Anne Janzer

Author

publishing

I’m an Indie Author

one wayWhat’s the right way to get your work published?

“From this day forward, all authors are indie authors.” Mark Coker, president of Smashwords,  made that statement at the San Francisco Author’s Conference. It clearly resonated with writers in the room.

Authors today have many options; our paths are no longer dictated entirely by a small number of publishing houses, editors, and agents.

  • We can pursue traditional publishing deals, engaging with a major publisher or one of many smaller presses, through agents or on our own.
  • We can work with “hybrid” publishers that combine attributes of traditional and self publishing.
  • We can publish under our own imprints or those of self-publishing platforms.
  • We can hire professional help ourselves or partner with services like Smashwords, BookBaby, Ingram Spark, or Pronoun to get our work out in the world.

As independent authors, we decide how much time, effort, and money to invest in our work. With those choices come duties. We alone are responsible for the quality of the work we produce.

The Responsibilities of Publishing

You have an obligation to your reader to produce something well-written, legible, and effective for their purposes – whether that means meeting the expectations of the genre or fulfilling the promise of a nonfiction book.

If you choose to forge your own path, take those duties seriously.

  • Hire professional editors – the single most important thing you can do.
  • Invest in professional cover design, or find someone who understands book covers.
  • Own your ISBNs and retain control of your rights.
  • Keep learning and adapting as the market changes.

Why Publish Independently?

Speed is the indie author’s greatest advantage. Even allowing for professional copy editing, cover design, layout, and proofing, authors publishing independently can get their works into the market much faster than the average publishing house.

Indie authors also retain control over all aspects of the book’s production and distribution.

For nonfiction authors who want to use a book as part of a broader platform for speaking, teaching, training, or other projects, the independent publishing route makes a lot of sense. When you publish independently, you have complete control over decisions including:

  • Pricing
  • Format
  • Follow-on editions
  • Whether to do an audio book
  • How much you can excerpt, when and where, for other purposes
  • Bulk book discounting
  • Bundling the book with other services

Publishers naturally have their own objectives for the book, which include recouping the costs they have invested getting it out into the world and helping bookstores sell the book. Their objectives may not always align with yours.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Apologize

The self-publishing stigma is gradually disappearing, weakening with each bestselling author breaking into the ranks.

However, that new reality is arriving unevenly. Some people will always have a bias against self publishing as “vanity press.” Even among the attendees at the conference, some clearly felt embarrassed by the need to self publish.

One attendee asked about whether she should open her book launch party by telling everyone that she self-published, so they wouldn’t think she was trying to fool them. “It’s the elephant in the room,” she said, as if she had to apologize for being self-published.

I almost leapt out of my chair at that moment.

There are many things that you might need to apologize for, including:

  • Text riddled with grammatical or typographical errors that editors and proofreaders would have caught
  • Difficult-to-read or confusing interior design
  • Unattractive cover
  • Miscategorized book

Take responsibility for the book’s quality, but don’t apologize for your business model.

If the book serves the reader’s needs, it doesn’t matter how it got into the world.

Focus on the Book, Not the Publisher

The word self-publishing has that problematic word: self. It makes us focus on ourselves as authors, rather than the work, and we may feel insecure. (It’s that Imposter Syndrome at work again.)

What matters is the work, not the publisher.

The book Avid Reader, by legendary editor Robert Gottlieb, offers the inside story on famous books and authors. This man is responsible for editing many books that have graced my shelves and informed my hours. Early in the book (page 47), Gottlieb writes something that struck me:

“The act of publishing is essentially the act of making public one’s own enthusiasm.”

If it’s not sacrilegious to borrow words from one of the great editors of the publishing industry, I’d say this thought holds true for authors publishing their own works.

As both author and publisher, indie authors bear a double burden of responsibility for advocating for the book. Don’t shirk that responsibility or hide behind the label of how you published it.

Be enthusiastic about your work, not apologetic. Put it out into the world with pride.

