A new era for self-publishing
In the not-so-distant past, if you wanted to see your novel or poems published and were either rejected by the big publishing houses or didn’t want to hire an agent, your only option was the pejoratively named “vanity press” companies.
They typically required writers to pay the up-front costs of printing hundreds or thousands of hard-bound copies, which would often fill the writers’ basements while they sought to peddle copies as best they could to recoup their investment.
Well, those days are gone. With the development of print-on-demand technology and the spread of digital e-book readers and tablets, it is easier and cheaper than ever to get your works printed and disseminated, and to establish your own reputation as a writer.
The Beacon spoke with three Columbia area writers who have done just that, each for their own reasons.
Alan Zendell, 70, has self-published three novels since 2010. The onetime scientist, aerospace engineer, software consultant and database developer, who lives in Columbia, said, “at my age, I don’t have the patience” to go the traditional publishing route.
Two of his science fiction novels — The Portal and Wednesday’s Child — have received many glowing reviews on Amazon, and an agent has just contacted Zendell to represent his latest work.
Pamela Armstrong, a clinical psychologist in Columbia, has been writing poetry for more than four years. “I talked to an agent at a writer’s conference,” she recalled. “The agent didn’t show much interest in poetry. I’m 68, and I thought, ‘Why not get my work out there?’”
Because she had heard “horror stories” about other poets trying to get their poems printed by mainstream publishing houses, and because she wanted to control what wound up on her pages, she worked with self-publisher Graphic Press.
Depth Finder, her second self-published work, appeared in December, showcasing 49 of her free-verse poems, inspired by her work, her life experiences, and her belief in the healing power of nature.
Peter Pollak, 70, a resident of Elkridge, decided to self-publish the first of his four detective mystery novels because, he said, “I truly didn’t think my writing was good enough to deserve traditional publishing.”
Self-publishing three more murder mysteries over the following three years — all available in e-book and paperwork formats — “has given me a chance to test the market while continuing to learn the trade,” Pollak said.
While he often wishes that he didn’t have to spend so much time marketing his self-published works, Pollak said he realizes that “it’s up to the author these days” to sell his or her book.
New technologies fuel boom
The trend in self-publishing is booming due both to technological leaps and the economic downturn of the onetime monolithic book publishing houses.
Self-publishing authors now can sell their digital e-books or print-on-demand paperbacks through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and other online distributors.
A big perk of self-publishing: Authors can take home 80 to 90 percent of revenue from their sales, instead of the 10 percent the publishing houses offer their writers.
Plus, the price for self-publishing has dropped considerably in the past decade. Self-publishing authors say they have spent anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to see their words reproduced digitally and/or on paper.
You mostly get what you pay for. There are no up-front costs for publishing e-books that could be read on a Kindle or other electronic devices, but the authors may choose to utilize the services of content and copy editors, book cover designers, public relations and marketing people. These services are offered by many self-publishing companies, as well as by individual contractors.
Once a work is self-published, it is almost always up to the writer to take over selling it. He or she has to try to arrange book readings, get reviews, and do other sales promotions via Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and other social media outlets.
Overcoming a stigma
Despite a recent tirade by well-known author Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections, Freedom), who called self-publishing authors “yakkers and tweeters and braggers,” big name authors Stephen King, J.K. Rowling and others have dabbled in the new field.
King began distributing his books online, and Rowland decided to self-publish additions to her Harry Potter series through her own platform, Pottermore.
In a sense, they were following in the footsteps of many great writers before them. Famous authors who have self-published in years gone by include Mark Twain, Marcel Proust, Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
The Bowker book data company said that the number of self-published books in the U.S. in 2012 reached 391,000. That’s a 59 percent increase over 2011’s total, and exceeds the 301,642 book titles produced in hard copy by traditional publishers, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Publishers Weekly has started putting out a quarterly supplement dedicated exclusively to self-published titles. PW said it was doing this to keep its readers “abreast of the self-publishing revolution…and as an acknowledgement that valuable works are being published outside traditional publishing.”
Self-publishing facilitators admit that they do help put some pretty bad writing in print — “What’s a better word for c-r-a-p?” one asked.
But according to Ally Machate, a former editor at Simon & Shuster and now a publishing consultant at Ambitious Enterprises, “We shouldn’t assume a book is of lesser quality because it is self-published….There certainly are authors whose self-published works are on par [with or] better than writers who find homes with established publishers,” she said.
New sales outlets
Machate, a former resident of Columbia who now lives in Pikesville, believes that self-publishing is not only affecting how books are produced, but also how readers find and buy them.
For one important thing, she noted, “many of the monolith chain bookstores have collapsed, while the small independent bookstores are making a comeback.”
This, she said, is “good news for self-publishing authors.” She said that while the big chains “wouldn’t talk to self-publishing authors [about selling their books], the independents do, especially if you are a local.”
While self-publishers will still be ignored by the established literary media, that’s not as important as it might once have been, according to Machate. Today, many readers are getting their feedback on books from blogs, Facebook, recommendations from friends, and online reviews via Amazon and Goodreads, she noted.
And while traditional companies must sell a huge number of books to consider a publishing venture a success, self-publishing authors “need to sell much less to make a profit.”
“Nowadays,” said Machate, “no one cares who publishes a book. And readers don’t place as much value as they once did on the small number of gatekeepers and their stamp of approval.”
Jeanne Ketley of Columbia and Patty Sroka of Woodbine, who writes as P.J. O’Dwyer, are two authors who have worked with Machate. While Sroka writes novels, Ketley is about to publish a consumers’ guide for Maryland home and condominium owners.
A former research scientist for 30 years at the National Institutes of Health, Ketley became interested in ownership laws when she bought a condominium 10 years ago. She had questions, but couldn’t find the answers in the often difficult-to-understand laws. So she did research and learned how to become a consumer advocate for homeowners.
Ketley expects her book to come out in May. She published it herself, with the help of editors, formatters, a web designer and others, she said, because “I’m 75 and I’m not terribly good at the computer.”
Sroka will soon self-publish the final book in her romantic suspense trilogy, and is working on both a young adult and a science fiction novel.
She said she had queried agents about her previous books, sending them chapters, and was told the writing was very good. But the agents never quite got around to taking her on as a client.
“The whole process [of traditional publishing] is very emotional for a writer,” said the 50-year-old Sroka. “You have highs when you’re work is praised, then you have lows when it’s rejected.
“So I decided to take control of my own destiny and see how that works out.”