No, the title is not a typo. As someone who has just recently self-published a novel, I have come to conclude that there are two distinct types of self-publishing. There is “hard” self-publishing and there is “easy” self-publishing. Granted neither one is “simple” per say, and there are both pros and cons to doing either one. But for someone who has taken the “hard” way, it seems the “easy” way has less cons and more pros. Could it be a case of “the grass is always greener”? Let’s take a look.
Publishing fiction has never been an easy task, especially in Canada. Canadian publishers have come to realize that publishing textbooks, non-fiction and landscape photography books are more lucrative thus breaking into a mainstream fiction publishing house for a first time author can be extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible. With the well-known publishing houses (like Random House and Penguin Books) only taking new authors who have been represented by an agent; and the fact that there are only 30 agents in Canada who are no doubt being bombarded with manuscripts, you can see why it would be so difficult to break out.
This is why I chose self-publishing – that, and I’m impatient. I wrote a query letter, I took my time going through all the agents and their submission guidelines and I sent out probably 10-15 letters. But seeing as how there are so many of me doing the same thing, it could take up to 6 months to hear anything back. In the mean time, I decided to self publish on Amazon Kindle. I’d never realized that this was a thing, but as I read into it and realized I could do it for free, I decided to try it.
I had always been against the idea of e-books and publishing digitally because I felt it took some of the merit away from traditional paperbacks (for avid readers like myself, the idea of reading something on a Kindle or Kobo is nauseating. It is far better to hold the rough paper in your hand and smell the musky scent of ink and cardboard), but I realized, after talking with my husband, that as things are becoming more and more technical, I had to as well (I know it sounds silly but I hold a strong value for the tangible written word). So I did it. And I did well.
Problem was, I didn’t have a lot of money. As most artists know, it’s not easy to fund your craft when your craft isn’t currently making any money. So I did what I could with the little money I had and when I realized I could get more of my books out there if I printed some paperbacks I came up with what seemed like a large sum of money (approximately $500) to do so. Thus, once I had my paperbacks and my book was available in cyberspace, then started the marketing campaign. This involved making a website (not so good at that), making a facebook page (hated doing that because it meant relying on other people to do what I needed them to do), and calling newspapers and radio stations and finding other who were more “popular” than I was in cyberspace to advertise and mention my book. It was very difficult.
Then I found out, through almighty facebook, that there is another way to self-publish. I had been slightly aware of it before, but had no idea exactly what it could do for me until this day. Essentially what I found out was that you could literally pay a company to publish your book. Companies like Lulu.com or Authorhouse.com will do everything a real publishing house does except you don’t need an agent or to even be “accepted”. All you have to do is pay a small fortune (depending on the company, it ranges from about $900 to 3,500) to edit your book, create a cover, print and distribute paperbacks online(to stores like Chapters, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles). The only thing left to do would be to market it.
Initially, I was pretty devastated. I didn’t understand it. I had worked my arse off to get this done; relentless networking, emailing and calling, and essentially, forcing people to do what I needed them to do in order to get my name and my book out there. And because I didn’t have the money to pay people so that I didn’t have to lift a finger, I would have to suffer in the end; because I didn’t have the money to pay someone to do something for me, I would be less successful than if I had.
This daunted me for a few days. Eventually, my husband sat me down and set me straight. That yes, I was doing this the hard way, but it was the good way. Once I got my name out there, and released my second book and people really started to notice things, I would be the only person to thank. If my book was being sold at Chapters, it was because of what I did. It would be because of all the work I put into it. And that basically, because this person (who had a “release” date, who had a launch party, who sold out in a matter of hours because of said release date and launch party) didn't make her any more, or any less, likely to succeed. I already had over 1,200 e-book sales and sold out of my paperbacks in 2 weeks. I needed to count that for something, and the reason I had those sales was because of what I did.
Now, I’m not saying that this person won’t be successful, she probably will be, but what I am saying is that on that day, a day where I was feeling discouraged and questioning myself, questioning my book and everything I held dear in my writing life, I had to realize that just because it was possible to pay someone to do something for you didn’t make you any more, or any less, successful. I needed to realize that although we took two different paths, that both could end in the same place.
So, although there are two different kinds of publishing, is one better than the other? Maybe. But in the end, it’s what you’re willing to put into it that matters. Ultimately, in both instances, marketing is the thing that is going to make or break you, and marketing is the toughest part of this whole game. Yes, it might have been easier for me if I’d had an editor to comb through my manuscript, and had someone make a book cover that was slightly more professional (it’s not terrible, it’s just not a Nicholas Sparks cover), but it didn’t make the content of my book any more, or any less, desirable. Plus, what’s that infamous saying?
You can’t judge a book by its cover.
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