It’s been quite a journey since I decided to put them in print: interesting always, instructive at best, but not always fun, and sometimes completely exasperating.
First of all, let me say that you can buy either soft cover or hard bound copies of my book directly from me, or you can get it through Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. For you iPad and Kindle folk, I plan to put out an eBook edition before long as well. The soft cover currently retails for $14.07+ and the hard bound edition for $24.07, plus tax. In addition, if you purchase from me, I would be more than happy to autograph your book for you. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please tell your friends!
With that said, my publishing journey has taught me a number of lessons which I shall chalk up to experience. You know the old saying, “Experience is always the best teacher”? Most of us have never heard the rest of the sentence which says, “as long as it’s somebody else’s.” Hopefully one or two of you can profit from mine.
It has also been said that vanity press publishing was the “kiss of death” for any book, and there are authors and other notable folk still making the lecture tour circuit making money off that outmoded notion today. Few people know that many books we consider classics were originally self-published (Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, for example), and the term “vanity press” is actually obsolete, because many publishers are now available to help authors who contract with them. In the New World of Publishing, vanity presses (or book aggregators) don’t have the stigma they had even five years ago, simply because that’s the only way the average person (someone who is not a celebrity, or a writer with at least one blockbuster best seller to his credit) could hope to get published in the first place. As the big publishing houses were bought up by foreign investors and shifted their emphasis from growing and nurturing promising writers over to simply making as much money as possible, there weren’t many options left for anyone who was not already established. And let’s face it. Most authors want to write books, get them published, and get back to writing more books—they are not interested in learning the ins-and-outs of the publishing world, and trust me, there is a great deal to know! I’ve just begun to learn what I need to know in order to promote my book.
One thing I have learned is that whether you publish through a traditional publishing house, a vanity press, a small indie publisher, or self-publish through Amazon.com; it’s still up to you to promote your book. The big publishing houses don’t spend that kind of money anymore, unless they think you have a best seller—and they know they can be wrong. If your book doesn’t sell thousands of copies for them, you won’t get the big advance or an expensive promotional tour the next time out. They may not pick up your next book at all. A debut author is lucky to get an advance of $1,000-$5,000 now, and that is only against future sales. You are still expected to promote your own book through blogging and social networking, and it can take up to two years for a traditional publisher to get your book into print. And a national book signing tour? No problem, if you’re a big-name celebrity, but for the rest of us? Not at all likely! Unless you have a good agent (and how do you get one of those? Finding one can take years too), you won’t sell anything to the big publishers anyway. Also, a great many publishers, large and small alike, do not take unsolicited manuscripts, so what do you do?
Since I already knew most of this was true, and because my first book was a book of poetry (if you sell 1,000 copies EVER, it’s considered a best seller), I decided to go with a vanity press, and one of the oldest and most respected companies, six years ago. I was not an established poet, having only published a few things on the Web over the years, so very few people even knew I was a writer. I was NOT interested in learning how publishing or book promotion worked. I just wanted to publish my book, hopefully sell some copies to friends and family and maybe a few strangers, and then get on with my life. I work for a living; I have horses; I am married and am expected to cook and keep house. Did I have time to learn about publishing and then get out there and do some promoting? Heck, I didn’t know how, and I wasn’t interested in learning! I did my research and signed a contract (at a big discount to the publishing company I had chosen, since they offered me not only a discounted price but the incentive of twice as many “free books” to sign). I opted to format my book myself too, so I saved even more money. Well, I got 98% of the work done on my manuscript within a fairly short time, and then life intervened. I got distracted with the rest of my life, plus I had to wait for other people who wanted to contribute to the book. For instance, my husband Sam wanted to write something for the back cover. Then the company I had signed with was bought up by Author Solutions, Inc. and moved to Bloomington, Indiana and I didn’t hear from them for about four years. To be fair, I hadn’t exactly made finishing the book a priority either.
Then my publishing representatives (there was a new one about every other month) began hounding me to complete the book. I imagine they wanted to clear their backlog and start making a profit on me. Everything finally came together and I finished my manuscript, designed my book cover, and wrote up my promotional copy. On August 16, 2011, my book was published, and I was justly proud of what I had accomplished. What I didn’t know, however, was that my work had only just begun. Tsk, tsk. I began to learn the REAL reason why not to publish with vanity presses (the aggregators): they make all their money on pricey aftermarket promotional add-ons, most of which are things you can easily do for yourself for free or which require only a small investment. I began getting almost daily phone calls from my promotional agent, trying to sell me various add-ons such as a Kirkus book review for $2,599. What???!!! That’s way more than I paid to have the book published! Did they think I was made of money? Needless to say, my rep didn’t go much further trying to sell me promotional items, because I refused to bite. I frankly told him, “Why should I pay for that, when a friend of mine who is a prominent and respected poet has already said he would write a FREE review for me?” A couple of weeks later I checked out Amazon’s “Look Inside the Book” feature for myself, because I had told my promotional rep that I wanted to have that for my book and it wasn’t showing up. Get this: Amazon charges you NOTHING for that service, but when I spoke to my rep, he wanted me to pay them $150 to do it. See what I mean?
That wasn’t the only problem. I had scarcely received my ”free” contracted soft cover books when I began getting calls from one of the other representatives handling my account, pushing me to buy more books. Heck, I hadn’t even received the hard bound ones yet, nor had I gotten any of the promotional materials I had contracted for (posters, bookmarks, and postcards). Three months and numerous phone calls later, I finally have those in my possession—they arrived two days ago. I had been told they were mailed, when they weren’t, and I had to resort to getting one of the higher-ups in the company involved to make sure it was taken care of. She, at least, seemed competent and genuinely concerned with helping me.
In the meantime I had signed up for a class taught by my former instructor and mentor Gloria Campbell, offered through Bellevue College, entitled Book Coach. I recounted my publishing experience to her and received a wealth of helpful advice in return. I learned about what had changed in the market, indie publishing, true self publishing, the new world of on-demand printing, and much, much more. With that knowledge I decided to start my own publishing company. I designed my own promotional materials and began to learn how to do all the things I thought I had paid the vanity press to do for me, but for which they wanted to charge me a fortune after the fact.
Yesterday I sent my application to the State to start the process, got my tax ID number from the IRS, and bought a domain name, so I now officially have my own business. It’s only the beginning, and there is a great deal more I need to do and learn, but it feels good. The really good news for other budding authors out there is that you don’t have to go any of these routes if you don’t want to. You don’t have to crawl on your knees and beg a traditional publisher to take you on, nor do you have to sign up with a vanity press, or start your own company. You can publish through Amazon.com’s Create Space and take advantage of everything they have to offer—and it’s a great deal. As for me one thing is certain, I’m in charge, and the only limit to my success is me and the amount of time and money I can devote to it. I plan to hold some readings and signings soon, and I promise to keep you posted!
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