The Author's Handbook

7. Is Self-Publication for You?

7 Is Self-Publication for You? RECENTLY, ALL KINDS OF WRITERS HAVE SEEMED HYPnotically drawn toward self-publication—printing and selling your own book—as an escape from the bind they believe their books are in. Many neophytes , tired of collecting rejection letters instead of royalty checks, see selfpublication as a way of pulling a fast one on the shortsighted, narrow-minded editors who would have turned down James Joyce. And most seasoned pros, tired of overworking, bowing, hassling and being hassled to scrape together next month’s rent, see self-publication as an easy way to pocket all the profits instead of only one dollar out of every ten or twenty. Self-publishing has become respectable and more viable for certain kinds of nonfiction. Consider it especially if your book is of regional interest or appeals to a specialized group that can be reached through a direct mail campaign. Janet Schwegel self-published two thousand copies of The Baby Name Countdown , sold them in Canada and then sold other book publishing rights to a U.S. publisher. Its fifth edition came out in 2001. The Joy of Cooking, which Irma Rombauer originally self-published in 1931, has gone on to sell more than fourteen million hardcover and paperback copies over six decades and is still the most influential cookbook in American history. Recently, there have been many similar success stories. Fiction is normally impossible to self-publish profitably unless you have an enormous book-reading, book-buying following. But even here, we know of many flukes—novels with broad untargeted appeal that succeeded after selfpublication . Some of the smallest publishers today started with self-publication. Even some well-known publishing houses are little more than two-desk operations that stay afloat by pinching nickels, secretaries and authors. Some of them have little more than a letterhead, checking account and office space. They borrow money, buy manuscripts and hire freelance copyeditors, typesetters and book designers; small printers or binders; outside advertising and public relations counsel; freelance jacket blurb copywriters and cover designers; and an outside sales force. They even hire service corporations to warehouse and ship books. No wonder writers are tempted to expend a little time coordinating the specialists themselves in exchange for keeping all the money that comes in. But let’s see if it’s really as easy as it looks. 90 The Two Kinds of Vanity Publishing The term vanity publishing is often used in discussions about self-publication. We want to clarify its meaning—first in its classic sense and then as it applies to some self-publication we’ve seen. First of all, it means subsidy publishing, an ancient practice. A company, usually containing “Publisher” in its name, floods business, academic and artsy publications with carefully written ads and deluges purchased lists of hopeful writers with alluring brochures and e-mailed promises. The ads, the spam and the brochures would all have you believe that, finally, here’s a publisher that’s hungry for manuscripts and that really cares about new authors. Books in all stages of readiness pour into these companies like ants to spilled honey. Unwary authors get sweet-talked into paying thousands of dollars to see them in print, often believing that their cash is a subsidy or coinvestment. In return, they anticipate 40 percent royalties. But like ants on honey, they get stuck. You don’t need a pencil to calculate 40 percent of zero. With rare, very rare, exception that’s the kind of income they can realistically expect. Many vanity-published books look respectable. Your mother and children will be proud of you. If you’re like our friend Ed, a professor at a small Eastern college, your vanity-published book might help you on your publish-or-perish treadmill. But no reviewer will review a book with a vanity imprint, no major media outlet will publicize it, and no self-respecting distributor will take on its sale. In short, unless you yourself handle every stage of promotion and sale following its actual manufacture, don’t count on even your friends to buy the book. We recently helped a couple of television actors with their sights on stardom put together a full-length autobiography they self-published and sold to their fans on their website. To print their book, they used a subsidy publisher— but didn’t count on his promises of publicity and reviews. If your goals, like theirs, are linked to what you’d have...