MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Debut author turned down $120,000, 3 books New York publishing deal to self-publish

Top100EbooksRank · 01-22-2014, 04:31 AM

Brenna wrote this reply on another forum. It gives a more detailed reasoning on why she decided to go with self-publishing.

Brenna Aubrey: You make some great points here that I'd love to address. There are definitely advantages to traditional publishing. Absolutely there are. Believe me, I considered and weighed those carefully when I had my offers in hand.

Print is a big one. But consider that the size of print is dwindling rapidly with the diminishing floor space in book stores and in the big box stores. A WONDERFUL article on print from hybrid author Courtney Milan (a good friend of mine). She just wrote this on her blog. Check it out (with the disclaimer that it applies specifically to her genre, historical romance but I think a lot can be extrapolated from it for just about any genre):

http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblin...ales-in-print/

I don't know what your genre is but let's assume that, like mine, it's one that is heavily ebook dependent. If you self publish, you make 70% of the gross sales (full sale price). If you trad publish, you get 25% of the NET (which means the wholesale price) which works out to be 12.5% of the full ebook price. So you have to sell many more books (and these books are usually priced higher) in order to make more from a trad deal than from going indie.

But let's say your goal, as you state above isn't about money (at least right off the bat) but about exposure and finding a readership. I do honestly state that my situation is not typical. I had an extremely successful first month. It had very little to do with the exposure about turning down the trad deals. Most of my readers don't even know about that.

In my particular genre, word of mouth is the most important exposure you can get. This is why I focused on getting the book into the hands of the loudest: book reviewers, good readers, bloggers, etc.

But let's not talk about me, let's talk about you. You have no readership but you have a book. What will a publishing house do for you that you cant' do for yourself? Well, they will put your book in bookstores, which is great. But again, see above. Returns will kill you and the book is gone after 6 months at the most.

What can they do for your ebooks? They will do almost exactly the same thing I did. Send ARCs out to bloggers and put the book up on Netgalley or Edelweiss.

Publishers no longer do the old school publicity things (with good reason, they don't really get results) like book signing events and book tours unless you are Nora Roberts or John Grisham.

The book is what sells the book. More books from the same author sell more books from the backlist of that author. Think about your habits as a reader when you find a new author that you REALLY get excited about. You glom onto them and don't let go and read everything they've written. Readers are voracious and want content. Some read 2-3 books a week. No one author can keep up with that! Once you've built a readership and hopefully maintained that relationship via social media and your newsletter, you keep that readership via putting out new books. And with each new book you add new readers who then go and buy your backlist.

Sometimes it's a slow build, sometimes it's faster. My "luck" came from writing a good book with a hooky premise in a hot genre.

All I'm saying with the points I've made above is to educate yourselves on the terms that publishers will offer you (and don't rely on your agent to explain everything to you). Know what the terms mean and know what you are giving up for a long time (35 years) in order to get it and ask yourself if you are willing to make that exchange.

I begrudge no one who chooses differently than I did. I have traditionally-published friends who are very successful and several of THEM urged me to consider going indie rather than taking the deal. Yeah I know, surprising, right?

The point of this entire diatribe of mine is just to show that this is the most exciting time ever for authors. We have choices. Wonderful, amazing choices. Whichever way you go, I wish you luck.

01-22-2014, 04:31 AM	#107
Top100EbooksRank Banned Posts: 304 Karma: 6102528 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: Kindle	Brenna wrote this reply on another forum. It gives a more detailed reasoning on why she decided to go with self-publishing. Brenna Aubrey: You make some great points here that I'd love to address. There are definitely advantages to traditional publishing. Absolutely there are. Believe me, I considered and weighed those carefully when I had my offers in hand. Print is a big one. But consider that the size of print is dwindling rapidly with the diminishing floor space in book stores and in the big box stores. A WONDERFUL article on print from hybrid author Courtney Milan (a good friend of mine). She just wrote this on her blog. Check it out (with the disclaimer that it applies specifically to her genre, historical romance but I think a lot can be extrapolated from it for just about any genre): http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblin...ales-in-print/ I don't know what your genre is but let's assume that, like mine, it's one that is heavily ebook dependent. If you self publish, you make 70% of the gross sales (full sale price). If you trad publish, you get 25% of the NET (which means the wholesale price) which works out to be 12.5% of the full ebook price. So you have to sell many more books (and these books are usually priced higher) in order to make more from a trad deal than from going indie. But let's say your goal, as you state above isn't about money (at least right off the bat) but about exposure and finding a readership. I do honestly state that my situation is not typical. I had an extremely successful first month. It had very little to do with the exposure about turning down the trad deals. Most of my readers don't even know about that. In my particular genre, word of mouth is the most important exposure you can get. This is why I focused on getting the book into the hands of the loudest: book reviewers, good readers, bloggers, etc. But let's not talk about me, let's talk about you. You have no readership but you have a book. What will a publishing house do for you that you cant' do for yourself? Well, they will put your book in bookstores, which is great. But again, see above. Returns will kill you and the book is gone after 6 months at the most. What can they do for your ebooks? They will do almost exactly the same thing I did. Send ARCs out to bloggers and put the book up on Netgalley or Edelweiss. Publishers no longer do the old school publicity things (with good reason, they don't really get results) like book signing events and book tours unless you are Nora Roberts or John Grisham. The book is what sells the book. More books from the same author sell more books from the backlist of that author. Think about your habits as a reader when you find a new author that you REALLY get excited about. You glom onto them and don't let go and read everything they've written. Readers are voracious and want content. Some read 2-3 books a week. No one author can keep up with that! Once you've built a readership and hopefully maintained that relationship via social media and your newsletter, you keep that readership via putting out new books. And with each new book you add new readers who then go and buy your backlist. Sometimes it's a slow build, sometimes it's faster. My "luck" came from writing a good book with a hooky premise in a hot genre. All I'm saying with the points I've made above is to educate yourselves on the terms that publishers will offer you (and don't rely on your agent to explain everything to you). Know what the terms mean and know what you are giving up for a long time (35 years) in order to get it and ask yourself if you are willing to make that exchange. I begrudge no one who chooses differently than I did. I have traditionally-published friends who are very successful and several of THEM urged me to consider going indie rather than taking the deal. Yeah I know, surprising, right? The point of this entire diatribe of mine is just to show that this is the most exciting time ever for authors. We have choices. Wonderful, amazing choices. Whichever way you go, I wish you luck.