Self-published authors have many reasons to self-publish, starting with the inability to interest an agent or a publisher in their work. Agents and publishers, of course, look at a manuscript as a product; it's something to sell. If they don't believe the product will sell, they won't represent it or publish it. The usual reasons they don't believe it will sell include: It's too much like something else on the market (or that we're about to publish). It's not like anything else on the market (so there's no market for it). It needs so much editing, it's not worth our investment to make it publishable (r.i.p. Maxwell Perkins). It doesn't appeal to me. There are a million reasons not to publish a book by an unknown author, very few reasons to publish.
Thanks to technological change, however, authors who could not find an agent or a publisher in the past and who had to lay out several thousand dollars and end up with a garage full of unsalable books—i.e., they went to a vanity publisher—can now publish their books for very little money, keep the books in print forever, and print one only when a reader orders it. Or, with an e-book, not print at all.
Self-publishing also means that authors have to do all the marketing grunt work themselves—finding reviewers and getting the word out about themselves and their books. I have learned that many bloggers who review self-published books will, if their reading list is overwhelming, agree to an e-mail interview, and I have been taking advantage of every opportunity offered.
I have now been interviewed by HamletHub, A Writing Primate, and more that have not yet been posted, as well as been reviewed by reviewers who have put them on the Amazon site. I am grateful for these opportunities to let the world know more about me and my books.
Facebook can also be a potent advertising tool. Baye McNeil has used it to great advantage to promote his books. I think that this has to do with the culture of "branding" and people who make themselves the focus in order to create more interest in their books. It does work, but you have to be a certain personality type to do it. It also takes a lot of effort, but, with digital distribution and the ability to get content without paying for it, people are more likely to pay you for your work if they feel they know you and want to give you something for your efforts.
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by. I am on Facebook, but barely. It does take a lot of work—read: time—and I am not willing to take writing time to regularly post on Facebook, or on Twitter where I also have an account, but it is mostly moribund. I am doing more book reviewing and self-interviewing, however. For no good reason, that feels more natural to me.
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