On Self Publishing: Pros and Cons

Interview with Julie MacShane on Self-publishing

Q: Why did you self-publish your first two books through Xlibris?
A: I was finding that my niche books did not appeal to publishers, but I was sure readers would enjoy them. So I looked around at different print-on-demand companies that would self-publish the books (this was back in 2004) and picked Xlibris because it seemed to have the most design options and had some lower priced option than others. (As of 2011, I hear that LuLu is a good choice as well.)

Q: What are some of the good points?

1. I was able to retain complete control of the content of the books, which would not have happened under a traditional publisher. I'm an editor and I had the last say on the final decisions with editing.
2. I was able to create the cover myself or have the cover and illustrations done by people I knew. This is not possible with a traditional pub.
3. The books will never go out of print.
4. The final point is -- my books are out there; rejection letters did not stop them from being available! Knowing that they can be read and appreciated is simply one of the best feelings in life.

Q: What are some of the challenges of self-publishing?

1. Big bookstores don't take you very seriously because you didn't go through a traditional publishing route. A lot of self-published books are not very good -- the process has that reputation because there was no editing done, no outside verification that "this is a proper book," and there is no distribution process in place for handling returns. It's just a big headache for them. ****However, a lot of self-pub books are very good. Some small bookstores and also local libraries are very encouraging.****
2. You are not paid an advance by the publisher. You don't make any money off your efforts until the book is sold.
3. The price of the book is higher than a book with a big printing run from a traditional publisher. Xlibris let me buy a lot of author copies at a reduced price, but still the price was too high for me to make any profit.

Note: No matter the challenges, the process was worth it to me at the time, although I've moved on from Xlibris to truly do it myself. (See below.)

Q: Would you publish another book with Xlibris?
A: No. The price they charge to produce the book (In 2004, I think I paid $1000. 2011 packages range from $450-$15,000) is expensive. Plus, the prices for readers to buy the books are very high. The service they provided was good, but I don't want my readers to have to pay so much for the books. $29 for a hard cover? $19 for a soft cover? (2004 prices). Plus $4.50 shipping. That's way too much, but that's the price you pay for print-on-demand publishing.

Q: How did you produce your third book, On Fire, and your Garden Journal & Tracker?
A: I designed and laid out the books myself using Adobe InDesign software. This process is not for the faint of heart. The software is expensive and technical. It takes a lot of energy, production knowledge, and design skill. (That's why I offer it as a service to potential authors.) When the books were complete, I sent them to a local printer, who produced copies for me at a very reasonable rate, which I can now sell and make a profit. I do all the marketing and selling of the books myself.

For more on Julie MacShane's books, go to www.juliemacshane.com

Re-writing: A necessary task

Writers sometimes dread the task of re-writing their articles or novels. After all, they've done the fun part -- the creative work of a first draft. Sure, the draft has some problems with plot and flow, but that's why they have editors, right?

Perhaps, but a sloppy first draft sent to a publisher by an unknown writer will never make it out of the slush pile to get into an editor's hands. Prepare the way for your manuscript by re-writing it to a fine, easy-flowing, compelling state.

My best advice is to set the first draft aside for a week and participate in your daily activities. Don't give the book any thought.

Then, take it out of the drawer, and with pen in hand, sit down somewhere comfy and begin to edit the heck out of it. I've always preferred printing out a draft and editing by hand; it seems more real to me somehow, and I can easily see what changes I've made.

However, editing via computer works as well. Make sure that you keep an original, unedited copy of your first draft saved as "Great American Novel_1" or some such thing. That way if you delete a passage of text and later want to put it back in, it's still available in the first draft.

Save the second and third drafts the same way. For a serious writer, I think three drafts are sufficient, but many great writers must re-write dozens of times. For example, "Plot Against America" by Philip Roth was an effortless read, heartfelt and tragic, about an alternate universe where Nazis plagued -- and also ran -- America for a time.

Writing like that -- with so many different points of view and with a resonating theme of anti-prejudice -- doesn't come right out of the author's head. It must have been edited and re-written until it sang.

