Tag Archives: self-publishing

Jun 28 2013

Review: ‘Interlands’ is ‘Perfect Example Why Self-Publishing can be a Good Thing’

By Stacey Longo

interlands coverInterlands by Vincent O’Neil (2013, Vincent O’Neil) is the perfect example of why self-publishing can be a good thing. The novel is well structured, reads at the perfect pace, and is hard to put down. There is no reason why O’Neil shouldn’t be picked up by one of the big publishing houses; but with so many voices out there, and so little money to sign new authors, it’s hard for a good writer to get a contract these days.

The novel introduces us to Angie Morse, a graduate student who is working on the final touches of her college thesis. The paper’s done, but she’s searching for a mysterious obelisk that she believes still exists somewhere in the area of Providence, RI. She’s found documents and photographic evidence of the monument, and even after uncovering some disturbing folklore surrounding it, is unable to give up her quest. There’s a great deal of mystery surrounding the obelisk as well as Angie herself, and the reader is given pieces of the puzzle along the way to hone one’s curiosity. O’Neil is able to answer questions in such a way that the reader thinks “Oh, that’s why! But what about this?”

The descriptions of Providence are eye opening, and the reader will never look at the city in quite the same way. (Being a New Englander myself, I can’t wait to go back and look at the buildings and train tracks through fresh eyes.) Interlands provides such an accurate and enchanting description of the WaterFire events that are held in Providence every year that if you’ve never been, you’ll swear you have after reading it.

O’Neil’s ability to slip into the horror/supernatural genre is impressive.  He has previously published a series of Frank Cole mystery novels (Murder in Exile, Reduced Circumstances) and a sci-fi novel as Henry V. O’Neil (Glory Main), but he slides into the horror/thriller genre with ease. His novel tips its hat to Providence native H.P. Lovecraft, but O’Neil has a style and structure all his own. There’s no need to be a Lovecraft fanatic to enjoy this book—it has a tight plot and straightforward style all its own.

There were a couple of questions that didn’t get fully answered for me – there’s a mysterious man that Angie dances with that I felt could use more explanation, and (without spoiling anything here) Angie’s reaction to her former roommate at the end was much more placid than I’d expected. But overall, this is a satisfying read. Interlands is vividly crafted and well worth the read.

May 30 2012

Author Robert J. Duperre Talks about Zombies and Writing

Author Robert J. Duperre Talks about Zombies and Writing

by Jason Harris

Zombies are still lumbering around in pop culture after since George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead arrived on the silver screen in 1968. Romero is considered to be the father of all zombie movies. They can even be seen on the small screen thanks to the AMC series, The Walking Dead. The Resident Evil zombies are still finding success on the big screen and the next incarnation, Resident Evil: Retribution, arrives in theaters this year.

Zombies are so popular that a London-based game developer, Six to Start, has created an app that has merged fitness and zombies, “Zombies, Run!”

Author and New England Horror Writer member Robert J. Duperre is continuing to give zombie fans their fix with his four-book series The Rift, which opens with a zombie apocalypse triggered by an evil buried deep in a Mayan ruin in the first volume, The Fall, the three books that follow are Dead of Winter, Death Springs Eternal, and The Summer Son, which is due out in July.

The Fall: The Rift Book I

The Fall: The Rift Book I

In his series, the origin of the apocalypse is the Mayan Ruins, which he chose because of the fact “the Mayans were so advanced, not only for their time, but for all time.” Even with their advancement, Duperre considers the Mayans as “somewhat primitive.”

“In that way their culture sort of mirrors our own—complex and sophisticated, yet clinging to some rather archaic ideals.  So what if the same mysterious events that brought down their culture brought down our own?  Poetic justice, right?  Yeah, a bit of a stretch I know, but trust me, it works in my head.”

The author wasn’t planning on The Rift being a series. He thought it would be a simple zombie tale.

“It was supposed to be a humorous novella.”

Once it was over 400,000 words, he decided to split it into four books and completely rewrote it.

“The story had already been sectioned off into seasons, so I figured that was as good an idea as any to act as natural segues between volumes.  The only problem is the first three books all end in cliffhangers because of this, which I’m sure can be a little irritating to readers.”

