Self-Publishing - Part One

From unknown to fame, author Amanda Hocking, having been rejected countless times, took matters into her own hands by self-publishing her books on e-book platforms only. She started in early 2010 and over ten months sold more than 900 000 books. She’s become a millionaire at the age of 26 and has signed a four book contract (reportedly for seven figures) with traditional publisher, St Martins press.

I realise none of this is news to those of you reading this, but I post this as the first in a new series I’ll be doing on self-publishing, featuring interviews with authors who have self published.

I also realise that Amanda Hocking is probably not the best example to use – in the same way that J K Rowling was never the best example to use for “achieving success as a children’s writer”. Both are statistical outliers, but, equally, both have done, and are doing things that are groundbreaking, will shift boundaries and open doors. True, both had a product that the market was greedy for. True, not everyone can create a product like that. And, yes, luck inevitably plays a role.

Now, you may wonder why I, who have spent years submitting work to traditional publishers, am doing a series on self-publishing. But the reality is the publishing industry, whether purists like it or not, is changing. Economic factors are a key influence - while technology makes it all possible – from the actual self-publishing of an e-book to the marketing through social recommendation engines and social networking sites.

More and more writers are turning to self-publishing as a means of getting their work out into the big wide world. A recent survey showed that 20 million people read e-books last year, creating a very nice market of which self-published authors can take advantage.

New York Times best-selling spy thriller novelist Barry Eisler recently turned down a $500,000 book deal with an unnamed legacy publisher in order to self-publish his own popular books. “Based on what’s happening in the industry, and based on the kind of experience writers…are having in self-publishing, I think I can do better in the long term on my own.”

Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content for Amazon, says “It's possible for any author to make their book available with little or no upfront cost and reach a global audience." Digital publishing, he says, "gives a chance to a great book that otherwise might have been overlooked."

I have had countless arguments over the past few years with fellow writers and authors about e-readers and e-books and self publishing. Many have pooh-poohed the idea and lamented the “death” of the paper book. And let’s not kid ourselves, there is also a certain elitism and fear of change at work. I, however, tend to take the more pragmatic view of if not, why not.

Given the recent article in the Bookseller which started by saying “The [children’s publishing] industry is "haemorrhaging talent" as authors and illustrators are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living in the children's sector”, it seems only logical for illustrators, writers and authors to consider the alternatives.

In the Bookseller article, children’s author, Julia Jarman, is quoted as saying, "Royalties are down, advances are down, and publishers are offering less for new books."

Nick Green, who I interviewed last year, says in the same article, “I am not going to kid myself that I can support my family by writing fiction. At best it is extra pocket money. I would never give up the day job - not even if my next advance was six-figures, because another might never come again."

It looks, by all accounts, pretty dire out there – and besides that, many authors lament the amount of effort they put into their work, only to reap a tiny proportion of the reward – should they even get a deal. Others complain about the way they are treated by their publishers and the industry per se.

In my own experience, you can work your butt off, put hours and hours into polishing and honing your craft and your manuscript, you can attend courses and go to conferences, spend money on having your work professionally assessed and still be rejected because either publishers are not taking chances, or the wrong person read it on the wrong day, or “it’s not right for our list”, or you missed “a trend” by a nanosecond. So what do you do then? Do you put the manuscript away and begin yet another (and when do you call it quits on all the others you write), do you give up – or, do you look, as Amanda Hocking did, for alternatives?

Amanda Hocking says on her blog that in February 2010, after countless rejections, ‘I said to my room-mate, “I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think I'm ever going to get published. I don't know what more I can do. I've worked like a factory putting out the best books I possibly can. I've studied trends, the industry, business models.”

It was then that she started researching e-books and discovered that for every $2.99 book she could sell, she could keep 70%, with the rest going to the online bookseller. For every 99-cent book she could sell, she could keep 30%.

She said to her room-mate, “I'm going to sell books on Amazon through Kindle, and I bet I can make at least a couple hundred bucks by the end of the summer to go to Chicago."

In March she published her book with Lulu and sold it via Amazon. In April she published her first book to Kindle. She published a second book in the same way. She sold 45 books in two weeks. She put out another book. The rest, as they say, is history.

