Looking on the bright side

A lot of the chatter lately has been about the pitfalls facing independent self publishers, but what about the positive aspects of the challenge. How do I get my book out to the world, and I may have briefly touched on this in earlier blog posts.

No apologies for going back to it, whatever the pitfalls and snare that lay in wait for the unwary, the mission remains the same, to transfer the manuscript from the dusty shelf on the bookcase to the reader somewhere in the world, everywhere in the world.

A time worn piece of advice to writers slides along the lines of write about what you know, I'm not gainsaying the advice but letting the imagination run riot and extrapolating beyond what you know can be useful - research helps to spread the story base a bit further.

I'm working more on what happens after the story is written, and as mentioned earlier, the negative stories are rampant across the Internet, and bloggers like myself spread the doom and gloom. Ostensibly to pass on the wisdom of others, but honestly, there is always a feeling of there but for the grace of God...

I have so far escaped the clutches of the predators for a very simple reason. I haven't the money to chuck at the situation and I say so far deliberately. I am not immune to the wiles and machinations of the predatory characters out there.

My money is as good as anyone else's and just as vulnerable; and cold calling, hard selling and
mis-selling are the stumbling blocks in my way as much as any other writer, and it doesn't take long to stretch the bank balance beyond its limits.

A colourful statement may look pretty but there are some things, and my bank statements is one that ideally should be black and white.

I'm doing it again, slipping down the slope of negativity,

The book is done, editing and proofreading are sorted and the cover image is ready to proclaim your work to the world, so where do we go from here... the road to publication starts, actually, scrub that, the road heads off in a new direction.

Research is the key, always, check the details, follow your hunch and never, never disregard that feeling in the pit of your stomach. You know the one, it goes flip-flop and gurgles embarrassingly at quiet moments.

The choice is becoming wider, the traditional road is always there, via an agent or direct to the publisher,

 
Follow the submission guidelines and go for it, The Vanities (still awaiting the bonfire that will commit them and their charlatan ways to history) remain to snare the unwary, and the myriad variations of Assisted, Hybrid, and Supported publisher are waiting in the wings, and beyond them is the independent self-publisher.

Hugh Howey and Amanda Hocking have been instrumental in changing the perspective, the established view that the self-published author is the lost, lonely desperate soul with book sales that reach out to friends, workmates and whatever surviving generations of the family remain, or digitally as a free download are hoovered off the web in their hundreds (but do the downloaders ever read them?)

The Internet has definitely thrust the power of publishing into the hands of the people,The argument against the democratisation of publishing was that a torrent of badly produced rubbish would swamp the literary world and it is true, up to a point, 

There is also spirit, courage and sheer bloody minded determination. To write off all the self-published as unworthy is itself unworthy. The tradition of self-publishing has its own luminaries among the greats of literature (and who the put the naysayers in charge anyway?)

The Self published author is in illustrious company, the epitome of the DIY publisher is the poet William Blake, who self-published some of his best known works, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; Songs of innocence, Songs of experience. He wrote the text, designed the illustrations and engraved them on to copper plates for printing. Jane Austen suffered rejection by publishers and after reworking Sense and Sensibility went the vanity route and paid Thomas Egerton to publish the book.

They are not alone; Mark Twain, Marcel Proust, Bernard Shaw, Edgar Allen Poe, Anais Nin,   Beatrix Potter self-published the Adventures of Peter Rabbit, Joyce Joyce did the same with Ulysses. Charles Dickens followed suit with A Christmas Carol, after a dispute with his traditional publisher over the sales of Martin Chuzzlewit

Virginia Woolf, and her husband, Leonard Woolf solved the problem by becoming their own publishers and established the Hogarth Press, a road followed by some of their contemporaries.

There is always dross around the gold, and the idea that the traditional publishing has a monopoly on the gold is ridiculous. They have no more guarantee the material they publish is gold than the rest of us. I always find Mark Coker's analogy of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks, a useful image. The stacks of remaindered books, and bookshops is a testimony to the unpredictability of the literary world.

There is a strange alchemy involved in a successful book, and sometimes the missing ingredient is time, giving the book time to reach out and make contact. An advantage the eBook has over the traditional print format, and the hybrid, the print book that survives the frequent purges of the book shop shelves. Print on Demand.

