My Experience of Publishing (or what NOT to do)

So I was asked recently if I had any general publishing tips/thoughts. I have a few, here goes.

I'm not traditionally published, I'm self-published (with a small stint with a small press that didn't work out). I'm also not Michael J Sullivan or Hugh Howey. I'm not a massive success. That said, I am doing pretty well right now which, I think, qualifies me to advise on what NOT to do (and, trust me, I've done most of these things).

As a writer (and we'll assume a complete manuscript to keep life simple) then your first choice is whether to go the traditional or self-pub route. This, largely, is a question of how much patience you have. Traditional publishing is a long, long, slow game (add in a few more long and slows if you like.) IF you can find an agent willing to take you on, and this alone can take a long time, and IF they can find a publisher interested in your work, then the road from submission to bookshop can easily be more than a year. Self-publishing can have you out there in much less time but the road out of obscurity can take longer than traditional publishing.

I self-published. I'll hold my hands up and say I screwed up. Had I more patience then I would have reworked my book another five or six times before I sent it out to the agents that rejected it. By the time it was of a standard at which they might have accepted it, I had already self-published. So lesson one, be more patient than I was.

So, before we go on, a caveat: This is not a post about writing. This is not a post about world-building, or how to create a great character. This is a post about publishing and the first thing to bear in mind is that publishing is a business.

Any Idiot can Publish a Book

Kindle Direct Publishing, B&N's Nook, Kobo and the like have made it so that anyone can publish anything, whether it's good or not. This is often confused with vanity publishing but I think you can argue a difference. Vanity press was about paying to have your own books produced in print. The days of vanity press are more or less past us and, if the Hugh Howey's of the publishing world teach us anything, it's that self-published authors can be, and in many cases are, a success.

It's Going to Cost You

One of the biggest lies out there is that you can self-publish for free. Perhaps “lie” is too strong a word. You can publish on KDP or Smashwords (which then distributes to Kobo, iTunes, Barnes and Noble before the demise of Nook, and a host of other e-platforms) for free. They won't charge you a fee and you'll get a generous royalty cut.

99.9% of us however, do not have the skills to do this. Self publishing isn't free for most of us. The costs include cover artists, formatters, editors and that's before you even get into the marketing side of things. So to reiterate my earlier point, publishing is a business. It has up-front costs and, if you choose to self-publish, it is a gamble.

Amazon has over four and a half million eBooks on sale. That doesn't include those books which are paperback only. No matter how good your book is, there is a reasonable chance it will never be discovered by the majority of your target audience.

Covers... Get One.

Obviously there are things you can do to improve your chances. For me, this started with a good cover. I'm very pleased with the way my covers turned out. I'm NOT an artist. I'd struggle to draw a decent circle. A good cover makes a HUGE difference. People might not judge a book by its cover (Who are we kidding? They will.) but unless they pick it up, they're not going to be judging it at all. This is where your cover artist comes in. I've heard stories about people paying over $1000 for cover art. Personally, I think that's insane. I'm not saying that art can't be worth that figure, or that the level of skill and work involved doesn't have a value, but as a s/p author I'm a consumer. The cover art is there to help me sell books. If it's going to take me a year to recoup the costs of the cover, then there's a problem. I have never paid more than $300 for a cover, actually the figure is lower than that but I'm not going to get that specific.

Get an Editor!

Once someone has picked up your book then the editing comes into play. For the sake of argument let's just take is as read that you're a decent writer. Your editing will make or break your book. Unfortunately this is where things get pretty damn hard. I believe it's pretty much impossible to self-edit, it just is. There are books out there professing to teach you how to do this but, in my opinion, they may as well be teaching you how to fly. It just isn't possible.

You wrote the book, you're invested in it, you're just too close to it to edit properly. Now, you might be able to do a reasonable job. You might have a great eye for typos (I don't) and a knack for great prose, but your book will never have been as good as it could have been with the right editor. The trouble there, of course, is finding a good one. The best editors are already working in publishing. Either that or they are extremely expensive. The Internet is chock-full of people touting their editing skills, yours for a reasonable price. All I can say here is to do your research and keep your fingers crossed. I've written three novels and I've had seven editors. Only two or three of those have been worth what I paid them and one or two did more harm than good. Even then things get missed. I hate it when a typo gets found. Most people are pretty good about it and let you know so you can make the changes.

Erm, Anyone Want to Buy a Book?

Finally it's down to release day and marketing and this is where the real challenge lies. No matter how good your book is, it's just another self-published book. AND it's your first book. The internet is actually dripping with newly self-published authors and all of them are struggling against the stigma that goes along with that label. Even traditionally published books can find it hard to find traction and they have a publishing house behind them.

Your challenge here is to find a way to make yourself stand out. I've tried a number of things. I've done blog tours, advertising on Facebook, Goodreads and Amazon, blog reviews, interviews, podcasts and subscription email-list advertising. Of the lot, the latter is the one I've found most effective. Unfortunately the king of that particular realm is Bookbub. Bookbub is basically a subscription mail-out service. Sign up for free and they will email you whenever they have a book in your chosen genre on sale at a discount, or even as a free download.

For the consumer Bookbub is brilliant. You get well-vetted books at a massive discount that you can be reasonably sure aren't awful. For the author/publisher they are even better. A Bookbub promotion is pretty well guaranteed to catapult you into the bestseller lists on Amazon and any other e-platform you advertise through them. The catch? It is nigh on impossible to get listed with them. I've managed it twice, which I consider a minor miracle. In addition they have no real competitors, so if Bookbub turn you down then your next best option isn't really going to compare.

I also think I've gained some traction by virtue of r/fantasy, Fantasy Faction and Grimdark Readers and Writers on Facebook. In those cases it's been about not being THAT guy. Not standing on the internet street corner screaming “buy my book!” I've been guilty of it in the past and I've witnessed others doing it. I think it's safe to say we're all sick of it and it doesn't work.

I'd like to be able to say I've worked out a sound marketing strategy, that I know what I'm doing. The truth is I'm blundering along and somehow, my frantic flounderings are allowing me to make some head-way. The bookshop stocking my books came as a result of the right person reading my book. I suppose, if you think about it, most publishing success comes down to that.

The only concrete advise I can offer anyone is to slow down. Your book will always be better for taking a bit of extra time on it. As for traditional vs. self-pub? IF you can get enough traction you can probably make more money in self-pub. That said, I'd take an agent and a deal tomorrow. Any author needs to put in the work with marketing but at least with a good publishing deal you get some level of help (I hope.)

a paperback edition and the coolest book launch ever!

So when "Fae - The Wild Hunt" came out back in March, I knew I wanted it to be out in paperback. I wanted it in bookshops, and I wanted to be signing it and generally getting out there and meeting people who'd read it and enjoyed it.

I'll be honest, and say I also wanted to hold it myself. It's a bit childish, but I need to feel it in my hands, smell it... maybe hug it a little. Is that so wrong? Judge all you want, I don't care...

Anyway, the slight snag was in finding a publisher who was insane enough to take me on and get this thing out there. As I might have mentioned once or twice, there is an insane amount of competition in this game and even getting your book considered is a feat in itself.

If I'm really really honest, then it also has a large amount to do with my own impatience. I could have sat home, editing and polishing the book and sending it off to agent after agent,  publisher after... Well you get the idea. I wasn't prepared to do that forever, and so I decided to self-publish it on kindle and the other eBook platforms.

Since day one people have been asking for a paperback edition, and I have looked long and hard to find a way to do this. There are a quite a few self-publishing options out there, but using most of them would result in the price of the book being much higher than I think is reasonable. If I wouldn't pay that amount myself, then I definitely can't expect other people to.

And so there it sat... I was doing okay on eBook sales and it was all ticking along nicely, but the lack of paperback edition nagged at me. Like an itch you just can't quite reach. The funny thing is that paperback sales, unless you are selling  absolutely shed-loads of books, really don't make a writer much. The real money is in eBooks but it's really kind of hard to sign an eBook and tends to mess up the screen. Even the various e-signing apps out there don't really give the same impact.

BUT.... (and you can gasp in anticipation here if you like...)

I have managed to find a way! That's right folks, I am releasing a paperback edition which should (we hope) be available from August 14th!

But hold on... that's not the cool part. (Again, a gasp isn't going to be out of place here... give something back you know?) No the cool part is just how, and where, I'm going to launch this puppy. There is a little gathering happening in London on this weekend in August. An intimate gathering of say... SEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE who are all going to LonCon, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention!

I will be there! Not camped out on the pavement outside but actually in the dealer zone! I'll have my own table and paperbacks for sale. I will be signing, hanging out, and probably giving away some cool things too.

For those that don't know, this thing is truly huge. Patrick Rothfuss, Robin Hobb, Peter V Brett, and Joe Abercrombie will all be there, to name but a few. And there, in the midst of literary greatness, will be me... (*gulp*)

So there you have it... cat out of the bag and all that. If you are going to LonCon then be sure to scout out the dealer zone and see if you can find me. I'd love to meet anyone who has read and enjoyed the book. I'd love to meet anyone who hasn't read the book but quite fancies a copy. Hell I'd love to meet all of you... Come on over.

For those that can't get there but who still want a copy, it will be on sale via amazon and the usual sites. I'll have to think up something fun to celebrate the launch.

Now, all those people that are on my mailing list knew all of this days ago. They've also been able to read some of the next book. I've put a form just below where you can sign up to get cool news like this, and also to receive raw snippets from the sequel. These are as fresh as it gets, sometimes not even proofed. It's as close as you can get to reading over my shoulder as I type!

That's it for now. I have a new editor cracking her whip and revisions to make. See you in London!

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I might just be crazy but... why not?

I'm probably crazy for thinking this one up but here goes. Reviews are all well and good but it's rare that I get any real feedback on my book. It's written now and although there is some editing going on with it, it's unlikely anything major is going to change between now and when the paperback comes out (yes I did just let that slip didn't I?).

