Thursday, June 9, 2011

Five Reasons why self-pubbing ROCKS!

Having published five books under another pen-name through a publisher, I thought I'd share my reasons for believing self-pubbing through Kindle/Nook/Smashwords really does ROCK.

1. IF YOUR BOOK SUCKS, IT'S NOBODY'S FAULT BUT YOUR OWN.
One of my most frustrating experiences as a writer was when my editor made me change the ending of one of my novels, making my heroine choose a path that I didn't believe was right for her. I felt the ending sucked, but what was I to do? Pull my book and not finish out the series? Yes, I do have crit partners that give me their input on the direction of my novel, but as a self-pubbed author, all final decisions are mine!

2. KNOW HOW YOUR BOOK IS SELLING FROM DAY TO DAY, SO YOU CAN ADJUST YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY. If you only get royalty reports every month, quarter or (gasp) year, you won't know if your marketing has paid off and you may miss a lot of potential sales. On the downside, we Kindlers can get a little obsessive with checking our earnings. Guilty as charged!

3. IF YOUR COVER SUCKS, IT'S YOUR FAULT, TOO. That's right. You have to power to shop for artists. Though artwork may be costly, that's one of the downsides of self-pubbing, but, IMHO, it beats having a publisher tell me 'too bad, so sad' if I don't like my cover.

4. YOU DECIDE WHEN THE BOOK IS RELEASED. And you don't need to wait a year after you've finished the book for it to come out. I've had readers email me after a book was released asking me questions about my heroine's motivation, etc... I honestly forgot what happened in the novel. I was too wrapped up in my upcoming release.

5. BACK TO NUMBER ONE - IF YOUR BOOK SUCKS....YOU CAN FIX IT!!! That's right. You've learned a little bit more about the craft of writing since pubbing that bomb a few months ago. Your plot had more holes than FLABIO'S underwear after a spicy chili eating contest. So go pull the darned thing, fill in those holes and upload it again. That's the magic of self-pubbing through Kindle! PJ

16 comments:

  1. How about you get paid in a timely manner? That's my favorite part! And no deadlines...apart from the ones you give yourself

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  2. Agree, Erin. Although having deadlines can definitely motivate me to write. I've had to give myself my own deadlines and now I've got an online crit partner who cracks the whip! PJ

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  3. Loved this! You couldn't have said it better!

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  4. Visibility into what's happening with the property sales wise is one of the biggest benefits to going indie.

    Well...and not having to pay everyone who's mooching off the gravy train, too.

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  5. Ditto on the 'mooching' part, Stephen. BTW - I hopped over to your blog and really like your stand-out covers. I also appreciate the advice about not writing shit. Sometimes I'm so compelled to write shit. I just can't help it. Call it diarrhea of the pen. PJ

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  6. Blogger was acting WEIRD this morning and I couldn't post a darn thing. Maybe my shit detector was turned on.

    Alan, I've read your latest novel, and believe me, it's NOT shit! But why the dog, Alan? Why???

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  7. LOL! Just teasing. It had to be done. PJ

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  8. Yeah... on point #2, guilty of compulsive-stat-checking throughout the day haha

    Great post!

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  9. Someone stop me, please! Checking my sales is as compulsive as breathing. Sheesh!

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  10. What about free cake and pie? Wait... did you guys not get free cake and pie? *shoves slice of pie in face and runs away giggling madly*

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  11. James? Are you hogging all the pie? What's up with that? And what's IN that slice of pie to cause you to giggle madly? Hmmmmm?

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