Let’s lift the veil about publishing, or at least, let us review the two main methods of publishing today and eliminate a slew of myths behind the magic. Allow me state this now, that the examples below are not to either encourage nor dissuade anyone from traditionally or self-publishing. This is purely a deglamorization of the industry as a whole. I am also not the authority on the subject, but damn, I've been doing it for a very long time.
For some, this might be a hard read, at times blunt, and for that you have my deeply expressed sympathy, but for as long as I have been writing, truths are truths.
Let's begin...
“I am going to be a published author and the world will love me!”
Maybe. Initially, no, (if at all) but maybe. Some, perhaps, but that depends on…
If you are just starting out, understand the fact that no one knows who you are. You are a nobody on the publishing stage regardless of if you self or traditionally publish, and the latter becomes that much more difficult to get through the door. I am a three-book, traditionally published author and people barely know who I am, and my name is often confused with the Michael Frost evangelist author from Australia. I am neither an evangelist nor from Australia, but that doesn't stop the algorithm gremlins from pasting his profile on my works.
Anywho, a quick little focus on the 'getting through the door' thing for a moment. This is where an agent comes in (mostly).
"To Agent or Not to Agent?"
Agents are your representative to the publishing companies both big and small, and they are the first person your manuscript has to impress. They are the ones who attempt to sell your manuscript up the chain. In my own personal experience, getting the agent is one of the hardest steps in the traditional publishing route, and one of the most frustrating endeavors. I will do an article on that entirely but let me just state this: if an agent tells you, “Send me the full manuscript” after you have queried and submitted the required sample chapters, that means a whole lot of diddly-squat. It simply means they asked you to send them the whole thing and they are willing to read past the samples, and at any point along that process, they could decide it’s still not for them.
Yes, that's a rejection; however better than an immediate one, but a rejection, nonetheless. A key fact here is that that's the one of the leading reasons authors avoid the Traditional route: Rejection. They don't want it, can't handle it, and worse, most rejections come with no explanation or reasoning other than a mass generated form. For a writer, this can be incredibly frustrating because we want to know why you said no. Back in the day, when I submitted short stories to regional magazines, because they were small and usually family-owned, someone would often take the time to jot me a little note explaining why my story wasn't for them, which was nice. These days? Maybe not so much.
BUT WAIT! There are many traditional publishers who do take unsolicited manuscripts, including amongst the Big-5. Every year, usually once annually, they open up special submission dates for un-agented authors aka unsolicited submissions via query letter and submission chapters. Competition for these slots are fierce so bring your A+ game which means a sharp query letter and that not only your submission chapters (usually the first two or three maximum), but your whole manuscript is polished and ready. You have one chance here, so don't blow it.
See? No one is saying it is an impossibility to get in the door of a major publisher without an agent—as a matter of fact, Stephenie Meyer did not have an agent initially with Twilight, but she did get one post-acceptance, and she got a nice book deal out of it—all I am stating is that it is harder.
Much, much harder.
I will do a post regarding this subject at some point.
Moving on to self-publishing for a moment, and here's where there are many facets, but…
“I have to do all the work if I self-pub!”
Well, yes, the word ‘Self’ is in the subject, but it’s How you self-publish matters and what are your end goals...
Neither path removes the obligation from the author to market oneself. Seriously, it doesn’t. The Big-5 will invest and market the new ‘gimmick’ slash new ‘fad’ author big time, and they might tack that onto the author’s advance which we will discuss that [near] bottomless pit later. Many traditionally published authors are expected to build newsletters, maintain social media, arrange appearances, and cultivate readers. Meanwhile, many successful indie authors hire editors, designers, and publicists, creating books that are virtually indistinguishable from traditionally published titles.
Now, don't think they spend the dollars on every author the same, no. Look back at when I stated 'gimmick/fad' [trendy]. For those authors, a publisher may heavily invest in, whereas the average author in their portfolio might get a few ad banners, a listing in their Edelweiss catalogs, and perhaps a paid ad spot on major bookseller's home pages (B&N, Books-a-Million, Amazon, etc.).
