Debut author turned down $120,000, 3 books New York publishing deal to self-publish

[Xanthe]

Seems to me she did the right thing, especially if she's a fast writer and can come up with a books that sells just as well as this one. That'll increase her fan base faster than anything, because we all know how much word-of-mouth can help out sales.

If good sales continue, then she is a proven writer and she would probably get a better deal if she ever did try to go the traditional publishing route again.

How is library-buying in connection with indie authors? Do they just buy from the traditional publishers, or do they buy indie authors?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

How is library-buying in connection with indie authors? Do they just buy from the traditional publishers, or do they buy indie authors?

Most only buy from *big* traditional publishers and only if listed in traditional journals. And then they complain about abusive pricing.
(Shrug)

[Lemurion]

She hit a home run with a very good book.

There's no question but that indie success is going to make you more money in less time than anything short of a multi-million dollar advance. For a debut author, it's a gamble, and in this case it paid off.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

She hit a home run with a very good book.

There's no question but that indie success is going to make you more money in less time than anything short of a multi-million dollar advance. For a debut author, it's a gamble, and in this case it paid off.

Time will tell if it paid off. I'm not convinced.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Time will tell if it paid off. I'm not convinced.

It already paid off.

Expect to see more.
Just today I've encountered three reports that explain why.
Try this:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/featur...omes-merchant/

The author is recognized as a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and the recipient of a host of other literary awards.

“[Self-publishing] has been in the heads of most of the writers that I’ve been around,” Block says. They “would sit drinking the evening away saying, ‘Why can’t we publish our own stuff? Aren’t we tired of watching publishers fuck everything up for us?’ "

The advent of e-books allowed Block to start uploading his work electronically. And a couple of years ago, he decided to put out a collection of Scudder short stories on his own in e-book and paperback form. Both continue to sell well.

Then, the Grand Master thought he might be through penning novels. Self-publishing helped bring him back.

"In addition to the urge a writer always has to do more, I wanted to see what it would be like to publish an A-list book of mine from start to finish that way," Block says.

The djinn will not go back into the bottle.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It already paid off.

Expect to see more.
Just today I've encountered three reports that explain why.
Try this:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/featur...omes-merchant/



The djinn will not go back into the bottle.

Block's a different case. He already has an audience, so going indie is much safer for him than for a debut author. If you've already been commercially published and built a following, there's almost zero risk in going indie and turning your backlist into money.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Block's a different case. He already has an audience, so going indie is much safer for him than for a debut author. If you've already been commercially published and built a following, there's almost zero risk in going indie and turning your backlist into money.

It wasn't backlist.
It was brand new. And so is his next effort.

Had Block gone the route of traditional book publishing, The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons might be out in the late fall of 2014—but more likely in 2015. Too long to wait for Block. This way, the book completed in mid-August was available to readers by Christmas Day, 2013.

"I’ve reached the age where I am no longer advised to buy green bananas," Block says. "I don’t want to sit around waiting a year and a half for something to come out.

The general argument against indie releases is that the authors aren't good enough for traditional "nurturing". Well, Block is good enough. He just chose not to be "nurtured".
And the reviews on the book say it is the best in the series.

Indie publishing isn't just for no-names or backlists.
It is for every author tired or wary of the traditional game.

[VictoriaP]

Block's situation *is* still different though from that of the author in the first post. He has a built in audience, no advertising needed, because it's an existing series with many followers (including me), who will buy the book regardless of who publishes it. Even if he doesn't find a single new reader, he'll make money. If anything, it's a situation that's ideal for self pub.

It's a lot more difficult for most new authors, who have no readership to speak of, to get the visibility needed to successfully launch their careers. Good writing alone (even when paired with good editing) isn't always enough to make a living wage as an author.

I'm not against self publishing by any means, but neither do I see it as a winning lottery ticket for just any author. Even a good one.

[Lemurion]

Even if it's not backlist, the fact remains that Lawrence Block is leveraging the audience he's built up through decades of commercial success to generate indie success. It's a lot easier for him to build sales on any platform than a debut author because he's already an existing brand.

[fjtorres]

The issue isn't about indie success or failure or how it comes about but that the test cases are piling up. Newcomers and veterans can both make their own strong cases for going indie, whereas the traditionalists are still holding up the same hoary old excuses for why they are "indispensable".

The vast majority of readers don't care who publishes the book; big publisher, small publisher, or indie. They care about the story and, maybe, the author.

Pretending indie titles are somehow inferior and not worth consideration is going to be an increasingly harder position to uphold in the face of the mounting evidence.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The issue isn't about indie success or failure or how it comes about but that the test cases are piling up. Newcomers and veterans can both make their own strong cases for going indie, whereas the traditionalists are still holding up the same hoary old excuses for why they are "indispensable".

The vast majority of readers don't care who publishes the book; big publisher, small publisher, or indie. They care about the story and, maybe, the author.

Pretending indie titles are somehow inferior and not worth consideration is going to be an increasingly harder position to uphold in the face of the mounting evidence.

Yes, there are more and more indie successes as time goes on, and it's inevitable that there will be more.

Indie books are not intrinsically inferior to commercially published books, nor are they intrinsically superior. However, they are much more variable in quality.

The very ease of indie publishing means that there are a lot of really bad indie books out there, just as there are a lot of really good indie books out there. The big issue for many people is that it can be hard to find the good ones without being swamped in the sheer volume of books published every day.

Commercially published books have a higher "floor" when it comes to quality. The really badly written ones don't make it to publication, and most grammatical errors get caught before publication. In the indie world, both these kinds of books can, and sometimes do, get published as is.

Good indie books are just as good as the best commercially published books. There's no question.

Indie publishing is just as viable a route to success as commercial publishing, but it entails more work for the author, and a smaller proportion of indie books reach the minimum level of success that can be expected from a commercially published book.

Indie publishing has democratized the industry. Anyone and everyone can get published. This is a good thing, because it opens publishing to whole of society, so that great books that would otherwise be overlooked by the industry can be published. However, the flip side is also true, really bad books that have no redeeming values can also be published in exactly the same way.

The truth is there is no one solution for all authors. Some will thrive as indies, others need the assistance commercial publishing provides. There are advantages and disadvantages to both forms of publication, and none of us can say which is best for every other person.

[VictoriaP]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The issue isn't about indie success or failure or how it comes about but that the test cases are piling up. Newcomers and veterans can both make their own strong cases for going indie, whereas the traditionalists are still holding up the same hoary old excuses for why they are "indispensable".

The vast majority of readers don't care who publishes the book; big publisher, small publisher, or indie. They care about the story and, maybe, the author.

The test cases are fascinating, that much is certain. Up to this point in your argument, I agree with you. But...

Pretending indie titles are somehow inferior and not worth consideration is going to be an increasingly harder position to uphold in the face of the mounting evidence.

The "mounting evidence", from my personal experience, is that the majority of self published books I've attempted to read are crap. And I'm astonished to see that in the almost five years I've owned an e-reader, this hasn't changed! It's not that good authors aren't a part of the self publishing trend (I'm reading one right now, in fact), but they're quite often completely buried in a pile of unedited, poorly written garbage that wouldn't even make it to the slush pile of a decent agent or publishing house. People who can't tell a good story, can't write to save their lives, and can't be bothered to pay out of their own pocket for a good, experienced editor think they're going to be the next indie millionaire.

Meanwhile, plenty of good authors, who perhaps got the writing/storytelling and even the editing part right but who aren't natural-born self marketers, are struggling to see success on their own because they've bought into a trend that would have you believe the Big Bad Publisher is ALWAYS the enemy.

I believe there's room for both processes to get a book in front of an audience--whichever route an author chooses. Lemurion nailed it, there are advantages and disadvantages to both ways of publishing.

(Personally, should I ever actually finish the aggravating 90,000 words and counting never-ending-oh-dear-lord-why-did-I-ever-think-this-was-a-good-idea novel currently on my laptop, and should it be good enough to see the light of day, I hope both options are still viable. I suck at marketing myself, and as such, hold no illusions that I'd succeed at self publishing. Given that fact, in order to see success as an indie author, I would have to have enough money already set aside to pay for not only editing, but cover art, a decent quality website, and some sort of advertising or marketing--that's a lot to pay for on my own. Yes, I *could* do these things myself, but it all takes time away from writing, and I'm nowhere near as good at any of these tasks as a good professional in those fields. Just writing a good book is hard enough, I don't want to have to master multiple other careers in order to sell what I write.)

[crossi]

Indie publishing is just as viable a route to success as commercial publishing, but it entails more work for the author, and a smaller proportion of indie books reach the minimum level of success that can be expected from a commercially published book.

How would you calculate the number who reach a minimum level of sucess in trad publishing? Do you count only the authors whose books are accepted and published or all those authors who try to get a trad publisher to take their book? Since most authors never get in the door for them them there is no sucess at all not even minimum. Since lately I've been hearing that the trads are shunning new authors in favor of known ones more and more the odds against new authors going the trad route are getting worse.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It already paid off.

The author in question had a $120,000 deal. She's made less than one-sixth of that, and a good first month is no guarantee of future earnings. The jury is still out.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by crossi

Indie publishing is just as viable a route to success as commercial publishing, but it entails more work for the author, and a smaller proportion of indie books reach the minimum level of success that can be expected from a commercially published book.

How would you calculate the number who reach a minimum level of sucess in trad publishing? Do you count only the authors whose books are accepted and published or all those authors who try to get a trad publisher to take their book? Since most authors never get in the door for them them there is no sucess at all not even minimum. Since lately I've been hearing that the trads are shunning new authors in favor of known ones more and more the odds against new authors going the trad route are getting worse.

The minimum level of success in commercial publishing is acceptance and publication, anything less isn't success.

The difficulty of getting commercially published is one of the reasons there is no one route that fits all authors. It's much harder to get published commercially, but if you do get past that hurdle, you will make more than the majority of self-published authors even if not a single reader ever buys a copy of your book.

Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.