Related posts:

Confessions of an Unlikely Control Freak

Does Loss Aversion Prevent You From Writing?

book gains“I want to write a book, but I’m worried about how long it will take to recoup the investment of time and money. And what if I never do?”

“I started on a book, but another interesting project popped up, so I’ve stuck it in a drawer for the future.”

Do either of these statements sound familiar?

Writing a book is a serious commitment. As with any major decision, loss aversion can color our thinking and inhibit action.

The term loss aversion, from the field of behavioral economics, refers to the fact that we feel losses more deeply than gains. Economists can even quantify the effect of loss aversion; generally, it takes a potential $2 gain to make us willing to risk a $1 loss. Losses are roughly twice as painful as gains are pleasurable.

Why does this discussion belong in a writing blog?

Loss aversion prevents many potential authors from investing the necessary time and effort in a book. It may inhibit you from even getting started or from staying the course during the long haul.

As with any cognitive bias or tendency, the best defense is to confront and acknowledge it. Awareness is half the battle. We can also create defenses to protect us from its influence over the course of the project.

Tallying Up the Potential Losses

When writing and publishing a book, you put three things at risk: time, money, and reputation.

Time

Writing a book absorbs a great deal of time and attention. Once it’s written and revised, you have publishing, launch, and ongoing promotion activities. Yep, it’s a time sink.

There’s an opportunity cost to that time: the value of things that you could otherwise be doing.

Consultants who defer projects or hourly work to write a book might be able to assign a dollar amount to the opportunity cost. If you bill out at $200 per hour and work on a book for 500 hours, then the opportunity cost is $100,000.

Be careful about this type of assessment, however. If you’re excited about the book, you may work longer hours on writing than you would on client work. Perhaps the writing replaces binge watching Netflix or gardening.  Ideally, you will often enjoy the writing process as well.

There’s another type of opportunity cost – the unknown opportunities that may appear during the course of the book. When you’re deeply involved in the book, you find yourself saying no to many possibilities, including new projects. I know several people who have  started books, only to be pulled off course by the fresh appeal of a different project.

Money

Depending on how you plan to publish the book, you may pay for some or all of the publishing costs out of your own pocket. Even if you work with an established publishing house that offers an advance, you’ll spend money publicizing and promoting the book.

Eventually, of course, the book will earn royalties that you hope that will offset the costs. Reaching this point can take some time.

Reputation

Writing a book can transform your career or life. But – will the book be good enough to take you where you want to go? A poorly-written or presented book might move you further from your objectives.

Then there’s the inevitable negative feedback. Whenever you put your thoughts out into the world for public comment and review, some people will won’t like it. They’ll leave negative reviews or write scathing comments. Negative feedback will happen – it always does.

Offsetting Loss Aversion Through Planning

You’ve faced up to the losses. If you’re going ahead, be aware: the screaming voice of loss aversion may plague you as you write. When you hit a rough patch, you’ll think “Why am I doing this when I could be [insert other activity]?”

Here are some strategies for quieting that voice.

Budget and “Spend” at the Start

Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, authors of the book Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending, suggest that we are happiest when we pay for things up front, then consume them over time. Compress the “mental pain” of deciding and paying all at once, so you do not face it again and again.

Put this advice to work for the expenses of writing a book.

Set a financial budget, including marketing and promotion costs. Consider putting the funds in a separate account dedicated to the book. As you face each small decision about spending money (should I buy one ISBN or ten?), you have allocated funds to work with.

Budget your time as well. Allocate a certain number of hours each week for the work. Schedule the time slots into your calendar, effectively “spending” it at the beginning. Having made these decisions at the beginning, you are more likely to stick with the project than if you must recommit time every week or agonize over every expense.

Create Deadlines and Goals

Deadlines can help you sustain energy during a prolonged project. Break the end-to-end work of the book down into smaller deadlines and milestones. Decide when you’ll have the proposal or outline, how many chapters you will finish each month, when the rough draft will be complete, and how long to allow for revisions.

