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Greetings and salutations. It is I, Graham.

I’m taking a bit of a break from writing this week, and almost didn’t get to do this post. Bit of a mental health crisis this week, so I walked away for a minute. Still, crisis averted, thanks to Clevenger and my other best friend. Doing my best to let it all go, and not yell, “Sorry, sorry” all over the place. But, such is life. Anyway, on to your regularly scheduled blog post.

Last week we took a look at what the situation could look like if we went the route of traditional publishing. This week, we are looking at what we expect the project and process to look like as a self published novel. We all talk about how the self publishing market has really moved up,bringing more respectability and cutting down many of the differences between the two paths. Pretty much everyone involved says that the level of marketing and publication benefits provided to authors has shrunk considerably in the new millennium, to the point that a debut book is not likely to get much more support by going with one of the Big Five, than if you self publish.

Why go through all the extra hoops just to get a publisher’s name on your book, if you are still going to be required to run your own social media advertising, your own mailing lists, and your own word or mouth. Apparently publisher organized book signings are a thing of the past, as are convention spots, unless you already have some kind of name recognition you are already bringing to the table. Add to that, even if you did manage to get the publisher to put forth some marketing effort, if next month’s numbers just aren’t what they are expecting, or if some hot newcomer pops up, you could lose what little love you had convinced them to provide.

So yes, self publication means that we do have to put our own work into marketing. But that means we get back exactly what we put into it, with no middleman to change their mind next quarter. It means that if we decide to use a Kickstarter to launch sales, or get an author’s booth at Gencon, then these don’t require permission. It means that we keep a much larger slice of a (potentially much) smaller pie.

We started this project with the simple goal of finishing a book, paying an on-demand printer for copies to put on our own shelves, and tossing the carcass online to see if it attracted any random bites. Clevenger and I have discussed, and decided that ship has sailed. We have too much faith in our product now, and are convinced that since we have something worthwhile, we may as well make a legitimate go at being published authors, not just amateur writers.

Our biggest challenge is that, as much as BookTubers want it to be otherwise, there is still a stigma placed on self published books. Sure, the prose itself may be similar, but the marketing, the quality of the covers, the lack of shelving in national chain bookstores, these are all things that are still making self published novels feel “less”. There is still an attitude that first you should try to go with traditional publishing, and only if that fails, you suck it up and do a “fall back” of self publication.

It is a tricky problem. I know that we have no intention of going a traditional publication route unless it involves all four books of the Sainan Series. We also know that getting a multi-book agreement deal as a debut author is nearly impossible. That is one of the biggest reasons, well my biggest reason, for staying with self publishing. I’m just not willing to risk getting locked out of my own Book One.

Even if it does mean never seeing my book on the shelf at Barne’s and Noble.

Don’t forget to love one another.

Graham