The Royal “I” or the Global “We” ?
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I have had time to process your rich array of comments, support and advice given in reply to my first article in Idaho Falls Today. Your honest opinions threw up a bag of issues for me. After a lot of contemplation and thought I figured a second article was needed from, UK Jo. Then again, you guys out there may surprise me, yet again and have a different opinion on that as well! But here goes.
There is a long path of enlightenment on the rocky road of writing. I have learnt many things along the way. I’d like to share some knowledge I have gleaned with you all, starting with “self-publishing”.
No . . . Honestly . . . Trust me . . . It will get exciting I promise you . . . No, stop . . . I can hear your groans floating over the North Atlantic . . . Stick with me.
The term, “self-publishing”, refers to the process after writing your block-buster. You decide to take on the whole ballgame, solo. You find a printing house willing to print the minimum and pay an up-front fee, maybe $2,000, maybe $4,000. Add the expenses of publicity, leg work, fuel costs, ebay, Amazon accounts and your man hours. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who has a spouse who believes in you and will take care of the real world while you fulfil your dreams. You fill your trunk and go State to State delivering to independent stores. You are a strong enough person to cope with the drain on financial, emotional and physical resources — Easy, right (?!) Only thing is there is this unwritten code, get this — no-one in ‘the business’ will admit to this — publishing houses do not like ‘self-publishers’ who take money out their wallets. Fact.
Stick with me, you guys. There is a point to this . . .
Now, think of all the big, chain book stores across the country. You go knock on their door you’d better be wearing sneakers ‘cause they’ve got big sticks to chase you with and there sure as hell ain’t no carrots on the end of them. Just ask any of the small, independent book stores.
I promise you I’m heading somewhere . . .
I agree, a time back some of the big named writers started along the self-publishing route. But that was, what, ten or fifteen years ago? I agree, if you feel you have got one book in you, then get it down and do it. But what about if you know this is going to be your life’s work and you have a file tucked away with a dozen stories? What then?
Keep with me guys . . . I’m getting there . . . honest.
There is another way of publishing without an agent — “Vanity publishing”. Shush, don’t tell anyone I used that profanity as I’ll be permanently black-listed. You can ‘V’ (shush) publish easy enough. Just look in the back of newspapers, magazines and journals. You’ll find a company who will publish, “Any book for a nominal fee.” You pay, maybe $2,500 up front, probably more. The company tells you they promote your work in, “All the major high street stores.” And, “You’ll get your money back in no time.” Only thing they forget to tell you is once they make a fast buck they have no need to push any further. So many good novels have been lost that way — My Grandfather, a sea Captain in both the wars, being one of them.
So, . . . ? I hear you say. Point being? Here it comes . . .
There is a word we use a lot on this path. Tenacious. If a person is deadly serious you have to be tenacious. When I say, “Help me find an agent,” I’m not saying, “Woe is me,” and whining. I’m saying, “Hi, everyone, this is me. Nice to meet you!” My heart is telling me, “Say hi to everyone, because you never know how many friends you’ll make along the way or what you will learn.”
The other issue raised was — web site. I, perhaps, chose the wrong words. Maybe instead of saying, ‘computer illiterate,’ I should have said, ‘computer uninterested.’ I know I’m being a big-girls-blouse about this but computers bore me, plain and simple. I figure I’m a reasonable story-teller. Go with my strengths — right? Why not say, “Hi, nice to meet you.” Never know who you might meet along the way — right? I may find a genius who enjoys the super-cyber-highway as much as I enjoy writing about my characters.
Now . . . here’s my question to you. My reason for this article . . . Finally!
Do you feel, in this day and age, you make your own destiny? Do you believe that we should work, learn, push, drive, self-sufficient, independent, isolated and insular? Expand our strengths so we rely on no-one and we can say — “I did this.”?
Or . . .
Should we trust? Plain and simple trust and shout to the world, “Here’s my strengths, can I help anyone? Here’s my frailties. Help me?” Then at the end of the day we can say — “Hi, friends, we did this.”
I or We?
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Comments
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1 
0 Hi, Jo…
A close relative of mine wrote and self-published a book 11 years ago and was very sucessful with it. In fact, she sold out a 2,000 copy order and (I think) could have sold that many more if she had re-ordered. The book was a history of a national club.
I learned a lot about this part of the book business from participating in the project.
The book sales were successful because my relative was well known to the group she wrote the book for, and directed it to that group first and foremost.
She very actively promoted the book through the mail (this was in 1997, when the net wasn’t as big as today), and attended many national events the club put on, where she set up a sales table. She sent review copies to prominent club members and asked for reviews. She advertised in the club’s monthly magazine. She telephoned a lot of her friends and associates who were fellow club members.
There were parts of the book that were mildly controversial; the club had gone through a period of leadership struggle, and, though she remained neutral, just the mention of that time was enough to cause club members to start talking again about the period and it’s dissentions. Newer members, who joined after everything was finally settled didn’t know much about this time, and this helped book sales.
