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.
