You decided you're going to write a book. Fantastic.
Just stick to rule number one: Don't quit your day job.
"From 2003 to 2004, the number of books sold worldwide dropped by 44 million. True, there are still 2.3 billion books sold each year. But the bottom line is that people are flocking to the Web, TiVo, cell phone screens, PlayStation Portables, and DVDs while buying fewer books," wrote Kevin Maney in USA Today.
These numbers came before America started gyrating with Wii remotes in hand, before the glow on the television from "Gossip Girls" killed brain cells with every flicker. The competition is still fierce, and it's harder than ever to break down the doors to the publishing houses.
Andy Kessler tried the traditional publishing route with his first book, Wall Street Meat, in January 2003. He wrote about his adventures during the boom-and-bust days of Wall Street and working with notorious analysts who fell from stardom after recommending overvalued stocks.
He sent an early draft to an agent, according to his article in the Wall Street Journal. "You might want to consider a long magazine article," he told him. "This is agent-speak for go away," he wrote.
That's the overwhelmingly standard response in the industry. In the past, writers were left with two options after rejection: go back to serving double-mocha-lattes with half skim, half soy, to Manhattan socialites. Or keep plugging away, praying the almighty traditional publishing houses would smile down.
No one keeps statistics of the former, but the latter produces mixed results.
Publisher after publisher rejected one author's book in 1987. He finally convinced Wynwood Press to publish it in June 1988. The book did poorly, and when the author offered them exclusive rights to his next book, they turned him down. Instead, he sold the novel, titled The Firm, to the highest bidder. It sold for six-figures and became a best-seller, as were most of his novels from then on.
His name was John Grisham.
John Kennedy Toole wrote his masterpiece, A Confederacy Of Dunces, while living with his parents and working in New Orleans. It was so thoroughly rejected that he killed himself in 1969. His mother refused to give up on the project, however. After more rejections, writer Walker Percy ushered the book into the Louisiana State University Press. In 1980, Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Maybe Kessler didn't want to dig through his change jar for postage money. Maybe he thought his mother didn't like him enough to shop the book around for him.
Either way, he chose to self-publish instead, and took control of his own destiny.
"I wrote it in January. By February, I laid it out and edited it. By March, it was sent to the printers," he says.
It's tough to keep track of exact numbers - what with selling paperback rights to HarperCollins and selling the translation rights - but Kessler guesses he's sold 40,000-60,000 copies of Wall Street Meat since that agent kindly sent him away.
A Leaf From Jay-Z'
Notebook
Self-publishing means taking the leap from "a businessman" to "a business, man!" Suddenly, the duties delegated to an entire staff falls solely on your poor, under-developed shoulders. You are in charge of every aspect of the book: ISBN, editing, cover design, storing, distribution, and promotion.
Fortunately, the Internet is all grown-up now. She's traded her three-inch pumps for a pair of sensible heels and the colored contacts for black-rimmed glasses. She doesn't come packaged with all those "extra services" that came standard with the old secretary - unless you're talking about browser extensions - but she makes things happen.
Obtaining ISBN numbers, locating a printer, and selecting a distributor only takes a few Google searches. Amazon.com helps you bypass the bookstore chains like Barnes and Nobles or Borders, and you can sell directly to your customers. You even have the option of publishing electronically, and completely doing away with shipping costs.
If you're looking for guidance along the way, there are plenty of companies like iUniverse, Authorhouse, and Xlibris that offer supported self-publishing options.
"We try and help educate people about the industry," says Rhonda Winchell, iUniverse's director of corporate marketing. "Besides just helping to publish the book, we offer marketing and editorial services. You can shop around your material with friends and family, and decide if you need to make small changes."
Bookconomics
"Look at the economics of self-publishing," Kessler says. "The list price of a book is $26. Bookstores buy it discounted for $13. It costs me $3 to make and ship. That's a $10 margin." He makes self-publishing sound like the flunky football player sitting in woodshop - a no-brainer. "You go with the traditional publisher, they give you 10 percent of the list price - $3. It doesn't make sense."
"You can make a lot more money," says Dan Poytner.
Poytner is considered the "godfather of thousands of books" due to his work promoting the self-publishing industry.
"You can sell directly to your audience. You keep control of how the book looks. I've seen a lot of great books come out of traditional publishers looking crummy. And it's faster. It can take as little as two weeks. With traditional publishers, it can take 18 months."
Natasha Munson used iUniverse to publish her book, Life Lessons For My Sisters.
"The whole project took me less than six months. I wrote it in two months. I wrote every night, after my daughters went to sleep," Munson says.
"I wrote Life Lessons for young people, for college students, so I thought about my target audience and where they would be, and I just went there. It could be hair salons, churches, organization meetings: You have to go find those things."
Eventually, she sold out to Hyperion.
"There's only one reason to sell out to traditional publishers - if you think they can reach your audience better than you can," Poynter says.
Self-publishing comes with its own set of risks, though.
The author needs to front the money to publish, as well as pay all the business expenses that comes with distributing and promoting the book. Even then, self-published authors can be seen as the pariah of the industry, untouchables who couldn't create adequate content. Although traditional publishers are embracing the idea that not all good books come out of the big six publishing houses, there's still the taint of vanity publishing hanging over the industry. It's part of the reason why bookstores won't shelve independently published books, according to The New York Times. On top of this, "they aren't returnable and aren't discounted as much as traditional books." The New York Times, along with other major newspapers, refuse to review self-published titles.
Besides that, self-publishing can cut both ways, says David Dunton, a literary agent for Harvey Klinger.
"If you do well, I can tell the publisher this author has a fan base. At the same time, too much success can cut into the book market. Who can say that the publisher will be able to sell more books?"
A Little Bit O' Luck
Not everyone is cut out for the self-publishing route. It comes down to running a business, and being able to market yourself. And even if you're doing all the right things, you still need to get a little lucky.
Richard Paul Evans wrote The Christmas Box as a Christmas story for his two children. He decided to self-publish 20 copies in 1993, and gave it to friends and families as gifts. It spread by word of mouth, and bookstores started calling his home to order copies. A bidding war eventually erupted, and Evans sold out to Simon and Schuster for $4.3 million.
Christopher Paolini started planning his novel, Eragon, at the age of 15. At the age of 17, his family decided to self-publish, and their first books arrived in November 2001. They promoted the book at schools and bookstores, and in the summer of 2002, publisher Alfred A. Knopf got wind of it through his stepson. By 2003, Knopf, an imprint of Random House, published Eragon.
These are clearly extraordinary cases. In fact, Moira Allen wrote in The Writer in June 2004 that, "Of iUniverse's 17,000 titles, only 84 have sold more than 500 copies."
A lot of forces must come together to create a best-seller. Self-publishing is one way to speed up the process.
"We're like a farm team," says Winchell. "As more and more people turn to self-publishing, more and more people can get picked up by traditional publishers."
"Remember, if you're going to do this, do it as a business," says Kessler. "If this is a vanity project, you'll just sell books to your family. And you'll end up with 500 copies sitting in your garage."