A keynote in time: Twenty-five years ago, there was a bigger distinction between a Self and Traditional publisher, but today? Not nearly as much.
In the end, a self-published author and a traditional one both have to ‘hustle’ because that what publishing is, a hustle. From a self-publishing standpoint, let me share a story about what self-publishing meant in the past, and perhaps you (regardless of publication method) won’t feel so bad.
Here’s three self-publishers of old school who rocked it like the little ball in a spray can:
John Grisham
Self-published A Time to Kill in 1988 because publishers rejected it. He sold copies out of the trunk of his car! HIS TRUNK! After a while, a small regional press picked it up before it was acquired by Doubleday and the rest is history.
Robert James Waller
Self-published The Bridges of Madison County in 1992 which became a huge bestseller until it was picked up by Warner Books, Inc. and then Grand Central Publishing (Hatchette).
Amanda Hocking
Self-published YA paranormal novels on Kindle in the early 2010s, and she sold over a million copies before signing a multi-book deal with St. Martin’s Press.
Not too shabby, right?
Okay, I did state traditional authors still need to hustle as well, didn’t I? Well, here’s my favorite of all: Fern Michaels.
In around 1990, I remember reading an article about a romance author named Fern Michaels who, albeit not self-published, had to hustle. This woman went on to sell 150 million books before being picked up by major houses. Let’s circle back to Fern. This woman loaded up U-Haul trailers with her books and went around the country peddling her books to bookstores, libraries, book shows, you name it. Talk about a hustle!
Fern Michaels did this with…
- No internet
- No KDP [formerly Create Space] (See #1)
- No blogs, social media (See #1 again)
- No online marketing campaigns (See #1 yet again)
- No email (You know by now where to look, sheesh)
So, remember, neither path is inherently better. They simply serve different goals, personalities, and careers. Now, that seems almost poetic, but let’s cut the bull. It really comes down to three major things, and a caveat additional one:
- What are you trying to accomplish by publishing?
- What are you willing to do to get there?
- Why are you doing it?
- *Who are you doing it for?
If your answer to any of the above is, “To be rich and famous!” well, I suppose that’s an overall goal many of us authors toy with especially in the beginning, but personally, they are the wrong reasons. Although it is not impossible to do either regardless your method (Self/Traditional) understand that if you are not willing to hustle, or you don’t have a hustle mentality (or the financial means to do so these days), you may have a hard fight to get there. Some, other than myself, might even say those are the wrong reasons to become a writer, but I will reserve that for a later discussion.
*You think that I forgot the caveat, didn’t you? I did not.
I believe one of the most important things one should ask themselves is ‘Who am I doing this for?’ and of course one must assume this question is trite, because the answer is simple: Me, duh!
Well, which ‘Me’ is it for?
Me: The true writer inside that is bursting to share their stories with the world or Me: The egoist writer who can with a high degree of snobbery profess to the room that they are a published author. ‘Look at how prestigious I am!’
For the latter, all I can say is please sit down. You’ve published a book, Woopty-dilly-doo, but can you do it again? And again, and again? Is each new manuscript better than the last? Does each expand the audience base? Did your ‘book’ touch anyone in any way? Getting published? Guess what 'ego-based author'? So have millions of other authors before you and me, and there will be millions more after.
This returns us back to the Who. I personally think one of the most important things an author needs to ask oneself is for Who do you write/publish for? During this thought experiment, you will surely answer the Why and the other W’s and probably the sometimes-elusive stepchild, 'How'. I could be wrong, and you truly do not care, but I know for Who I write for and have known this for quite some time.
The last thing I will address is what I mentioned in the beginning.
The Author Advance and the Bottomless Payback Pit of Despair
<INSERT DRAMATIC MUSIC HERE WITH THUNDEROUS SFX! MU-HAHAHAHA!>
Yes, traditionally published authors are normally offered an author’s advance which many loosely refer to as a Bonus, but there’s a caveat. This ‘bonus’ is an advance against your projected royalties based on projected sales. Now, let's not confuse a Book Deal with an Author's Advance. That book deal is your money. They bought the rights to how many future books in that deal, but we will not be covering that here.
