Tue 21 Feb 2012
Choosing a Publishing Path
Posted by Gay Degani under advice, PUBLISHING
[13] Comments
by Gaius Coffey
Something momentous happened today; I made up my mind.
I saw yet another thread on yet another writing forum where yet another writer had decided to self-publish. He has lost faith in the publishing industry and is no longer convinced mainstream publishers have anything to offer, but he has faith in his work, he wants people to read his work and he wants to make some money. After all, it is a killer premise and he’s a good writer.
Well… quite. We all want to be read.
The thread had so many echoes with my own experience that I can easily imagine having written something similar. After all, it is a fact that the best novel I have read in a long time has yet to attract the interest of an agent, let alone a publisher. It is also a fact that many anthologies and niche titles can be published profitably by authors but may not be commercially viable for a mainstream publisher. The submission model is, in my opinion, ludicrously flawed and self-defeating to the point that it suits almost nobody. Anecdotally, the success stories amongst my writer friends have (without exception) somehow circumvented the traditional submit to agent, agent submits to publisher model. There is the ongoing e-publishing revolution and, of course, there are the militant blogs of people like Konrath to encourage a healthy questioning of the status quo.
So it is almost unthinkable for a writer today to exclude the possibility of self-publishing when mainstream publishers are looking for writers to come to them fully formed with the perfect manuscript and a readymade tribe of followers be it from e-zines, blogging, Twitter, Facebook or whatever. As such, the benefits of mainstream publication have been eroded from almost every direction and the statistics on writers earnings make for depressing reading.
But…
The writer of the thread reached his momentous decision after fewer than a dozen rejection slips. He has no tribe, no readership to sell to. There is no pre-defined niche that his book will slot into to satisfy a compelling, pre-existing need. He has no experience of selling and no clear evidence of his book being any better than the thousands of other competently written works with good premises that are generated every year by the likes of him and yours truly. More importantly, it is his first novel. If it sells, he will need a follow-up to capitalise on his success. If it doesn’t sell, he will need to write something better to sell in its place. But how will that second novel happen when all the energy that should be going into writing it is going – has to go – into marketing the current one?
And that was when I made my decision.
Yes, I want to be read, yes, I want to be published but, above all, I want to write. I have seen the effort that goes into self-publishing successfully, and it is just that; unrelenting effort. The successes are marked by a number in a ledger, and then it is back out to do the same again. But writing, for me, is play as well as work. The battles when it doesn’t come right are offset by the highs when it does and the success of finishing a story is marked by a tangible addition to my body of work. Maybe it won’t sell immediately, but it might sell eventually, and it will always be there for me to draw on.
______________________________
Gaius Coffey’s story “Alone, Not Lonely” was shortlisted for the 2010 Fish Publications One-page Story competition. His story “Terry and the Eye” was Every Day Fiction’s most read story in March, 2010. He lives in Dublin with his wife, two cats and a baby daughter; the latter being as much an inspiration to write as an impediment to writing resulting, on balance, in bafflement.
Flash Fiction Chronicles is listed in the 2010 November/December issue of Writers' Digest as one of the 25 Best Online Consumer Magazine Markets for writers. 
Thanks, Gaius, for starting a conversation on this. I think many writers are having a tough time trying to navigate the publishing industry right now.
Thanks, Gay. There’s certainly a lot of options.
G
Very well reasoned, Gaius. I was thinking something very similar reading an interview by a self-published author on Writewords.
Self-publishing will destroy all but the most agile publishing houses, while I’m sure some enterprising individuals will emerge to perform the function of marketing books on behalf of authors. eBook producers are already appearing. The old commercial model is broken. The current model is amateur, not commercial (literally; authors are promoting in their spare time). But the only thing to have changed is that production costs and distribution costs have been removed. The way is open for a marketing-based publisher to offer a better deal to authors and find a reliable way of turning investment in promotion into good returns. For the time being it is too easy for such marketeers to wait for a novel to show promise before promoting it further. There’s nothing to say, however, that this model won’t stick around for a long time…
Thanks for posting this. There’s a lot to consider when writing and trying to get published. I think too many writers are hung up on the old (or is it new) instant gratification. Take a look at the many greats whose work was rejected 50 or 100 times.
Good article — and I love the last sentence in your bio. I’m thrice baffled.
Gaius,
How right you are!
Forgive my paraphrasing but–
Process is all.
I think of publishing as a game. I don’t let it interfere with my writing time. An acceptance, a rejection–it really doesn’t matter. What matters is being able to write, to have that drug of need and vision to express pouring freely through the system. Nothing stops it more than all the ways we can be distracted by ego pursuits vs. the blessed luxury of getting lost in a world of the imagination, where the best in us is able to speak. Whether we reach another or not, that moment of creation must be cherished.
