Erase the “Self-Published” Label – Become a Publisher!
Once upon a time, a very long time ago – actually, it was only about a decade ago, but it seems like a very very VERY long time ago – the question everyone I met at book signings and festivals was “What is your book about?” If they liked the answer, they bought a personally signed copy and I happily took their money.
Soon after, the question most asked at these same venues is “are you self-published?” This is usually followed by a silent “so your book isn’t worth anything” followed by a series of questions as to how they can find a publisher for themselves.
My short response was for them to go on-line. When they walk away without a personally signed copy of my novel, I’m thinking I should have told them to go someplace else. Someplace a lot hotter.
When I respond that my publisher went out of business, so I re-published the print copies with Createspace and the Ebooks with Smashwords, suddenly I became a “less than” author. The old tag “vanity publishing” invalidated all the work I’d put in to the writing of my novels, the many hours searching for an agent, finding an agent, firing the agent, getting a publisher, having the publisher go out of business, etc. just didn’t matter.
Neither did the fact the books sold more than 15,000 copies, and were ranked in the top 100 at Amazon for all of two weeks. Neither did the fact that self-published authors have greater control over their work and earn more royalties than many authors, or that even authors who have managed to go the traditional route find it not to be the “stuff that dreams are made of” the self-published tag is still considered by most of the reading public to indicate that your work just isn’t as good as someone else’s who is published by a third party.
After iUniverse and a few others hit the scene in the 1990’s, the number of subsidiary publishers exploded. Anyone with a manuscript and a few hundred dollars could now be a “published” author. Authors were no longer “self-published” even though they were paying to have their books printed, they could respond to the question with “no, my publisher is…” And for a time, that was sufficient to appease the masses.
It didn’t take that long for those masses to get wise to this deception.
So, with many of the traditional publishing houses going out of business, and the cost of subsidiary publishers, for the most part, being way beyond what most starving writers are willing or able to spend, we began to seek other means of solving both the eliminating the self-published label and being a published author without having to mortgage the house to do so.
Creative people come up with creative solutions.
Start your own publishing company!
There are many sites on-line which will help you in the details on the “how-to”, but the why is simple. Being “published” by anyone OTHER then yourself adds credibility to your book! When you contact bookstores as a publisher on behalf of your author, they won’t slam the phone in your ear. (Ok, so you can’t exactly slam cell phones, but whatever…)
You’ll be able to register at book fairs as a publishing company, not just your name. Even if yours is the only book your company publishes!
Yes, it is a bit of a lie. You’re still a self-published author but it’s your publishing company who is publishing your book. Unless you reveal the facts, no one is going to know, or care. You’ll now be able to answer that question posed by an inquisitive author at a book faire who probably isn’t going to buy your personally autographed copy of your book anyway, with a catchy publisher’s name!
And who knows, if that author sends you their manuscript, you might make a few extra bucks in the process!
Why Les Miserables Won’t Win Best Picture, and Why It Doesn’t Matter
I am a Les Miserables fanatic. I’ve seen the play twelve times since 1985. My collection of Les Miserables souvenirs include several coffee mugs, two keychains, one the brass keychain of the theater ticket, two match boxes, t-shirt, sweatshirt, nightshirt, beach towel, pen, movie and play posters, the complete Broadway production on both cassette and CD, piano and clarinet sheet music, the recently published book Les Miserables – From Stage to Screen and of course Victor Hugo’s novel.
When it was announced that, at long last, the production was going to be made into a movie, I had my doubts. When I heard who they had cast for the major characters, I was skeptical to say the least. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be a gross understatement.
When the movie premiered on Christmas day, I woke up at 6am to drive to Century City in Los Angeles to see the movie in IMAX. The theater was sold out. The audience applauded the performances as enthusiastically as if they were in a live theater. I’ve seen the movie four additional times. Once with my husband, who actually sobbed at the finale, once with my daughters and twice by myself. And each time, went through an entire box of tissues.
