Following your Personal Vision for Publishing Success!
I first self-published a book in 2001, whilst I was still teaching high school English and History in NSW state secondary schools (before my medical retirement), when my guide for secondary and tertiary students, Study Success Know-How, was assembled at the local Kinko’s copy center in a saddle-stitched format. After a wonderful review in Reading Time: The Journal of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (Vol. 45, No. 4, November 2001, p. 37), that suggested that “for students experiencing study problems, a copy of this guide could be used by teachers and student counselors to show them and to encourage them to apply for their own personal copies”, I suddenly found myself courted by traditional educational publishers, and the book was reissued in a 2nd edition in 2002 by Five Senses Education Pty Ltd. This new publisher then also published my second book, Film Study Terms, in 2003. When I came to publishing my third book, Words to Inspire Writers, however, in January 2008, I was determined to self-publish again (this time through Lightning Source direct, using TeX for the interior and Scribus for the cover), and the Self-Publishing experience has proven just as successful second time around (as the wonderful reviews this book has collected to date show). So successful in raising my profile as an author, indeed, that my fourth book, a young adult novel, The Profile, is just about to be released by All Things That Matter Press™ in the US!
I suppose what my story says, more than anything else, is that, if you believe you are a writer and are meant to write books, you will (somehow, some way) always find a way! All Things That Matter Press™ are already preparing my fifth book (and my second with them), a contemporary police thriller, The Last Loose End, for publishing in 2009 as well!
As one of the main characters in my young adult novel, The Profile, says:
“…what we’ll all have done with our lives… will be unique – true only to an internal, personal vision, unable to be judged by anyone but ourselves, because the blueprints for our lives, and their unraveling, will be known only to each of us individually. Life may be our shared goal, but the living of it that we each do is ours and ours alone.”
If you truly wish to be a successful Self-Publisher, you might like to build upon the following 10 Secrets that I have discovered in my journey to Writing success:
- Learn about your topic. Learn as much as you can about your subject, so that you become an expert on it, whose opinion will be welcomed by those acquiring your book to read! You are going to be asking people to read a book that you have written and you are practically guaranteeing that the book will give them value for money (or their time, at least). Nothing will kill your career as a writer quicker than if readers find they have been duped by your shallow promise of quality wisdom or escapist entertainment.
- Know what your message is. You are no doubt writing a book because you have something to say. If you truly believe that what you have to say is worth saying, then there will be people out there who will want to hear what you have said. Believe me, people want to learn (about many things): teach them what you have learnt, and what they want to learn, and you will have a reader for life.
- Stay focused on your message. Time is so valuable today that people truly cannot afford to waste a second of it. If you promise a particular thing in your book (whether it be a good read, a method for doing something, or a philosophical exercise in banality), deliver on it! Nobody gets more frustrated than a reader who finds that the book they have in their hand is not what they were expecting, or wanted, or needed.
- Deliver value every time. Make every reader you ever have a complete convert to your cause. Make them want to tell everyone they meet about you and your book! The only way you can do this is to give that reader a book that fulfils the promise of its marketing hype. If it is the next best thing, then good for you – but if you promise it as the next best thing and it is really last year’s leftovers, beware!
- Know everything you can about Self-Publishing. There are opportunities available today for the writer with heart and passion and commitment to achieve literary success that were unheard of even ten years ago. The Internet is making writers the most valuable messengers of the twenty-first century! A machine will never be able to put words together in the uniquely human way that we can, and with the infinite variety of style, subject, and substance that only we can master. You do not even have to spend one cent to find invaluable information online (starting with www.selfpublishing.com itself, and the wonderful free resource that is Publishing Basics). But know this: if you choose not to learn about Self-Publishing – especially the trials, the common mistakes, the best practices, and the like – then you are really only condemning yourself to failure. Guaranteed!
- Manage the production of your book. You may not have the means or wherewithal to overcome all of the obstacles that will confront you in the production of your book, but through websites, e-zines, newsletters, self-publishing groups and the like, you should be able to find the information that you require. Use the immense pool of talent that is the Web and dip into it when and where you need to. Trade services if budgetary constraints are pivotal – a cover for a media release, for instance. If you cannot use a particular piece of software either enlist the help of someone who can or learn how to use it yourself. I had never done typesetting before, but TeX and the TexUsers Group put me on to so many resources that I soon found myself preparing my book’s interior with (relative) ease. Simply put: either become the expert you need to be to manage each part of the production, or hire/find that expert instead.
