5 Pros & Cons of Self-Publishing

I am one of the self-publishers in the bordello; some call us "author-preneurs" or "indie-authors." Some have other less than awesome names for us, but thhhpppp on them. There are advantages and drawbacks to this path, just as there are with Traditional Publishing. Since I don't have firsthand experience with NYC, I'll defer to my housemates and stick to what I know.

Here are my Top 5 Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing:

Pros:

• Control: For better or worse, you have the final say in 90% of what, when, and how your book is unleashed on the world. It's awesome. It's frustrating and frightening. It's an enormous time-suck. If you're not comfortable with managing processes and owning accountability, this ain't the path for you.
• That missing 10% goes to technology, distributors, and collaborators.
• Content: Whether you write super-niche stories or last month's trendy genre, nobody is going to tell you "you can't." How well your book is received by the public is something you can influence but not control. Accept that. 
• Pay for an editor, please, for the love of any Divine Being, pay for an experienced editor. A dev editor is good, a proof editor is a bonus. A copy editor is a must. 
• Deadlines: They are yours to set, to meet, to watch fly past, or to constantly adjust. Because self-publishing does require you to collaborate with other people at various points, you can't be completely blasé about schedules and dates. But if you're a slooow writer like me, you can create a release plan that accommodates your sloth-like creative process. If you're one of those super-fast writers who can churn out quality books quarterly or faster, then there is nothing to stop you from doing so.
• Ownership: Of your name, your world, your characters, your rights, your time, your everything. Want to release an audio version of your book? Do it. Want to branch into graphic novels? Go for it. Want to finish out the series even though sales have declined? The fans will thank you. Prequel? Novella? Why not? No asking permission. No worrying about conflicts of interest or interest in general. You're limited only by time and resources.
• Do-Overs: That cover you loved last year fall flat with buyers? Redo it. Those super-modern references now out of date? Change 'em. Find all the typos after you hit "publish"? Fix 'em, reupload. 

Cons:

• Financial Investment: Like any start-up, don't expect to be in the black in your first year. How quickly you can build a large backlist directly affects how long it will take you to earn a profit. Maintaining a profit depends on how often you release new books. 
• Predators, Plagiarists, and Pirates: Yes, it's a Trad Publishing problem too. They have legal departments and parent companies with teeth. You have a bookmark file of the DMCA & Take Down Notices to deal with Pirates. You pray for enough readers who care to tell you if chunks of your work are showing up in someone else's book, blog, anthology, or toilet paper roll. You're hooked into at least a half-dozen self-pubbing communities to stay abreast of the latest predatory practices, people, and tech. 
• Brick & Mortar Placements: Don't expect to see your book on an actual tangible shelf anywhere, especially not a national chain or airport kiosk. You might be able to swing it with local indie shops. Part of it is stigma (there is a lot of shitty self-pubbed work out there, not gonna pretend otherwise; OTOH, there's a lot of awesome work out there too). Part of it is the Unsolds and Returns bookstore business model. Part of it is bookstores' slow adoption of the Expresso Print-In-Shop-On-Demand technology. Yes, there are ways to get your book in a store. Is the ROI worth it? YMMV.
• Conventions: Not every book convention welcomes self-pubbers. Even if we provide our own paperbacks and/or manage the sales of said books. Initially, convention organizers simply didn't know how to incorporate self-published (and at the time typically e-book-only) authors, promotions, and sales into their traditional Con model. Self-publishing has been around long enough now that the know-how is there; however, the desire isn't. It is 100% marginalization.
• Translations/International: So.Many.Boobytraps. Beyond the expected distribution challenges and finding quality translators, there's a quagmire of legal differences. It's not impossible, and there are authors who have success in non-English markets. But this is a time you really, really want to hire a boutique firm who deals with everything for you.  If you can connect with a US agent who specializes in foreign rights sales, that is a sweet spot for many self-pubbers.

So, is self-publishing something you want to try? Check back every day this week to see what other self-publishers, hybrid-published, traditionally published,and micro-press published authors have to say.  You may find a mix of options is the best path for you.