And here’s the irony, Amanda Hocking is publishing in a genre of which traditional publishers will tell you, “Sorry, but we think the trend has passed.” Clearly the market which buys Amanda Hocking’s books doesn’t agree. Her vampires remain hugely popular (in the same way that gran’ma’s tried and tested recipe for brownies remains popular over decades). And this is the thing, publishers are always looking for the “next big thing”, they’re making and breaking trends with, it would often seem, little acceptance of the fact that the market will eat brownies and read vampires till the cows come home – and in the process, many great books simply get overlooked.

As Amanda Hocking says: “From what I can guess, [my success] happened because the books are in a popular genre.”

Over the next few weeks I will be asking several authors why they chose to self publish and how they set about it, how they rate their success, the pitfalls of self-publishing and more besides.

But first, with some of Amanda’s books loaded onto my e-reader, I’m going off for a few days to point my camera at lions, stalk leopards and laugh with hyenas. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves in my absence.

(All images, aside from that of Nick Green, have been nicked off the internet.)

Writing Room Revelations - Part Seven

In the final episode of the current series of Writing Room Revelations, three well-known and entirely wonderful children’s authors – John Dickinson, Philip Ardagh, Malorie Blackman - and Teri Terry, a soon-to-be-published debut YA author, reveal their writing room secrets by answering the questions:

Where do you write? And what does your writing space give you – i.e. why do you write there?

Where do you do your most creative thinking – and when? (e.g particular time of day, conscious space e.g. dreams)

Do you use/need anything particular in order to help you write? (e.g. music, chocolate, coffee, silence etc) In what way does this “support” help you?

I suggest you get yourself a cup of tea or coffee - but be wary of drinking it while reading some of these responses…


JOHN DICKINSON
Author of The Cup of the World, The Widow and the King, The Fatal Child, The Lightstep and WE

I write in an annex room with white walls and a sloping ceiling, and dark blue blinds of a colour that makes me think of the Mediterranean. There’s a big tapestry of the Creation on one wall, so at one time I was going to call this ‘The Creation Room,’ (but of course that didn’t stick). On another there’s a sketch of yours truly done by Christopher Lee. I am portrayed in fantasy armour and accompanied by an assortment of goblins carrying all kinds of exotic weaponry, including a hand grenade - just what an author needs to get his thoughts going. There is also a small potted palm tree in case I need to recycle my carbon dioxide.

The room is quite large: four metres by five or say 10% of the floor area of the house. That means I can claim 10% of the running expenses of the house on my tax return. Or I could, supposing the room was exclusively used for the production of literary works.

I fear my tax return needs a little revision.

For one thing, there’s a large bed in one corner. I can’t remember when it got here but it’s definitely there now. From the state of it, it gets quite a lot of use. Last users as I recall were two of the four teenagers who slept over with us on Sunday night. (I have been careful not to ask which two). Before that it was probably me, looking for a place where sleep might be possible at four in the morning, which it plainly wasn’t going to be in my own bed. Before that it was whichever couple it was who came to stay and were so terribly polite about the cooking, the state of the bathrooms etc. Anyway, my ‘Creation Room’ doubles as a spare bedroom. And the ghostly taxman at my elbow makes a note in his little book.

In another corner there’s an antique oval table. It’s where my wife does the administration for her father’s estate – a process that generates as much in paper as a First World War battle does in mud, while taking three times as long and being very nearly as bloody. The papers occupy most of the surface and also a considerable part of the floor around it. One corner of the table, however, has been colonised by my daughter, who has been studying for her summer exams. Daughter has been coached in a number of revision techniques, one of which is to put up post-its all over the house with random bits of learning on them. The one on the wall by my left ear reads:

Subjunctive

- Emotion
- Wishing/willing
- Impersonal constructions
- Negative doubt
- Superlative que/qui (opinion not fact)

Up to a few days ago there was another one on the desk that read For Fools to Ponder Over. I never found out what that was about. I think it must have been Eng. Lit.

My desk has not escaped the executor’s battle. There’s a small heap of papers here to do with trusts and investments, some of which I’m supposed to be helping with. There’s also the printout of an agreement with Google about their Terms of Service – that’s to do with wife’s work. There’s a stack of trays, crammed with paper, property of the church treasurer. The wooden chest to the left of the desk teeters with folders, also belonging to the treasurer. On the floor – what’s that? It looks like more French. And some ‘How to choose your university’ stuff. And rail tickets.

Over the back of a chair are flung some clothes. Neatly balanced on the top of the clothes is a rolled up pair of pink socks.

Where do I write, Nicky? I write in my head.

Too bad the brain isn’t tax-deductible.

To find out more about John Dickinson, visit his website.




PHILIP ARDAGH
Award winning author of the Eddie Dickens books, Grubtown Tales, and the Unlikely Exploits series, and also the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2009’s seven to fourteen category.

BLOG AUTHOR'S NOTE: All images of Philip Ardagh have had to be nicked from the internet. Some of these images may be entirely misleading. It is entirely possible that Philip Ardagh actually writes inside a giant pumpkin and does his best thinking while glued to the roof of a tent...

On Writing
It used to be on one particular pad with one particular pen, or one particular typewriter, or one particular Amstrad, or one particular PC, on one particular desk in one particular corner of one particular room.

Yes, I was particular.

Anywhere else, and the writing just didn't come together. Then, over time, as I got invited to appear at more and more events and festivals in more and more parts of the world, I found I HAD to write in different locations with different methods, or I'd never meet those deadlines...

...so now I write on planes, trains and in the backs of cars. On railway platforms, hotel rooms, poolsides, airports, backstage... on laptops, paper napkins, in notebooks... I can pretty much write anywhere.

On Thinking
As well as satisfying a need, writing is also my job. On weekdays -- if I'm not off at an event or travelling to or from one -- I'm at my desk from around 8.30am until 5.40pm (though may well be working again later in the evening). I'm not a writer who sets myself a number of words to write in a day, or only works morning or afternoons.

I write write, write...

It's not witchcraft or alchemy, it's putting in the hours (and having the luxury to be able to put in the hours because it's my one and only job). When the creativity comes: great. When it doesn't, I tackle the more mundane aspects of the business.

On Support
At home, I have an office and a study. The office is lined with shelves containing my foreign editions, reference books, VAT and TAX files. It houses my desktop computer, stationery, and disorganized piles of paper. My study has dark furniture, knick-knacks, Victorian and Edwardian decanters, and old pictures on the wall.

When the need takes me, I can switch from one to the other for a very different atmosphere.

In both rooms, I do like quiet.

You can find a whole load more (hilarious) stuff about Philip Ardagh on his website.
And you can follow Philip on Twitter




MALORIE BLACKMAN
Multiple award winning author of Noughts and Crosses, Boys Don’t Cry, Pig Heart Boy, Thief, and Hacker

On Writing
I write in my attic which is full of books and my work desk is tucked away in one corner.

On Thinking
I do my best thinking when I'm asleep. If I have plot problems, a good night's sleep always seems to sort them out.

On Support
I have a 'music to work by' playlist which I play when I'm answering correspondence or reworking a story. When I'm creating the first draft, I must admit I like silence. Apart from music, the odd cup of lemon and ginger tea when I'm working goes down nicely too.

You can find out more about Malorie Blackman on her website.
And you can follow Malorie on Twitter.



TERI TERRY
Soon to be published debut author of Slated (having read some early chapters of Slated, I can assure you that Teri Terry is an author you definitely want to look out for!)

On Writing
My best writing time is first thing in the morning, barely awake with a cup of tea, in my PJ’s in bed, propped up on pillows, laptop on knees. Sorry, no photos of this: no way! I write until I stop making sense, often from 6 or 7 am until 11, 12, 1, 2 or even later… I forget to eat.

Lately I’ve been finding if I stop earlier, actually eat and get up and do something else for a while like go for a walk, I am more productive over all. I usually go to the Writing Shack at the bottom of the garden for the afternoon. I'm rubbish at doing anything after lunch if I stay in the house.

All the above assumes I am home for the day! If not, writing fits in around the day job or other necessities as it will. But most days start with morning writing.

Even though Banrock (aka the Bunny ofHope: chief Muse, desk builder and partner in crime) and I spent AGES building an actual desk... I never use it to write. I don't know why: it just doesn't feel right. Why I like to write in bed is mostly tied up in my answer to the next question. And in the Shack in the afternoon, I am removed from all distractions, hidden away. The internet doesn't work that far from the house, and the only one who bothers me there is Distractor Cat from two doors down. She likes to evict my laptop for cuddles.