Duperre thinks there are “a couple of layers” to the zombie-apocalyptic trend.

“For me, [zombies are] the perfect tool for storytelling—they represent humanity in its most primal form, in many ways reflecting conventional and homogametic nature of our culture,” Duperre said. “Literature in the zombie genre forces a return to the basics by the survivors, in effect exploring that which made them human in the first place.”

He assumes the zombie-apocalyptic trend is popular because people are “obsessed with being scared, and nothing is as frightening as the prospect of the end-of-times.”

“A zombie apocalypse is, strangely enough, the most convenient and readily available outlet for that kind of fantastic exploration.”

He has never seen this “particular scenario play out before,” which he figured was a good point in his favor. This allowed him “to move away from traditional zombie lore and present some different scenarios and outcomes.”

Duperre considers his endeavor with The Rift series risky and knows he has annoyed more than one reader by straying from the typical zombie formula.

“I’m happier doing things my own way than sticking to a script someone else wrote.”

There are some prevalent motifs running through Duperre’s series such as isolation, personal tragedy, and social injustice, which he considers “the single greatest theme” that runs through all four volumes. The social injustices that he tackles are the treatment of women and the complexities of race relations.

“At heart, I’ve always considered myself a progressive and a bit of a social activist, and this series allows me to explore these themes in a no-holds-barred manner, sometimes disturbing manner.”

Duperre’s work has been influenced by a number of writers throughout his career including Clive Barker, John Skipp, Stephen King, and George Romero, whose original Dead trilogy is “the single biggest influence” in his life.

“It was the first time I realized that monsters could be used as metaphors, and I ran with it,” Duperre said. “Clive Barker has also been a huge influence, in particular his fascination with the concept of worlds within worlds. Though you certainly can’t write a good book without talent, the style any writer develops is always dependent on the authors they’ve read and loved over the span of their lifetimes.  I’m no different, and to all the writers who’ve spurred me on over the years, I say a great big thank you.”

The Rift series is a collaboration between Duperre and fellow NEHW member, artist Jesse David Young, who has done all the series’ covers.

They had discussed as far back as 2006 about Young doing illustrations for him, but nothing came of it. Three years later in the summer of 2009, Young called about working on a comic book they could pitch to DC comics. Duperre was working on final rewrites on the first book in the series and asked Young if he wanted to do what they talked about so long ago, he said.

“We’ve been working together ever since, and it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.  It’s nice to have a partner to share in the stress, after all.  I wouldn’t have been able to get as much work done as I have without him by my side.”

His series is self-published, which allows Duperre to take risks, but not something he couldn’t have done through a traditional publishing company, he said. He doesn’t hold any “real love for self-publishing” since “it’s difficult and time-consuming.”

Duperre considers self-publishing “a means to an end” and doesn’t think he would be where he is today without it. He thinks the changing publishing world is “exciting and dangerous at the same time.”

“For the release of a book to be as simple as a click of a mouse, the possibilities are endless for success and failure. I experienced a bit of both.”

Duperre rushed The Fall to publication which resulted in the release of a poorly edited book, he said. It was full of plot holes, which he had to go back and fix post-publication. The same mistakes happened with Dead of Winter, but to “a lesser extent.”

“Thankfully for me, my sales didn’t really start to take off until after they were fixed which is a very good thing.  It could have ruined my reputation something fierce had the lesser-quality work taken center stage.”

He considers this a huge problem since there are a lot of books on the market that are not good. These books are lacking “plot and characterization, are poorly executed, or simply put out there by someone who doesn’t have a clue about how to write.”

These problems have created a stigma for being a self-published author “that is rightly deserved.” This stigma has even put more pressure on authors like Duperre, he said.

“I need to work extra hard to make sure the work we put out is of professional quality, is edited, and cohesive.  It’s a good thing I enjoy doing this, otherwise I might have walked away by now.”

Along with writing his zombie series, Duperre has published two anthologies, The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales and The Gate 2: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair. The first one was released in November 2010 and contains stories by him and a few writer friends. Each story contains an illustration by Young.

