Publishing a Book Without Selling Out?

Hopeful Author writes "I've written a book, totally unrelated to tech, and I'm at the point where I'm going to look for an agent. My book is a 400-page fantasy novel, what will be book one of three or four (or more), in the style of Lord of The Rings, though with my own elements and twists. I have no idea if it's publishable, though I've had good feedback from those who have read the draft." My take on the situation is that self-publishing would be the best bet, but maybe there's a better way.

"I'm perfectly willing to go through the usual submit-and-get-rejected-endlessly process, and I know I need editorial guidance. My question comes in with the assumption that I eventually get through the publishing process. Then what? Fact is, I don't much like the major book publishing companies. Look at how Time Warner is cracking down on Harry Potter fan sites. I think that's terrible. I would be thrilled to someday have fan sites for my own characters -- I would actively encourage it, in fact. And I'm less-than-thrilled about the idea of signing away some of my rights, say electronic rights to my stories and the like. Yes, I may be able to negotiate the contracts, but as a first-time author I wouldn't have much clout.

"So I could publish on the web somehow, but the fact is I like the distribution efforts the book publishers provide. I wrote my book because I want people to read it (yes, money is not my objective, though it would be nice), and to be able to talk with those who enjoy it. If my book languishes on an ignored web site, I'll feel bad. My question then comes down to this:

"What does an idealistic, /.-reading, not-too-thrilled-about-corporatism author do to maximize the quality and distribution of a book? Are there good open-source type solutions to this problem, ones that will reach an audience? Or are the greedy book corps. the best bet, because of their distrubtion methods, even if their other habits make me sick and I'll lose control over my characters in the process? Or am I overreacting cuz I read /. too much? Any suggestions and advice welcome!"

Comments

The System works the way it does for a reason

[Zachary Kessin]

The thing is when a publisher buys a manuscript from a new author they take a big risk which they would like to make money on. While you could put your book online I would recomend that if you want to publish it via the traditional way later (and you may not) that you not do so. I would guess that a lot of publishers would not want to touch it. You probably should try to find a literary agent and talk to him or her about what your options are.

If you find a good one they will probably tell you if it is something that you can sell. Lets face it not every novel written makes it to the bookstore, some never sell.

Re:Stephen King

[Zachary Kessin]

Yes but he is not Stephen King or Tom Clancey. If I published my new novel the way Stephen King did and asked people to buy it for $5 would you? I probably wouldn't. For one thing I hate reading on screen. But mostly only buy books by authors I have already read or which have been recomeneded to me by a friend. There is too much out there to do otherwise.

Re:It's not as bad as you think..

[Dumas]

And before doing anything else, go to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers web site and check out all their information, especially "Writers Beware".

Stephen King

[sharkey]

King did this with The Plant, and it worked. You may wish to investigate what, when, where, why and how he did what he did. Of course, King was a hugely successful author prior to his experiment with The Plant, so YMMV.

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Re:Stephen King

[sharkey]

As I said. King had no financial risk riding on The Plant.

If it looked interesting, I would certainly consider it. I took a chance on David Eddings, and Weis & Hickman, and they turned out to be very enthralling. If you wrote a novel, in a genre that I found interesting, and charged $5 for it, I certainly would entertain the purchase. Put up a good synopsis, maybe a sample chapter or two, like Card has done for his last couple of "Ender" books, so I could get a feel for the novel. And for God's sake, distribute it in a standard format that is easily printable, either chapter by chapter, or all at once. You're absolutely correct about screen reading. Sometimes I can sit down and read for hours off the screen. Mostly, though, I like to sit on the couch, or in the La-Z-Boy to read.

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Web publish does not == languish

[dmorin]

Have you explored the web publishing options? You'd be surprised how active that realm is. And there's no rules against promoting yourself, either. Get your book onto a web site someplace, then start putting the name of the book (and a URL) into your sig. Now, go about your business. You'll drum up some pretty good traffic, I bet. And without offending too many people, which is always nice. Just try to keep the sig under 4 lines :).

If you're publishing it electronically, then make up a PDF version and ship it off to lots of review sites. That's also more press for you.

