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Lately I've been asked by many writing friends about my self-publishing experience. I don't have enough to really give advice but I try my best to answer any concerns. The most important, I think, is to already have an established reader base. I have wonderful supportive readers who enjoyed my previous books enough to trust me with giving them another good read with my next books, even though they're self-published. I keep in touch as much as I can, through this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and emails.
It isn't that one can't self-publish without a reader base, but having been established through a New York publisher gives one and an advantage. For one, one's back list is still out there for new readers to discover and that's worth more than a dozen blog interviews.
I'm not the only "familiar" name out there who's going into self-publishing. Below is a list of many of my favorite writers who have gone, or are going, this route:
1) EMMA HOLLY
2) JORDAN DANE
3) MARLISS MELTON
4) JULIANNE MACLEAN (doing women's fiction)
5) COURNEY MILAN
6) BARRY EISLER (he of the "no to a $500,000 contract)***
7) JANELLE DENISON
8) LESLIE PARRISH
9) DEBRA WEBB
10) MAYA BANKS
***Yes, Eisler later signed with Amazon's new thriller line, but I still put him in the category since he did decide to self-publish after crunching his sales numbers.
Some of the authors above are still published with New York publishers and are branching out into different genres through self-publishing. A few are A-list, meaning wow-they-don't-need-to-self-published but have chosen to do some of their books this way. More power to them. I know they're going to be successful because of their reader base.
It's not a rejection of New York publishers. That's silly. They still pay too! But published authors can now consider other options and THAT is wonderful.
For myself, it's just the way it is at the moment. I'm still sending out proposals to New York and "traditional" publishers but meanwhile, I can still get my writing out there to my readers.
Who would have thunk that I'd be self-publishing a kiddie book about a squirrel in 2002 when Into Danger first came out, eh? :D And now, even though they've said no to T and Alex's book, I can still finish writing it and get it published!
Do you know of any familiar names to add to my list? I know there's more. This is just off the top of my head.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Familiar Names Doing It Themselves
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7 comments:
Know of many authors who are releasing older works in ebook format as they regain publishing rights for those books.
As a reader, my wish is that new or old books be released in formats suitable for all ereaders, not just Kindle.
Actually I noticed lately a lot of authors' newsletter I subscribe to are promoting their self pub books.
I love newsletters because with all there is to do, sometimes I forget to check up on the latest books from authors. Newsletters sent to my email help me keep up with it.
Speaking of which, I can't remember the last time you talked about your books! I know you've been super busy but throw me a bone eh? :)
Mary C,
Quite a number of the authors also put their books on smashwords.com, which is downloadable onto the computer and other ereaders.
J3nny,
I just updated a few days ago :). Here's the link:
http://rooferauthor.blogspot.com/2011/09/marathon-in-which-uberauthor-is.html
Ilona Andrews has self-pubbed some shorts. There's a novella, Silver Shark, about to come out and I'm on tenterhooks waiting for it.
E-book publication reduces the cost and time frame for publishing.
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