Traditional print requires an immediate reaction, if the marketing fails to hit the sweet spot and the copies are not flying off the shelves as fast as the books are stacked up then the slide to oblivion can begin within weeks of publication, shelf space is so tight.

Print on Demand requires no shelf space, the storage is counted in Kb or Mb, not inches or centimetres. There is no limit to shelf life, so the book remains permanently available. For the independent the marketing can be an ongoing process, tweaked and adjusted to suit the current circumstances.

We are not restricted by the physical shelf life of the bookshop, where the current best-seller is always on the point of being nudged out of the way by the next best thing. We have time; to build our platform and develop our strategies.

Saint or Skimmer?

Every good story has a villain, the fouler and blacker the better, for a dramatic narrative, and the easier it is to identify the black hats the better, it helps the story unfold and the underlying moral to be revealed through the words and action.

In the not too distant past the giants of publishing held sway over the road to print and the way forward lay through the Gatekeepers of tradition, the literary agent.

Theirs was the only way and any other option was left to the desperate and deranged. That somehow failing to acquire the support of a traditional outlet was to be deemed unworthy, or sub standard.

There are frequent comments made about the changing landscape of modern publishing, primarily brought about by the revolution in self-publishing made possible by the spread of the Internet and the ebook. A landscape changing so quickly it has led to partnerships and alliances that would have been unheard of fifteen, or even ten years.

From the apparently lofty heights of traditional publishing some great names have plunged into the mire of the Vanity press. David Gaughran has explored this on a number of his blogs, and the word of caution to all who seek to put their words out into the great wide literary world is buyer beware. The saints are found among those who will skim the money from your bank account to maintain their business model. If I may quote David from the linked blog; "it’s much harder to tell the scammers from the legitimate organizations when they are owned by the same people. (emphasis is mine).

Penguin Random House are widely known as the owner of Author Solutions, (the footer on the Author Solutions webpage bears the stamp "Author Solutions, A Penguin Random House Company) who have acquired the role of black caped villainy in the self publishing world, and with some justification. Lynne Cantwell left a comment on the post "Weathering the storms" ; the new class-action suit against Author Solutions was filed in U.S. District Court in southern Indiana, where Author Solutions is located. The complaint is harrowing reading. The two named plaintiffs are both elderly, and they both gave these scammers thousands of dollars to "promote" their books. The complaint can be downloaded and is worth reading. The best cautionary tale is often the one heard first, or as close to first hand as is humanly possible.

Goskan Solotaroff describe Author Solutions as "more like a telemarketing company whose customer base is the Authors themselves." Where a traditional publisher makes money for its authors;  Author Solutions make their money by selling books back to the Authors, (not publishing to a general readership,) and expensive publishing, editing, and marketing services (“Services”) that are effectively worthless.

Author Solutions is the tip of a very large iceberg with their US based imprints, 

AuthorHouse'

Trafford Publihsing

iUniverse

Wordclay

and XLibris.

International imprints;

Authorhouse UK

Palibrio; 

and the UK, Australia and New Zealand imprints of XLibris

International partnerships with 

Balboa Press AU;

Partridge, Africa, India and Singapore (Partridge is a Penguin Group Author Solutions development since the takeover by Penguin in 2012 - so any ideas that Penguin's acquisition would clean up the stables were  ill founded, they simply added to the pile)

The links between the big publishers and Author Solutions are there in open view; Simon & Schuster's self-publishing arm, Archway Publishing, declares from the head of the page "Operated by Author Solutions."

There is more to come, the information is out there, and it may take some finding, but the due diligence is worth the effort, and the question. The Question! How, why, do we still manage to fall for the patter and the slick marketing.

David Gaughran sums it up beautifully, he asks can you remember when you were new to all this, how naive, and badly you wanted your book published, and every avenue towards that goal seemed impossible. 

When you feel that everything is working against you, you start to get desperate, crazy, and on top of all that - you don't know who the good guys are anymore!

Myths and Legends.

How much of what we know, or think we know about writing is down to a strange communal memory. Somewhere way back in the mists of time, or just a couple of years ago it was said that such and such was true, maybe.

The strongest myth is that self-published books are by default of inferior quality to traditionally published. That may not be a given truth anymore, Yvonne Hertzberger made a comment to a blog post on Indies Unlimited that the standards of traditional publishers are falling, and now expect authors to arrange their own editing and proofing. Leading to a decline in standards and the likelihood of sub-par volumes hitting the bookstore shelves.