You may find it easier to resist the call of lost opportunities by setting tight, aggressive deadlines. It’s easier to say “no” to everything for a well-defined three month period, for example, than for an indefinite period of time.

Enlist Moral Support

Have made the decisions about time and money, stick by them. If you find yourself flagging, find a coach or accountability partner to check in with.

Focus on the Gains

Knowing that you are inclined to focus on and over-value losses, make an intentional effort to remember and imagine the potential gains. Consider all of the possible positive outcomes of writing a book – not just the money.

Few writers make a killing off royalties. But writing has many other upsides:

  • Business/career opportunities: Publishing a nonfiction book can transform your career, connecting you with people and uncovering opportunities previously outside of your realm of experience.
  • Expertise: Writing the book deepens your understanding of the topic, even if you were an expert when you started. You may discover ideas and angles that hadn’t occurred to you before, and open new doors for exploration beyond the book.
  • Personal growth: If you approach writing with a growth mindset, then you’ll be open to learning and changing throughout the process. Watch for signs of personal growth, such as doing things outside your comfort zone.

Regret has no place in your book plans.

 

Read the chapter excerpt from The Writer’s Process about the growth mindset on Jane Friedman’s blog.

For a detailed guide to loss aversion, prospect theory and behavioral economics, read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, or Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard Thaler.

For more on happier spending, read  Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.

 

 

Writing in the 21st Century

Charles DickensThis is a challenging time to be a writer. To paraphrase A Tale of Two Cities, it is the best of times, and the worst of times.

(Why refer to Charles Dickens? He was successful in his own lifetime, and his works have stood the test of time. As a bonus, he published his first works as serial installments, which lines up with my interests in subscriptions.)

It’s easier than ever to be a published author.

Want to write a book? The gatekeepers to publishing are, if not gone, then marginalized. New gates have appeared, unattended, all around them, through independent- and self publishing. Independent publishers are turning to crowd-funding to supply some of the financial backing they need. Simply search for books on KickStarter for an idea of what’s happening there.

If you create shorter works, you’re also in luck. Any writer can set up a blog and publish their thoughts into the world. Easier still, distribute posts on sources like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Medium and reach an established audience. The publish button beckons all of us.

Yet, it’s harder to be a writer.

Some naysayers claim that no one reads anymore. We won’t even deal with those comments. If you’ve read this far, you’re proof to the contrary. But there are significant barriers to writing.

First, there are the distractions. Social media. Netflix. Instagram. If Jane Austen had to respond to social media posts in addition to family visitors, would she ever have finished her novels?

Once you’ve published something, it’s meaningless if no one reads what you’ve written. In some areas, the digital universe is completely saturated with content. According to Amazon’s February Author Earnings report, customers of Amazon US downloaded more than one million paid ebooks per day in January 2016. Yowza.

In the world of marketing, Mark Schaefer has coined the phrase content shock to describe the situation. (See my review of his excellent book The Content Code for solutions to that problem in marketing.)

It’s not enough to simply write a book; you have to market it. Whether  you work with a traditional publisher or not, promoting the book is not easy.

What remains the same

Publishing has changed. Writing, editing, and distribution technologies are evolving. Even our patterns and behaviors in consuming content are in flux.

What has remain unchanged? Us.

Fundamentally, we are still social animals. Writing remains an important means of forging connections between people.

Great writing creates a moment of communion between author and reader, whether a story that resonates or a turn of phrase or metaphor that enlightens a concept in the recesses of our own minds.

At its core, writing remains an essential, valuable practice. It’s worth the effort of getting the words out of your brain and into the world, even when you have too little time and too many distractions.

But we now have more insight into how our minds work. Cognitive science offers insight into our own, consistently inconsistent brains – the ways we handle distractions, delay gratification, and nurture creativity. The lessons of psychology can help us figure out how to operate as writers in an imperfect world.

I’m writing a book on this topic right now. Contact me if you’re interested in providing input as an early reader or joining the “launch team” for this book.

