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Writing and Publishing, Part 60:
Becoming your own publisher:
Loose ends:
Last time I promised that I would cover some loose ends from this
series. Some of this is simply things I forgot to include in the
appropriate place. Others are not long enough for a full essay.
To be sure, much of this is about my personal experience and embodies
my personal opinion. It is up to you to decide if I am right or
just full of crap.
Dealing with Chiselers and Crooks:
A sad fact of doing business of any kind is that you encounter
deadbeats. I have had to deal with two different kinds. The easiest
to deal with are the con men who pose as book reviewers. Their
goal is simply to get a free copy of a book. This only happened
to me once. It will not happen again because I will take the advice
of Jim Cox. It's simple. When the con man calls asking for a book
I say, sure. I'll be happy to send one. All I need from you is
a formal request on your employer's letterhead. The fact is, legitimate
reviewers will not have a problem with that. However, the con
man is not likely to commit mail fraud just for a free book.
The other type is a bit more difficult. It has to do with delayed payment and nonpayment for merchandise. There is a common business practice by some small timers to make interest on their creditor's money. For the late payers, the solution is to demand prepayment before shipping. I had to notify Borders of my new policy toward them for that reason. Because of that, they will probably never order from me again, but that's life. Orders from Borders are not likely to make me wealthy.
The other one who has consistently paid about one month late
is:
The Book House, Inc. in Jonesville, MI.
I will allow them to do that one more time. Then I will have to
treat them just as I treated Borders.
So far I have not had any buyers who did not pay at all. If it happens there are two options. One is to write it off. The other is to sell the invoice to a collection agency. That will be determined by the sum involved.
I don't know how widespread this kind of dishonest is. I don't have enough experience to know. If it becomes a real problem, I will switch to a strict policy of prepayment for most booksellers. It is not a problem with individuals. That is already a prepayment situation. Ordinary people expect to have to prepay.
Finally, I must be fair to Barnes and Noble. They have always paid on time. Hence they will continue to get books on credit.
Books on Self Publishing
Of all the writers I have read on self publishing, I believe the
purpose in writing the book was to sell books, not to educate.
Thus, the writer had to make you think it was easy so you would
buy the book. If I have made nothing else clear in this series
I hope I have made clear that "It Ain't Easy!" I have
tried to show you the pitfalls that I have encountered along with
the mistakes I have made. I honestly hope that you will do better.
My biggest problem with the so called self publishing books or manuals is that they buy into the standard model of how the industry works. There is a great deal of mythology and some outright duplicity in that model. It is simply not true for new people and the people who publicize it know that. It only works for the established firms which created it, and not all of them. More and more of the smaller firms are being systematically devoured and destroyed by the predators in this industry.
The Publishing Industry
The publishing industry is much like the entertainment industry.
It is controlled by financially motivated people who have absolutely
no artistic or creative talent, but have acquired enormous power
within the traditional model. When talented individuals finally
become successful after going through this industry they are adversely
affected. When they behave badly, we may call them temperamental
and worse. While we do that, we should be considering what has
been done to them to cause them to behave that way.
On Planning
I will urge you to plan well, even though planning is my own weak
suite. One problem in my planning is that I never allow for those
vagaries of life which afflict all of us. Thus, I am always behind.
There are always thing which come up; things on which we have
not planned. These must be dealt with, regardless of our plans.
Indeed, by their very nature we cannot plan for them for they
are unplanned events. They are the events which can make life
frustrating while also making it interesting and worth living.
These interruptions bring challenge and meeting challenge, after all, is what being human is about. Be they accidents, acts of man, or acts of God, they come upon us unexpectedly. Being angry at what seems to be the source of the interruption or distraction only wastes energy. After all of our threshing about, we must still deal with it.
It is important to not be in a rush. With my first two books I was in too much of a rush. They have errors in them because of that. In fact, all of my books have errors which were cause by trying to get them out to quickly. Poor planning.
Crap Happens:
No matter how well we plan, something will go awry. I say this
in spite of all that I have previously said about carelessness
and planning, here is a final truth. There will still be errors.
At least that is the way it is with my. I don't know why. Perhaps
it's a subconscious urge to self destruct. One example is in my
last book, No-Count-Charlie. I just got the books back from Thompson
Shore. They did a great job. I did not.
I was looking the book over like a proud father and rereading it when I discovered the errors. I found two cases of a rather stupid grammatical error. I used the singular where I should have used the plural; not once, but twice. This book was proofread at least ten times. Still the error was there. When I saw the errors, they jumped off the page at me. I have no idea how they could have been missed, but they were; by everyone.
The book is still a great story in a great looking book, but the errors really wounded my pride. There is nothing can be done about the 500 plus copies I have. I can only make sure that the next printing will have these errors corrected. I will also strive to find better find ways to proofread books.
Being a Writer or a Publisher
In my opinion, if you are not doing this because you love books,
you should get out of the business. Go into something you enjoy.
If what you do defines you, at least do something you like which
is worthwhile. Don't get locked in. Don't get in a box. If I really
wanted to, I could become a huckster and that would define me.