There are three particular strands that intrigue me; the first draft is always rubbish; the first book is always bad and that the longer you spend on a book the better it is.

Taking the last first; it is true that Iceline went to publish ten years after I sat down to write, so I could say that I spent ten years working on it. Sorry, honesty outbreak coming up; nothing like that;  a year, maybe a year and a half actually working on the manuscript, editing and proof reading, then it sat on file for a couple of years before I had another look at it.

Working in a literary environment it is easy to take things literally, we forget that we also spend our time making it up, fiction is not lying it's more about being  creative with the truth.

By all means spend the time polishing but bringing out the best needs one crucial piece of knowledge; knowing when to stop. It is as easy to under polish as it is to over polish. Taking  a moment to stand back, or put the manuscript back in the file may be the moment that reveals the polish is at its best, the lustre at its most luminous.

The first draft is always rubbish, sorry, that's rubbish. We all have a natural talent for storytelling, it is a basic human trait, the variation comes with the degree and the ability to entertain that comes with it. Think about your favourite subject, how, long can you talk about it for? Five, ten, fifteen minutes, half an hour or can you rabbit for hours; long beyond the point where you're listener has crawled into a room somewhere in the back of the mind until it blows over.

That story is always a good one, thinking as you go and supplying the details as the story unfolds: now apply that to your first draft. The beauty of NaNoWriMo for me is the release of the mental brakes and the constant looming of the deadline versus the word count forces me to think on my feet and allow the story to develop a natural flow, often surprising myself in the process.

Writers talk about the characters taking over, of pushing the story in a way not envisaged at the planning stage. Who are they, where do they come from, but how often do we ask where are they going. Once they are released into our conscious world, where might they go from here?

With an inherent ability for crafting a fascinating tale on the go, why should we ever accept that our first draft is rubbish. There is a good solid argument for making the first draft the best you can; it reduces the amount of subsequent  work required to achieve the desired level of polish.

The first book is always a bad one, OK, if we accept that the first draft is bad (No!) then the first draft of the first book must need work far beyond our capabilities to make the grade, whatever that or the grade setter might be! Sorry guys, I don't buy it!

Are any of these myths true? Do they hold a truth within them, or are they simply retold stories about how the odds are stacked against the independent and self published. Fairy tales to frighten the children and make them behave, to follow tradition blindly or the bogeyman will get you!

So what are your myths; the odd stories that tap into your psyche when you switch on and attack the keyboard?

Fresh in today...

New material for the Obedience of Fools, this year's NaNoWriMo entry, updated and free to download. Very much a work in progress and a happening event, I think the plot took a twist I wasn't expecting, now we'll have to see what happens next...

Check out the links and the stats via cheekyseagull,co,uk, on the page for The Obedience of Fools.

Imagination to the power of...

Do you think NaNoWriMo is craziness squared, 50,000 words in 30 days, OK, shift the perspective and walk another path. Imagine this; you are the guide at a historic building somewhere. A place where history and the personal stories of people ooze from the walls.
The mission, should you accept it, is to tell those stories and unfold that history in a lively entertaining way, to draw the visitors in and hold their imagination with your words. There is no rehearsal, you go live with one chance, this will be your first and only draft. It is a different group of people every time you open the door.
Your talk will last at least an hour, perhaps an hour and a half, at between ninety and a hundred and ten words a minute.
No notes, just the prompts from the things around you. You are passionate about it and once you start the words flow freely. Work an average, 100 words a minute for 75 minutes, 7500 words. That's a little less than one seventh of NaNoWriMo in an hour and fifteen minutes.
The challenge is fifty thousand words in thirty days.
Now tell me that my first draft should be anything less than my best.
Write your first draft as though it was your last.

Imagine that

The Angst of Acceptance, a recent post by Chris James at Indies unlimited taps into the discussion about who is worthy to sit at the literary table and pick over the spoils, he begins with a humorous story about a "Traditional" published writer being embarrassed to admit his status in the company of self-published authors.

A scenario that is pretty unlikely to happen today. The long road to acceptance for many self-published writers has been dogged by the stigma which has attached itself to the title for so many years but strip away the pretentious snobbery, and let's be honest isn't that where some of this comes from; didn't it all start with independent writers publishing their own works who gradually grew into the publishing companies of the past and then conglomerated into the bigger companies dominating the present day market?