Those Who Haven't, Dispense Advise

I have precious little to offer in the way of self-publishing advice. I've not yet done it. I'd like to try. Just hasn't happened yet. So, if brevity is the soul of wit, my IQ will rise ten points with this post.

1. https://www.createspace.com/pub/l/google_diy2.do?ref=1159301&utm_id=6031 - Amazon's print arm, in case you want to print that masterpiece as well as put it up in all the different e-formats.
2. http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/accessibility/xhtmlexplained.html - a tutorial and guide for all things xhtml - the new standard for tagging content. Which is not to say I recommend tagging your own stuff. Plenty of services will do the job for you - for a fee. However, I argue that there's value in knowing at least a little bit of tagging language so that after the fact, if a reader reports a formatting error in your online book, you can dive in, do the repair and surface again without having to spend yet more money. Maybe it's a me thing.
3. http://www.kristinekathrynrusch.com/ - read The Business Rusch specifically, because everything you ever wanted to know about self publishing (and then some) is there. She even has links to freelance editors and cover artists in several of her business posts. Her book The Freelancer's Survival Guide is also excellent stuff.

As for me? When I get around to doing the self-publishing experiment, I plan to beg for a bit of handholding from those who've gone before me, and I intend to begin small - with short stories and novellas so I can make my mistakes and do my learning in manageable chunks. And I will undoubtedly make plenty of use of this:

Self-Pubbing Resources: Web Comics

by Allison Pang

It's funny.

Back around 2008 when I was finishing up the first draft of A Brush of Darkness and learning the ropes of the publishing world, there were very defined lines drawn in the sand. If you wanted to be taken "seriously", then self-pubbing was to be avoided at all costs. It was something only desperate writers did (and often to their detriment. Ebooks were not a thing, so self-pubbing meant you had to shell out a lot of cash up front for print costs - and forget getting them on a shelf. Most self-pubbers were selling them out of the trunks of their cars.)

And then the Kindle came along and changed all that.

Say what you will about Amazon, their ebook reader turned the publishing world on its head - and it hasn't been the same since.

I haven't jumped on the self-publishing bandwagon yet though - at least not when it comes to books. However, I am definitely self-pubbling webcomics.

There's a caveat there, though. At the moment, my webcomic is free. Mostly because this is my first run-through and I would have felt a bit odd charging for a product that wasn't completed (and that I wasn't sure I could do.) But we're getting close to the 100 page mark now, and the first story-arc is wrapping up, which means things can change a bit.

So, how does one go about self-pubbing a webcomic?

1) Content is king. You need a story. And an artist. It can be helpful if you do both - but there are pros and cons to that. If it's all you, then you can do what you like. Write the story you want. Draw the story you want. The only bottleneck to your own creativity is you. If you're disciplined, this may work out fine. If you're not?

Well, there are a lot of webcomics that get started and then slow down and disappear completely. Real life has a way of rearing its head  and suddenly the comic doesn't mean so much - particularly when you are just starting out and getting little feedback. Sometimes you can wonder why you're putting so much effort into something that no one is looking at.  (Readers! Don't be shy about commenting on a web comic you like! It can take only a few seconds, but it is such a  thrill for creators to realize people are enjoying their work, particularly if it free.)

This is where it can be helpful to have a partner in crime - if nothing else you can encourage each other when things seem like they're going nowhere.

In either case- decide your schedule - how frequently will you update? Once a week? a month? (Don't be random. You can't build up an audience if they don't know when to look for you.) Whatever you decide, stick with it. Don't bite off more than you can chew - it's easy to be gung ho and pump out a page a day at first, but not everyone has time for that. Try to come up with something that fits into your regular schedule.

2) No room for egos. If you have a team, you have to work together. The long and short of it is that often artists get more of the kudos when it comes to comics. It's a visual medium - so that's what people glomp onto first. That can be hard for a writer sometimes, but it's part of the deal. The last thing you want to do is destroy something awesome for the sake of attention. (And this is true for other types of visual media - movies, tv, etc.  - Even though there would be no show without the writers, it's the actors who get to prance on that red carpet, right?)