But, before we move on, read that again: Your projected royalties based on projected sales. They are not giving this to you because they like you or that your book is The Bee’s Knees, no. It's earnest money to satisfy your time which will be full of edit changes, calls, more edit changes, etc. Technically, they are advancing you money you have not earned so that you will work for your manuscript in the methods that they desire before it ever goes to print. Then you pay it all back.
Let’s say that your projected book sales earn your manuscript a $10K advance against your royalties, your book has to sell enough copies to earn out of your advance. That’s right, people, your sales have to pay back that advance (and some publishers, there are other costs levied against them).
“You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store”
-Tennessee Ernie Ford
The industry’s own internal estimates cluster around 20-35% of authors EVER earn out. This means roughly 1 in 4 traditionally published authors ever see a cent of royalties beyond their advance. This rate is even lower with the Big 5 where only 15-25% ever earn out.
My people, that’s a zero-interest payday loan, not a bonus.
Now, that’s not the death of your title (yet). Publishers don't snatch your title out of circulation immediately if sales are not performing, but they do care less about it. A publisher will keep selling it in multiple formats in hopes to recoup the loss, but over that time and whatever contract you sign with them, well, once again, you may never see one red cent other than your initial advance.
It’s simple math. The bigger the advance, the harder it is to earn out unless it is a success (so hustle, hustle and hustle more).
Does the above absolve the Self-Publisher? Nope. Well, it can, depending on if you give two-shits about your book.
If you are a smart Self-Publisher, you are an investor in your product, and by doing so, you are also investing personal monies. Now, if you are a ‘slop Self-Publisher’ and do not care, you can stop reading here or simply skip to the end.
A ‘slop’ one is the type who just throws a book together, slaps a two-bit cover on it and sends it to self-pub for ninety-nine cents with some inner process that quantity over quality will win in the end. If this mentality describes you, the following information is not for you.
Now, not all authors who sell their books at $0.99 fits this category, and for those reading who do sell so low but are actually trying to work their writing, you have sadly been convinced to sell low by those in the same niche as well as Amazon; convinced if you do not no one will buy your books. In another writeup, I will be talking to you Self-Publishers who undersell their titles by horrible margins, but let's peruse that subject just for a moment.
So, to reiterate, not all self-published authors put out slop, many of them are quite good, but know your damn value!
Seriously, folks? A dollah’?! WTF?!
"If I don't sell my books cheaply, no one will buy them!!"
TBH, this is what frustrates me about all artists of every media and kind. I see it everywhere from art fairs with paintings to online posts of authors selling their books. I try to be understanding, truly, because I get the mindset. You are an unknown self-publishing author trying to get your name out there, so if you don't offer your titles cheap, why would anyone fork over their hard-earned funds on you? I get it but please know your worth.
You've heard that song on TikTok which goes: "It costs that much because it takes me fucking hour-errrs!"
Here's a link to it. Listen to the lyrics, like REALLY listen to them, then come back here to read on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGR20B2cEBQ
Hopefully the lyrics have you pumped and going like 'HELLZ YEAH, MIKEY!' and you will treat your works with some respect because it does matter! You are damned skippy it does, so instead of sharing the link and giggling at the song, LIVE IT! YOUR book deserves MUCH MORE than a Dollar / Euro / Pound. YOU are the creator; you know what it took to write it, so sell it for what it is worth! DO NOT listen to KDP trying to convince you to enroll in their B.S. programs that sucks away your revenue and earns them money. You do realize that KDP Select is a page-per-pay model, don't you? This means they get paid up front; you get paid by the number of pages the reader reads!
Scenario:
Little Suzy Culthbert gets a $50 Amazon gift card on her birthday, and she goes wild buying books. She fills her Kindle library and one of those titles is yours. She reads the first 10 pages, but little Suzy is excited so she tells herself, 'I will come back to this one later. I really have to read the latest Stephanie Meyer!'
