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The Politics of Self Publishing

09:10 / 05.08.02

"Self-publishing might be a good start for the housebound or for creative people who prefer not to face the harsh glare of editorial criticism but it's not for me."

so says grant morrison in a recent interview. i find the remarks rather patronising, and i also disagree with the gist of what he was saying, but i don't know if this is down the genre and medium: i'm working on a collection of my fiction to self-publish. i've had the majority of my stories either published or accepted for publication, but i was tired of situations where the mag went belly up just before my story came out or, as in one case, where an editor had a story for an anthology and tried, unsuccessfully, for over five years to get it published. i've also had more rejections than i can remember; i have no problem with them. all things considered, i'm doing well, i just want to get a bunch of stories in print, together, with total control over the art and content. let's face it, the chance of getting a book deal is virtually zero, and the last story i sold got me less than ten pounds. i've come across this attitude before - if you're any good, you don't need to self publish. i don't agree. but i do think the quality of anything that's diy-ed has to be good.

as i say, i don't know if the comic world is different. but are people going to sneer when i start waving my collection around?

09:32 / 05.08.02

I think that perception is extremely common. If you're already famous and you go it alone everyone thinks it's great, stick it to the man and all that, but if you're unknown then people assume it's your last resort because you couldn't get published anywhere else. I guess it's hard to believe that anyone would pass up the offer of the big business machine to distribute and advertise (more so than the actual production of the book) hir work if given the chance.

Having to deal with that perception is something that puts me off the idea myself. Well that and the actual effort involved.

Don't know about the "harsh glare of editorial criticism". Talking out of his arse there. More like "harsh glare of fuckwits stealing the profit and telling you what to put in your work and how it's going to be marketed and how you're going to be marketed, etc."

09:40 / 05.08.02

Grant Morrison is full of shit. Jeez, newsflash. Harsh glare of editorial criticism? Ha di fucking ha. What that bloke really needs is the harsh glare of editorial criticism on his statements in interviews. I also have no idea where 'housebound' comes into it, I have to admit...

I think it is great that you are taking matters into your own hands, sfd. Self-publishing can mean no compromise on principles and artistic integrity, and that's a cool thing. Good for anyone that goes it alone, I reckon.

09:45 / 05.08.02

I hate to say it but thecomics world is probably MORE forgiving of self publishing that the book world. With books there is always the existence, accusation and fear of the label 'vainity press' and that anything not published by someone else was obviously not good enough for them.

where as comics are too small, poorly regarded by the masses to be considered respectable (and thus the accusation of vainity holds less credibilitry )

Its not that self publishing is wrong or even makes you a lesser person or writer, but i don't think it makes it easier to sell to the general public, or get distributed or all those 101 other things that help people find your books.

On the posative advice front... have you got a literary agent ? You have a good publishing history on your own but an agent might be able to open new doors for you... I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that Clive barker broke out as an author when his agent for his drama work read his short stories...

The other idea you might like to follow is do a blog that promotes you as a writer - gaiman did a blog that charted the course of writing the whole of American Gods... an unknown author (whose name escapes me) set up a website where you yould watch her writing her book nude (always obscured by furnature, but her website was mentioned in many places round the web- i have no idea if it led to a book deal though)

We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:48 / 05.08.02

Increasingly it seems to me that self-publishing could become a sound business decision - you retain control of the property and reap all the profits after paying printing costs. Distribution remains a problem, of course, but if you were to persuade a chain to take a few copies and it went well, you could be in clover.

I recently met a guy who self-distributes films on DVD. 30,000 copies at £14, and he's in profit. He does smallish documentaries aboutr well-known figures like Bobby Moore, and they sell more than that with ease. The break-even point for books is lower - it used to be 2000 copies.

My encounters with self-publishing, however, have been disppointing. Perfectly sound books and book ideas have suffered from a sad lack of editing and perspective, and the quality of the end product has been poor - not just in terms of content, but also sheer physical construction. As I look back on my own work, I often feel it could have done with a harsher eye - and frequently, it has been edited, sometimes much more than I wished at the time of writing.

There's nothing inherently wrong with self-publishing, and in many ways it seems logical in an age of cheap software suites and low print costs which can be had through print-brokers. At the same time, I'd urge you to find the most brilliant, critical, astringent, slave-driving editor you can cope with, and treat them like God.

It's a little bit like Short Film, actually: the form should be a wonderful thing, but more often, it's slack, and that brings the whole arena into disrepute.

Good luck!

.

10:59 / 05.08.02

If one considers the music world instead of the literary one, strangely enough there is no stigma attached to self-publishing. If one puts out a record on one's own label, it is usually accepted that this has certain benefits- such as retaining complete artistic control, and being able to produce music that has minority market share. Apart from comics and zines, we don't think of self-publishing in the literary world in the same way. Why is that? Is it considered more self-indulgent to put out a book than a record? And why is self-indulgence necessarily wrong?