3) Platform. Okay - you've got your story, you've got your art. You're ready to go. Where do you put it? If you're just starting out, there are plenty of places where you can upload your webcomic for free. Tapastic is a new service that looks like a good place to start, although there are certainly others. However, I do think that if you can afford to host it yourself, that's a good way to at least retain control The problem with hosting on other sites or services is that sometimes those sites/services go down. Or disappear. Even if your entire audience is built up on site x, there's something comforting knowing you've got a mirror on a site you control.

Just in case.

For Sad Sausage Dogs, we do host it separately. I've got it running on Word Press, with the Webcomic plugin, and then a highly modified Inkblot theme. (Incidentally, the guy who wrote and support them is fabulous. Always responsive whenever I've had a question, so huzzah.) Now, I do admit I have some advantages here - I used to do freelance web design, so setting up a website like that has a start up cost of basically nothing more than hosting and my time.  If you're just beginning, it can be hard to justify paying a lot to get up and running, so that's where turning to a free solution may be a better bet.

4) Getting the Word Out. Just like self-published books, webcomics often find themselves in a sea of mixed-bag content. There's always going to be better comics than yours...and there's always going to be worse ones. The key is to get your voice out there and in front of readers. In the old days of self-pubbing print comics, it was just like self-pubbing books. You shelled out up front, got a certain number of copies printed and then sold them at conventions or local comic book stores, hoping for enough word-of-mouth to make it big.

Now we've got social media - Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr are certainly good ways to get started, but there are also plenty of webcomic sites and forums to try to get listed on.  (Or take ads out on -> this page is a few years old, but the sites it refers to are all still up and running. Usually getting listed on them is free, so it should definitely be done. If you're interested in taking out ads, or providing them on your own site, take a look at Project Wonderful.)

Also? If there are webcomics out there that you like and are similar to yours, look at becoming affiliates or doing a link exchange.

Swag - it costs money up front, but definitely a requirement if you're attending a con. You never know if handing out a bookmark or a postcard or whatever will help spark another reader. Even a sample print out can be good, particularly if you want to pitch to editors who may be in attendance. (Appointments, yo - don't stalk editors in the bathrooms!)

Use the resources you have - in my case, being a published author is helpful, because I've got a fan base to start from. They may not be the same audience as for my urban fantasy novels, but it's nice to be able to tap into it. Same with Aimo - she has a massive Bioware fan-art following - over 30k followers on Deviantart alone. When she posts a page of the comic up on DA once in a while, we get a huge upswing in page hits - so it certainly makes sense for us to post it there as well. (Albeit at a much slower pace - we want to drive people to the main site as much as we can.)

5) Make it Easy. These days people have less and less time to spend surfing the web looking for your updated pages. Make it easy for them by delivering it direct. RSS feeds, email subscriptions, specific web-comic readers like Comic Rocket, or search engines like Oh No Robot. All of these are very important to get a hook into, and again, most things are free. You just have to put in the leg-work to get your comic in the listing.

The big thing these days is apps. If you can get your comic involved with an app (or you have the know how to write your own), that is pretty key.

I'm actually still working on that part myself. Once we finish this first story arc, we will package it up with some extras that you can't get on the website and look at actually selling it as a whole via Comixology Submit.This is a new service which is now out of beta and allows indie comic creators the ability to sell their work via the Comixology app. I'm still investigating it, but the basics are that it's free for content creators - we just submit the package and dictate what price we want to sell it at, and Comixology takes care of the rest. Now, they do take a 50% cut, BUT - they handle all the formatting and conversion for us. (And that can sometimes be pretty tricky.) Plus, we still retain our copyright and we are allowed to sell it anywhere else we want and in any other medium - which means we don't tie ourselves down to any sort of commitment or contract.

Now, why would anyone want to buy the whole issue when they can read it for free? Well, like I said - we will offer some additional content that can't be found on the website, but honestly, just having it  on a site like Comixology should get us additional readers from people who don't have time to go to the website, or who might not discover it any other way. (We're going to give it a try, anyway - if it doesn't work out, then we haven't really lost anything.)