Months go by and little Suzy Culthbert has forgotten about your title. She may even delete it since it only cost $0.99. What did you get paid for? 10 pages. Yep. That's it, but amazon still got their 65% cut regardless.
Understand what that breaks down to. $0.004-$0.005 per page based on the KDP Select Global Fund.
My suggestion here? If you are enrolled in it, give KDP the finger and unenroll in Kindle Unlimited program and earn your royalty off the sale, just like they did. Once again, it's only my suggestion, so that's up to you.
Moving along… Okay, let's get back on track.
* * *
Here are some of the investments for print, eBook and audio formats that a dedicated self-published author should seriously consider:
- Professional editing (Most important one. Can get very expensive, but there are good inexpensive options. I know of one such editor and he and I have been following one another for some time. Drop me a note and I will share his details)
- Professional book cover (Prices vary low to high. STOP it with the MS Paint! Check out Fiverr or similar sites)
- Purchased ISBNs (STOP using KDP/B&N Press/IngramSpark ISBNs and head to Bowker and buy your own! NOTE! Those ISBNs are OWNED by whomever gives them to you for free. The chances of those titles ever getting into a library or bookstore are the slimmest little-to-none)
- Professional title setup (Usually low priced but be wary. If you are good with Word, InDesign or LibreOffice Writer you've got this)
- Professional eBook services (Unless you are an InDesign or master, or you know your way around Scrivener, prices can be high)
- Professional Audiobook creation (People, seriously, please STOP making your own audiobooks. No, seriously, stop doing this. I’ve heard many and they are not good at all, as well as I have been told this by many an audiobook lover. Make a budget and head to Voices.com, Voice123, or Fiverr that shit!)
- Marketing (This you need to be VERY, VERY, VERY careful with. That’s a bottomless rabbit hole that has [usually] a seriously low ROI if you are paying for marketing services. They do not care if you only sell one book or a thousand, they still get paid)
- Register yourself as a business (LLC is probably going to be your best bet, and it also offers protections)
- *Media E&O (Errors & Omissions) Insurance (Low cost $300-$800 per year, dependent upon breadth of coverage. It is a professional liability policy that protects authors and publishers from claims of defamation, copyright infringement, privacy violations, or other content‑related mistakes arising from their work). This one is not a must, but it is nice to have.
In the same sense as traditional publishing, you have to look at the initial investment as your author's advance. If you poured $10K into the above and you start selling books, you have to earn that much in sales before you are in the BLACK, and hopefully you did the above in cash because yes, you have got to add on interest. This point will settle out to anyone who thinks selling their book for a buck or a pound will make them millionaires.
Ahh, the Millionaire Mystique... Check this out:
If you sell your book at $0.99, with your KDP royalty at 35%, earning $0.35 per title, and you sell a hundred a month, you will need to sell 2,855,000 copies to earn $1M. At 100 copies per month, it will take you 2,404 years to hit that cap, 1,000 will take you over 240 years!
So, unless you are Rip Van Winkle to wait it out or have a TARDIS, good luck! If money is not what you are after, and you just want readership, then alas, yes, selling cheap might do it, but don't give it away for $0.99. Price your eBook reasonably and profitably, do a quick search for the current cost standard for your genre/book length and find yourself a kinder, gentler medium. $3.99, perhaps? Your title will come off more serious, professional and approachable to the avid reader-buyer, plus, you will feel more empowered in your business, and in a short time, you might see more profitable sales. If I offered you prime rib at $0.99 cents/lb. your first thought would be, "What's wrong with it?"
Well, my friends, readers are consumers, and they think the same.
Also, one last thing. Just like with any art, do you really want people who only buy cheap art buying your work? I really don't think so. You poured yourself into your work and you want it both understood and appreciated, so if said reader is accustomed to actually paying good money for your work those are the ones who will oblige your book with the proper respects.
