When I read about self publishing, I notice that it’s often being lumped together (ie all self publishing is the same). But of course, the truth of the situation is much more complicated. I decided to make a list (I love lists!) of some less obvious, more creative ways that a writer can use self publishing to further a career.
- Out-of-print back list: okay, this isn’t particularly creative, but it’s the most obvious no-drawbacks use of self publishing today.
- Short story anthology, using (mostly) previously published works: I think this would be especially good to do if you have a novel coming out soon (or that has recently come out). Numbers show that short stories and their anthologies don’t sell as well as novels, but fans of a novel already out might very well be interested. Of course, even without a novel out, this could still be useful. (A few writers I love are talking about doing this, and I can’t wait to have all their stories in the same place.)
- Short stories (previously published or NOT) that tie into the world of a novel you have out (or that is about to come out): Novelettes and novellas that tie in would also fall into this category. Of course, it may be better to offer some of this content for free on your website to draw readers in. The question is, are you using the stories to draw readers in, or to profit from your already-established reader base? Doing both is probably the best of all.
- Continuing a series that has been cancelled by its publisher: This is a win for a writer who wants to finish their larger-scope project and the readers who want to find out what happens. One thing to consider, however, is how available the first book(s) of the series are. Are they still in print? Is the publisher offering them as e-books? At a non-prohibitive price?
- Writing for a niche or non-obvious market: Some books cannot be sold to big publishing because they simply don’t have a big enough proven audience. This has more to do with business than with quality (although obviously it’s possible that it’s about both). My favorite example is novels set in college. These are often a hard sell because current YA is not set in college, period (with a few exceptions). Sometimes these college books can be sold as mainstream lit or chick lit, but often not. It’s hard to know where to shelve them in a bookstore, and it’s hard to find them. Yet there is obviously an audience for books set in college (I know this because I love them myself and am always on the lookout for more. Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society books, anyone?) There are other examples of niches like this in fiction, and even more in nonfiction.
- Having novels come out both from big houses AND self-publishing: This is an interesting strategy for faster writers, which potentially allows the writer to profit from the upsides of both traditional and self-pub at the same time. It also solves the problem of prolific writers. Honestly, when I read this article, I cringed, because it feels like writers who happen to be fast and have a good work ethic are being penalized. (Note: not all writers, or even first timers, have the long wait discussed in this article.) Of course, this is only an option if the writer doesn’t have a non-compete clause with the big house or is willing to use a pen name (if it’s a secret pen name, several of the advantages of this set-up will be wasted; an “open secret” pen name may or may not go against contract. I have no idea what most contracts specify in this regard).
Have any other creative ideas about how to use self publishing? Thoughts about the pros and cons of the ones I’ve listed above? Let me know!
The Practical Free Spirit 
This is a really useful list. Thanks for compiling it!
You’re very welcome! It was fun to organize my thoughts on these possibilities. 🙂
This is a great post, and it brings up a number of interesting issues — especially the last two bullets.
Bullet 5 really focuses the point on the large number of market failures going on right now in the publishing industry. Publishers pick up books based on their estimate of their ability to sell enough of them to be profitable, given their existing operating overheads, booksellers’ shelf space limitations, and so on. But those constraints are effectively very tight, and so lots of books which would sell quite well aren’t getting selected — the college books you mention being a great example. I suspect that these “niche books” will cumulatively add up to a lot — even on the Internet, the fraction of web page loads which is for the “long tail” is very heavy (I don’t have the exact number on hand, but something like 40% of pages accessed in a given day haven’t been accessed in the past month), and it may be even heavier for books. Just because something is niche doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable!
And bullet 6 ties in to your “writing is a business” post from a few weeks ago. If you think of your own writing as a brand, and you as the producer of that, big publishing is one (potentially very important) distribution channel — but it isn’t the only distribution channel. If you were selling widgets, it would be obvious that you want to understand the different distribution channels and use a combination of them to reach the most buyers. Having both big middlemen with access to brick-and-mortar stores and direct electronic channels would seem like a no-brainer. (Especially if one distribution channel was more limited in how many products that it could handle than you are in how much you can produce, and your customers are in how much they want to buy!)
Even though writers don’t tend to think of their work as a business, I think this point shows exactly why it can be valuable to do that sometimes.
To be fair, I could see how it would be more difficult to market niche books, especially if it wasn’t the corporate speciality (hence many nice small presses). Since so much marketing comes down to bookstore placement etc., those books that don’t have a neat fit are going to be harder to sell. Online selling can, I think, help alleviate this problem, especially once the online book browsing experience is improved.
Building a platform. Since publishing is a Catch 22–publishing houses won’t take a new writer without showing that they sold anything as a writer and we can’t sell anything without being published–we need a third option that would allow us to build readers (and improve) until they sign us. It’s connected to 4, which should be expanded.
Well, it certainly is very difficult to get a publishing contract, but I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say it’s a Catch-22, myself, as I have several writer friends who have sold their first novels in the past two years. Plus I just can’t seem to shed my optimism. 🙂
You’re right that I didn’t address issues for new writers hardly at all. That would be another complete post (at least one), but I’m still in the process of formulating my opinions and ideas about it, so I’m holding off, at least for now.