Self-Publishing, Indie Publishing

Journey to Self-Publishing 01

So here we are, back at the beginning. 10 years ago I started writing fiction again after a 20 year hiatus. I write Sc-fi-fantasy adventures, in a specific universe with quantum concepts, ancient creatures and humankind spread across time and space. After writing 7 books (yes!), 15 short stories, 30 flash fiction tales, 30 podcasts, 30 sci-fi Platonic-style dialogues and an active blog on all things fantastic (this one!), I recently decided to concentrate on self-publishing.

During the last decade my day-job has been all-consuming and the familiar pressures/joys of family conspired against anything other than a tiny crevice of personal creativity. During that time I was lucky enough to receive an offer by a new traditional publisher for a trilogy of books, and I was tempted, but the balance of opportunity vs limitation in my time-poor life weighed heavily against it, so I turned it down. Yep, it still eats away at me in the middle of the night. 

But there’s no time for self-pity in this life, especially when we’re lucky enough to benefit from the brilliant support for writers on line, so I’m taking self-publication seriously. The intention is to keep occupied with productive writing for many years to come.

Considerations

I’ll be revisiting all the basics for being a good indie publisher, with one over-riding theme: quality. The cover, the editing/proof-reading, marketing, sales channels and the overall the reader experience, doing these well is essential to giving the writing its best chance, in the face of vast competition both from traditional and indie publishers.

Actions

  1. Reading. I’ve re-structured my reading online, and regularly check up on the latest advice from the likes of Mark Dawson, Nick Stephenson, the Independent Alliance, Jo Penn and Bookbaby (see links below). There are many other articles out there, so I use Pocket to bookmark and organise these for me. When I bump into something online at work, on my computer, I save it to Pocket, then read it on my phone when I travel somewhere, later.
  2. Editing. Two of my books (Graveyard Planet, and Fibonacci Rising) have been copy-edited, but I think I need to widen my pool of editors, and be realistic how much I really want to spend on editing and proof-reading. I also need more beta-readers, other than my carefully-critical-but-loving partner Frances.
  3. Covers. I’ve explored several different manifestations over the last few years, and recently spent a couple of hours reorganising files and revisiting concepts. The latest versions of Graveyard Planet will appear on a future blogpost.
  4. Marketing. I’ve been through a digital detox over the last few weeks, so neglected my 25K Twitter followers. Time to reactivate that, and Goodreads. Also need to think about Facebook where advertising is the only way of making an impact now. I have an Amazon author account for my Flame Tree music, and myths, books, but need to disentangle it from the fiction, so I’ve started reorganising the information there. 
  5. Sales channels. There’s still an argument for staying exclusive with Amazon because the short term benefits are significant, but I think a combination of Amazon and Smashwords is probably the way to go for the long term. Needs more thought.
  6. Writing, drafting. Really, I need to write more, and find a better balance between that and the mechanics of being a writer. It’s all too easy to spend too much time on updating the website, for instance, especially if a security update on WordPress throws out some key plug-ins.

The Wrap

This is the first of a series of updates. It helps motivate me, but I hope it gives some encouragement to you too. Let me know if you have any comments, or email me on jake@thesefantasticworlds.

This week’s Links for Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing Standard Links