Last note, deep lungs here:
BEING AN INDIE AUTHOR DOESN'T MEAN YOU ARE A CHEAP ONE!
So, it's just a thought. *wink*
Okay, okay, deep breath, let's circle back to the post at hand.
Now, examine the above and all of the above are taken care of by your Publisher, but if you insist on Self-Publishing, once again, the keyword is ‘Self’.
As for me, I traditionally publish, and yes, Belen Books, LLC. is a small press, but they are growing fast, and to be very honest, I like their business model. They pay amazing levels of royalties, and do offer author advances, but I declined mine. I know how the game is played and I wanted none of it. One thing I do appreciate about them as a publisher is that unlike other publishers, they don't penalize the author for returns. Nope, not one cent. They absorb the loss which is unheard of in the industry.
Both Self and Traditional authors know all-too-well about returns and how it gouges your royalties. You see, there's another caveat those in self-publishing know all too well: The Returns Monster.
"The Returns Monster bit me and bit me hard!"
Being published is a business for both a publisher as well as the author. Your amazing title is now a product, nothing more. Like all businesses, it boils down to revenue, so don't get it twisted.
For the following, let's assume you are either a self or traditional published author, and you are in the black when it comes to earning out.
Your book sells 1,000 copies > There are 200 returns > 200 returns is subtracted from your total sales = 800 book sales.
Simple math, right? Let's dig deeper.
Now, most book retailers get 6 months to return or destroy your unsold titles, and self-publishers on Amazon knows that their book can be returned to whatever Amazon gives them to return. The Amazon thing affects traditional published as well, so yes, in this case, everyone is the same. If you self-publish or run a small press via IngramSpark, this monster will bite harder and longer because they will accept a return from a retailer/wholesaler far past the six-month cutoff as well as past your settings you may have made on Bowker.
Yep, they just give the middle finger to you and accept the returns. No skin off their backs because you are the one who owes. Also, there are those consumers I like to refer to as The Shit Consumers who literally buys a book, reads it and returns it when libraries are effing free! Don't give me your B.S. that you live in a "library desert". You are effing with someone's livelihoods, and you are not sticking it to Amazon with your antics. You are effing some author out there or small press who cannot afford readers like you. Amazon nor Ingram gives two-shits either way; they got their money and books don't grow on trees. They come from them at a cost which means they had to be printed and shipped, so when someone pulls that buy>read>return crap, that cost goes back to the author/publisher! Fee-fi-fo-fum, I hate these swindlers!
Speaking of IngramSpark and traditional small publishers. It hits harder because of the print cost. Yes, Amazon leaves that responsibility at your feet as well, but Ingram's print costs are significantly higher, so, example, if your PB cost $7.53 to print, imagine 200 of those coming back? UGG! Get out your checkbook and start scribbling, because you owe more than just the print fees here.
Yes, I just gave away my age with that one.
A Note: If you are purely KDP, you are not in stores. Unless you are purchasing them in allowable volumes from them directly at your author's discounted cost and selling them directly to whichever bookstore wants them, you will not be on their shelves. Bookstores won't touch a title that is not being offered at a 45% discount normally, and for all you who went down the IngramSpark rabbit hole, they've convinced you to offer wholesalers 54% discount. Eff that! For you sparky folks, flip that number and you will suddenly see the light and how much you can make. That's right, the industry standard is Discount Code 7 aka 45%. Change it. You'll be happier.
"Do people really buy books, read them and return them like a library book?"
All the damn time because 'People' are generally nasty, entitled little gremlins who think they can do as they please. Back in the day, the only way you could return a book to a store was if something was physically wrong with it. pages falling out, pages glued together, the errant upside-down page, you know? Real reasons. Not because you didn't like it. Not because it wasn't what you expected and especially not if the buyer who gets their kicks by doing so. No, that level of entitlement didn't exist until the WWW, most notably the early days of Web1.