So this brings me on to the sequel. It would be great to have some real feedback, what works and what doesn't and why... This is usually done with a handful of beta-readers who go through the book in secret, but does it have to be? This got me thinking. What if there was a way you could read the book as it was being written? What if you were emailed a few pages every couple of weeks? It wouldn't totally spoil the finished product for you as it would naturally change as we progressed due to your feedback and my own edits. Plus I wouldn't send entire chapters, just snippets. It would be a totally organic way of writing, the book would evolve as it was written.

You'd have to have read the first book to really understand the second but it's only a few dollars/pounds/yen and actually only 99c at the moment (well until Thursday). It's a bit of a crazy idea but hey... why the heck not. You provide the eyes and some feedback... I'll do the rest.

I'm posting the form here... let's see who signs up.

Subscribe to my mailing list for excerpts of Fae 2 (in production)

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And We're Off!

And We're Off...


So here we go... everybody ready? Got your coffee? Snacks? No bathroom breaks after this... We're off!

Okay so I've written a book, you may or may not have heard of it, "Fae - The Wild Hunt"? I didn't really set out to write a book, it wasn't something that I ever thought I would be able to do. The idea had always appealed to me  and in a fit of madness I thought I'd give it a go. In a weird way it's not that hard, in the same way that running a marathon isn't that hard. You start running, you don't stop... you run some more. Writing a novel was the same way for me. You start writing, you write some more.. and eventually it's finished. So I sat down one day and started typing...

Alright I know I am oversimplifying but before people start hurling abuse at me I have run two marathons and at it's most basic level it really is that simple. So where did this leave me? Well having finished the story I then had proof-reading (really dull), editing (even more dull), polishing (frustrating) and then sending it out for others to read. This, incidentally is the single most terrifying thing I have done in my life. Also the most irritating. I'm a man. I make no apology for this. Men are not by nature, patient creatures. At my core is a spoiled child trying to get out  (although I do let him out to play when nobody else is watching but shhh!) and I wanted instant results, instant gratification and of course, everyone in the world to love my book immediately.

After all these steps and some truly brilliant editing efforts  (thanks Clare, Dawnmarie and of course Gillian) it was time to start submitting. I sent it off to probably twenty varied agents and even a few publishers. Again the spoiled child got in the way. He ranted and sulked and jumped up and down a bit... Why weren't people beating a path to my door? Why didn't I have three agents and four publishers fighting over me already?

The answer to all these questions of course is that the market is competitive. Not just a little competitive either but hugely MASSIVELY competitive! Agents are drowning in submissions they have to sift through. Publishers are swamped in agents trying to sell them their client's work. It's just all a bit frantic and mad. So eventually I decided to self-publish. Not entirely though. I'd seen David Dalgish and Andy Weir publish their work as eBooks and achieve amazing results. Andy Weir actually had 30'000 downloads a month within three months and then was snapped up by a publisher.  Incidentally if you haven't read "The Martian" you really need to. It's amazing writing and this is why he was snapped up and my massive ego aside, this did at least show it was possible.

So I published as an eBook on Amazon exclusively to start with (though I'll be expanding out into Nook and Kobo and iTunes and all that good stuff on June 16th). The initial reaction was brilliant. I hit best seller lists as my friends and family and people who'd caught my facebook ramblings about the book rushed to grab a copy. Then came the slow decline... You see what people don't always realise is the sheer number of books and eBooks on Amazon. The numbers are so large they don't really mean anything anymore. You can picture ten or even a hundred books... a thousand in a stretch. Amazon has over 2,600,000 titles, and even then I am missing a few. You can't even imagine that amount of books. Like three or four HUGE libraries piled on top of each other. That's what we're talking about here. So how the heck was anyone going to find MY book??

And this is what brings us up to the present. THIS is the major difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing. The marketing. I'm a writing... I'm not a marketer. I don't want to do press releases. I don't want to be that guy standing on a virtual corner of the internet screaming "buy my book! Really it has fae in it and how cool are they? I mean really nasty ones too at times... it's far better than that other crap you were looking at. Hey no.. where are going?? No not that book! MY BOOK! MINE MINE MINE!!!" And really this is what a lot of internet marketing ends up being. I want to be doing readings and signings in bookshops...

So I decided I'd start this blog, talking about how we got to this point. About the next book (apparently I have not been deterred that easily) and the writing process. Also about the weird and wonderful world of print books and my quest for a publisher. At the moment I can't find a way to publish in print without gouging the customer. I like my book. I know I'm biased but it's good, really it is. It's not as good as Terry Pratchett though, that's something that would just be astounding to achieve and it won't happen on my first attempt. Because of this I refuse to print something that would have a higher price than his work. It's not reasonable and it's a bit arrogant. The problem is that the cost of producing a book with the companies I have looked at (and who will give me a hope of getting it into bricks and mortar shops) drives the price up beyond that.

So for now we will stick with the eBook and keep searching for a publisher/agent. I'll work on the sequel to my novel and try hard....really hard to ignore the child screaming inside my head "PUBLISH MY BOOK! BUY IT BUY IT.. MINE MINE MINE!!"