Practice re-writing. Your editor will thank you for it.

Character Study: "That Old Cape Magic"

I'll read books of certain authors just because I know how well they write. (I'm rarely disappointed, but "Saving Fish from Drowning" by Amy Tan comes to mind.)

One of these authors is Richard Russo, award-winning writer of "Empire Falls". I read this book in May because it won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize, and I'm always interested in what other good readers think are the best books. See my review here, "Empire Falls: Characters You Love to Hate".

It was interesting book full of challenging characters and situations, so I encouraged my book group to read "That Old Cape Magic," one of Russo's most recent books, first published in 2009.

The characters are very similar to the ones in "Empire Falls," especially the narrators. Miles Roby from EF is a middle-aged man in a crisis similar to Jack Griffin in TOCM. I wanted to shake Jack a little bit, as I wanted to disrupt Miles: "At least four or five times during the book, I wanted to shake Miles hard and yell: 'Get control of your life!'"

Griffin's main problem seems to be his parents and, and I can certainly see why. They seem sociopathic (especially the mother), meaning they have no feelings for others and care only about themselves. Neither parent considered Griffin to be anything but a nuisance his entire life and never seemed to show him any love or affection! No wonder Griffin is so screwed up he's running around with his parents' cremated ashes in the trunk!

TOCM talks about a depressed and angry character, but I still read the whole thing. I'll give any book a chance if I think there is some slight chance the main character can redeem him or herself, grow b--lls and grow up!

That basically happens in both of Russo's books, so I'm satisfied.

Time Travel by the Masters

Ah, time travel books. I enjoy them as much as I'm confused by them. As long as you give me a good explanation why you can't go back and kill your own grandmother and then still exist, I'm good with the book. :-}

The book I read recently, "Time's Eye, Book One," by Arthur Clarke ("2001") and Steven Baxter, is a twist on the standard story because not only is one character going through time. Instead, whole mile-wide swaths of land have traveled from the "past" into what seems to be the "present". Thus, the Earth is like a patchwork quilt of different time zones. Geghis Khan and Alexander the Great exist on the planet at the same time and of course fight for control while some weird orbs hover in the sky, watching.

I'm very glad this is a three-book series because the authors in no way explain (meaning have the characters learn) what's going on to any degree of certainty. Thus, if you do write a time travel novel and you don't expect to write a sequel, don't leave any loose ends in plot. Readers will find them, believe me.

The Unreliable Narrator: "Sparrow Rock" Horror

***Spoiler for Sparrow Rock in 4th graph***

Although I don't admit it much, I love horror novels. I'm not quite sure why, but Stephen King and Dean Koontz still manage to amaze me and horrify me. I'm always on the look-out for smart horror books -- I seem to be drawn to "end of the world" books a lot; one of the reasons why, I think, is because they deal with life's "big issues". See "The Road: End of the world Pulitzer novel".

(Plus, there are all the other books I like to read: classics, award-winning books, fantasy, romance and science fiction, plus non-fiction that's written really well. For some reason, mysteries aren't my favorite just because they always seem like the same thing - a murder and the search for the killer. Okay, I digress.)

"Sparrow Rock" by Nate Kenyon caught my attention because the world has come to an end (nuclear) and the only survivors seem to be a group of teenagers in a well-stocked bomb shelter. Soon, they are attacked by weird, mutated, half-dead creatures. And some of the teens start to "transform," another one of my favorite horror themes. See "Writing what you read: Transformations in horror novels".

The book was very tense, but short and good in a horror way. You do learn about the characters a bit and you do begin to care about them, especially the narrator, a nice kid with a bad past that's caught in a bad situation. That's why I was so dismayed at the end of the book (spoiler here) when I found out one of his friends isn't real! He made her up for the entire book, and none of the other characters knew she was there.

Woah! His unreal friend happens to be his dead sister who helps him through traumatic times! Okay, this was a little too much for me to handle, what with everything else going on in the book. I felt cheated and disappointed. I was hoping the two would "get together" -- that they'd at least have each other in this crazy world as lovers. They could produce kids and go on. Nope. All hopes dashed. He's a nut on his own.