Now, let's look back at that return window I mentioned above. You are in the black (self or traditional), and you are getting royalties, then suddenly, out of the blue, a major retailer returns 160 titles. You've already been paid, but guess what? If your sell-sheet for the next round of royalties makes you happy that you are to receive a $1,000 royalty deposit, well hold on, mon ami, nope; those 160 returned titles suddenly show up as a deduction from the total and you are like WTF?! BLACK becomes RED really quickly, and if you want to know how quickly your sphincter can ever pucker, well, you will surely find out that day, let me tell you.
Yep, you have to pay back The Piper, and the piper wants to get paid!
Remember, this is a business and no one cares about your creative genius or how much blood, sweat and tears you put into writing your masterpiece at this point. Your book is a product, nothing more, so always keep that in the forefront of your mind.
Solution to this? Just sigh, take a deep breath, move on and hustle your ass off.
A note about the last sentence above: The Hustle. This is never ending, mind you and quite circular. I've seen it and lived it. Example:
An online book retailer buys 20 copies total mix and match of your PB and HB. They start selling them, so they order more. That 'Only 5 left in stock!' is usually accurate, so yeah, they buy more. Your product is selling and they are making money. This cycle continues until your sales decline, and now that retailer is sitting on a bunch of your books in a warehouse taking up valuable space. If you are not out there hustling your title(s) (and I would highly recommend you push that retailer who has your title(s) on social media [if you can determine which one does]), sales will decline, and once that retailer isn't moving your title, they will return them to the publisher which includes Amazon for the KDP people out there. Once they are returned, the deductions occur.
It's a bitch, I know, but very true.
(le sigh)
Well, boys and girls, we’ve reached the end of this conversation, and as you can see, there are pluses and minuses to both, but with either, you have to learn to how to Hustle. Regardless your path, I would suggest (especially if you are just starting out) to go back and ask yourself those few personal questions and doing some soul searching first, and if, in the end, it is your calling to be part of this chaotic world of tale-spinning raconteurs is for you, then you know what you need to do.
No one said being a published author was going to be easy. To be honest, it is one of the best-hardest things you can ever do, and.
"Hold on one second, partner! You didn't tell us your WHO!"
That’s fair, and it would be cheating if I didn’t…
To close, I think it is only fair that I tell you why I write. It’s not for money and surely not fame because personally, I hate the limelight; there's only darkness and misery there and that's not for me. That’s why my profile picture is obscure and tormented. I don’t want to be recognized walking the streets or sitting in a diner or café. I am just me, Michael, a dude, a person a guy, a fella. You know, a person with a penis?
That’s all I want to be because the distinction between Michael the author and Michael the dude / Dad / Husband / Friend are two separate things. Although I live and breathe my writing, I do my best to draw a line between them because that’s the only thing that makes authors tolerable since we authors are normally miserable people (or at least interpreted as such).
So yes, I write for myself each and every time, and so should you. Not for your fans, or your agent or editor, and heavens no, never write for a hopeful royalty check. You are the only one who has to love/hate the story, and even stories you as the author might hate others may love. I have these stories, "Theo Waited" being one of them, and yet it is one of my most popular ones amongst readers.
*Shrugs* Who knew?
So, that answers my Who I am doing it for, and yes, that’s me. No, there’s no egotistical-Michael lingering about wishing he was signing autographs to countless number of adorning fans. That’s how John Lenon bought it, so no thank you.
Also, my handwriting sucks and I cramp up after long-handing more than half a page.
But which who is the real Who?
Primarily, I am doing it for that eleven-year-old, freckle-faced kid still trapped inside me somewhere. The one who peeks his head out every now and then when I want to do something both dangerous and stupid (boys will be boys). I do it to remember him, and for me to show him that it wasn’t in vain being that odd kid on the block who at times rather sat indoors in front of a typewriter than ride bikes all over creation. I still did the latter of course, but on my time while I created the doorways to some wonderful worlds in the process. I do it to remind myself that he and I are still the same person who is still constantly trying to find out whether or not I am good at doing this at all.
As always, you have my heart,
Michael Frost
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