The Self-Publishing Route

[Scarfy]

If people are still interested in my news and progress, I've now got a couple more branches of Waterstone's on my side: Islington and Gower Street (both in London).

Here's a couple of photos of my book "in the wild"

I'm just waiting for Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square to refresh their stock, and then I can sign those too.

I was also talking with one member of Waterstone's who wanted to read (or at least, leaf through) the book before he ordered in stock. He's had a proof for about two or three weeks now, so I might pop in on Wednesday and see what he thinks.

 

[TheLastBard]

Seems like self-publishing is always a good back up plan if you really believe in your book. Personally, with my stuff (I'm working on a book but my published stuff is all comics so far), I have some things I will work to push to publishers first in stages... 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, etc... At some point you need to look and figure out where it would be better to self publish and promote the heck out of yourself rather than letting a 3rd or 4th tier publisher handle your book. They will save you money on printing, but will often have a poor distribution model that will keep you from getting into certain avenues.

With books, now that you can print, get ISBN's, etc, through Amazon and they will carry your book, it's often better to just go that route! You pay for the services, but in the end, you own 100% of the rights to everything and can spend other money on self-marketing your book from your perspective. Just some thoughts....

If you can get in at a major publisher, awesome, go that route, though!

 

[Scarfy]

Again, in case any one is interested, I was approached earlier in the week by both the London Evening Standard and BBC Radio 4 about my novel.

The connection for both of them was Lehman Brothers, where I used to work. They were intrigued as to how I decided to write my novel after Lehman got into trouble and decided to terminate my contract.

I'll post times and dates for both the interviews (should they chose to use them) when I know more, so people can check them out.

 

[Ursa major]

I'll post times and dates for both the interviews (should they chose to use them) when I know more, so people can check them out.

Please do: they should be interesting.

They were intrigued as to how I decided to write my novel after Lehman got into trouble and decided to terminate my contract.

So did you tell them that you decided you would rather trade in a different sort of futures market?

 

[Scarfy]

So did you tell them that you decided you would rather trade in a different sort of futures market?

ROFL!!!

Oh, that's good! I'll have to remember that one!

 

[Scarfy]

The London Evening Standard has printed an online version of their Lehman article,

What happened to bankers who crashed with Lehman | News
(scroll down the page to "The Ones Who Got New Careers")

Not sure if there will be a print version; I've asked, but we'll have to see. I thought there might be a little more than that, but there it is

 

[Scarfy]

If you're sick of me yet - here's another article on the BBC's Have Your Say.

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | Lehman Brothers: Your stories

 

[akoroves]

I don't recommend self publishing, but if you are set on it check out a website called Lulu. There is no cost to upload your book, and you get paid when someone orders it from the site. They don't charge you, they only take a percentage from your sales.

I think if a book is good enough to be published, your best bet is finding a literary agent or submitting your book to various publishing companies.

Best of luck

 

[mercs]

akoroves, I'm with lulu and have the same experiences as others on this thread. They are possibly the best, but a quick look at their forums will see they too are far from perfect!

I plan to make absolutely zilch on my books! I have a target of 5000, so far I'm just approaching 100 with the odd sale every day. That's fine by me, as I just wanted to be published!!

I love the fact that I can show someone my book, I love the way it's a great conversation piece and I love hearing good feedback. Very few people make a living out of it, and I was trying for 10 years with numerous routes to get noticed. Either I'm not as good as I'd hope or I'm just not very lucky. At least now I have a record of my work and I have the confidence to continue with what is essentially a hobby...

When the bloke who tapes his songs at home does it, he doesn't think it will be a number one hit, but no harm in taking this route. I suggest many on the fringes should give it a go. I'm 26 and have a career, writing is my hobby that I enjoy. If I can quit my job, fantastic, but not considering it any time soon!

 

[Moggle]

Seems like self-publishing is always a good back up plan if you really believe in your book. Personally, with my stuff (I'm working on a book but my published stuff is all comics so far), I have some things I will work to push to publishers first in stages... 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, etc... At some point you need to look and figure out where it would be better to self publish and promote the heck out of yourself rather than letting a 3rd or 4th tier publisher handle your book. They will save you money on printing, but will often have a poor distribution model that will keep you from getting into certain avenues.

With books, now that you can print, get ISBN's, etc, through Amazon and they will carry your book, it's often better to just go that route! You pay for the services, but in the end, you own 100% of the rights to everything and can spend other money on self-marketing your book from your perspective. Just some thoughts....

If you can get in at a major publisher, awesome, go that route, though!

I don't know anything about the publishing business but why on earth would anyone want to self publish and market their own book, compared to actually being published by a "4th or 5th tier" company? How bad can they be? Has anyone ever successfully self marketed a fiction book all by themselves? I can't even imagine what that would be like.

akoroves, I'm with lulu and have the same experiences as others on this thread. They are possibly the best, but a quick look at their forums will see they too are far from perfect!

I plan to make absolutely zilch on my books! I have a target of 5000, so far I'm just approaching 100 with the odd sale every day. That's fine by me, as I just wanted to be published!!

I love the fact that I can show someone my book, I love the way it's a great conversation piece and I love hearing good feedback. Very few people make a living out of it, and I was trying for 10 years with numerous routes to get noticed. Either I'm not as good as I'd hope or I'm just not very lucky. At least now I have a record of my work and I have the confidence to continue with what is essentially a hobby...

When the bloke who tapes his songs at home does it, he doesn't think it will be a number one hit, but no harm in taking this route. I suggest many on the fringes should give it a go. I'm 26 and have a career, writing is my hobby that I enjoy. If I can quit my job, fantastic, but not considering it any time soon!