The True Costs of Self-Publishing

Quick quiz: What does it cost to self-publish a book?

a) $1000

b) $10,000

c) $100,000

d) None of the above

People will claim each of these numbers. (I’ve seen a proposal for north of $100,000.)

The answer is D, because the other responses are in the wrong currency. At the very least, they are incomplete.

Money is not the only cost of self-publishing.

The Three Buckets of Publishing Costs

When publishing a book independently, you pay for everything out of three buckets: money, skills, and time.

Money

  • Money is cash spent out-of-hand.
  • Skills involved in self-publishing include writing, editing, graphic design, layout, marketing, publicity, and project management.
  • Time refers to the hours, days or weeks you can dedicate to publishing the book.

Some parts of the publishing process obviously require money, such as purchasing an ISBN for the book. For most of the other activities involved in self-publishing, you can substitute skills (knowledge) and time. If you don’t have the skills, you will need to hire someone else (with money) or invest your time in learning.

For example, consider the various levels of editing: developmental edits, line edits, copy edits, and proofreading. How much editing your book needs depends on your writing. If you have the expertise, you can do some levels of edits; if you care about the quality of the result, you’ll hire editors (the money bucket), or ask skilled friends to invest their time.

If you are experienced with print layout, you can do the interior layout of a book yourself. With a lot of time, you can learn how.  Or, you can hire someone to lay out your book.

Your decisions always involve trade-offs between these buckets. Whenever you spend cash out of hand, you’re buying access to someone else’s skills and time.

Investment decisions are also influenced by your goals and objectives for the end result. When publishing a volume of your eight-year-old’s verse to share with relatives, professional cover design may not be necessary.

Determining Your Investment

Instead of asking how much it will cost to publish a book, answer the following questions:

  • What are my goals for the book?
  • Given those goals, what skills do I already have, and which do I need to supplement?
  • What is my available budget, and is it best spent on training or on professional services?
  • How much time do I have to invest in learning the skills or doing the work, and how quickly do I need the published book?

Would you add any questions to that list? Let me know. And if you’d like to stay connected, subscribe to receive these writing-related posts by email.

Do Not Save Your Best Writing for Later

Marshmallows by John-Morgan, on Flickr

Share the Marshmallows

In the 1960s, Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel and his students conducted studies on self-discipline in preschoolers. In what has now become known as The Marshmallow Test, toddlers were given the choice of eating one marshmallow immediately, or waiting a few minutes and getting two marshmallows. Those who were able to successfully delay the gratification of eating the marshmallow ended up later in life with higher SAT scores, better cognitive function, and a higher sense of self-worth.

(Mischel has written a book called The Marshmallow Test. I own it but have not read it yet – I am delaying that gratification.)

Delayed gratification was the hallmark of my upbringing. As children, my siblings and I were taught the value of practicing musical instruments, completing our homework promptly, and saving money. At Christmas time, we waited until the weekend before Christmas to purchase a tree, and didn’t put up Christmas decorations until shortly before Christmas Eve.

In hindsight, that last example may be a simple case of procrastination.

Delayed gratification can have unintended consequences when applied to the wrong sorts of incentives.

Consider clothing. Have you ever saved an outfit or piece of clothing you truly love for an as-yet-unknown occasion?  You envision it being ready, pristine, if and when that special occasion arrives.

When you eventually you reach for that outfit, you discover that you have changed shaped. Or styles have changed. Or, when you pull it out, you simply don’t love it as much as you remember. Stuff happens.

Someone once gave me a beautiful outfit for my infant daughter, which I dutifully set aside, pulling it out only when until she very nearly didn’t fit it. Saving for later can lead to loss, instead of gain. And this is true in the world of writing.

Writing and Delayed Gratification

Writing a book is an exercise in delayed gratification and self-discipline. Authors who work on books for months, sometimes years, would have aced that marshmallow test as toddlers.

But in writing as in life, saving for later can turn into unhealthy hoarding. This happens when writers hesitate to talk about their books or works before they come out, for fear of giving something away.