On Thinking
Dreams are important to me: part of the reason I like to write on waking. That subconscious bit of my brain kicks in and helps out. The kicking off point for my YA thriller, Slated – title and all – came from a dream; not the first time this has happened.

Oh, and in the shower! Not very green of me, but a long shower seems to help my brain sort out tricky plot points.

On Support
Years ago, I needed silence and complete lack of distractions: this isn’t very practical. I moved on to Mark Knopfler. The music starts and the creative part of my brain instantly knows it is time to write. I don’t think I even hear it any more. Knopfler in the morning, and birdsong in the garden in the afternoon.

One thing I don’t need is broadband. It is much better for my concentration if I leave it unplugged in the morning.

Chocolate is sometimes a reward! 3000 words gets me a walk to the shop and some M&Ms. But this may have to go as the book launch diet is about to begin.

Did I mention Slated will be out with Orchard Books next May?

You can find out more about Teri Terry on her website.
And you can follow Teri on Twitter.




If you are a children’s or YA author (or soon to be published children’s or YA author) and would like to participate in the Writing Room Revelations series, please contact me.

Writing Room Revelations - Part Six

In this week's Writing Room Revelations, I offer up the writing room secrets of two wonderful children's and teen writers - Mary Hoffman and Savita Kalhan. I think I have the timing spot on as Mary's new book, David, is published today, and this coming weekend (9 - 10 July) both Mary Hoffman and Savita Kalhan will be taking part on the "ABBA Lit Fest" being held on the Awfully Big Blog Adventure blog. Featuring a host of fabulous authors, this is a live blogging event you really don't want to miss!

But now on with the Revelations in which both Mary and Savita answer the questions:

Where do you write? And what does your writing space give you – i.e. why do you write there?

Where do you do your most creative thinking – and when? (e.g particular time of day, conscious space e.g. dreams)

Do you use/need anything particular in order to help you write? (e.g. music, chocolate, coffee, silence etc) In what way does this “support” help you?

MARY HOFFMAN
Award winning author of the Stravaganza series, The Falconer’s Knot, Troubadour – and released today, the 4th of July 2011, David.

On Writing
I write on my laptop - on my lap! I know you are not supposed to but I do and have had no problems with neck or back. I sit on the green sofa in my green and white ground floor study, which has French windows to the garden at the back of my house. Drawbacks include this being the place where the three cats bring their prey/presents for me. Some dead, some alive, some on that borderline between. Birds, shrews, squirrels, frogs. The frogs do best.

I do HAVE a desk. It contains the phone, a globe of the world (my youngest daughter is going to sail round the world with her partner), A double hole-punch, the router, a calendar from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with a different picture for every day, a tile with an Etruscan flying horse on it, and my Prix Polar Jeunesse for Rouge Crime (The Falconer's Knot), which is more valued than beautiful.

I've had this as my work room for just over ten years, when we moved from London to Oxfordshire. A ground-floor study for me was a priority. But a beautiful desk was not needed. The one I have is of pine and was actual;y bought for my middle daughter. She couldn't fit it in her London flat and the desk was in our garage. But now I have it and it is very useful for its drawers.

Instead of the desk, my coffee table beside the sofa contains all my day to day needs. Three baskets containing correspondence: Work, Non-work and Finance. Also my kindle, my Filofax, various index card boxes, notebooks, coasters for coffee, pots of pens, bookmarks and highlighters, a glass bowl of green and white glass "power stones" made for me by youngest daughter, a plant in a red cache-pot given by middle daughter, a box of tissues, a mouse-mat (quite redundant since I work on a MacBook Air with mouse trackpad, but it came from the London Review of books and has keyboard shortcuts for diacritics.

I have written in this set-up five and a half Stravaganza novels, three "historicals", two full length adult novels, not yet published, various picture books and junior fiction and an enormous number of blogs, emails, Facebook statuses and Tweets!


My writing space gives me - well not privacy, since the door is always propped open with a brass doorstop and it is quite a thoroughfare between the rest of the house and the garden. But it is where "writing me" feels at home. Each book I am working on or planning has its own open box, containing books, research notes, folders, family trees, etc, etc. On the green walls hang original artwork from my picture books by Jane Ray, Faith Jacques, Chris Riddell, and some prints of mosaics by Robert Field that I bought when researching City of Ships.