- Create a piece of Art. This might sound silly, but surely at the end of the day you want to have created a book of which you can be proud. It is something that you will use to sell yourself to future readers, publishers, and others. You do not want to be ashamed of it. As a Self-Publisher, because you have taken on the responsibility of completing the entire project, either solely by yourself or through enlisting the help and support of innumerable others, the end result is your baby. You will want to show it off like a proud parent. It is a piece of literature, yes, but more importantly, it is an item that has commercial value also. Do not sell yourself short by creating something not worthy of carrying your name on the cover.
- Tell everybody (relevant) about your book. You want to spread the word about what you have created so that people can decide whether it is something they want to read (and/or own). This, in a nutshell, is all that Marketing is: telling people about your book. But, and this is the important bit, it has to be the right people, at the right time. Whilst writing the book you would have had an audience in mind, the person you might have imagined reading what you had to say, and now all you have to do is go out and find that person. No more, no less. Just round them up, every single one of them. If your book is good, and it does what you’ve said it will, they’ll tell others about it. Word will spread. And guess what? They’ll even come back for more!
- Aim for constant improvement. Make sure that each book you write and publish is better than the one before. Your mantra should be “How can I do better next time?” always. I don’t profess to have all the answers, but I’ve tried things along the way, made mistakes, and learnt from them. No one can criticize you for learning from your mistakes – after all, that’s what life is all about. I still haven’t got my head all the way around this whole Internet thing yet: the world of websites, blogging, email marketing, and social networking is still a little out of my league (right now) – but I am going to try and learn about these things, and (one day) begin to capture emails from people who visit my site, have an author newsletter, and be a part of a community that includes my current and future readers. It just won’t all happen overnight! I have a simple WordPress website at the moment, which gives me an online presence whilst I continue educating myself about these things. Of course, I also want to work on the next book, and then the one after that.
- Enjoy the journey. Here is where you have to be brutally honest with yourself: do you really want to write a book, create a product (the finished typeset book or ebook), sell or giveaway that product, and be part of the wonderful commercial or philanthropic venture that is Self-Publishing? Or would you rather just write? Because unless you can commit your heart and soul to the pursuit of a viable commercial product, you may as well just write for fanzines and ezines, and leave the marketing to others. Self-Publishing requires not only a belief in yourself, but also a belief in your message. Do you believe enough in what you want to say – nay, have to say! – to spend the next few months, years, even a decade or longer, telling people about it? That’s the sort of commitment you will require to achieve success as a Self-Publisher. If it isn’t fun, and if you don’t want to do it every single day, more than anything else in your life, then instead do whatever that other thing is that you want to do more! Writers just write, but Authors write books, and Self-Publishers create products (ebooks or physical books) for distribution (via retail, wholesale, charitable, or promotional channels). In this large an enterprise, only passion produces perfection, nothing less.
Remember one thing though: these are my Top 10 Secrets for achieving Publishing Success! They will not necessarily exactly match all of yours. Indeed, you can probably guarantee our journeys will be different, as the only thing they have in common is the destination – certainly not the starting point. But until you’ve tried, and taken your journey, you won’t be able to list your own Top 10, will you? Similarly, how you measure your success will be totally unique also. To have created a family history to be given out with pride to family and friends might be all that you want to achieve, or to have formatted a simple ebook of hard-won business knowledge, to use as a FREE promotional giveaway to advertise your products or services might be all that you have in mind. Regardless, your measure of success will be yours and yours alone. Do not compare apples and oranges. Your (physical or electronic) book will not be exactly like any other in existence: that is your challenge, your pleasure, and your responsibility as a Self-Publisher. I, for one, look forward to the day when you choose to share those tips you think are the Top 10: I’ll be first in line to read them (if only to see where we differ!). Good luck.
Gregory Victor Babic is an Australian author who has worked in librarianship, policing, retailing, marketing, and teaching. His work is always extremely personal and reflects a view of self that is at once hopeful, inspiring and filled with love. His website may be found at gregbabic.com and he may be contacted via info@gregbabic.com. You can download a FREE sampler of his last book, Words to Inspire Writers, from fcsachandsonspublishers.com/sampler.
