Why Not to Self-Publish Your Novel

From 2007 to 2008, I lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was a time of social unrest when an emboldened president, Evo Morales, was aggressively consolidating his power. By day, hunger strikers occupied the town squares and, by night, rowdy demonstrators carried torches, lit firecrackers, and ruled the streets.

Not long later, moved by my experiences, I drafted a novel – Plant Teacher. I then embarked on the tedious process of finding an agent. I perused literary agents’ websites and scrupulously followed their instructions: Some wanted to be approached by email; some by snail-mail. Some wanted a 10-page writing sample; some, 30 pages. Others just wanted a synopsis. Keeping track of each agent’s particular demands proved so complicated that I created an intricate spreadsheet.

I was fortunate in that several agents requested to read my entire manuscript. I thought I was fortunate, that is, until I learned from one agent after another that my writing was flawed. As I followed different agents’ suggestions and continually re-drafted Plant Teacher, the book transformed from an interesting concept into a compelling read. Unfortunately, in the process of improving my baby, I burned through all my prospects for representation.

Still, I finally had an exciting manuscript on my hands, so I decided to self-publish. Self-publishing on platforms such as Amazon Kindle, Amazon CreateSpace, and Smashwords is seductively easy. Just upload your manuscript and your cover art, click through menu items to select pricing and distribution options, and voila.

Then, reality caught up with me. A few friends and some family members purchased courtesy copies. Hardly any other sales…

That's when I learned my book was not going to market itself. It was time to push hard. I turned to Facebook and Twitter. I set up an account on Google AdWords. I hired a consultant to place blogs about Plant Teacher on various book sites for me. I offered free downloads on Kindle as well as free downloads on Smashwords. More than 3,000 readers grabbed their copies for free, but sales remained slow. I also entered numerous Indie book contests. I picked up various accolades: honorable mentions here, runners up there. I even won first place in the category of travel fiction from the Global Ebook Awards. A Bolivia expert published a glowing review in The Huffington Post.

Can you guess what’s coming next? Sales remained really slow.

Perhaps you’ve heard the adage that owning a boat is like having a hole in the water to throw your money into. I find this to be an apt metaphor for a self-published novel. I won’t even tell you how much change I threw into my personal hole in the water; it gives me a headache just to think about it.

I know other people who’ve self-published, and none of them have either turned a profit or secured a wide audience for their work. One hears of stunning self-publishing successes, such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but The Girl was that rare exception. With just a quick peek at Listopia, a website that features synopses of self-published books, you’ll find 28 categories of novels aggregating 35,439 books. This is on the first page of the site, and the listings continue for 33 more pages.

I’ve drafted additional fiction manuscripts over the past several years, and this time I’ve made certain my work was thoroughly vetted before I approached agents. Oh, happy days – a knowledgeable, established agent has since decided to represent me. Now, I must wait for her to find a publisher. But, without an agent, unless you happen to be the favorite niece of an editor at Penguin, your manuscript will most likely go straight from the publisher’s mailbox into the recycling bin.

I have no illusions that working with a traditional publishing house won’t still require that I devote significant energy, and perhaps even my own funds, to marketing. But, a traditional publishing house offers something critical that self-publishing does not; namely, access. Publishing houses will send galley copies of your soon-to-be-published work to key critics at key news outlets across the country. As a self-publisher, you’ll never get a crack at a review by The New York Times. Through a traditional publishing house, you just might.

If you enjoy writing and all you want is to have fun, by all means, self-publish. (My mother churns out a mystery novel every year, and she posts them all for free on Amazon Kindle. It makes her happy.) If, however, you harbor dreams of reaching wide audiences with your words, I can only recommend you go the traditional route.

The joys of professional writing

I knew from childhood that I wanted to be a writer. Even before I could write, I presented my  mother with a page of squiggles and informed her that it was a story and that I would write stories when I grew up. Little was I aware of the hundreds of other forms of writing available through professional writing.

I honed my writing skills throughout my formal education, always proud of turning in an "A" paper in K-12 and later in college. My first job after college was working as a paralegal, where I "digested" lengthy dispositions.  This activity consisted of taking long documents and summarizing them as concisely and elegantly as possible.

Graduate school provided another opportunity to receive academic feedback on my writing, and I completed my two-year M.A. program a better writer than when I started. My first job after graduate school was working as a technical writer at the United Nations. I remember pouring through pages of screen shots of computer applications and determining how best to explain the workflow of an application to its intended users in print.

Following a three-year stint at technical writing, I moved on to journalism. Reporting news stories required a whole new approach to writing, and my editor sat me down and showed me the ropes.

Next! Educational writing for a large nonprofit: Newsletters... technical manuals... grants and grant reports. Each new challenge brought with it an expanding skill-set. 

I could continue to lay out a twenty-year history in professional writing, or I could conclude with some words of advice. I choose the latter: Seek out writing experiences that expand your skill-set. You can't make mistakes when you are being paid for your writing, but you can work with your employer -- asking many legitimate questions -- to ensure that you create the final product that s/he needs. 

Also, keep a portfolio of your writing. You can turn to this portfolio for your own uses when you need ideas or inspiration. You can also share the portfolio with potential employers or clients to sell your services. More on developing a strong portfolio can be found at The Well-Fed Writer. You can also follow this link to see an example of my online portfolio at Apple Pie Writing.

Being a professional writer does require some innate talent. At the same time, you also need to practice your craft, to study, and to seek out professional opportunities to build upon your skill-set. Like me, you may have dreamed of writing stories, but fiction writing is not the only creative outlet for someone with an active imagination and a keyboard. Meeting the challenges of professional writing assignments can be fresh and satisfying too.