Journey to the Centre of Publishing...

I've been reading a bit about the pros and cons of Self or Indie publishing recently. Some of it useful, some of it twaddle. My own journey into publishing independently has been like crossing the Himalayas using a map of the Isle of Wight. Unexpectedly bumpy.

I see my career in two distinct eras. BC and AC. Before Children, the world of publishing was as it had been for a couple of hundred years. You take your idea/ portfolio to a publisher and they publish your book, or more likely, say nice things about your work and then DON'T publish your book. There was also the slightly distasteful world of Vanity Publishing, which I quickly concluded I did not need in my life. It meant ordering 10,000 copies of the book and then somehow selling them. I didn't have a clue how to do this and didn't want to spend my time trailing around shops hoping they'd take some of the huge amount of stock I'd have in my sitting room so that I could make a tunnel to the kitchen.

After Children, things had changed. Traditional publishers were no longer the only route - there was another option; Print on Demand. It seemed like an option worth looking at. I chose to do my first book with CreateSpace because the process was easy to understand and follow. They are an offshoot of Amazon, and this meant my book goes straight onto Amazon with one tick of a box. CreateSpace do everything else, so when someone orders Vincent and the Vampires, they print one and send it off. Simple. Print on Demand.

However, I was beginning to realise that people often wanted to buy a book from an author they could see and have a conversation with. There's something quite special about having a book signed to you from the author, rather than arriving in Amazon packaging. I knew I needed to do some book events and have my own copies with me for sale. I knew I needed to go to schools and read to children. I took a very very deep breath. Then I accidentally hyperventilated.

With my second and third books, Royal Fleas and Wally and Bert, BFF's I bought my own ISBNs, employed a printer and did the whole shabang myself. I now have a trading relationship with Waterstones which couldn't happen when I was Printing on Demand. Luckily I have found a printer who will print short runs, so I have several boxes of books, but also a house to live in.

So, what are the pros?

• You can go at your own pace. No deadlines, other than the ones you give yourself.
• You can earn more royalty per book as you don't have to split the profit with anyone.
• You can do exactly what you want (so long as it's legal). I'll come back to this.
• You will learn lots of new skills and become very adept at doing boring things quickly. 
• When you have finished, you can be ridiculously smug and proud of the book you have made.

And the cons?

• As you aren't printing a huge quantity, the cost per book is higher. This can be a problem when supplying stores like Waterstones.
• You might need to find a bit of space to store a few hundred copies, but at least it isn't 10,000.
• You need to know your way around a computer, or find the time to learn. I had to learn how to use In Design (Adobe) to lay the book out. MS Word WILL NOT DO!! 
• You need to know what a good page looks like and be ruthless about work that isn't quite up to standard.
• You several somebodies to copy edit everything. And don't rely on the spellchecker!!

As I said in the Pros, you can do whatever you want, although you won't make many friends if you write something inciting violence or nasty in other ways. This does, however, mean that you can make a complete pigs ear of things if you're not careful. I was shown a particularly shoddy book that had been printed on demand and was on sale in a local bookshop. The author had made a poor choice of cover photo, the typography was unattractive and the copy was laid out badly. I made a mental note not to make those mistakes. 

I am grateful that I studied Graphic Design at Uni, and although I would never suggest I was brilliant at designing a super page, I did know what looked right. Visual Literacy, my old tutor called it. I've always tried hard to make the pages exciting to look at and do the job required.

At present, I spend more time than I would like doing marketing type things... Trying to figure out how to sell more books online, filling in my tax return, or application forms or risk assessments. When I am rich and famous, I will employ someone to do that stuff for me while I paint all day but the reality is that until my stories start to sell themselves, I am the skipper of their tug.

The journey has led me down paths of learning that I didn't know I needed to know -  how to fill in the dreaded US tax identification number form (for selling on Amazon.com), getting shipping costs right so that I don't end up out of pocket, how to write a press release, how not to look like I just swallowed a wasp when being photographed, how to control nerves when on the radio (no TV as yet) and most importantly how to draw like me.

Today I have been working on page 18/19 of my next book Flossie Bonce. It's been a really good day because I've been painting a lot, so here's a quick preview, minus the text. Don't want to give everything away yet!!

My books can be purchased via my online shop etsy.com/julesmarriner. This is a better way than Amazon as I can sign and leave a personal message in them.