I posted a comment at the foot of Chris's post and part of it reads

 Indies have always been part of the literary scene, but regarded as the eccentric relatives which maintained their status as curios and their output as a trickle. Today the trickle is a flood and the criticism of the Indie almost always falls against a technical criteria – proofreading, editing, or whatever, elements the traditionally published writer hands over to someone else to do!
Nobody ever said we are bad at storytelling,

I am an Indie Author, I have never made any secret of the fact, nip across to the writing page at www.cheekyseagull.co.uk  and there's a little note about my feelings on the matter. Chris has an excellent piece and links in the article itself and the comments provided by readers below expand on the discussion, including how a number of well established and respected literary groups are discussing their future relationships with the constantly growing self-publishing community and people firmly embedded in the "Traditional" publishing world are effectively being forced to shift their views on the new generation of self-publishing.

My comment touched on something that has niggled at me for a long time, the sub text that when it comes to checking the details of the finished work (proofreading, editing) somehow I can't do it! I wrote the book, and I can't spot my own mistakes? Paying someone to do the donkey work is fine, employing a professional is good, but being professional is not just about being paid. Being truly professional has nothing to do with being paid and everything to do with your state of mind.

Self-publishing is not the road of the damned and the desperate, not any more, and the names of established writers who are stepping out on to the road with the myriad of unknowns, hopefuls, dreamers and professionals are saying it loudly with each step they take along that road. People attack what they fear, they run down the things they feel threatened by, it's natural, but the writer, you, whoever you are out there, you are extraordinary. You have an independent mind, an independent spirit, enjoy them.

Whatever form of publishing route you take remember this, without the writer there would be nothing to publish. Our words, thoughts, ideas, the stories that catch the quintessence of humanity are served up for the reader to enjoy. We have a feast in our hands so bring what you have and share it.

Update - What You Ask For

Just posted the latest version of the Nanowrimo 2012 winner, 

What You Ask For, still free and still available at Smashwords.com. The story continues, and Jessica makes her move. follow this as it progresses and pick up the first two Grange novels at 50% discount through Smashwords Iceline (code SG33N) and Control Escape (code VK65T). 

Iceline - $2.99 - BookBarista

 Iceline - $2.99 - BookBarista. listed on the site as Fiction, thriller, ebooks on line with links to major retailers; Apple iTunes, Kobo, WHSmith, Sony, B&N for Nook, and the home base link at Smashwords.com.
While you're there have a look ay what else is available, a wide selection in all genres.

Almost there!

The last few hours of Read An Ebook Week 2013, and the search through the catalogue at Smashwords brings one or two things to notice, Iceline and Control Escape have a good showing in the Fiction - Thriller and Suspense categories; Iceline is hanging around at the bottom of page 1 in the units sold, epic (>100,000 words), RW100 100% off listing; page 2 in the full length (>50,000 words) RW100 100% off and Control Escape is over the page at 3 on page 3 in the full length listings. Like the listing says, Thriller and Suspense, Intrigue and conspiracy.  Not long left for this annual extravaganza, don't be the pumpkin, the codes run out  at midnight Pacific Time tonight, March 9th.
Thanks for your interest, grab one or both, bag the brace, enjoy them!

Don't keep this under your hat!

Spotted this poster on the www.ebookweek.com site, the whole thing is news to me but it's sort of the parent site for all this fun, and I'm having a good time. I loved the atmosphere of this poster and have adopted it; my books are thrillers and this is the archetypal image. Running the whole gamut from The Third Man; the Maltese Falcon etc., all the way down ghetto line. The Give-Aways are going well and the "sales" are encouraging - OK, I've shifted more books in the last twenty four hours than the previous six months, but I'm fine with that. The word from the start was this was a long journey and I'm definitely up for it. I'm enjoying it, and the suspense is there right at the heart of it, wondering when the next ping on the email will log another book on the sales chart.