In short, just getting it published isn't the end of the road. You still have to work to get your name recognized and get the eyeballs.

Electronic Books...

[Zwack]

I would personally say that as a newcomer you might want to consider selling the book electronically.

There are some companies (do a search) that have a print on demand set up, that way you can set up your own web site, release either sample chapters, or the whole book (in multiple formats would be nice, HTML, Text, PDF for starters) plus have a link to a "buy this book" form for the print on demand guys...

You probably won't make as much money as if a large company buys the book from you and then sells it on... you won't have the advertising budget for a start. But if you get a small print run done then you could hawk it round local bookshops, send sample copies to Papers and magazines... All of that stuff.

You might want to have a look at some of the e-book sites to see what people suggest as well. There are a lot of other small/self published authors out there... and some are really good.

Sell First, THEN write it

[scotpurl]

I know that sounds backwards, but it's the approach several successful writers, like Piers Anthony, have followed. You get an agent, you present a very short draft of the story, and the agent shops it around. You keep coming up with story drafts until one sells.

The difference here is that pretty soon, everything you write sells, because you're only writing what has been sold. And since the project is still in conception, it can be more easily made marketable, or fixed, or even the rough edges of your inexperience honed better. That's the same as getting VC backing. You shop the idea around, they mold it slightly, you get paid, you produce. If they don't buy it, you keep your other job, and keep thinking. You want the idea, not the labor, to produce the income. Ideas come faster than product.

Sounds really dumb, I know, but TV shows are based upon pilots, movie scripts upon 30 page script summaries, and on and on. You have to get in the door before you can write what you want.

A middle ground ...

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Take a look at the small press, both traditional publishers like Meisha Merlin and Print-On-Demand (POD, not to be confused with subsidy or "pay as you go") like Wildside, and you may find what you're looking for. MM particularly seems to do a good job of pushing their authors -- they don't get quite the range of coverage that people who publish with, say, Tor do, but it's not bad.

That being said, I do think you should try the major publishers first. It's no fun gathering rejection slips (trust me, I've been there) but the rewards for a sale are enormous (I've been there too) and as for potential legal problems ... well, try your best to negotiate any clauses (e-rights grabs especially) you find too objectionable, and if you can't strike a deal that satisfies you, you're under no obligation to sign the contract. You'd be surprised at how often publishers, even big ones, are willing to change things when authors, even first-timers, kick up a fuss. Often they write the worst possible language into a contract on the assumption that most authors will just go ahead and sign without plowing through the legalese, and sadly, they're often right.

Two caveats:

Never, ever, ever go through a self-publisher (subsidy publisher). As Mike Resnick says, in the writing universe money must always flow toward, and not away from, the author; if you have to pay the publisher one red cent to get your book on the shelves (or on Amazon) then that publisher isn't worth bothering with. In contrast, many perfectly respectable small presses don't pay you an advance up front, but they will pay you royalties. These guys are just fine, if that's the route you choose.

Know your rights. I strongly recommend Kirsch's Handbook of Publishing Law or a similar resource. Most publishers aren't inherently evil (despite the stories you may hear from drunk authors at SF cons) but the simple fact is that they're in business to make money, and the more of the revenue from any book they can keep, the happier they are ... and the unhappier you are.

Keep at it, and good luck. I've been writing for about twelve years now, and my parents have been writing for about thirty, and despite all of us having been published several times we've still got day jobs, as do most of the writers we know ... but not for a second have we ever seriously considered giving it up. It's worth it.

Do Both

[paulywog]

This doesn't solve the ethical problems with those big publishing companies, but it might allow you to satisfy your need to get the word out plus still publish a physical book.

Since you have no agreement with a publishing company yet, go ahead and publish the draft online (or after a couple of friends help work things out). Do those things that others have mentioned, like sending it out to various SciFi sites for review or comment.

Then start looking for a publisher to print the book. At this point, there's no way they can just pull your book off the web. (Sure they can try, but it won't be effective.) After another year of fine tuning with an editor, then the book will be ready for retail sale.