“After [the first anthology was released], I thought it would be a novel idea if the anthology became a yearly/bi-yearly event.”

The Gate’s sequel was released this past February. It contains stories from K. Allen Wood, David Dalglish, Steven Pirie and Mercedes Yardley.

The Gate 2: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair

The Gate 2: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair

He wants to publish a third volume next February entitled The Gate 3: 13 Creature Features.

“The goal is to have it be an actual paying anthology this time around, featuring some of my old-time and new favorites in horror and dark fantasy. I’m not entirely certain if I’ll be able to pull it off given the state of finances at the moment, but I’m dedicated to it, and I’ve found over the years that if I’m dedicated to something, I somehow find a way to pull it off.”

Duperre has been writing since childhood, he has been “obsessed” with it from “the process, the imagination involved, [and] the outcome.”

 “My high school term papers were behemoths, and I decided that my life’s goal would be to teach English and write novels for a living.”

Life did get in his way back in his early to mid twenties until Jessica, his wife, told him to pick up his pen again. There would be “a gigantic hole” in his soul if he wasn’t writing, he said.

He began a website, Journal of Always, back in 2009 with the idea he would blog about what he thought was important, what bothered him, and maybe even discuss his own experiences during the writing process. It didn’t happen that way though, he said.

“I ignored it for far too long and eventually it was all but forgotten. Then, halfway through 2010, I decided I would start reading my fellow self-published authors and use the JOA as an outlet for reviews.”

The website has progressed nicely for the past two years until the past few months of this year when he had deadlines looming on other projects.

“I haven’t posted a review since February, even though I have a backlog of more than fifteen to write.”

He plans on adding more reviews soon.

Duperre’s advice to up and coming writers is the same as what other writers like King has told people. It is too read and write. He also goes farther and adds a person has to edit and rewrite too. A writer also has to “be open to criticism.”

“The only way any artist improves is by trial and error.  There is no first draft of any book that is fit for publishing.  Make sure you realize that and learn everything you can before putting yourself out there.”

Here is Duperre’s bibliography:

April 2010 – The Fall: The Rift Book I (novel)
July 2010 – Feeding the Passion (short story), Darker Magazine #2
November 2010 – The Gate: 13 Dark and Odd Tales (collection)
November 2010 – The One That Matters (short story), A Land of Ash (edited by David Dalglish)
December 2010 – Dead of Winter: The Rift Book II (novel)
June 2011 – Silas (novel)
September 2011 –  Chorus (short story), Dark Tomorrows, Second Edition (edited by J.L. Bryan)
October 2011 – 39 Days (short story), Unnatural Disasters (edited by Daniel Pyle)
December 2011 – One Good Turn (short story), Shock Totem Holiday Issue
January 2012 – Death Springs Eternal: The Rift Book III (novel)
February 2012 – The Gate: 13 Tales of Isolation and Despair (collection)

Duperre will be at the NEHW booth at the South Windsor Strawberry Fest on June 16 in Nevers Road Park , South Windsor, CT. from 9 a.m to 5:30 p.m.

May 18 2012

Just Learn How To Do It Yourself

Just Learn How To Do It Yourself

by Rob Watts

Remember the old sayings “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” and “don’t pay someone to do something that you can do on your own?” Well those sayings are especially true when it comes to authors in today’s rapidly changing publishing climate. In this ever-expanding technology age that we’re living in, it almost seems senseless to me to even bother seeking out a publishing company to release our work. With all the resources readily available to us, there is no reason to take 100 percent control of the work you slaved over. After all, you gave up your free evenings and weekends, missed out on get-togethers with friends, perhaps broke up with girlfriends/boyfriends, wives/husbands in order to express your inner-workings on pages upon pages of your masterpiece. Why turn it over to anyone (except perhaps Random House or Harper Collins) when you can do a far better job at it? Of course, you might be working with a traditional publisher at the moment and could be perfectly happy with them. That’s awesome. If you’re not happy, read on.