Nice article, Gaius.
I do have to say, that even if one gets published by a publishing house, small or large, that person STILL has plenty of marketing and promotion they have to do on their own.
I personally stopped looking for an agent and a big publishing house years ago when I read that Margaret Atwood ran her own promotions, set up her own readings, and was learning how to market her work because there was no one to do it for her.
That’s when I decided I should quit banging my head on the wall and find out where I fit in instead of trying to fit where I THOUGHT I should. I mean, if hugely popular authors are running their own promotions and marketing anyway, why give a cut of your meager profits to an agent, publicist, and whoever else a big publisher puts on your team if your team doesn’t work, anyway?
I have two published books right now through a small press that’s on the larger side of the small press kingdom, and another coming out this Spring. I do my own marketing and promotions.
But what I have is the same as I’d get from a large press. Cover artists, editors, proofreaders… All the people who make sure my books look great and read well.
I have the ability to write what I really want to, I’m PUBLISHED, but I still do tons of work promoting my work.
Self-publishing may seem like a way around the establishment. I don’t see that lasting long. But I don’t think those who go for big houses have it all that much easier.
The big houses are falling.
I doubt seriously that self-publishing will have much merit in the coming years.
Thing is, no matter which way you do it, there’s plenty of work to be done after you’ve written your book, whether YOU publish it or not.
My vote still goes for being published, however you attain that, and knowing that it doesn’t mean the rest of your career will be handled by someone else–because it won’t be.
Any writer who wants to keep writing will have to learn how to market themselves, and take all the time in the world that it takes to do it–even if that means not putting out a book every six months.
Wow, some thought-provoking replies!
Yes, I agree that getting published is just opening the door for a new style of work and published friends do spend a lot of time thinking about self-promotion. There is, though, a difference between self-promotion as a full-time job and self-promotion as a required job skill that uses a portion of most days. The self-pubbed success stories I’ve encountered tend towards the former – usually in addition to another full-time job that pays the bills…
What does seem clear is that the industry is changing and needs to change. Am watching with interest.
G
“Thing is, no matter which way you do it, there’s plenty of work to be done after you’ve written your book, whether YOU publish it or not.”
Can I echo that statement – but add to it that, with a good publisher, I think the deal is still a lot better for most of us than self-publishing.
I speak from experience – three books with a good solid independent publisher who paid no advances, and had very little marketing and sales expertise, and certainly no budgets. And latterly, one book with a very good mainstream publisher, who paid me a decent advance, who have sales, marketing, publicity teams all working hard for the book – for whom I have the utmost respect. I work hard too, doing exactly the same things I did before.
And this year, I am self-publishing a fun book, in collaboration with a colleague. Why, given what I said above? Because I like this book, its fun, and for an outlay of a few hundred quid I have another string to my bow – one that I will start to make a good profit on if I clear 100 copies. It will sit on the side of the table at readings, workshops – seems daft not to try it.
will report back if it is a total disaster!
Ha! Go Vanessa for publishing a fun book. Geez, does it always have to be sooooooooo serious?
And thanks, Gaius for a thoughtful piece of writing that hits the core:”…I want to write.” Cause all that self promo which, yes, has to be done can get in the way of the very thing we love.
And tell us about your first name? If you want to. Love it.
Food for thought here. Thanks Gaius.
Rejections are part and parcel of any writer’s publishing life. I don’t think half a dozen or less or more rejections should propel a writer into self publishing. What really bothers me about self publishing is that there is apparently no third party to judge whether the book is/was publication worthy in the first place. Unless it’s a group effort, or involves at least one more writer, in which case it is assumed both writers critiqued each other’s work and chose the best of the lot. As for working with the publisher, shouldn’t one work with one’s business partner any way?
Hi,
Good luck with your book, Vanessa! Sounds like a good way to go about it if you’re doing the readings etc. in any case.
Lucinda, my name was very common in ancient Rome and I guess my parents just got confused!
Rumjhum, yes, publisher / writer ought very much to be a mutually beneficial collaboration. To me, that implies a certain amount of knowing what you are bringing to the table and what you expect from the others there.
Really enjoyed this well-written piece. Having had one book published and a few magazine articles, I’m maybe not too eager to take on the publicising burden for my project nearing completion. I think there are a few e-publishing sites that my colleagues are exploring. They seem to demand a lot less effort once the initial technical skills are mastered, and I imagine the demand will only grow.