I remember my very first brush with self publishing. I wasn’t a writer then, heck my reading was still far from the fantasy and science fiction genre.
In a small mall in Wellington, New Zealand, there was a lot of empty space in the late 1980s. Times were lean, but I recall vividly that there was one man who had rented out the smallest space in his mall, and filled it with books.
Well, sort of.
Actually, with one book. His. The whole of this small space was full of his book, floor to ceiling. Even as a kid I recall thinking, ‘how the hell is he going to sell all these?’ I imagined him building houses with them, and just how awful he must be around the Christmas season giving them to every one of his relatives. I bet his family all got a copy…heck three copies…of his book. Every. Year.
I often wonder what happened to that guy? Is he still around? Maybe he took his precious book and put it out into the e-world. Maybe he just got burnt by that experience and turned into a bitter old man using old copies of it for toilet paper.
I guess he was the hipster of self-publishing, and I kinda wish I could remember what the heck his book was about.
He was so far ahead of the curve he couldn’t see the horizon. Now every man and his dog, and his dog’s flea has a book, and they are all up for sale.
What got me thinking about him was this article by Mark Coker, nice guy and founder of Smashwords, and nodding my head. I wonder if the guy with the one book bookstore is around to take notice.
For me the highlights are
- It’s all about the basics. Write good stuff. No matter how much you write, if it isn’t good, then you’re never going to get people back to buy your next thing.
- Production takes on increased importance in 2014. However, those that can produce at a decent clip are going to be at the top of the wave. So no slacking off!!
- A larger wave of big-name authors will defect to indieville. Hybrid authors! Yes, big names realise that they can leverage that big name for their back list, or short stories and make money….in fact more of a slice of that money than even they are used to. Yay, more hybrids in the pool!
The things I am still noodling through as to how to leverage
- Multi-book collaboration. Our daughter is mad keen for this series called the Cat Warriors. There are a huge amount of books, always coming out, and with all kinds of guides to go with them. At first I was boggled as to how one author could possibly do all that. The answer is, she doesn’t. They do. Erin Hunter is actually four authors. So I can see how this kind of collaboration could work, just not sure how to do it myself.
- Subscription ebook services will change the game. How this will serve authors is a concern. Like Harlan Ellison says money should come to the author, but as long as this happens then this could be an exciting development that will make fiction accessible. I’ll wait and see on this one.
This article makes me excited, nervous, and then excited again. It’s important to keep on top of new developments, because this thing is moving like the Flash.
So stay light on you feet, because I know one thing for sure; I don’t want to be the one book bookstore guy. Neither do you.