I understand the appeal of seeing your name in print within a book which was released by a “publishing company” but I must point out that what most of these small presses are doing is profiting on your work while you get the short end of the stick. What the small genre presses do, between performing a half-assed editing job, hiring their buddy to do the cover art, printing copies and posting it to Amazon is the same thing you can do, only you can do a better job and guess what? You profit from the book sales, not them. By the way, just placing a book on Amazon and having it “listed” on B&N doesn’t count as full book distribution. Many small presses seem to think that’s the case but trust me, it’s not. Again, that’s something you can do yourself. Also, be cautious of publishers of anthologies. Or more to the point anthology mills. These are publishers who have very little credibility but they are seeking credibility by bulking up their publishing credits by churning out crappy collections one after another. They accept short stories from unsuspecting authors and give them very little in return, if anything at all. I’ve seen them all before, the editing is poor, the selection process is questionable, there is hardly any kind of distribution efforts and almost all the time, the publisher of that said anthology conveniently has their story included within the collection. Of course not all anthology publishers are sinister. But it’s like anything in life, for every pile of coal you stumble upon, you have to search hard for the diamonds.

If I can pull the curtain away from the wizard for just one moment, I’d like to point out that 99 out of 100 authors have the dreaded day job to contend with (even ones that you think have it made.) None of us by any means are rich and famous due simply to our writing craft (I can’t stand it when writers act as if they make their living off their books.) But even if we don’t find immediate fame and success with our writing, we shouldn’t be taken advantage of along the way from point A to point B. Having your work published under the imprint of anyone (other than the last of the big six publishing companies) is only costing you money in the long run. Unless of course you don’t mind only being paid in the form of one author/contributor copy and maybe if you’re lucky, a few pennies for every copy sold. As I mentioned above, you put the time into it and agonized over your story. Isn’t it worth a little more time to learn the new-school methods of independent publishing? Even though there are some reputable and highly regarded small presses out there, unfortunately for every one of those there are a thousand hucksters who will rip you off, devalue your work and never lose an ounce of sleep while doing it.

As I write this, there is an unsettling amount of bad word-of-mouth over an unfortunate non-fictional character named Anthony Giangregorio. He is the owner of Open Casket Press and Undead Press and has allegedly taken advantage of newcomers to the publishing world by way of mistreatment, misrepresentation, broken promises, less-than-crafty editing tactics and poor royalty delivery. I won’t dwell on that but it does illustrate my point immensely that you have to be careful and protect yourself from these sort of people.

Which brings me to my original point. Take a bigger chance on yourself and give your work the attention it deserves. It’s not that hard to create your own imprint to publish under. I’ve been doing it for years and quite frankly, I’m not interested in turning my work over to anyone for peanuts just to pad my bibliography resume’. My work is too valuable to me and every word I write means something. That’s not egotistical, it’s simply how I feel about something that I spend my free time doing. It should be just as important to you to not throw your work on just anyone’s lap. I had the misfortune of working with a couple of small traditional publishers in the 90s who in all seriousness left me with nothing but my underwear. I was intent on avoiding that experience again and decided to cut out the middleman by creating my own company to publish under. Self-publishing (or independent publishing) is no longer a dirty word. Just ask a very talented Canadian author named Cheryl Kaye-Tardif who recently self-published Children of the Fog last fall and has thus far made $47,000 in book sales from Kindle alone. Her print edition sales have been rather spectacular as well. Independent authors, with a little research and patience, can achieve greater heights more than ever in today’s consumer age. Without giving a seminar on the subject, I’ll just share with you a handful of things to keep in mind when setting out to go it alone. They seem like no-brainers but believe me, I’ve seen people crash and burn because they were lazy about self-publishing.

1- A catchy company name. Not one that screams self publisher. If your name is Joe Schmoe, don’t call your company Joe Schmoe Publishing. Perhaps come up with a name that revolves around your subject matter or genre. Be sure to register a dot-com site (avoid dot net if possible) for the company as well. Don’t rely on the freebie sites. look professional. be professional. Make sure that your website looks occupied. Keep it updated so a visitor doesn’t think you’ve abandoned ship. Especially if you are selling books from your site. Make it inviting looking so a potential customer isn’t afraid to click that Pay Now button. One more thing, don’t clutter your pages up with unnecessary nonsense. Keep it clean and simple. Less is more. More is a bore.

2- Kindle and Nook are great supplements, but you’ll want print copies of your work if you are releasing a full-length novel, etc. After all, no one ever said “when I grow up, I want to be a writer and see my name in print on a digital e-reader.” Research a quality printer. Find one that will print small runs of 50 to 100 copies per order. Yes, it’s a little costly to pay upfront for your books, but if you truly believe in your work, you will invest the time and energy it takes to sell books and recoup your initial investment. When you need reprints, they will be far less expensive because the layout, design and initial process has been done already. Usually you can find a printer who will print your books anywhere between 3.20-4.75 per unit. If you price your book (depending on size) between $10.00-$20.00, well you’ve made a nice profit for yourself. That’s much better than getting .73 cents per copy from a blood sucking publisher.

3- How much of a profit you make on the sale of each book depends on where you are selling it. There are several avenues one can take. Amazon, of course, is the first logical choice, especially with the advent of CreateSpace. I know I listed a success story above regarding Amazon and Kindle but I must point out that you simply cannot rely on the click and publish websites as your only source of bookselling. The chances of someone buying Stephen King’s new book and then seeing Joe Schmoe in the “People Who Bought Stephen King also bought Joe Schmoe” section are slim to none (and slim just left town.) Amazon and Barnes & Noble take a hefty cut from the sale of your (print) book so it’s worth it to get creative on how and where you sell your books. How well you promote yourself and your work is a large factor too. Ask yourself, has your publisher promoted you or your work to the best of their ability or to your liking? Probably not. Can you do a much better job? Probably yes. By the way, if you’re fortunate enough to have someone land on YOUR website, why would you want them to click a link that directs them to another site (such as Amazon?) You’ve got them so keep them. let them buy directly from you and while they are there, perhaps they will sign up for your newsletters, follow you on your social networking sites, etc. Don’t turn your book buying audience over to the corporate monsters if you don’t have to.

4- If you are going to maintain and control your inventory of books, as I do (I buy my inventory up front and control where, when and how it’s sold) then right off the bat you’ll want to make sure your website is e-commerce ready. If not, set up a PayPal account. It’s a simple process and you can cut and paste your checkout buttons right onto your site. Everyone uses PayPal today so when they see their logo in the Buy Now section, they will feel a level of confidence in purchasing your book(s). The only caveat to this is that you can’t afford to be lazy when it comes to being your own distributor online. If someone spends money on your book, you had better package that book up nicely and get it to the post office in a timely fashion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought directly from someones website and got ripped off. As I mentioned above, keep your site updated so your customer feels confident in their purchase.

5- Get creative with how you publish your work. Make it stand out from all the assembly line products that are on the market today. I’m not just just talking about great cover art (although that is important … hire a good designer) I’m talking about standing out and creating a buzz around your work by offering your audience something they haven’t seen or read before. For instance, my last book Huldufolk was limited to only 250 print copies signed and numbered. It included a music soundtrack to the book which was performed by me. It has sold 212 copies since November at $15.99 a copy ($10.00 at events) so I’ve made my initial investment back and am able to put the profits made into the production of the next book. The New York Times Bestseller list isn’t going to be knocking at my door over this, but as an independent seller it’s significant. Whether or not it’s the greatest story ever told is not for me to judge or assume. This is by no means an advertisement for my work. It’s to illustrate the appeal that my book had to a certain book buying audience. I’ll give you another example unrelated to my work. A few years back, a friend of mine sold their book inside of a “writers survival basket” which included the book (on self-publishing), a coffee mug w/gourmet coffee packs, candy, note pads, etc, etc. It sold like hotcakes. So the point is, do something unique with your work. Come up with something special that says “I’m serious about what I do.” These little rinky dink publishers will never put that much thought into promoting your work. You can and you’ll be all the better for it.

