Chicken Scratchings

Posts Tagged ‘Self-Publishing Authors’

Bite your Tongue.

Those who decide to self-publish can hold their heads high, because they are counted among some of greatest authors in history. Below is but a partial list of authors who have chosen to self-publish at sometime in their career.

• William Blake, Ken Blanchard, Robert Bly,Lord Byron, Willa Cather, Stephen Crane,
  
• e.e. cummings,  Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot,Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Benjamin Franklin,
  
• Zane Grey, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne,Ernest Hemingway, Robinson Jeffers,
  
• Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Louis L’Amour, D.H. Lawrence, Anais Nin, Thomas Paine,
  
• Tom Peters, Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust,
  
• Carl Sandburg, Robert Service, George Bernard Shaw, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Upton Sinclair,
  
• Gertrude Stein, William Strunk, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi,
  
• Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman.

Note: The list was pulled from John Kremer’s Self-Publishing Hall of Fame

If you don’t find at least one of your heroes here I would be very surprised. Also you may have noticed that quite a few poets populate the list. Modern poets complain that publishers aren’t interested in their books. It’s said that poetry doesn’t sell. Compared to a fast paced pop-novel of sex, violence, and action they are probably right. I have to keep reminding myself that publishing isn’t primarily about getting the finest works into the public’s hands–it’s a profit generating business like a grocery store. If the stock isn’t turning it is costing money. I, like many others, tend to glamorize the traditional publishing houses and imbue them with a nobility they just don’t have. It’s a business. Poetry, on the other hand, is something else. Poetry is a work of passion, not business. Publishers probably weren’t any more anxious to publish poetry then than they are now and that is why so many poets had to resort to self-publishing.

The Old Man

One of my readers added this comment about self-publishers: “For me all I had to do was find out that Hemingway’s first book was “self-published,” to help me make my decision and after 32 years of “practice” I feel I did it just right. And then later this year when I found out about Mark Twain’s force of ten thousand book agents scattered across America selling his works and Ulysses S Grant’s Memoirs (also published by Twain’s company which was run by his young nephew Webster).” Miles Cobbett, Author the Alaskan book CHAMPION.

Miles followed up with this comment in another post: “One more tasty tidbit about Hemingway and his publisher, that I bet you already know is his lively discussions in letters between him and Charles Scribner about Royalty Payments. I was fascinated to read in copies of Hemingway’s “Letters” that CS only offered to pay Ernest Hemingway 10 % of the net. And Ernest wrote back in a lively letter that he wanted 15 % or a Minimum of 12.5 %…
This was fascinating to me, especially when I read in the other book I wrote to you about, (Birth of a Salesman), how Mark Twain offered and paid U. S. Grant and his widow, a whopping 70% of the profits from publishing Grant’s Memoirs.”

I have more sympathy for the traditional publishers than you might think from reading my posts. They have to have highly tuned crystal balls to foresee the future. If they choose to take a gamble on an author, and it tanks, what do they lose? Why the entire investment, of course. And what about credibility? What happens to the employee who stands behind a book bomb? Or two, or three? Can you say pink slip?

If you know your book will sell–you stand behind it. Raise the money to print and promote it. You might be like my friend Miles Corbbett whom I quoted above. His self-published book CHAMPION is selling well and he owes it all to word-of-mouth advertising. Miles has this to say about his success: “Getting the word out has been a fun & challenging journey, but it’s all been done so far without any help from a Madison Avenue super advertising blitz.”

If you are a self-publisher, considering self-publishing, or a supplier to self-publishers be sure to check out the manifesto for The Red Hen Association of Self-Publishing Authors, Inc. (click here).

Mark Twain had an army of ten-thousand salesmen peddling his books all over the country. He understood the principles of marketing as they applied to his time. Today’s marketing is different and requires an understanding of blogging, social networking, books on Amazon, etc. You can get that information from The Author Platform (TAP). It’s not free but almost click (here) for more information. If you can sell your book yourself you’ll earn 15 times more than if you traditionally publish.

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This article was republished with permission from the author’s blog Talking Through My Hat.