Bookcases hold my reference collection for myths and legends, children's and YA books I want to keep, one copy of all my books (90+ but the foreign editions are all upstairs, and many books on medieval and Renaissance Italy.


On Thinking
I don't have a place for this! maybe I should - a thinking room? It can strike anywhere, even in my sleep. Yes, I have dreamed a good plot, which I'm thinking of turning into a book, and a title which I like which might be another book. Or not. When I swim, three times a week before breakfast, I think about what I'm going to write that day. I am much more creative in the mornings than in the afternoons and evenings, but I waste a lot of possibly creative time on the Net, Twitter and Facebook. I'm sure I've slowed up my output since they entered my life.


On Support
Ooh, lots of things! My three Burmese cats, who wander through, resent the laptop because it's on my lap and sometime curl up beside me on a fake wolf rug so I can stroke them with one hand while typing with the other. I have the radio on, British talk radio (Radio 4) until 12 noon when there is a terrible programme called You and Yours. Then I switch to Radio 3, which plays classical music. At noon there is Composer of the Week. If I don't like that composer, I play CDS, usually of medieval or Renaissance music. Silence is not an option.

At 11am I make coffee (freshly ground hazelnut) and in the afternoon I have decaffeinated tea. Like most writers, I suffer from insomnia. i have developed a way of working that suits me; in my study i am like a nut in its shell. It feels like an organic container which help me to produce all the tens of thousands of words and ideas that go to make up a novelist’s output.

You can read more about Mary Hoffman on her website.

You can read Mary's blog – The Book Maven.

You can become a fan on Mary’s Facebook page.

You can follow Mary Hoffman on Twitter.


(Pictures of Mary Hoffman, courtesty of Lucy Coats.)


SAVITA KALHAN
Award nominated author of The Long Weekend.

On Writing
I have always written in a variety of different spaces depending on my mood and the book I’m writing. The first picture is the view from my son’s window where I wrote The Long Weekend one autumn a few years ago.


I loved working in his room because the view is stunning without being distracting, but also because it perfectly fitted the scenery of the book I was writing. I can see the tree that Sam hid in that night the man was looking for them in the woods.

The other work spaces include the little cubby-hole of a study, where, on the rare occasions they happen, emails and research, blog posts and organisation are conducted, but very little actual book writing is done there. I have tried repositioning the desk to face the window, but the light is all wrong and the view is of the road outside, which isn’t conducive to writing.

My third working space is the dining room, which is pretty much surrounded on all sides by book cases overflowing with books, a large table, which in seconds can morph from being a recognisable dining table to a cluttered mess, littered with paper, notebooks, files and laptop, which only I can make sense of!

Essentially, I think my writing space needs space or at least a feeling of space, of not being hemmed in on all sides. A cosy cubby-hole just doesn’t do it for me.


On Thinking
I’ve never really thought consciously of a place where I do my creative thinking. But thinking about it now, I think I do my most creative thinking on the deck at the back of my house, overlooking the woods and the brook. The allotment now also provides time where I can switch off from phone, emails, twitter etc and think creatively if I want to or not if I don’t. Strangely, the gym is another place where I can think creatively – especially if I’m running and I’ve got loud blaring music pumping through my earphones!

But what’s true of all my creative thinking is that although there are places where it happens more easily, there isn’t a specific time. Although it would be nice to slot a ‘creative thinking hour’ into the day and know that it will all happen then! Yes, I know, Nicky, wishful thinking...

On Support
Paper, pens, pencils and notebooks are always scattered around the house, my handbag, and the car! I scribble things down as they occur to me because there have been moments in the past when I’ve stored them in my head and when it came to write them I had completely forgotten them. It’s totally gutting when that happens! My laptop is essential, although it doesn’t get carried about everywhere, and when I’m writing I have to sever the internet connection because that really is just too distracting. Apart from those things, silence and an empty house are the most important things. Only occasionally do I feel the need for music, and then it can only be classical. Tea and apples supply the rest of what I need when I’m writing. And if the need is even greater, then I resort to the evil that is crisps and dark chocolate, although not at the same time of course!

You can find out more about Savita Kalhan on her website.

You can become a fan on Savita's Facebook page.

You can follow Savita on Twitter.

You can read my interview with Savita Kalhan here.