Do self-publishers still need to explain why? By Roz Morris

This time last year I sent a tweet that said ‘after so long ghostwriting, this book’s for me’.

I was preparing to self-publish my first novel. In the sunny land of tweets, I was keeping up a front of jolly emancipation. Behind the scenes, all was frantic. I’d done a last edit that turned drastic. I was pleased with it but my first advance reader bawled me out for my robust treatment of reincarnation. Although we’re now great friends, this was not reassuring. I had no clue how to market the book, but if I aimed at the wrong readers there’d be hate mail.

I was blogging about it here and there, attempting to sketch my multilayered story in a thumbnail. Each time it sounded like a different book. And as for a back cover blurb? I was totally failing to write one that grasped the novel satisfactorily.

But flap copy was a detail because I had no front cover. I was designing roughs and hated the way they were going. Even if I was going to use a designer (which in the end I didn’t), I had to give them something to start with. 

Happy days
Those troubles eventually passed. But they were the minor half of the battle. This time last year, professional authors who self-published had a lot of explaining to do.

I launched My Memoriesof a Future Life at the end of August, but my campaign really began four months before that, in April. Not to promote the book; I didn’t even mention it. I needed to make my co-conspirators in the writing community understand why an author with two agents and previous bestsellers had to self-publish her novel.

In post after post, I laid the groundwork. What the industry is like. Why ‘new’ authors - or old ones without their disguise - can’t get a foothold. Why publishers say they want ‘originality’ and shrivel away from it hissing. Elsewhere on the ether, other authors - who had sworn they’d never self-publish their fiction because it would blitz their credibility - were conducting the same careful campaigns.

Were we being paranoid? Apparently not. An author and writing tutor told me off, saying I shouldn’t admit I’d got an ‘unsaleable’ novel, especially as I have another on submission.

(A year on, my husband has just been to a meeting where an editor admitted most of their new authors will have self-published first. A friend who’s a Big 6 editor ignores his slushpile and instead trawls the indie bestsellers on Amazon. So much for torpedoing our chances, if that’s where we’re aiming.)

I no longer feel I have to explain why I self-publish. But there’s still an old guard who wants to keep us as second-class writers. Plenty of literary competitions and review sites specifically bar indie authors. Just this week, Porter Anderson’s column Writing On The Ether was tackling the subject of professional bodies that exclude (or seem to) indie authors. And will the reading public, gorging on EL James, ever expect anything more of us than a good spank?

Thanks for the pics bohemiandolls and SarahWynne

 

Do you feel you have to explain why you self-publish? What do you think are the biggest battles we face now?

Roz Morris is a bestselling ghostwriter and book doctor. She blogs at Nail Your Novel  and has a double life on Twitter; for writing advice follow her as @dirtywhitecandy, for more normal chit-chat try her on @ByRozMorris. Her books are Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books And How YouCanDraft, Fix and Finish With Confidence, available in print and on Kindle  She also has a novel, My Memories of a Future Life available on Kindle (US and UK) and also in print. You can also listen to or download a free audio of the first 4 chapters right here.