I’m not just talking through my hat here. Just today I received an email from a self-publishing author, and she asked, “Are these [books to be] printed in China and does it take 4 months as I have heard?”

My response was, “As for using Chinese printers, there is no doubt that you will save money, but there are some problems. You’ve already identified the first problem of turn around time. Few publishers can afford the long wait time for their products. The second problem is ink. Chinese printers use inks that are banned in the US. Normally that wouldn’t concern me, but because your book is a children’s book, I would urge caution. What if a baby got it in its mouth? It is also well known that much of the work will be done by Chinese children working in onerous conditions. It’s possible that hiring printers in China encourages the propagation of employment practices and human rights violations that are not permitted here. That being said, I will get prices for you on both US printing and China and let you decide which way you want to go.”

You need to understand that with every decision there are consequences. When I speak with Chinese or Indian printers they always tell me that they know of printers using child labor, but they swear that their particular shop does not. Haven’t you heard? Everyone is innocent in prison. What you don’t believe it? Just ask them. They also tell me that it isn’t their fault. People would die if they didn’t get the pittance they are paid. American companies demand cheap prices, so Americans are to blame.

If we are really interested in protecting children do we accomplish it by insisting that they not be employed? Would they starve? What do you think?

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A good friend bought my lunch (isn’t that the definition of a good friend one who buys your lunch?) and over pasta he mentioned the book TRIBES by Seth Godin. It’s a small book with a big message. It addresses the changing social and business constructs and envisions a future already here and now, where power and influence are shifting from traditional hierarchies to groups united by common beliefs. The development of the Internet has facilitated this shift in a big way. Leadership is more defined by passion and faith than by wallet. For example in the last US presidential election Barack Obama raised almost 25% more in campaign contributions than Hillary Clinton, and John McCain combined and it flooded in from the Internet. Who would have thought that a relatively new face in Washington could pull together more financing than those two warhorses, an ex-president’s wife and a revered war hero? Why? Because of passion. Because of belief. The people wanted change and were willing to follow a leader who appeared able to create the change.

I’ve written a lot in my blogs about changes. The changes I’ve addressed mostly concern the printing industry, but change is happening on every front, in every field of endeavor. I’ve been sitting on the sidelines of the publishing business, observing, and occasionally commenting. Now, it appears, that I’ve been given the opportunity to lead a tribe of self-publishing authors. That was what the lunch was all about. Self-publishing, in my opinion, is on the verge of eclipsing traditional publishing. And with my background in writing, marketing, and printing I am the logical choice to contribute to this movement. I didn’t choose it, but by my preparation, it chose me. That’s another point that Seth makes is that Tribe leaders generally don’t go looking for leadership, instead they see a need and are compelled to fill it. It’s the leader’s faith and passion that attracts their followers.

Mr. Godin discusses the old factory model. Factory workers were hired by owners, who paid them to do a job. The jobs were generally routine and required bosses to make sure everyone stayed in line and did things exactly the way the boss wanted them done. Much like slaves on a galley ship. In this new world run by tribes, we join, or create tribes, because we are drawn to the ideal. We want to make a difference. We think that the purpose of the tribe is valuable, important, and worth giving of our time and effort. The tribe causes the change to happen. If this occurred on the factory floor it would be chaotic. The smooth production of products would be interrupted. Participating workers would be disciplined and might be in danger of forfeiting their jobs.

I have another friend who is fond of quoting Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see [in the world].” The most monumental changes always begin with one person, one person with a vision.

Again the concept isn’t really new. The founding fathers of the United States of America were drawn together because of a mutual belief in freedom and self-rule. The leaders stepped forward and the people followed. What’s new is the Internet. Tribes can be formed at lightening speed. Twitter, for example, provides a platform for a succinct idea of 140 words or less, to potentially reach millions of readers within seconds. Can you imagine what Paul Revere would have thought? Riding through the countryside, by horseback, required a commitment of hours and days. Too bad he didn’t have a laptop computer or even a cell phone.

What? You say that you don’t like this new world? You think that 140 character messages lack depth? Too bad for you. The Tribes rule and will only get stronger. Get on board or be left behind.

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