If you’re writing fiction or suspense, that’s fair enough; you don’t want to put any spoilers out. But when you’re writing nonfiction, this attitude can lead to trouble.

As with clothing, it’s best to wear your ideas out in the world, try them on and see how they fit. If people find them useful in a blog post, they will like them in a book. Set your good ideas free and see what happens. You may even build an audience.

Writing and Abundance

The marshmallow test is predicated on the idea of scarcity. A toddler doesn’t have unlimited access to marshmallows, so sweets are a scarce commodity. It’s worth the toddler’s effort to wait and double the haul.

Many of the most truly important things in life aren’t subject to the same type of scarcity. These include:

  • Creativity
  • Humor
  • Love

Share good ideas and they get better. Share a good joke and laughter spreads. Love expands and multiples as you share it. Each is a product of abundance.

Share this on Twitter: Good ideas multiple when shared: #Writing http://ctt.ec/O11bT+

If you find yourself saving your best ideas for a later, optimal time, ask yourself a few questions: Exactly when is that perfect time, and what’s wrong with right now? Will this idea still have the same shimmer months from now? Are that many people hanging on my every word that people are likely to steal these ideas?

If you’re writing something wonderful, don’t keep it secret – tell the world. Publish blog posts, start conversations. Share your good ideas, because in most cases, the act of sharing will magnify them. The risks of sharing are low, and the potential benefits high.

Go ahead, share the marshmallows.
Image:  Marshmallows(CC BY 2.0) by  John-Morgan 

Find Your Writing North Star(s)

Stars Greg RakozyWhen I set out to write my first book, I started researching everything from writing to publishing to marketing books.

The effort nearly derailed me altogether.

There are more writing and book marketing podcasts than you have time to listen to. You cannot read every book, nor follow every blog and watch every video. If you try to absorb it all, you’ll never get any writing done.

Worse,  you’ll hear conflicting advice. Do you want to publish a book as a “fat business card?” Are you writing something creative, from the heart? Do you plan to get rich quickly from a book?

One book about author marketing left such a bad taste in my mouth that I almost abandoned the effort.

There’s only one way to cut through this noise and keep your sanity: find your own north star, then follow it.

Choose a Direction

Polaris, or the North Star, is very close to the north celestial pole. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, it’s a handy nighttime compass, pointing the way north in a sky filled with constellations.

When facing writing conundrums and conflicting advice, find those authors who best embody the kind of writer you want to be. Turn them into your personal north stars.

What living author or authors do you admire today? It doesn’t matter how far they seem from your abilities; the fact that they speak to you is what matters.

If you wanted to model your writing career on one author, particularly a writer who works in your genre, who would you choose? Perhaps you’ll have a short list.

Having identified these authors, use them as your inner guides:

“Would Malcolm Gladwell use this cheesy marketing tactic?”

“Would Elizabeth Kolbert take this extra step in research?” 

“Would Daniel Pink skip this editing cycle?”

For publishing and marketing decisions, choose authors who are living and publishing today. It’s difficult to know what William Shakespeare would think about publishing on a Kindle. (I imagine he’d be all over the audiobook trend.)

For living authors, you can visit often their websites, subscribe to their emails lists, and see how they publish and promote their books.

Construct A Constellation

In practice, finding the north star among the nighttime sky may be tricky. That’s where constellations come in handy. In the northern hemisphere, the handle of the Big Dipper includes the North Star. In the southern hemisphere, navigators use the Southern Cross (Crux) to oriented themselves to the South Pole.

Build a constellation of people that you follow and refer to, to guide you on the path that makes the most sense for you.

You won’t become your stars, just as I won’t become Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Kolbert or Daniel Pink. But their examples can shape your efforts and give you strength in making difficult decisions. Having a constellation guides you in deciding which advice to ignore and how to travel your own path.

(My apologies to Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, and Elizabeth Kolbert for hijacking them as inner muses.)

Who are your personal north stars?

Related posts:

Protect Yourself from Author’s Decision Fatigue

I’m An Indie Author (And Proud Of It)

Image by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash