Who
of us, as non-published writers, has not dreamed about a novel or book of our
very own creation, our name and title splashed across the cover, just waiting
to be discovered by eager readers. Even if we haven't completed the first
chapter of our novel, we still dream about being "in print."
In
the recent past, paying to have your own work printed, hopefully distributing a
few copies to family members, a few friends and maybe some limited sales, was
often given the derogatory term, "vanity press." Three or four years
ago at my first writers conference, I caught the not so subtle hint that self-publishing
or financing your own book printing was frowned on, especially by those who
were published or at least well-educated in literature and writing.
The
veiled reference was that self-publishing was not a dignified undertaking for
the hopeful writer. A writer, it was assumed, had to go through the grueling
task of submitting one's work through a query letter to literary agents,
typically buried by thousands of letters. After many rejections, an agent may want
to see your work, or you may be lucky enough to know someone, who knows someone.
Then the literary agent may or may not offer to represent your work. If the
agent offers to represent you, they in turn spend possibly years pitching your
work to publishers. If you don't progress or succeed in this process and you
choose to do your own publishing and printing, well, that was given the stigma
of vanity publishing and was considered not really
being published.
Amazingly,
this year, only three years after I was informed about the need for real writers to endure a tedious process
of approval, nearly half of the workshops and presentations at the writers
conference I attended were about how to self-publish
through e-book formats. The encouragement and information shared was about
how to get your own work out in whatever method you can.
During
his presentation at the conference, Mark Coker, CEO and founder of Smashwords.com, an e-format, self-publishing and
distributing company, stated that this is a uniquely creative and powerful time
for authors. At this time in history authors have the ability to get their
ideas, information and creative writing out to readers through relatively easy
and inexpensive methods. Authors are not dependant on the approval process of
the mainstream publishers to determine what is published and available to read.
Coker
provides several free downloadable book articles to assist with the
self-publishing process. They include; Smashwords Style Guide, Smashwords Book Marketing Guide and Secrets to E-Book Publishing Success. Once an
article or book is formatted according to the needs as listed in the Style
Guide, it can be uploaded to Smashwords.com, which then processes it through
the "Meatgrinder" to make sure the text is flowable in different
e-formats. If it passes this process and has a "cover" it may be
accepted for the Premium Catalog and then provided to other e-book
distributors.
Coker
acknowledged that the great majority of self-published authors sell very few
books and that the self-publishing world does allow for a lot of substandard
work. A quality control loop is missed without the literary agents, editors and
publishers. To counter this short-coming, he encouraged authors to do
exceptional work with their writing, editing and proofing.
After
all this is said and done, the question an author is left with, as always is,
"How can I get people to read what I wrote?" or in commercial terms,
"How to do I market my book?"
This
is where the shoe meets the road, the pedal to the metal, the finger hits the
power button. How does one get their work out where others may find it, know
about it and read it? Marketing one's work can be a difficult and time
consuming project. Authors accepted by publishers through the traditional route
may possibly have the leg up in gaining assistance with marketing. However,
even here there seems to be frequent complaints from published authors that
publishing houses are not stepping up to the plate to assist with marketing. The
success or failure of the book and its sales is often left to the
responsibility of the author.
Marketing
or getting one's materials read remains the most challenging, intimidating and
frustrating part of the writing process. The deeper "dream" to be
read, to be listened to or to entertain is still difficult even with the
removal of the cost or stigma of "vanity press" and the relative ease
of e-publishing. With or without vanity press or self-publishing, being heard is an accomplishment that remains yet and still a difficult task.