Weekend Quill #8

Good Weekend everybody how are you all? I hope all is well with everyone and not like me ending up in hospital with nurses who had to take three attempts to draw blood out…oh well back at home and just writing up my blog. Thank goodness!

ANyways as we all know I went to an author IQ seminar called ‘Pathways to Publication’. As we all also know, I took down some notes that I haven’t even bothered posting up. How greedy of me! Well here are a few quick notes, I hope some of them help give you ideas as to how to carefully select your pathway to publication

First of all, we all know the traditional way of getting published. Get your manuscript, edit it and send it away to the publishers and agents who will contact you and help take care of the rest.  It is basically a traditional and sublime chain going from author to publisher to distributor, to retailer then to the reader. This traditional chain is still going strong today and have, over the years, raised the bars up and have gone with the trends that were in fashion. First we had the harry potter and other wizard stories craze, then the lord of the rings and fantasy stories craze. After that we moved to the twilight and other vampire/werewolf and supernatural romance stories before in recent times fifty shades of grey have come over with the sexual and erotic craze. It seems that because of these trends the traditional publishers are making it hard to authors and writers of other genres struggle to get noticed.

But there is hope. Authors now have the power to provide to their readers and fans directly, thanks to the help of the internet and its social network and blogging sites. This is called a control continuum where the author now has complete control over where their works go as well as having the control and power to reach out to their fans and readers directly. Whether it is emailing agents or writing up blogs notifying fans and readers of the next big book or even helping readers, writers now can do a lot more than what writers of the past century could do.

These days, authors not only could choose the traditional sublime way but could also go for independent publishing where they take on the role of everyone. The lecturer stated that this is quite an intense role to take but many authors seem to go for this way now since these days, all an author really needs is a computer and the internet. The author would then use these tools to help network with other people or create their works and publish it online or contact publishers to help them get published. Networking is a vital skill that all authors need to have if they plan on going independently as the collaboration process is also intense. Authors too have to be very careful about whose advice to take and be open. People can say many things and it is vital to trust your intuition.

But lets go to the good things my lecturer has said about doing things independently. Anyone can get published or distribute their work as long as they have an internet and computer. That is all they need to get published. And it is so easy to access as well that readers these days would start to buy online as well as instore. But be sure to read about the creative commons and choose whose advice to follow (pretty sure I said all this before?).

Now onto the business models my lecturer spoke about when it came to independent publishing. First let’s focus on what independent publishing business models there are.

-Pure play – This is the simplest one. Going straight to ebook. all you have to do is sign up, follow the prompts and voila, it’s all done. Companies such as carina press, amazon and lulu offer these options.

-Freemium – Names says it all, give away for free. This to me was a confusing one as I didn’t understand how someone can give away their works for free. Although one author, Cory Datsrow (I think the last name is right, my pen was funny on this page).

-Subscription – readers subscribe to a site and pay a fee to read the stories. Such companies that do that are *drum roll* Disney and Angry Robit, both of whom require people to subscribe for a fee and the readers get a supply of stories.  Useful, I think, for those big companies or people who are willing to go the extra step and band together to create a large business to sell their works.

-Chunk and Bundles – I didn’t write much for this but I remember this section was mostly selling your work in, as the name implies, chunks and bundles. An example of this would be the Omikuji Project where readers could by the bundle but if they pay extra, they get it on a scroll (or something like that, I know there was a scroll involved).

-Enhanced content – this involves having not only the book but some kind of content that enhances it, like audio, Nick Cave, who wrote death of Bunny Munro is a good example as he also uses audio (lecturer said that just be careful, some parts in the story are loud).

Although who says writers have to go it alone? You could work with another person on a collaboration. When the offer comes up it is best to take it. Any small contract will help. Whether you get your information through web forums on topics or through another project that is at work in the community. The Amanda project by Stella Lennon is an example. So is red lemonade.

 

Now we know the models, let’s look at the two sections in independent publishing. The first one being independent – solo

If you plan on going it alone, there is a lot of work to do and decisions to make. For example

-Big Publishing or small publishing companies? Which one do you want to go with? (I think that is what the P’s stood for).

-Editing. Can’t stress this enough, readers want a properly edited story. Remember, quality comes first.

-Production – how are you going to produce your work? Is it going to be in ebook or hard copy?

-Accounting – Probably the least looked at section. But you have to keep an eye on how much you make so you know what sells and what doesn’t and also keep an eye out for any profits made.

First tip of advice lecturer gave and we all know what that is, is to start small. When you start small, it’s like you are experimenting in the waters, figuring out what works what doesn’t. It’s all a trial and error period at this time. An example of another person who started small is Amanda Hocking. My lecturer forget what works she did but he said it was very good.

Now we move onto independent – hybrid

Again the model is similar to the solo with you deciding whether to go for big or small publishing companies. But the only difference is that you would also have to choose some kind of platform as well as marketing techniques. And as for control, well, when you sign up with someone who says they will help you. Platform I’m trying to remember what it is but I think it is what kind of platform you want the story to be in and the marketing would be out of your control if you sign up. For example, you wouldn’t be able to design your own covers if you sign up with a publishing company who says that they will help. Yeah still trying to figure out the platform bit, sorry I might have felt a bit dazed :S

Anyways a good example of this would be Scot Siglet. Scott apparently also had a thing for designing, graphic design and he wasn’t too happy about having to have someone else design the book covers but he stuck with the contract and when it finished, he went to go independent and also designed his own covers. Or so my lecturer said who also advised writers to read contracts carefully and if you want, you can seek foreign publishers (Although i think that is aimed to us Australian writers since we are quite small).

The lecturer then at the last part advised not only to read contracts carefully but to also check out publishing services. Economic wise, it is best to avoid vanity press since they are expensive and would only say that to use them if you plan on doing a one off. It is also best to get a manuscript appraisal so you know what to change. Communicate also with editors, work alongside and don’t pull off the ‘turn invisible trick’. He also said you could try agents but with not a lot of available agents it will be hard to get one. You would be lucky if you did get one.

Some services to try as he said would be
-lulu.com
-Lightning Source
-createspace.com
-kindle direct publishing
-pressbooks.com
-xoum.com (I think that’s spelt right)

And that concludes this weekends quill. Have a good day

Tania

 

Cover of The Death of Bunny Munro

Tags: Amanda Hocking, Arts, John Lennon, Nick Cave, Publishing, Publishing and Printing, Self-publishing, Writers Resources