by Ray Keating
With the publication
of The River: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel in June 2014, I served up the following column for Long Island
Business News on some points to ponder if you want to write and indie publish a
book…
Summer on Long Island often includes heading to the beach or
the backyard, and opening a good book – preferably a few good books.
But for many of us who write for a living – or write for the
simple joy of putting pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboards – summer is not
just a time for reading, but a season for creating and, yes, selling our own
works.
In my other career as a novelist, for example, I just
published my fourth Pastor Stephen Grant novel titled The River, am working on marketing and sales, and have started
writing the next thriller.
So, have you ever thought about writing a book?
It’s arguably the most exciting time in history for writing
and publishing a book given the dramatic technological changes that have hit the
industry in recent years, including print-on-demand publishing, the dawn and
rapid spread of ebooks, and the marketing and selling of books online. These
changes have created upheaval in the publishing industry, particularly by
shifting self-publishing – or indie publishing – into high gear.
Keep in mind that indie publishing is not new. Long Island’s
own Walt Whitman could not find a publisher for his 1855 volume of poems titled
Leaves of Grass. So, he designed and
published the first edition himself. No
one could accuse Whitman of being shy in terms of promotion, including writing
reviews of his own book. As noted on the Library of Congress website:
“The 1855 publication of Leaves of Grass was heralded by anonymous
reviews printed in New York papers, which were clearly written by Whitman
himself. They accurately described the break-through nature of his
‘transcendent and new’ work. ‘An American bard at last!’ trumpeted one
self-review.” Now that’s self-promotion taken to shameless heights (or
depths?).
In recent years, assorted best-selling authors, like the
late Vince Flynn, known for his Mitch Rapp thrillers, and E.L. James, with her
erotic Fifty Shades Trilogy,
originally took the indie publishing route. Of course, the publishing successes
of a Flynn and a James are what dreams are made of for many indie authors, and
I do mean “many.”
The number of indie titles has jumped markedly in recent
years. ProQuest affiliate Bowker reported in October that “the number of
self-published titles in 2012 jumped to more than 391,000, up 59 percent over
2011 and 422 percent over 2007.”
Of course, more titles mean more choices for consumers, that
is, for readers. But an explosion in titles also means a heck of a lot more
competition for authors to grab readers’ eyes. Keep in mind that in 2006 Publisher’s
Weekly reported, “The average book in America sells about 500 copies.” That
number, no doubt, has since declined.
So, indie publishing creates tremendous opportunities and
challenges for authors. The process only starts with writing the book. Indie
authors then must make decisions about the business side of selling their
books.
Beat Barblan, Bowker’s director of identifier services,
observed: “The most successful self-publishers don’t view themselves as writers
only, but as business owners. They invest in their businesses, hiring experts
to fill skill gaps and that’s building a thriving new service infrastructure in
publishing.”
For good measure, successful authors will, or should, enjoy
all aspects of the indie process. In a March 17 Huffington Post article, Mark
Corker correctly noted: “Indie authors are enjoying total creative control,
faster time to market, ownership over their publishing future, and the
flexibility to innovate and evolve their immortal ebooks which will never go
out of print. Indie authors enjoy the freedom to serve their fans as they want
to serve them. Icing on the indie author's cake: Indie ebook authors earn
royalty rates four to five times higher than they'd earn from traditional
publishers.”
I’m optimistic that indie authors are the future of writing
and selling books.
So, you want to write a book? Then you must be an author and business owner
who enthusiastically embraces both the creative and entrepreneurial aspects of
book publishing.
______________
Mr. Keating is an
economist and novelist who writes on a wide range of topics. His Pastor Stephen
Grant novels have received considerable acclaim, including The River: A Pastor
Stephen Grant Novel being a finalist for KFUO radio’s Book of the Year 2014,
and Murderer’s Row: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel winning for Book of the Year
2015.
The Pastor Stephen
Grant Novels are available at Amazon…
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