Anyone seen the latest news about self publishing? a big boost for all potential brave souls: News

Another book that came to mind while reading this very intersting article is a book by Charmian Hussey called Valley of Secrets, originally published autumn 2003 by Piran Press, and which has sold out two printings in both hardcover and paperback in record time. A hardcover first edition goes for upwards of £2,000. Anyway, Hodder & Stoughton are releasing it in early 2005 (I think). This book has been big news here in Cornwall.

Ani

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Shame on me for not using my preview key!

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try that again

A very big boost! Nice to hear some success stories. I see self-publishing, not as vanity publishing, but taking the initiative. As you say, Anna, these people are brave souls.

Shay

There's a guy here in Paris who's caused quite a stir with an (originally) self-published book called 'A year in the Merde' Check out his website on: http://www.redgaragebooks.com

Elspeth

I haven't had time to check this one out properly, but I'm a member of a narrative journalists' websire and someone there just posted about his POD company - the first to be based in a bookshop 'anywhere in the world'. He says you just walk in with your ms and they print your book. The prices look pretty reasonable.

http://www.booksbybookends.com/

Wow, that's a great idea.

Fascinating News. I wonder if this will have any effect upon Agents, Packagers and others?

I also wonder if it will lead to an awful lot of awful books 'on the market'.

Len

If it leads to more dross being added to dross which is out there already, maybe it will all amalgamate into itself. If it gives the confident writer the means to get his work into book form, with that book never having stood a chance of being produced through the usual channels, then I reckon it's a pretty good scheme, which gives the chance for some genuine - and perhaps maverick - talent to shine through.

Dave

Maybe this is the beginning of the publishing equivalent to the indie situation that has existed in music for years. We might get more dross, but it may also break some boundaries and revitalise writing and reading. Perhaps there will be more books selling in smaller runs and a movement away from the 'bestseller' tradition of massive sales. Sharon

I hear you there Sharon. Not so much "getting yer foot in the door" as booting it down and crashing inside, bringing all your mates along with you! There's enough talent on this site alone to start a major scene I reckon...

booting it down and crashing inside, bringing all your mates along with you!

Now that sounds like fun. And isn't that the reason the derogatory term 'vanity publishing' was coined in the first place, because the agents and publishers could see that's where it could lead. Sharon

I personally see self-publishing as the sensible future of the industry. The more people involved in getting a book on the shelf, the more room there is for stifling talent and looking to suck profits away from the person most deserved of them.

I will never use an agent/publishing house to publish my work, although I may someday self-publish.

Reading all the horror stories from people on this site like waiting 9 months just for some person to read your work. That just doesn't sound gravy.

Yes, more opportunities must be a good thing for writers but these opportunities have existed for a long time.

It is wonderful news to read that recognition and reward has been achieved by some writers who have used self-publishing, so what has held back most writers from using a Vanity Publisher? Is it costs?

Terry has pointed out a walk-in site that is interesting; the minimum cost for 100 copies is around $8/9 each. However most will appreciate that marketing costs will add a great deal to the unit cost price, plus sellers percentage if it is envisaged that the aim is to have one's self-publicized book alongside mainstream editions.

Perhaps this heralds an explosion with the Internet developing a competitive 'market' to rival or challenge the Publishing Establishment? I wonder.

If one sees this as examples of writers who have (as Sharon so accurately puts it) 'taken the initiative', then I am 100% behind them with their printed book becoming their major marketing weapon.

Len

What I really like about this news is that it suggests that mainstream publishers are beginning to recognise that the reach of marketable fiction is broader than they have 'thought'.

Ani

IB's comment got me thinking. Getting published is a somewhat polarised situation at present – at one end is the publisher/distributor/shops set-up, at the other self-publishing. The former is increasingly focussing its resources on the popular market, publishers themselves becoming fewer and bigger, and what they publish being decided by committees of accountants, market people, designers, oh yes, and the odd editor. The latter is completely the opposite, where a writer can design, write, edit, typeset, etc, his book and print it without any interference at all. The crazy thing is that there's not an awful lot in-between these two near-extremes. There are a few writers who are so good, and so experienced, that they can write what they like and still get it published by the big boys. Philip Pullman springs to mind in this respect, but then he had been writing for many years before his trilogy was published, and there is some doubt that a new writer, no matter how good, could achieve the same result today.

It seems, with this latest news, that publishers are beginning to realise that their methods are excluding a lot of originality. It will be interesting to see if they take this lesson further and don't just try to cherry-pick the self-published books that make it under their own steam but also set about putting more resources into some of their own writers who are good but get dropped quickly when their books fail to sell in bucket loads without much promotion or support.

I think I've said this before, but one of the things I ask Open College creative writing students is, Who is your writing aimed at? It's important to know for critiquing purposes, since obviously a different approach is needed to someone who wants to just write for herself and someone who wants to win the Booker prize. But students find this question very difficult to answer. Now I'm thinking that perhaps a modern difficulty in answering it is because of this polarised situation we've been discussing, i.e. new writers, who want to get published, only have two very different targets to aim at.


Terry