— Mark Paxson
Yesterday, I posted this guest post from Chuck Litka. Chuck speculates as to whether indie publishing is, or has become, the new version of vanity publishing.
This is a thought I’ve had over the years as I’ve written and published the indie way. Are we all just a bunch of vain people who need to feed our ego by putting our books out there, regardless of what agents and traditional publishers might think?
To be honest, I think there might be a kernel of truth to that notion. But … I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We create and wanting the world to see our creation is a part of the process for many of us.
Yes, there are those who create only for themselves. They journal and never share it. They paint and cover their walls with their artwork. Musicians who play at home, never sharing the beauty of their music with the outside world.
And then there are those who want more than that. Who want to share their art with a larger group. Maybe just their friends and family. Maybe their community. Or maybe, they want to see just how far they can reach, how many they can touch with a piece they have created and that has meaning to them.
When it comes to writing, for decades (centuries?) there were only two options. Traditional publishing and vanity publishing. Vanity publishing typically involved paying thousands of dollars for somebody to “publish” your book, which really meant printing it and then sending you the boxes of books. It was entirely up to you to figure out how to sell those books.
Traditional publishing had its limits as well. You had to get past the gatekeepers to get in the game with the traditional approach. Good luck with that. And unfortunately, as the years go by and publishers have to prove themselves on the bottom line, they are less and less willing to take chances, to publish things that are outside of the norm.
One of the wonders of the technological revolution of the last few decades is that it has opened all sorts of new avenues for creative people to reach an audience. Whether it is blogging or other types of websites where we can show our words and our art, or places like Patreon where we can seek patrons to support our efforts, or, well sometimes it seems the possibilities are endless these days.
But there are problems with this strange new world too. Far too many people expect whatever they get on the internet to be free. Actually paying for content on the internet is, apparently, a huge no-no. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the Bible as a venal sin. As a result, the idea of actually making money off of our art in this world where the venues seem endless … pfffftttt.
Another problem is saturation of the market place. When everybody can publish a book with the push of a button, guess what? Everybody is publishing a book. And those of us who do it the indie way have to constantly battle the backlash of readers who claim that indie published books are crap and not worth their time or their pennies.
The end result is that indie authors are faced with a world that is much like the world of vanity publishing. Sure, we can do it for much less money than the vanity publishers charged. But there’s no guarantee that we will ever actually find an audience beyond friends and family. And in some instances, maybe not even friends and family will care. So … like the writers of old who used the vanity presses, we use technology to throw our art out there and for far too many of us nobody reads it.
Meanwhile, in place of the vanity publishers of old, whole new industries are cropping up. Editors and cover artists and proofreaders and companies that will do everything for you — edit, cover art, stroke your ego, and put the books out there on the various retail platforms. For a small fee, of course. While never actually doing the hard work of marketing your book. No, that remains entirely up to the author, just like with the old-style vanity publishing.
I’ve had several co-workers who have paid several thousand dollars to these companies that are nothing better than vanity publishers for the digital age. They do virtually nothing to edit the book, nothing to market it. It’s a complete scam, but … here’s the other thing about all of this.
It’s about what each of us as writers want to do. What we want our experience to be. What we can afford. What is our objective. Those co-workers who I warned off the “publishers” they had found who were so eager to publish their books for that fee, went with them anyway. Which is fine. That fit what they were looking for and they were willing to shell out the money to make it happen.
Meanwhile, for the first nine years of my publishing journey, I didn’t have the financial resources to even think about something like that. I am one of those indie authors who has done the thing at the most minimal cost possible. Now, though, with my next book about to be published next month, I’ve cracked open the vault. I’ve paid for cover art and a Kirkus Review and I’m going to pay for some of the book marketing sites. All to see what happens. I want a bigger audience than I’ve been getting and the only way to do that is to pay for it. And hope.
Here on this blog, we’ve talked about a lot of things. Various rules of writing and suggestions for how to do things, or not to do things. Each time, I try to make sure to mention that this is not a one size fits all kind of industry.
Each writer has to decide what their objective is. Write for the fun of it. Write and publish and hope for a few readers and a review here or there. Write and publish and grow an audience. Write a bestseller and option the movie rights. Write and do what you want with the result. Each of these options has multiple paths forward and there is no right answer. Nor is there any sense in applying any negativity to the path a writer chooses.
Sure, we can call indie publishing the new vanity publishing, but so what. What’s your goal — pursue it. Pursue your art and make your dreams come true, whatever they are, whatever others may say about it, and whatever the labels may be.
Write. Create. Be you.
And buy my book!!
I’m kidding. No, not really.