It'll probably be pretty different from the web-release draft, and that provides a couple of good results:
(1) You already have a small fan base that is eager to read your polished work. More buyers equals more money, which is good even if it isn't your motivation.
(2) If you can work it so that the next book can publish the same way, that'll make all of your readers happier. Readers HATE to wait so darned long for the next books to go through editorial and review before being published; and when the polished version of the sequel comes out in paper, they'll still buy it. It'll be a little different and many people read the same book more than one.
(3) The pervasive online presence your draft books have will be admired by people who support the freedom of information.

I think this idea sounds pretty slick. Any comments on it?

Oh, dear god, noooooo!

[psicic]

Whatever you do, don't self-publish. It costs an arm and a leg and you'll find it difficult to get any bookstore to even carry your books. For fiction, at least, it should be the last resort.

Now, down to the nitty gritty of it:
Get an agent.
It's as simple as that. I don't know where on the globe you are, but here in the Ireland and the UK there are books, such as the Writers and Poets Yearbook, which list all the major agents in the two countries and if they accept unsolicited scripts or not. If they do, you send them a sample of your writing - maybe one of your 'best' chapters and a few 'good' chapters. I know that arbitrary, but it works. Then, if they are interested, they'll ask for more, so you send the rest of your manuscript.
The big advantages of an agent:

• They'll negotiate on your terms; if you want to sell first time rights only, that's what they'll sell; if you want them to work in something about 'fansites' then they'll do their best to help you.
  
• They'll be able to get more money for you from publishers - even if you have no rep. in the business at all. They do this, obviously, because they work on commission.
  
• They can help arrange deadlines, futher books etc... for you - what with us writing types sometimes getting a little disorganised.
  

If you go directly to a publisher - and they must accept unsolicited scripts - you won't have any clout, unless you're a lawyer or something. They usually have a standard contract they'll trot out and, from what I hear, they probably won't be too keen to negotiate.
Finally, as for on-line publishing, e-publishing et al. they are all very 'promising' fields. I personally wouldn't bank on them keeping your book from sinking into obscurity. The ones I've looked at seem to offer worse terms than traditional publishers, less distribution and less reliablity. At least in paper form, there is some tangible(sp-?) proof of your achievment.

By-the-by, I know all this because I'm in the process of writing my own book and I have done some research. (Mind you, lots of people in Ireland are 'in the process' of writing a book, mostly due to the 0% tax rate you pay on artistic earnings 8).

8)

It's not as bad as you think..

[cmowire]

It's not as bad as you think. Remember that, as a rule, good non-media Science Fiction and Fantasy is not really a mass-market item. Which means that you don't have the massive lawyers scouting for intelectual property violations, because, in most cases, it will not be worth it. So you probably won't have a Harry Potter-style crackdown on fan sites.

Now, I think that, given the current situation, your best bet is to go for a real publisher. A real publisher gives you recognition that publishing online doesn't. I can read stuff online, but since there is an editor at the publishing company sifting through all of the crap, I tend to like stuff that I can purchase as a book. That way, I miss out on the mounds of author's (generally sexual) repression mascarading as fiction, poorly written trek fanfics, people with inflated egos writing in baby-talk, etc.

I don't think a pre-sale buzz is very good. Just about every SF and Fantasy novel is purchased by the publisher without much buzz. The only buzz that helps is if you have shorter works published in SF magazines.

Now, once the book is on sale, promote the hell out of it on your own. Make an official site for the book. Do signings and stuff.

Check out your contract. You are going to have to involve a lawyer if you actually get a deal, so this won't be an extra cost. Try to make sure that you have some amount of control over the whole thing, even if you don't get everything you want. For example, you probably wouldn't get too much resistance to them letting you put the book up online some amount of time after the book goes off the market. Things like that.

Make sure that you pay nothing to get your book published. Any reputable agent gets nothing up front, just a percentage of your royalties. Any reputable publisher will give you an advance and royalties. Make sure that you will receive your money.

Right now, sad to say, your best bet is the big SF/Fantasy publishing houses. Maybe in a few years, the online places will have something good, but that day is not here.