I think this is a pet peeve of mine, but I really don't like unreliable narrators, especially if you don't know they're nutty until the very end of the book! This book reminds me of "Shutter Island" by Dennis Lehane especially. I didn't feel as bad about that one, though. I knew there was something wrong with the main character. Maybe Kenyon could have made it a little clearer through the book or maybe I just didn't catch the signs. See "A character's character: Trickery" for one other book with an imaginary character.

Just be careful if you put an unreliable narrator in your book. Your readers will see the world through his eyes, and if he's a total nut job, they may feel cheated at the end.

The Danger of Sequels: Egypt's Queens

I just finished in close succession the two books, "Nefertiti" and "The Heretic Queen" by Michelle Moran. They were both interesting books about Egyptian queens of long, long ago. Since there really isn't a lot of information about the characters historically, Moran gives us her best guess. I don't have a problem with that. Her fiction could have been the truth; records from 1350 BC Egypt are sketchy. Those dimn grave robbers!

However, there is one problem. The first book is obviously about Nefertiti and told by her sister. The latter is about Nefertiti's niece, Nefertari. The similarity between their names actually symbolizes the problem: the books are very like each other, almost too much.

Perhaps if I had read them more than a few weeks apart, I would feel differently. In terms of the characters, the romance and the plot, it felt very similar to the first one. Of course, it was the same time period, the same location and had a few of the same characters. I guessed I wanted a different viewpoint on the Egyptian scene than one from royalty. At some points of her life, Nefertari, like Nefertiti, were both outcasts and beloved queens. The plots seemed similar and now, thinking back, I can't seem to distinguish the two. That's not a great sign.

However, I liked that they were similar in a certain way, and I'm sure other Moran readers feel the same way. What adventure and romance they got out of the first book, they'll get out of the second. I wonder if she was pressed to write a very similar novel to please her fans. Or perhaps this is just the way she writes.

In any case, I had a similar problem when I wrote my sequel, "Torch". I wanted to make it similar to the first book to please my readers, but then again, I wanted to do something different. Thus, I sympathize with Moran. (And I really enjoyed her books by appreciating them as a get-away-from-reality and a what-if-I-were-queen books.) I would just recommend reading her books a few months apart to fully appreciate them.

Garden Journal, Part 4: Size and Length Considerations

Once I had an idea what I wanted to include, I had to think about how long to make the book and how big it should be, length by width.

What did I want the Garden Journal to look like?

Length: Since I'd have to write and design each page myself, size was a consideration if I ever wanted to get it done. I was thinking on making it 64 or 80 pages. Multiples of 16 are the easiest and cheapest for commercial printers to handle, thus making production easier and cheaper for me. I also knew that readers were generally not interested in big journals; they looked like they were heavy to carry, a lot of work to fill out, and expensive. However, I wanted the books to have some heft and value, so I settled for 80 pages.

Paper Size: At first, the thought of filling 80 pages with my special content seemed daunting. However, I had one thing going for me: paper size. The size I chose was 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall, half the size of a regular 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. The pages would a manageable size and would make a book that was easy to carry around. Plus this standard size would be easier to lay out in Adobe InDesign, my software of choice, and I'd done two of my fiction books in the same size, so it was familiar to me.
Binding: Since this journal would be a working gardener's best friend, I knew a spiral binding was essential. That way, gardeners could lay the book out flat for easy writing and recording.
Color: I briefly considered going with an inside that was solely black and white, without any color. It was cheaper than color, but it also looked cheaper. I wanted the Garden Journal & Tracker to look awesome and beautiful. Gardeners are visual people; they enjoy color. Plus, sometimes you could only really depict a flower or vegetable truly by showing it in all its glorious color. This journal had to inspire and color would help so I finally decided on four-color processing.

I sent my specifications to the printer and they gave me a quote that was reasonable, so I began work in earnest. It took many months, but, now, at the end of July, it is at the printer and I hope it is done by early September.