Authors beware- Good article on ncwriters.org

I am happy to see Charles Fiore of the North Carolina Writers' Network address the problems that often occur when authors seek to publish books independently, that is on their own instead of submitting to a traditional publisher and having them take care of the editing and printing, etc.

Of course, it takes longer to submit your manuscript to publishers and you might receive more rejections than you'd  like. In fact you might give up after a few and say to yourself and anyone else in earshot, "I'll publish this book myself."

But as Charles points out, it is a dog-eat-dog world and people want to make money. So authors beware and be careful.  Like the woman in this article, you could agree to spend thousands of dollars and receive very little in return.

We will talk more about this subject in my publishing class on July 23. See www.glendacouncilbeall.com for information on registering for this class in Murphy, NC.

Self-Publishing, Pros and Cons

In the changing world of publishing today, many authors turn to self-publishing. I received a copy of an article in an email today and decided to share an excerpt with you. I don't know who wrote this, but if you do, please let me know so I can give credit. I 'd like to hear what you think about these words on self-publishing.


"When is it not a good idea to consider self or subsidy publishing?

In the first place, let it be said that self-pubbing is usually only a viable business plan for non-fiction authors, not novelists. That's just a general caveat. And by "business plan" I mean, of course, a plan with some potential to recoup the original investment and eventually make a profit.

My biggest caution would be to you authors, particularly fiction authors, who have been trying to get published for less than two or three years, and you're getting impatient to get your books in print. Especially if you've been told your writing is good and getting better. For you, the process of traditional publishing may actually be working for you; i.e. encouraging you to continue improving your books until they become something really good that many people will read.

To self-pub out of impatience may be subverting this process and short-changing yourself of the experience of continuing to grow yourself as a writer. Besides, last I checked, impatience doesn't bring with it a marketing plan. You may be impatient to publish, but if you do, you may end up with the same old problem: nobody's reading your books. First, because they're not good enough, or at least not as good as the competition. Second, because you have no way to sell them."

These words bring to mind a remark made to me by a former student of mine: "Yes, I had no trouble getting the book published. Now I have boxes of books in my basement, but I don't know what to do with them."

Once the books are printed, do you have a marketing plan? We'll discuss that in another post.