There's plenty of other stuff I could talk about (things like trademarks are a whole other thing, for example), but these five steps are essentially the main things I've learned over the past year. I imagine I've got a lot more to learn, but I'm really happy with the way things have been turning out. (And quite frankly, it's one of my favorite things to write - at the moment, that's worth a lot to me. And Aimo and I are going to start producing one-offs of 10 to 20 pages in a separate project eventually too, so it's nice to be able to know where to start, this time around.)

Anyway - new Fox & Willow page will be up today - you can always find the latest page here.  :)

Self-Publishing Resources: Three(ish) From Me

My expertise in the self-publishing arena? Bupkis. I've made it as far as culling info for editors. Since I'm such a loving and generous Whore, I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

~lash flutter~

1. If you don't know what kind of editor you need, K.K. Rusch breaks down the classifications here: http://kriswrites.com/2013/01/30/the-business-rusch-hiring-editors/

2. Once you've figured out what kind of editor you want, it's on to cost estimates. More than a car, less than orthodontia for your mini baseball team?  Here's a starting point courtesy of the Editorial Freelancers Association: http://www.the-efa.org/res/rates.php

3. After you've sold your kidney and half a liver, in whom do you entrust your book? You want someone with experience in your genre, sub-genre is even better. Then you want someone who is willing to do a "free test" of X number of pages to see if they want to deal with your work and if you can deal with theirs. For what do you need to beware? The SFWA breaks it down here: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/editors/#What

4. Where do you begin to find a good editor worth his/her fee? That's a lot harder. Networking is the best answer. If you're just looking for a reference list as a  leaping-off point then there is the invaluable Predators & Editors: http://pred-ed.com/peesla.htm

If you're hunting using a personality-check filter, then I offer up this slightly outdated twitter listing courtesy of Galley Cat: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/the-best-book-editors-on-twitter_b11241

So, dear reader, do you have a great editorial resource? Share, please? Pretty, pretty please?

Three Valuable Resources for the Beginning Self-Publisher

These unpromising little sprouts will be ocotillo blossoms soon. This may not seem all that exciting to you folks, but we bought two ocotillos from a roadside vendor last summer and they've looked like sticks ever since. Seeing them come to life again has us all giddy.

This week's topic is: DIY Publishing: Best Three Resources for Success.

There's a bit of irony here in that I'm sure this is recently departed Word Whore, Carolyn Crane's, topic. I know this because she always calls it Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Publishing instead of Self-Publishing. She's also, irony-compounded, the one of us with the most self-pub experience.

In fact, my number one resource in this arena is: Carolyn Crane.

However, if you haven't wormed your way into being friends with her (involves mostly reviewing endless cover iterations and bribes of chocolate), then you might have to look elsewhere.

Now, I have self-published one novella. Petals and Thorns was with Loose Id for two years, and then my rights reverted. I had the option to leave it with them (they offered) or to take it back and self-pub. In the interests of experimentation, I tried the self-pubbing.

Because the book had already been professionally edited and laid out, my job was pretty easy. I needed to put a new cover on it (the old one belonged to Loose Id) and format for HTML.

So, for getting a cover, my #1 Resource:

Su at Earthly Charms Designs

Su is patient, creative, does fabulous work and is not expensive. (Though I see her prices have gone up, which means she's doing well - go Su!) The cover she did for me has been nominated for a number of cover design awards. She's my go-to gal.

For HTML formatting, my #2 Resource:

The Smashwords Style Guide

No, using this won't marry you to Smashwords. But Smashwords does distribute to a lot of different book retailers, so they have a really good, clear and universal style guide.

Finally, for general support, advice and comaraderie, my #3 Resource

The Indie Romance Ink (IRI) Yahoo Loop

Sorry if you're not a romance writer - this is just the one I know about and belong to. This is a members only loop and you have to request to join.

Their criteria are:

New members must be ***ROMANCE WRITERS*** who have self-published or are indie-curious. We're a genre-focused group by and for romance authors, and we do not allow self-promo. Author service providers and other industry professionals are welcome as long as they are ALSO romance writers.

If you are not a romance writer, consider the Indie Authors Forum (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indieauthorsforum/) instead. The IAF admits writers of all genres as well as industry professionals.

 What about all of you - got a great resource I missed?