You've been trying to get published since you were 16? When I was 16 I could barely spell

 

[Gary Compton]

Has anyone ever successfully self marketed a fiction book all by themselves? I can't even imagine what that would be like.

Mark Robson who is one of the elder statesmen on this forum self published his Darkweaver series (I think it's that one) and sold 50,000 books over a few years.

He was then picked up by an agent and the rest is history.

That's a good enough reason to do it.

How many books have you sold now Scarfy?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Mark Robson who is one of the elder statesmen on this forum self published his Darkweaver series (I think it's that one) and sold 50,000 books over a few years.

He was then picked up by an agent and the rest is history.

That's a good enough reason to do it.

For someone who is as energetic and resourceful as Mark, it's a good option. Otherwise, probably not. It takes confidence and enthusiasm, but that confidence has to be genuine. I've met writers who think they can fake it, and they just end up being alternately aggressive and self-defensive. That doesn't work.

So far, Scarfy looks like he has the necessary qualities and is making an exceptional effort.

 

[Gary Compton]

If you're sick of me yet?

We're not, it's nice to hear your progress and I'm proud to have read your book AND...

Given you 5 stars on Amazon

Come on tell us how many you've sold. It must be over a hundred now or more?

 

[Scarfy]

We're not, it's nice to hear your progress and I'm proud to have read your book AND...

Given you 5 stars on Amazon

Come on tell us how many you've sold. It must be over a hundred now or more?

heh, not quite, Gary. I'm at 78 sold at the last count. I noticed that when I was in the news during that week that I sold quite a few more copies - the Brighton branch of Waterstone's re-ordered after that. They had 7 copies in.

Rather annoyingly I think I might have sold a lot more, but Waterstone's are having stocking issues. There are now 5 branches with copies on order, which haven't arrived - Brighton, Canary Wharf, Holborn, Leadenhall and Piccadilly. Leadenhall is smack bang in the middle of London City, too, so they would have sold had they been in there. Ah well.

Still, it's selling, which is good. I'm going to concentrate on finding ways of raising the profile of the first book once I finish the read-through of the second (it's at 138,5000 words now, with 15 more chapters to read; getting too long).

It's been rather quiet around here recently, which is why I haven't been popping in so much... but I keep a blog of all my adventures at,

Stephen J Sweeney's Blog

I'll come back more often and let people know how it's going. Hopefully the Waterstone's issue will be sorted in time for Christmas - a signed book would make a nice stocking filler for someone

 

[mygoditsraining]

it's at 138,5000 words now

Awesome typo.

 

[mercs]

You've been trying to get published since you were 16? When I was 16 I could barely spell

Afraid so! I was writing books in note book form from the age of 7 and it was a dream I thought would come as soon as I hit my 16th birthday

Scarfy, I might need your advise. I've sold 83 books ENTIRELY through amazon and lulu, but can't get a leg up in waterstone's at all! I've tried everything from local branches, their switch board, numerous departments, and they just aren't interested. It's a real bummer for me, as I could potentially get some interest in the Birmingham, Liverpool and Peterborough areas, and really make inroads. As it stands I'm relying entirely on my own efforts to generate virtually every sale!

 

[Boneman]

I'm going to go into Waterstones in Crawley and ask about the book, tell them that it's stocked in London and why are we lagging behind? I'll let you know the response.

Scarfy, if you're passing through Crawley, the manager is really quite cool about new authors, and we have an ottokars as well. I'll go in today and ask, then you go in and say 'would you like to stock this?'. He'll never guess... oops! unless he reads this...

 

[Scarfy]

Generally when approaching Waterstone's, I have asked them if they support local authors (hopefully they say they do) and then have shown them a copy of the book. I've briefly chatted about it and more often than not they'll offer to bring in a few copies. This won't be a lot: maybe one or two; three if you're lucky.

Oh, don't say you're local if you're not - if they discover you're not then I suspect they might blacklist you. After successfully dealing with your local branch, and selling through, you can approach other stores, since they'll have sales data.

Once they've agreed to do so, you'll need to check back once a week or so to see if it's come in. When they have, offer to sign them, make sure you get the stickers stuck on them and try and persuade them to face them out or put them on a table. This can often be tricky, depending on shelf space and also whether the tables are reserved for the store's best sellers and special offers (such as 3-for-2).

Getting into the first branch is hard, from what I can gather. Hopefully you've got a nice looking cover, a good price and a well typeset interior, so that the novel looks professional. First impressions are very important.

Boneman - Sounds good, but I think I should build up my profile a little more. The signed-by-the-author thing helps a lot and I find it easier to work around London right now. If I can build up my profile more then I'll start going to branches outside of the capital. Thank for letting me know, though

 

[Moggle]

Mark Robson who is one of the elder statesmen on this forum self published his Darkweaver series (I think it's that one) and sold 50,000 books over a few years.

He was then picked up by an agent and the rest is history.

That's a good enough reason to do it.

How many books have you sold now Scarfy?

Huh? The only reason to self publish is because you have no choice. It's not a means to an end like you make it sound, simply because one person got lucky from it.

 

[Gary Compton]

Huh? The only reason to self publish is because you have no choice. It's not a means to an end like you make it sound, simply because one person got lucky from it.

As you might of expected I totally disagree! The thing is Mark Robson believed in his book and writing skills so much so that when the rejections came in he thought SOD IT! I'll do it mysely.

Scarfy, thank God is following in Mark's footsteps and long may it continue.

Getting through the slushpile is difficult. JK Rowling got many rejections. Imagine if on the day her agent read her submission, he'd been too busy and just chucked it in the bin and sent out the compliments slip.

No Harry Potter

Belief! It's what you need in any field if your to become successful whether it's published or self published.