Why I'm interested in self-publishing

[Jabrosky]

Once I really wanted to publish a story traditionally, as I believed it would lead me to greater success than self-publishing, but now my ambitions have changed. There are two things that bother me about traditional publishing:

1. Word count requirements. A story should be as long as it needs to be; you shouldn't have to stretch or squeeze a story into a publisher's requirements. It seems that every story I have written was too long for a short story publisher or too short for a novel publisher. Self-publishing allows for greater flexibility with regards to word count.

2. Once I submitted a short story for publication in a magazine, and they took weeks to look over it. Ultimately I withdrew the story after getting fed up with all the waiting. Self-publishing would allow me to skip this waiting.

Should I therefore go into self-publishing?

[Christopher Wright]

#1 is a good reason. #2 isn't, I think.

At one point in time it was possible to publish a novella-length work through traditional press, but that market seems to have gone away. It's actually fairly popular on Amazon, though. If your story is an odd size self publishing might be more of a market than a traditional one.

The time, thing, though... "weeks" is not long. To give you a point of reference: if you were to submit a novel to Tor Books, they state their turnaround time is three months. And they're fast.

In self publishing there is still a time when you need to wait, because you're going to need to take extra time to edit and build your eBook. Editing is a much bigger concern for you at this point because you don't have a pro doing that for you. And you might want to figure out how to approach the marketing angle. All of that will take more than weeks.

[Telcontar]

Being released from word count restraints is wonderful, I agree. The Swordsman story that was my self-pubbed debut was written with the resignation that I would never publish it...

Impatience, as a rule, is never a good reason to do anything. Also remember that while you will get your story out there faster, word-of-mouth still rules book sales and it takes time for even a really good book to get traction.

In my opinion, the single greatest question you need to ask yourself is: "Is this really good enough to put out there?" Self-publishing lacks gatekeepers, which means we need to police ourselves more stringently. Get lots of feedback and input and try and be very, very honest with yourself.

[Penpilot]

For reason 1, another way to look at word limits is they teach you to work within constraints and really think about your story. Short story too long, cutting it down doesn't just mean losing words, it can also mean learning how to concentrate what you're saying into the fewer words without loosing content. Novel too short, in fleshing it out further, you can learn how to dig deeper into a story and find more levels to it.

Now should you self-publish? That's up to you. But from my understanding, it's a hell of a lot of work and time taken away from writing and improving your craft. Not to mention money out of your own pocket needed to hire an editor and a cover artist. For some it works out, for others it doesn't. But do your homework on what's really needed to put out a quality self published book.

[Christopher Wright]

For reason 1, another way to look at word limits is they teach you to work within constraints and really think about your story. Short story too long, cutting it down doesn't just mean losing words, it can also mean learning how to concentrate what you're saying into the fewer words without loosing content. Novel too short, in fleshing it out further, you can learn how to dig deeper into a story and find more levels to it.

The Novella has been part of fiction for much longer than the full-length novel and only became an "illegitimate" or "unwanted" form of fiction relatively recently in publishing history. I think it's kind of nice that it has a chance to come back.

[ALB2012]

I just put mine on amazon kindle. I have to say I had a friend edit, then I did 2 edits but I did not pay an official editor. This will therefore be my problem if I missed something.

There are a few ebook publishers around, Amazon doesnt ask for exclusive rights unless you have enrol on KDP select and then it is for 90 days. I think Smashwords is alright.

With Amazon their formatting is a bit... odd but I think there are assorted guides on the forums there and also free kindle books regarding it.

I havent yet used any other medium but as Amazon cost me nothing other than time I went with that. If I sell I get either 35% or 70% royalties.

I think it depends what you want- do you want to make a living out of it, or do you want to publish a nice book you have written because you think other people might like it? Do you have the money for a print run etc

ALB

[Sheilawisz]

@ALB2012: Sorry, I removed the link that you had posted to your book at Amazon. If you want to self-promote your work with links included, you are welcome to do so at the Self-Promotion forum.

[ALB2012]

Interesting article.

The Most Successful Self-Published Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors

[ALB2012]

Oh sorry

[boboratory]

So Jabrosky,

Questions you would want to consider:

- How big is your existing Circle? How many copies do you think you could sell based solely on your network of friends and family, work associates, casual supportive acquaintances, etc.

- What is the next step after this work? Is this a series, that will mean more works coming? Would you want those traditionally published?

- Are you ready for a "long term relationship" with PR? Promoting your work to people you don't know is a commitment. If you want people to buy it, you should not expect a "post it to the web"=sales strategy to work.

In looking at the fact that there are constraints put in place by publishers, people whose job it is to sell the works of others, have you examined why they have these constraints in the first place? I point that out simply because of the risk, these are people whose job it is try to give a piece it's best chance to sell, and these constraints are meant to maximize salability, by minimizing risk. You may not like, or agree with it, but it's important that you understand it, and work with it to your advantage, whatever you decide.

On the IO article pasted above, it says, "In 2009 there were 764,448 self published books" over three quarters of a million self published books (plus 288,355 traditionally published titles according to Publisher's Weekly) Granted, not all of those are Fantasy/Sci-Fi, but it's still means a book has more competition than ever to be read, and again, the more you understand that, the more you can work with it.

About your timeline issue? I am not going to pull any punches, if you are living and dying by one piece, you need to reevaluate that strategy. If you submit a work, let it play out, start the next writing project. There are too many things you can be doing to allow a submission period to govern you. Publishers are under even more strain with submission volumes than ever before, even with the advent of self publishing. You should only be submitting to publishers you feel best represent your work, and publishers that you are comfortable best represent themselves as business people.

Also, you said you pulled your piece- gotta say this one made me cringe as a publisher- I don't obviously know all the details, but if it was as you indicated, taking too long- it's not particularly professional, and I would imagine that publisher will not have an issue making sure that you never have that problem with them (or anyone they talk to) again, if you know what I mean.