nudge …?” That’s the attitude.

The other day a friend of mine sat next to a doctor on a plane. “What do you do?” he asked.

“I’m a writer,” she said.

“That’s nice. I’m going to do a bit of that when I don’t have to work anymore.”

Only later, she realised she should have added: “Oh yes, It’s nice to have a hobby. I’ve often considered dabbling in brain surgery when I retire.”

Yes it’s true, not everyone can write. But mostly, it’s because they can’t expend the effort. They can’t keep at it,  wrestle their way through what can be months or even years of work. They believe they can “dabble” in it, when there’s nothing more pressing to do.

The most important job of the real writer is … to keep writing. I once heard that Ken Follett likes to declare: “The only difference between me and everyone else out there is discipline.”

I’m told that he sets himself a specific number of words to write every day. He begins at 8.30am and writes consistently till 3.30pm, when he rewards himself with a glass of champagne.

I believe in rewards. Even little rewards. While busy with my first book, I used to fantasise lavish “When my book is published” daydreams. Only, I wouldn’t allow myself to indulge them until I’d finished writing for the day.

There’s nothing more important than just keeping on. It doesn’t have to be perfect first time, so that’s no excuse. All books need good editing and often rewriting.

Make yourself rituals, if that helps. I like to place a certain pen by my computer. And (ridiculous as it sounds) I always wear the same pants when I write. (I become hysterical if they’re in the wash when I want to write.)

I view them quite supersitiously, which helps, I suppose. They can’t be used for doing anything else. That means I can’t “just quickly check my emails”. I’d have to get up, take my pants off, check my emails, get up…

Let me share another tip with you: Don’t talk too much about your book in the making. If you need to work through ideas, choose someone who takes you and your idea seriously.

I know writing is lonely. But talking about it somehow neutralises the desire. It satisfies the story-telling self, and allows you to stop sitting down and doing it.

Also, so many people claim to have a story in them, that few people will take you seriously. They’ll feel that’s the perfect time to barge in and disturb you because … after all, you aren’t really working.

They’ll find it vaguely amusing and ask you, in arch tones, how The Book is going. It’ll begin to seem ridiculous and you’ll feel absurd – an imposter in the literary world. It’s better just to keep quiet, at least until the end is in sight.

So, that’s it really. That’s the secret. People often ask me for one tip for aspiring writers. And I always say just that: Keep writing.

Jo-Anne Richards is the author of four novels. Her latest is My Brother’s Book, published by Picador. Available from Kalahari.net.

Her first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken, was published by Headline in London, shortlisted for the M-Net Book Prize and nominated for the Impac International Dublin Award. The book was chosen as a Dillon’s Debut in the UK, to be showcased as “an outstanding first novel”. She has published short stories in five collections.

She lectures in journalism and writing skills at Wits University, besides running workshops in literary skills, narrative journalism and Romance writing. She supervises Masters students in the Creative Writing Masters programme at Wits.

She is co-founder of allaboutlove.net, a website dedicated to good reading and writing. The site publishes novels and short stories, and runs interactive online writing courses in romance writing. It includes a basic lesbian romance writing course – thought to be unique.