Yet I know the movie will not win the Oscar for best picture. Up against the more popular and contemporary war movies Argo, Zero Dark Thirty and even Lincoln, Les Miserables doesn’t stand a chance, but it doesn’t matter.
Because of this film, I could feed my “addiction” 5 times for less than the price of one theater ticket. Because of this film, I only needed to drive 10 minutes to the closest movie theater instead of having to drive more than an hour to a theater. Because of this film, thousands of fans, new ones and ones yet to be born will have the opportunity to experience this incredible story written more than 150 years ago.
Long after this year’s Oscar winner fades from memory, Les Miserables will continue to inspire, enthrall and gain new fans for generations to come.
And that is why winning tonight won’t matter.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful if it did?
Author Raven West 
Answering the “Are You Self-Published?” Question
Raven West ♦ April 6, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment
It happened again.
Just after posting my last blog on the topic of being labeled a “self-published” author, I was once again asked that very same question last night when I showed a co-worker a copy of the just released 2013 Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN) catalog of books which featured my latest novel Undercover Reunion. I very excited to have my novel included in this very prestigious publication, but when I showed it to my co-worker, he glanced at the page where my book was listed and without even bothering to read the blurb, asked, “Are you self-published?”
Now, those of us in the industry who have been reading about all the wonderful advantages of self-publishing wouldn’t necessary take this as anything more than a casual inquiry. An innocent question which would have normally solicited an innocent, and honest response.
If that were the case, I would have told him that publishing with Createspace, wasn’t really “self-publishing” because there was no cost to me and I maintained full rights and complete control over the publication. I would have told him the royalties were much higher than having to pay an agent a percent of my income at the very low percentage that traditional publisher were offering. I would have listed all the many reasons why I chose to use Amazon’s publishing division for this novel and cite each and every point made on other writer’s blogs to validate my decision.
But this guy was not in the industry. What he was asking, in a somewhat condescending tone, was whether or not my book was good enough to have passed the “test” of agents, editors and finally some “magic authority” who deemed it worthy enough to pay me some pittance of an advance to publish my book. What his question really meant in regards to my book being listed in the catalog was, as my father (may he rest in peace ) would have said, A glick hot dich getrofen. Which roughly translated, means “a piece of luck happened to you” or in the vernacular, sarcastic and highly insulting; big deal.
What I should have replied to his question was, “Does it matter?” What I actually said was “No, I didn’t self-publish. You can buy it on Amazon in print or Kindle.”In reality it wasn’t a total lie. Unlike many self-published authors who pay a subsidiary, such as iUniverse, LuLu, Fastpencil and the like, to “publish” their manuscript, Createspace charges absolutely nothing. I never have, nor will I even pay anyone to publish my work. So in effect, I didn’t exactly lie, I just didn’t tell him the entire truth. Either way, that little bit of truth seemed to satisfy his need to find my book worthy of his interest. He read the blub, paid no attention to the name of the publisher listed as Createspace, said it sounded like a good story and promised he’d go on-line later and download the ebook. We’’ll see.
Which leads me to my next thought.
Next weekend I’ll be participating in the Ojai, California WordFest “A Celebration of Words” bookfair. I’ll have a table where I’ll be selling and signing all four of my published books; Red Wine for Breakfast, First Class Male, Undercover Reunion and Journey to Dimension Nine – Collection of Erotica Short Stories.
I’m also going to display a poster which will state the following:
FAQ
Q. Are you self-published?
A. Why does it matter? Buy my books
Q. Who is your publisher?
A. Why does it matter? Buy my books
Q. What is your book about?
A. Read the back cover. Buy my books
Agent/Publishing Advice – $1.00 per minute. (will have a “tip” jar for this)
For more on my philosophy on bookfairs (and also the back story as to how Raven West came to be) read my article “On the Road to Riches – You Are What you Drive”
Will let you know how it goes!
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