I could rattle on-and-on about the various things I’ve picked up on over the years but honestly I’m not writing this to give a lecture on the do’s and don’ts on self-publishing. I’m merely suggesting that anyone who’s been left with a bad taste in their mouth from working with a less-than-reputable publisher should seriously consider doing it on their own. You will be in control of your work, you will become more business savvy as time goes on, you will discipline yourself as a writer because you’ll be aware of what it will take to generate book sales and most of all you will profit more from it in the end. I hate to hear horror stories (no pun intended) about writers being taken advantage of. Hopefully someday these stories will lessen over time, but I’m not prepared to hold my breath that long.

Watts wrote this article for the NEHW and also published it on his LiveJournal site.

Jan 5 2012

The Pros of Publishing Short Stories on Amazon

This entry originally appeared on NEHW member Mark Edward Hall’s website.

The Pros of Publishing Short Stories on Amazon

by Mark Edward Hall

I get asked a lot, mostly by newbies, how I can make money by publishing .99 cent Ebooks on Amazon. First, my .99 cent books are all short stories. I make .35 on a short story that would otherwise be lost in my computer forever. I have twelve of my shorts out there now with more to come and it actually amounts to a tidy bit of extra income each quarter. Most all of my shorts have been previously published, so anything I make on them now is a bonus and welcome extra income. By the way, I also publish these same stories on Smashwords and Barnes & Noble.

All my novel-length works are 2.99 or above. On Amazon you receive 70% of anything priced above 2.99. On a 2.99 Ebook I receive 2.05. Not too bad when you consider that the stuff I have with a publisher (three books to be exact) only nets me 17.5% of list. The publisher likes to word it as 40% of net, which doesn’t sound too bad when you sign the contract, but in reality it figures to just about 17.5% of the purchase price.

I’m not here to trumpet the virtues of independent publishing over legacy publishing, although I might do that in a future post. Writers have to make up their own minds about what’s best for them. I only know what works best for me. I have two new novels coming early next year and I can tell you this, they will both be independent books. I hire my own editor, commission the cover art from some very good artists, and I’m pretty good at doing the formatting. (Better than my publisher actually) So when you take into consideration the profit difference between doing it yourself and putting it in the hands of a publisher it seems like a no-brainer to me. I wish I’d thought that way years ago.

By the way, I also offer some of those same .99 cent short stories as a collection entitled, Servants of Darkness, for $2.99. Readers who want to sample my work can buy a .99 cent short and if they like what they read they can buy an entire collection for 2.99. In this digital age I think writers are nuts if they don’t use every opportunity available to them.

Also, I am in the process of offering all of those same short stories on my website for free. Yes, you heard me right, FREE! If someone wants to save the .99 cent kindle fee and doesn’t mind reading on the computer, they can read my short stories without paying anything. Maybe I’m nuts but I believe it’s the right thing to do.

But to answer the original question: How can you make money by publishing .99 cent Ebooks on Amazon? Just ask John Locke. If you’re a writer and you haven’t yet heard of John Locke, then you’ve been living under a rock. John Locke writes the Donovan Creed book series and he prices all his novel-length books at .99 cents. He sold a million of them in five months and they’re selling at the rate of one every seventeen seconds.

In summary I think the future is very bright for those writers who have the courage to be creative.

———

Mark Edward Hall has worked at a variety of professions including hunting and fishing guide, owner of a recording studio, singer/songwriter in a multitude of rock n’ roll bands. He has also worked in the aerospace industry on a variety of projects including the space shuttle and the Viking Project, the first Mars lander, of which the project manager was one of his idols: Carl Sagan. He went to grammar school in Durham, Maine with Stephen King, and in the 1990s decided to get serious with his own desire to write fiction. His first short story, Bug Shot was published in 1995. His critically acclaimed supernatural thriller, The Lost Village was published in 2003. Since then he has published five books and more than fifty short stories. His new novel, a thriller entitled Apocalypse Island is due out in early 2012.

Nov 12 2011

Top 10 Reasons …To Self-Publish

This blog entry was found on Nathan Wrann’s website by David Price.