11:21 / 05.08.02

Because the publishing industry is so up its own arse that it can see through its nostrils. Writing attracts far more amateur dabblers than any other art form; true, every kid might spend a bit of time in a rock band in their mate's garage, but for every group of teenagers covering Strokes songs there are a hundred people banging away at a word processor.

In a way, I can see that there has to be some kind of quality control; as features editor of a regional paper I get piles of self-published stuff through for review and I'd say 75 per cent of it is just unreadable wank. It might be true that everyone has a book in them, but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's a good book, or even a passable one.

Having said that, half of the professionally published stuff I get for review is shite as well, so it doesn't always follow that quality control actually lets the quality through.

One of the main problems in being a writer is that it's generally necessary to have a fresh pair of eyes look at your stuff, because you can quite easily get far too close to your own material. Get a friend who knows something about the subject matter or who has a good grasp of English and grammar to give it the once over. And above all, make sure your spellings and grammar are top-notch; there's nothing more frustrating for a potential reader to have a messy book to read. It just looks amateurish, and while self-publishing is amateur, in a non-derogatory sense, you don't want the finished product to send that message first and foremost.

Oh, and good luck; there have been many success stories in self-publishing that have led to "proper" book deals. One guy whose name I forget got an airport, Manchester I think, to stock his self-published thriller novel and it was eventually picked up by a mainstream publisher.

12:07 / 05.08.02

some sound advice and views. thanks, people.

literary agent? it's a thought. especially once the collection is done. not sure how to go about finding a sympathetic one, though. i'm doing a very short run, and have got a few ideas of where to get rid of the damn things. and i have toyed with the idea of doing a website; at the moment i'm prattling away, blog style, on diaryland, and i will use that to discuss writing and the collection, etc. as for quality control - yeah, i agree, it's easy to be so familiar with your own stuff that you can't crit it properly, but as i say, only two of the stories in the collection have not been seen by editors (well, one has but hasn't been commented on - i don't think it quite fitted the 'girl meets girl' yawn inducing formula of the acme lesbian anthology).

it is very interesting to discuss diy in different media - the diy record/cd is a brave, independent statement, the self published book an admission of defeat. again, much of the sf writer community i have experience of is pretty conservative and like to do things the 'proper' way. for many of these people, punk rock/the punk ethic is something that happened to someone else.

oh, and let's get this clear - i do not write naked! and if i did, i wouldn't display such things on the net. mmm'kay? now rest easy.

14:04 / 05.08.02

i just want to get a bunch of stories in print, together, with total control over the art and content.

Sounds like self-publishing is the best way to do this, then. I'm interested in what you want out of publishing the stories - this is partly because I'm currently blissfully immersed in an Avon-Blake romance and an amateur SF novel featuring Avon but set in a completely original universe, both of which are being distributed via email to the admittedly tiny global constituency of People who Care About Such Things, most of whom know each other. I've also just published this B7 fanfic zine , with a print run of 50, and I can be fairly sure that Everyone Who Would Be Interested will, again, soon find out about it via the magic of the internet. Such forms of publishing work really well within fandom - but, of course, if I wanted my work to be read by complete strangers at random, I would probably be more interested in getting a publishing house with the resources & know-how to distribute & advertise it. (If I had the option, obviously.) This seems to be where the politics comes in, as well. I don't think there's anything self-indulgent about publishing work for a small & circumscribed constituency (well, I wouldn't), but getting professionals in does seem like the best way to reach a larger and non-predictable audience.

14:07 / 05.08.02

My twopennorth: just for info, the naked novelist is here (she's a friend of a friend; she got a lot of publicity, but don't know is she got a book deal yet.) but all publicity is blah blah blah.

Aside from the whole comics thing, the web appears to be changing what self-publishing means, so consider a writing-style-blog; especially a fairly well designed one (www.blogskins.com) - the number of people who think I've had my site "professionally designed" never ceases to amaze me.

How most people get agents; go through all the books you like in your genre, as lots of people thank their agent in the intro. In the SF world, as people who might know people. I got the best response from people where I had personal recommendations, and they got back to me in a day instead of the usual three month hanging around thing.

14:31 / 05.08.02

SFD: You don't want an agent until you're making some money.

An agent gets 10%, and 10% of zero is zero. And an agent who'll work for nothing is not an agent who's going to be able to do much for you.

14:39 / 05.08.02

I don't know, Jack, a lot of agents are on the look-out for first-time writers to "discover".

And as most mainstream publishers won't even look at stuff without an approach from an agent, it becomes a Catch-22 situation if you decide to wait until you're published before finding one.

13:33 / 06.08.02

deva - there's two things i want from doing this mag.

first the hope of being noticed (there's a fairly well known journo who has moaned about the lack of british female horror writers - she'll get a copy). editors can read six stories and review the thing, with any luck - there's more chance of this because a fair few do already know who i am, and i can show just what i've been doing recently.

second, and at least as important, i want to draw a line in the sand for myself, to say i'm proud of what i've done so far, and to see the stuff that's been accepted actually in print. i do not expect to make money out of this!