Semi-self publishing. It’s not an official word, because it doesn’t exist. But it does reflect the need for a halfway house, somewhere in between major publishers (for the elite) and self-publishing (for the masses).
If you self-publish your book, you are not going to be writing for a living. You are going to be marketing for a living.
Source: Ros Barber, Guardian
Publish and be damned!
Ah, but if only it were that easy!
The advent of digital publishing has opened up the world of writing to a whole new host of writers, who would otherwise be labouring in the mire.
Consider one of the most successful books in recent years, the trilogy 50 Shades of Grey by E.L.James. This began life as ‘fanfiction’ and was based on a romantic union between characters in the Twilight vampire novels. Fanfiction has been about since the 1970s, when Star Trek fans began writing stories about the main characters (Kirk and Spock in a romantic relationship being a common theme!) and swapped these stories at fan conventions, which were then collected into fanzines.
The point is that fanfiction used to have a very limited outlet – major publishing houses wouldn’t touch it and it was too expensive/niche to go it alone back in those days. Roll forward 40 years, and with the advent of the internet, E.L.James managed to build an online platform of fans for her Twilight fanfiction, which then secured her a contract with an independent publisher. So, she adapted the characters (‘filing off the serial numbers’ is apparently the technical term for removing direct references to fictional characters, such as in the Twilight saga!), and the rest is history.
In 2013, E.L.James became the highest-paid author in the world, earning almost $100m in royalties. Not bad for fanfiction eh?!
The arguments for and against self-publishing
- FOR: SELF-PUBLISHING
- Better royalty rates
When you self-publish, you get to keep up to 70% of your sales (depending upon what platform you use)
e.g. Createspace
- Editorial control
It’s your baby…all yours!
- Self-promotion
You are in control of the deadlines, you can take quick decisions, you can get things done!
- Reach and influence
Publishing houses have links and influence with Book Fairs, bookshops, Literary Festivals, Awards shortlists.
Self-publishers don’t.
- FOR: PUBLISHING HOUSE
- 70% of nothing is nothing!
You have all the upfront costs to pay, and unless you’re experienced with have a lot of connected and talented friends, these will be considerable.
- Outside help can stop you looking like a fool
Editing, proofreading, graphic design, indexing…etc – all essential component parts of publishing, which don’t allow you to publish rubbish.
Sometimes you need saving from you ego!p)
- Lose friends – become a self-publishing bore
Constantly pester acquaintances to read your book, to post a review, and your social media feeds will be full of nothing else…rather like a 1-person version of the Shopping Channel.
- Reach and influence
Publishing houses have links and influence with Book Fairs, bookshops, Literary Festivals, Awards shortlists.
Self-publishers don’t.
The power of social media in self-publishing
“Wonderful stories, all describing very different and very inspiring journeys and experiences. Each story can be read over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, the perfect format for the busy person looking for some inspiration.
Highly recommended.”
Social Marketing – A Case Study.
I was recently invited to contribute to a book detailing the experiences of various people who had walked the Camino de Santiago (*). There were to be roughly 20 different authors, each with a chapter detailing their own experiences.
Having already walked three different routes and having kept a blog of each along the way, it wasn’t a huge amount of work to condense all this material down to a 2,000 word submission for a chapter.
This wasn’t a money-making exercise – we’d all signed a disclaimer beforehand forgoing that – it was about ‘telling our stories’ with the added bonus of seeing them in print…with somebody else doing all the ‘publishing’ work in the meantime.
The interesting part was seeing the social media machine kick into action.
- Co-ordinated promotion – Twitter, Facebook, Amazon clicks & reviews…this all had to be carried out by everybody at the same time to enhance the book’s online visibility.
- Solicit reviews – another important component of the Amazon algorithm, and (unscientific) research would suggest that quantity trumps quality (probably owing to the preponderance of 5* reviews from a limited circle of family & friends!)
- Niche your category & keywords – you can pick two categories on Amazon (chose them wisely!) plus any number of keywords, although the keywords which appear in your book title will show up in the URL and hence rank higher for searches…so be precise!
My Camino Walk #1 is already an international #1 best ranking book on Amazon in Travel and Tourism; and a top 5 title in Motivation and Self Help.
(*) The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage walk undertaken for centuries across Spain, culminating in the city of Santiago de Compostella in the north-west of Spain.
Conclusion: Semi-self publishing
A halfway house has sprung up to fill the gap between publishing and self-publishing – semi-self publishing (my own term entirely, not official in any way shape or form!)
By bringing together a number of different freelance disciplines under one roof – editors, proofreaders, graphic designers…etc – the semi-publishing house can guide prospective authors, but leave them free to their own devices if they so wish, which from a personal point of view, allows the author a great deal of flexibility.
From a professional point of view also this is good news, as it means more potential work. For example, apart from having ghostwritten for Wileys (a major publishing house), I’ve also undertaken various editing services for The Endless Bookcase, a much smaller independent publisher.
Where self-published authors really have to step up to the plate though is in their online promotion activities. Yes, the large publishing houses have upped their game in recent years in this respect, but even they now expect famous authors to do their bit…and if you’re not famous…well, best get familiar with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like!
“You don’t write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say.”
F.Scott Fitzgerald
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The UK Publishing Industry: 2017 statistics & how the major players are adapting to digital technology