To all you lovely people who already have Iceline and Control Escape on your e-shelves, thanks for the thumbs up, have a good time with them, I had fun writing them.  Bag the brace if you haven't done so already; I should be cracking on with the third novel, What You Ask For. I'm already being asked when it will be available. It started with the gallop through November and Nanowrimo ( I logged 50,000 plus within the thirty days and the book became a winner) and then it lost impetus and the writing schedule has already been stretched, twisted beyond recognition and lobbed in a corner where it missed the wastebin. What You Ask For is published at Smashwords as a work in progress and free to download; stay with the story if you're following it, and if your new to Steel, Jardine and the people at The Grange, this week is an opportunity to say hello, and have them on me.

There is another story somewhere down the tracks, but that is still working its way out of the back of my mind and the problem with the brilliant idea and the notebook in last night's, or was that this morning's post, is all too familiar; maybe I'll go back to the old style tape recorder and try to look good talking to myself. Generally a fail, even with the ubiquitous bluetooth stuck in your ear. 

As the man in the poster says, this is read an ebook week, don;t keep it under your hat, spread the word and be part of the action; and I'm going to stir up the action in the next book,

 See you soon, I'm off to the typeface. 

This could be fun - seriously

The annual  Read An Ebook Week is here, this is the first time I've been in a position to take part and it looks like fun, and if something is going to be fun then you have to be serious about it. There is a serious side to it; serious enough for the Canadian Parliament in Motion 239 of the First session of the 41st Parliament to declare March Read An Ebook Month. The host site www.ebookweek.com is worth a look at. The week is featured and discussed on the Smashwords blog,  go for it, dip in and take a look; help yourself to a book, or even stagger out with the electronic equivalent of a shelf full. Your new favourite writer may hiding in the list. The Smashwords Catalogue is open through the week

Be part of the action, spread the word!

Free ebooks for this week

Read An eBook Week starts tomorrow at Smashwords.com, the fifth annual celebration of books on the site, and Iceline and Control: Escape are free for the week. Enter the code RW100 for each book when you go to buy.
What You Ask For is free and downloadable, still a work in progress but updated yesterday.
Go with the links in this post or click on the cover image alongside, but don't forget the code.
(The official start time is one minute past midnight on the 3rd March Pacific time; then the Smashwords catalogue appears, it will disappear at the stroke of midnight pacific time on the 9th.)

Where are we going now?

Recent posts from the Office of Letters and Light - the people behind Nanowrimo - Self-Publishing vs Publishing: How To Choose Your Path by Lynn Viehl, and Mark Coker at Smashwords have discussed the ongoing debate between traditional and self-publishing.

Lynn Viehl considers the options as either or and perhaps both depending on the circumstances and the writer making the choices. Mark Coker's posting after the San Francisco Writer's Conference, where eBook publishing held the centre stage referred to a constantly and rapidly changing landscape in the publishing world. His presentation, How The Ebook Revolution Will Transform Your Career, explores ten trends in publishing and how they impact on the traditional and eBook sides of the story. In an earlier post at Smashwords blog and an interview on NPR Mark Coker remarks on the shift in perspective where self-publishing was considered the option of last resort. The refuge of the vain and the desperate, and now the goal posts have been uprooted and appear to be wandering around the pitch. Writers are deliberately opting for self-publishing as a first choice not the last chance saloon, and traditional publishers are trawling through e-published works for the next best seller - the Fifty Shades spectacular last year - eyeing up the also viewed and most download Stats at sites across the net.

Whatever lies in the future and considering the changes that have taken place in the last five years that is a movable feast of the most magnificent proportions; the old way is gone forever. Books will continue to be created and enjoyed, cherished and loved, published and read with every emotion that reaches out from the written word. We will argue over which is best, discourse and discuss the words on the printed page, the iPad, Kobo and Kindle screen, in whatever format we have or favour, and is the truth of it not that we love books -  though undeniably true - rather that in any shape or form we adore stories, and the people who create them; the Writers, of million sellers or for a select readership. The story is what counts and today, writers, along with publishers (self or trad), agents and book sellers are the characters in a story as profound as the impact of the movable type.

A slightly shameless plug

OK, I'm a writer with books out, and I shall indulge in shameless plugging, slight adjustments to the blog now contain links to my books at Smashwords (over to the left a bit and click on the image), Two are completed, and the third, What You Ask For (first mentioned in Nanowrimo 2012 with Not Without My Cat and both are Nanowrimo 2012 winners,) is a work in progress and is free to download and  follow the action  . Check the post of 15th February for a link to Not Without My Cat, to read the whole story there. End of plug.