This is a FYI post. A short one, which I hope, will clarify some authors' questions regarding self-publishing. Not that Cecilia and I know everything there is to learn about self-publishing. We are still learning about it ourselves—there is a sh*t load of information to be read and absorbed on the subject—but since we put so much into learning about the fast evolving digital and self-publishing market in the last couple of months, we feel we have passed the line between doubt and certainty about this volatile subject.
A few years back self-publishing a book consisted of signing a contract with a vanity press publisher to get the book printed and distributed to brick and mortar stores. It usually meant investing a lot of money into the process and most times, it ended in heartaches and headaches. Legal battles over rights reversal, cover price, royalties were common. Loss, a reality.
With the advent of digital books, the self-publishing market (the publishing market as a whole, actually) has taken a big turn. What in the past carried a big stigma can now play in the author's favor.
The publishing market is a crowded one. Rejection letters are something we need to get used to and take as constructive criticism (that is when the agents or publishers take the time to write a personalized rejection letter). The number of submissions per publisher/agent is astronomical which means publishers and agents are very (and I mean VERY) selective on what they accept (that is also the subject for another post altogether). This means good content—not only bad—is rejected regularly due to market constraints.
Enter the new self-publishing. The new self-publishing where the author is the publisher. Authors are now able to release their titles directly to the public and get feedback on the stories they tell. Feedback in the form of sales.Where the author gets to be paid fairly for their work without signing away rights and without the use of vanity press publishers where high monetary investment is made in advance. Where Print-On-Demand is the answer to those authors who want to offer their books in print format to readers who have not yet taken the plunge into the digital pool. All of that now available with the simple click of a mouse.
Literary likes and dislikes are as subjective as fashion, culinary and musical tastes. The same way people dress and eat differently, they read differently. Some prefer romance, some prefer thrillers, some paranormal. The traditional market caters to the average. If you write in the average genre you are set. But what if your book doesn't fit the average package pushed out by publishers regularly? What if you can't find an agent who will put enough trust in your story to push it to the publishers? You end up unrep'd and unpublished. That is where self-publishing plays a BIG part. It gives new authors, new content, new genres a whole new platform. It gives them the direct reach to the public.
Take as example the case of Amanda Hocking. She spent years trying to reach publication via traditional publishing and for many years received only rejections. She then decided to self-publish her books. It hit the market's right spot and once it reached the hands of the reviewers, it took off like wild fire. She sold over $2M and joined a select club of authors who have sold more than 1 million copies in Kindle format. All that happened in the last three years. That is also about the time the digital book market has evolved the fastest.
Many digital-first and digital-only publishers have popped out of the woodwork making more books and more genres available to readers but still, the old cookie cutter selection for books still apply. A lot of good books are rejected because publishers still choose what to sign on based on what they believe the market wants and keeping their returns in mind, after all, publishing is a business.
The most critical change in publishing has happened in the last couple of years with the wider acceptance of e-readers by the public at large. Amazon announced in May of 2011 that its sales of digital book now surpass print books. Amazon also allows authors to self-publish their books directly to the digital market via its Kindle Direct Publishing. Many traditionally published authors have taken the jump into self-publishing.
What used to carry a big black mark has become a way for publishers to test the waters on new content. The old stigma has been put to rest. If you have a good story, you should be able to make it available to readers and readers should be able to read stories out of the usual box. Amanda Hocking has sold her Switched series, the same no one wanted to touch with a ten-foot-pole, to St. Martin's Press for a multi-million dollar contract. Self-publishing certainly paid-off for her.
As Amanda said herself, the key is to have work ethic, stay true to your work and put in the hours and time to polish the work. Edit, edit, edit. Learn, sharpen your storytelling skills. Make your story shine so that it will hit the right spot at the right time. It might be luck, but I call it hard work and dedication.
Sláinte!