Top 10 Reasons …To Self-Publish

by Nathan Wrann

Nathan Wrann at Rock & Shock 2011 (photo by Kristi Petersen Schoonover)

First some housekeeping before I get into the meat of this blog:
**I recently started a tumblog for those times that I want to put a quick link, pic or vid out there. So make sure to follow me there. This wordpress blog will still be for my long-winded diatribes.
**There’s a Dark Matter Heart Facebook page now too.
**Dark Matter Heart is now available at iTunes for iPad etc: http://bit.ly/DMHitunes

Now, about that title up there. I had to shorten it. The full title of this blog is:

“Top 10 Reasons That I Decided To Self-Publish.”

Almost immediately after announcing Dalton Gang Press and DARK MATTER HEART the same question kept being asked of me: “Why did you decide to self-publish?” So I’ll use this forum to answer that question. Here are my top reasons why:

10) I’m lazy. I didn’t want to spend the amount of time and effort it would take to try to get an agent or publisher to like my work enough to work for me. The thought of formatting an e-book, designing a print book, designing a cover, and spending countless hours getting the word out to potential readers that the book actually exists is more appealing to me than writing a single query letter.

09) I’m impatient. I wrote my book. It’s done. There’s no way in hell I want to wait 2 or 3 years for a publisher to put it out. I’d rather take 2 to 3 years to build up sales for Dark Matter Heart.

08) I’m not good at asking permission. I’m not all that into asking (begging/pleading) someone (an agent/publisher) to read my work and publish it for me.
To lift a phrase from Jason Brubaker’s Filmmaking Stuff website, the old way of book publishing is “asking permission” for someone to put your book out for you. I don’t need to ask, I can just do. Why ask a half-dozen people (agents/publishers) to read your work when you can ask millions of people (customers/readers), simply by making it available and enticing them to read it.

07) I’m ‘hands on‘. I’d have trouble letting someone else design my covers, and do all that other stuff that publishers are supposed to do. That’s not to say that they would make a bad cover or that my covers are the best for my books, but that is to say, that I like to do that stuff. Like making promotional pins.

06) I’m greedy, possessive and I don’t like to share. It’s tough seeing my movie “Hunting Season” out there handled by someone else and only getting a cut of the proceeds. Do I appreciate Gravitas and Bosko Group’s efforts in getting the movie out there and available? Sure. Do they get it to an audience that I probably wouldn’t be able to reach? Sure. Does it suck that I can’t do whatever I want, whenever I want with my own movie? Hell yes. I want to be able to do whatever I want with my books. Like release a special edition of Dark Matter Heart that includes the original screenplay that it’s based on.

05) I don’t want to be pigeonholed. If you’ve seen my movies you know that I don’t do the same thing over and over. Yes, I will be putting out a second Cor Griffin Novel, but I’ve also got some hardcore horror stuff to put out, and some sci-fi to put out, and some dramatic stuff. I have a lot of different stories in a lot of different genres and styles. Signing with a publishing house would probably mean that I would have to stick with YA Paranormal. Without diversion. For at least a little time. Maybe that’s not true, but I believe it to be.

04) Here’s a quote from my pal Joshua Jabcuga: “You did it on your own terms. That’s art in its purest form, in my opinion. Fuck compromise.” I agree. Getting published means getting edited. Which means compromised for the purpose of marketability. Maybe that’s good for the book. Maybe that’s good for the story. I don’t know. All I know is that the book and story that is out there is exactly the one that I wanted to put out. Writing isn’t collaborative like filmmaking is (unless something is co-written). It doesn’t necessarily improve with more cooks in the kitchen.

03) Have you read J.A.Konrath’s blog? It’s a very convincing fantasy site about the gazillions of dollars a self-published author can make.

02) Have you read Dean Wesley Smith’s blog? It’s a realistic approach to the hard work and time that goes into building a self-publishing business.

01) To quote my pal Josh Jabcuga again: “Cor Griffin is proof-positive that the best investment you can make is an investment in yourself.” or as I’ve said in the past: “If I’m going to bet, I’m going to bet on myself.”

So that’s it. I’m sure these are the same reasons J.K. Rowling is self-publishing the Potter e-books. Let’s discuss.