Writers Supporting Writers 
I agree. Yes, there’s a kernel of truth to the idea that this is, in some sense, done to feed our egos.. But then you realize that traditionally published authors are no different. They want to feed their egos, too. But there’s nothing wrong with that, in moderation. Bottom line, if that’s what it takes to motivate a person to write and publish a good story, I can’t complain.
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Well, Mark, I think we agree on most points, though I don’t see any vanity in self-publishing. It takes a real effort and discipline to covert an idea into a story, and then to see it published. There’s no reason not to be proud of your effort and what you created.
I see writing as art. And art as a journey rather than a destination. The fact that more people can pursue the art of writing is a wonderful thing, even if it makes it harder for all of us to find an audience.
I do think, however, that anyone just starting to self publish today is facing a real challenge. I fear that it is almost impossible to find an audience today without putting a great deal of effort into promoting one’s book — and not just because there are so many books. Rather, the ebook market has evolved into something very much like the old pulp magazine market The ebook has become the format of choice for avid readers who have very specific tastes in the genre books they read. The broad book market for ebooks may have actually shrunk since the early years of ebooks, when they were a new thing, and their proponents claimed that ebooks would soon make paper books obsolete. Instead outside of those couple of dozen very hot sub-genre, there may a modest audience for every other type of book — and a lot of books for them to choose from.
So if you want to make money, you need to identify a potentially lucrative audience, discover what they want, and deliver all the tropes and story beats they expect. If you can write the story you want and still do this, you’re lucky. If not, you’ll have to make the choice — go with your wallet or your heart.
Mark talks of different courses in self publishing. Here’s mine:
I write the books I wan to read, but can’t find. (I like late 19th, early to mid 20th century adventure novels.) Which suggested that there wasn’t much of a market for the books I wanted to write. So I decided to exchange the pocket change I’d likely earn selling them for readership by selling my books for free. Other than that, I don’t do anything to promote them. I’ve made about $300 in royalties these last six years, mostly from Amazon’s non-US stores that don’t price match my books. My only out of pocket expense is buying and mailing signed paper copies to my volunteer beta/proofreaders. I don’t think I’ve lost much, if any money self-publishing, which is not something I think most self publishing authors can say. I’ve given away something like 40,000 books, with my space opera and planetary romance pair account for half of that total. (Sub-genre matters.) I have grave doubt that this strategy would work in today’s market. I don’t know what would.
Good luck with your new book, Mark! I’m looking forward to seeing how your plan works out for you.
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Yes. We agree on most points. I guess though that I’m going to stick with my idea that there is a bit of vanity involved in what we do. And I don’t think that is a negative or pejorative term in this context. It’s just a reality of putting our art out there. There’s a little bit of “look at me” and “please like me” involved in that.
Regarding the marketplace for ebooks. I agree … it really works for certain genres and really doesn’t for others. Literary fiction, which is primarily what I write these days, is a black hole in the indie world. When I published my first novel — a courtroom drama — I managed to make a couple thousand dollars because that’s the type of genre that works in the indie e-book world. Since that book, I’m probably right about where you’re at … about $300. But, at least I’m not losing money given, as you say, the low costs to enter the market.
Fingers crossed my effort with the new one will be worth it. 😉
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I think we’re lucky to have first published in the gold rush era, or soon after, when it was still possible to be discovered without advertising. We’re able to bring some of our readers along with us now. I don’t know what it would be like to start out to today. At this point in May I’m actually moving more books on Apple than I am on Smashwords (i.e. not many). And my recent new releases generate half or a third of sales of what theyonce did in 2015 & 16 on Smashwords. Maybe I’m not writing the right books… Luckily I enjoy writing.
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I agree with the theme of your post Mark. You make your choice and you work with that choice
For years my fiction diet was SF/Fantasy. Then I noticed a steady repetition of ‘And the world/land was overrunning by the fiendish hordes of blah-blah; meanwhile someone is noble and will do something about it; while the villains get all the best lines…and if the noble (and angst ridden) hero is lucky they will meet up with a few renegades to help them.’* I guess folk reading other genres have had similar experiences.
So I decided.
‘I can write differently to that. I can and I will. So there. And it will go on Kindle and there will remain until the great system turns to dust – or whatever computer systems do when they decay. I will not be told how to write, or what is wrong with these books (nothing actually- you just didn’t get the subtexts- not my fault), especially having to pay for that dubious privilege.’
That my my cantankerous and cussed choice.
Yes my books languish along with countless others. By they are my languishing books
But to be fair to me I do mention from time to time on my WP blog- that’s a kind of marketing isn’t it.
Isn’t it????
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