I really, really don't want to be defined that way. Do you? If
you do, please go and sell cars or insurance. If not, please come
join me.
New people, old people, young people, I don't care which. Please come into this business and help me take it away from the power thugs. Help me to return it to its rightful owners, the writers and the book lovers. Let's get the corner bookstore back into it. I'm feed up to death with the celebrity twaddle which passed for literature these days. I'm tired of seeing pulp in hard cover. I yearn for the literary excellence of the Hemingway Steinbeck era. I think the writers are out there, but they have been shut out. The are not allowed a forum. The publishers think only of market share and sales. Thus, they produce twaddle and disdain literature. Literature is too hard to evaluate and support. They go for the easy buck. They are frauds.
Doing it Right
Get it through your head that the customers will not notice what
you do, unless you do it wrong. If you do it right, you are wallpaper.
If you do it wrong you will be crap. What you want is for the
customers to not notice what you do.
Research
I continuously get queries from people asking for help or information.
Too often, the person has made no effort on their own. It's as
though they don't know how. How could anyone get through highschool
without knowing how to do research? How could anyone get through
highschool and not know about libraries? This boggles my mind.
Most of the people who ask for help have not done anything to
earn it. They have not done their homework. They have not done
any research. It is incumbent upon you to do your homework before
you ask for help; before you waste someone else's time.
Structuring, Plots, and Themes
Structure is important. Whatever you write, each chapter or section
must be a complete entity. There must be a reason for starting
a new chapter. There must be a change of scene, or a new character,
or a different perspective. You just do not put chapter breaks
wherever you feel like it. It has nothing to do with size. It
is about completeness.
If you have a chapter which seems too long, look it over. See if you did not have a change of scene or concept or character which you missed. If not, you probably have loose prose or redundancy of some kind. Go in and tighten up your work. Don't go on too long. Don't bore your reader. For a book, make sure you actually have a book length story. Don't try to turn a short story into a book. It will be boring.
For an example, the worst book I have ever read from the standpoint of structure is A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It consists entirely of a rather incoherent middle. It has no beginning and no end. Further, it has not a single three dimensional character. All of the characters are vague. There is not even a clearly defined lead character. I forced myself to read the entire book, just to be sure.
For really excellent structuring of a work, look over Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. Each section of each book is a complete entity in itself. Each one could stand alone as a short story. You need not go to that extreme, but your work must have a coherent structure if you want folks to read it.
Desktop Publishing
With a few more advances in desktop capabilities, the book manufacturer
could be put out of business. Within two years, publishers will
stop needing book manufacturers. They will be able to do it in
house on demand. There will be no inventory except raw material.
The paradigm is changing. The big presses will become dinosaurs.
What's still needed is a bindery which works as well as the print on demand devices. Inventory control and turn around are the keys. The publishers cost per book will be slightly higher at first, but there will be absolutely no inventory. The publishers will be in control and no book will ever go out of print. The print on demand services will be around for a very short time. The cost of equipment is falling fast and even small publishers will be able to bring the capability in house. Hurrah for the PC and all the desktop stuff which is now getting good enough to do the job. We will soon reach the point where one person with a manuscript can do it all single handedly.
On Poetry
I did not say that poetry is bad or that it is bad to write poetry.
I said, poetry is not a marketable commodity. By all means, write
poetry if that is your dream. Just don't expect to sell it in
volume.
Litigation
We should do our best to avoid going to litigation. In court,
the only winners will be the attorneys. Going to litigation empowers
them to play their favorite game. That is the game of draining
our resources into their pockets.
Marketing
One dandy marketing technique would be to get your book condemned.
If you attract the right organization to condemn your work, it
almost guarantees a best seller. For example, Salman Rushdie's
Satanic Verses was condemned by the Ayatollah Khomeini, as was
Rushdie. There was a 5 million dollar contract put out on Salman.
He went into hiding and his book became a super best seller.
I'm not sure it would be necessary to go to that extreme. It's probably not a good idea to antagonize totally crazy people for any reason. Still, there are a few, so called, citizens groups and religious organizations who are actively seeking something to condemn. If you have a book which would arouse them, it could be worth your costs to send them a copy.
About Playing the Game
I don't know how long it's going to take me to get this. I learn
it over and over and over again. And then I forget again. You
don't win by playing other peoples games by other peoples rules.
You win by setting your own rules and standards and sticking with
them. When they holler foul, it's good, because you know you are
winning. There are no rules except the rules we make up for ourselves.
There are agreements but no rules. We follow the law or try to
change it but there are no rules of conduct which we must accept
from other people.
The publishing industry has a set of rules and procedures which they want us to follow. If we do, we will be playing their game by their rules and we will lose. It's that simple. Their rules and procedures are designed to assure that the big houses will win. I'll abstain thank you. I will become an industry of one. I won't ask them to take care of me, to handle my books, to distribute my books or to accept me and my books. I'll take my show to the public. I may not win, but I will not lose to the power thugs.
Next time I will conclude this series with a checklist. That
is a list of the steps for how you get from an idea for a book
to an actual book.
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