In case you missed my recent
announcement, my next book, Keep No Secrets (the sequel to Tell No
Lies) will be hitting the virtual book shelves very, very soon (ebook
and print), and this time I've decided to self-publish it. Also, I
recently got the rights back to my first two novels, Tell No Lies and
Rescuing Olivia, and I've re-released Tell No Lies as an ebook on Amazon (only $2.99!). Rescuing Olivia will follow any day now.
Of course, the first question I
received from many folks after making this announcement (primarily
other writers, but not always) was this: Why did you decide to
self-publish?
The answer is a lengthy one, and it's
multi-faceted. There really isn't just one reason.
So in the interest of saving myself the
trouble of having to answer the question over and over, and also
realizing that there are probably people who want to know but are too
afraid to ask, I've decided to discuss it here on my blog. The full
answer will come piecemeal – one, because as I said, it's long and
multi-faceted, and, two, because on any given day I remember more
of my reasons. (I'll also add the answers to my website, so by the time I'm
done, all of my answers can be found in one place.)
Today, I'll start with two, very simple
reasons.
Reason #1 why I decided to
self-publish: As I write, it's been twenty days since I first
released Tell No Lies by uploading it as an ebook to Amazon. In those
twenty days, I've sold more copies of the book than I've sold in the
past two years. Surprised? So was I, but only a little.
See, with traditional publishing, your book is
released and it hits the shelves in some bookstores (but not, as some
think, in most bookstores – I'll discuss this further in a later
post), where it remains for two months or so (if you're lucky), and
then any leftover copies are returned to your publisher to make room
on the shelves for the next crop of releases. After that, the print
book can still be purchased (1) from the bookstore if you want to wait
for them to order it and get it in, or (2) online, either as a print book
or as an ebook, but the print book is now competing with the used
copies being resold for two cents, and the ebook, priced at $9.99 or
sometimes even higher, is competing against all of the other $9.99
books by New York Times bestsellers and the free, 99 cents, $1.99 and $2.99, etc.
books by authors doing it themselves. In other words, once you reach
this point, you won't be selling too many more copies. The heyday of
your book's life is behind it.
By getting my rights back and
re-releasing Tell No Lies and Rescuing Olivia, I'm able to give the books
a little CPR and bring them back to life. Forever. Plus, I can set my own
price so they stand a chance of competing against the books mentioned
above. It's amazing how many people are willing to give a relatively
unknown author a chance when they're asked to spend only $2.99 to do it.
You don't get the benefit of that “sampling” when your book is
priced at $9.99 or higher.
You might ask, why do traditional publishers set
the price of ebooks, especially for lesser known authors like
me, so high? Beats me. Or rather, I know why – I simply don't
understand why. Again, that's a whole other post, but if you want a
great explanation now, I'll refer you to a short book (free!) called
Be the Monkey - Ebooks and Self-Publishing: A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath. Frankly, I'd call it required reading for anyone
considering any kind of publishing in this day and age. Do I agree with everything they say? No, but the discussion of print and digital publishing is spot on, in my opinion.
Reason #2 why I decided to
self-publish: The traditional publishing route isn't as glamorous as
it's cracked up to be.
I could try to explain this, but I
would never be able to write such a funny, yet honest explanation as
given by Adam Mansbach in this essay he wrote for Salon.com. If you
really want to know what it's like, all I can say is: What Adam said!
So that's it for today, folks. Time to get back to preparing Rescuing Olivia for its re-release. Stay tuned for more reasons . . .
I welcome all comments or questions
about my decision and my experience. I'll try to answer as best I
can. (If a question would be answered by an upcoming “Reason why”
post, I may defer my answer to then so I can answer it adequately. Please be patient. I still have to find time to actually write fiction.)
Don't get me wrong: I'm not here to
declare one way is better than another. My intent is to discuss why
I've decided to do this at this point in time. Will I always do it
this way? Who knows? This is a new venture for me and I may end up
loving it or I may end up hating it. Would I consider going back to
traditional publishing? It depends. I know plenty of authors who are doing both, and I can see that as a possibility if the terms were right. After all, there was a time when I didn't
think I'd ever write a sequel to Tell No Lies. But I did. So if I've
learned anything, it's never to say never. The beauty of what I'm doing is that I can be flexible.
So, if you're interested in the details
of my journey, stick around and follow along. If all you care about
are the books – that's great, too! I recommend signing up for my
mailing list, though, so you won't miss the news of any upcoming releases.
Talk to you soon!