The effort really paid off- she gained a lot of extra income in the 2 1/2 years it took for the edition to sell out. She sold far more in the second year than the first as word spread. By the end of the second year, several large chain bookstores were interested in buying all her remaining copies, but she decided to just keep selling them herself. The bookstores were only going to pay her a very discounted price, but I disagreed with her decision not to sell the remainders to one of them… I thought that if she had, she might have been able to sell out a second edition.
All these years later, she’s still getting occasional requests for a copy, and even though another similar history was published (another self-published effort), hers remains the now-standard reference.
I know you’re writing fiction, but like non-fiction, there are many areas of interest within that huge genre. I think that, if you thoroughly did your homework before publishing, you might find your market niche. You may have to alter your manuscript somewhat to aim at that niche, but if the book is good, you never know what can happen.
There is a tendency in the publishing business now for the major publishers to look at self-published books that have done well as small offerings. If a big league editor likes your work, and it did well, it could well be viewed favorably for much wider release as you already established, targeted, and displayed the book’s potential.
All this makes cuts the risk of a large publisher down considerably. Having a big publisher behind you can make for a lot more copies sold, but they’ll take half to 2/3 of the money. If you self-publish, you take a much bigger chance up front, but if the sales are good, you keep all the cash.
Of course, if the book flops, you will end up with a room full of unsold books if you self-publish. Self-publishing is like any risky venture- the costs are great, but the rewards can be much greater.
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1 0 Thanks, again, boomer for your comments and personal experience. Always helpful. What did you think of the questions at the end of the article? The idea behind the article was to show what ONE person can achieve. As the question suggests, at what point should “I” become “WE” - If at all?
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0 0 Interesting question. I can’t help but think you’re offering a false choice though. e.g. all or nothing. A false choice is often presented as a deliberate attempt to eliminate the middle ground (e.g. “you’re either with us or against us”). It doesn’t seem “deliberate” in this case but more that you’re understandably looking for more certainty.
There are probably more options than the two you’ve presented - more involved in some aspects, less involved in others. etc.
I need to get some sleep and hoping my fever goes down enough to not miss work again tomorrow….so while I don’t have a good answer to your question yet, my first impression was that it’s possible there might exist a more useful question than the one you’ve asked.
Great post by the way…made me think. Don’t do that when my head hurts
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0 0 Great, towelsnapper. Now we are getting somewhere. Yes, there is more. There has to be more doesn’t there? But what? Keep the comments coming. There is a reason for the long introduction to the questions. There’s always a reason. There’s always more. Where else do you get ‘false choices’? Do we ever get choices? What is the question? So much more………
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0 0 Hi, UK Jo…
Just some suggestions…
Put the horse before the cart and write the book first. When my relative decided to go for it, she was a woman with a mission. and worked on the project every single day once she started.
She had a couple of months of wandering around in the weeds before everything finally started taking shape, and all of the first writing was dumped totally- about 180 pages of manuscript.
While she didn’t have an editor per se, she passed around parts of the manuscript to folks who knew the history- sort of a wiki fact checker, before there was a wiki. A couple of English teachers volunteered to check spelling and edit the writing.
After that first brutal edit, others followed for the teachers, and gradually, the writing sharpened up a lot. By the end, my relative was writing very well, but it took some time before she realized that not every word was a precious thing that couldn’t be cut out or changed.
I was involved simply because I knew a major publishing program very well- it’s the widely used in the printing industry. Essentially, I took the manuscript and made it into a book. I was paid for my work, but as it was in the family, I did it a lot cheaper than I would have for someone else. You may be able to find someone like me.
If not, I suggest deciding which way you want to go after the book is well underway. You may find a vanity press is going to charge you way too much for editing and formatting vs. going with an established publisher, who will take this part of the work on as part of accepting your manuscript.
Either way, make sure you use accepted rules of writing your manuscript. Find out how publishers like to see manuscripts, and stick with the format they like best.
I suggest looking around for folks who are willing to give your stuff a read and some constructive criticism. If you listen carefully to what they say, you’ll probably have more success with seeing it through to the end. At some point, it all becomes a ‘we’ as much as an ‘I’.
Best of luck to you! It’s hard solitary work. If you burn out, don’t give it up for good- it’s a job that requires persistance and self-confidence.
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2 0 I believe one makes their own destiny. You can look to your friends and family for guidance, encouragement and peharps financial help, but really in the end it’s up to you and you alone. I think in this day and age too many people expect “we” instead of “I” and this is why more often than not, people dont suceed as often as they should. This is just my opinion but it’s something that’s served me well throughout many stages of my life.
Best of luck to you UKJo!
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1 0 UKJo….I think boomer may have gone over some of this, but I just noticed an ad on the IFT site today that touts “self publish your own book and distribute on Amazon.com and other outlets” It gave a website of http://www.createspace.com and http://www.booksurge.com
I haven’t gone to the sites to check them out, I dont have time at the moment, but perhaps this will help point you in the right direction.
take care.
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That was one hell of a long way to ask a question, Jo.
I’m thinking you were trying to get the readers to think, write, Jo? That’s what righters try to do, get readers to think.
In answer to your question: “All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
John Donne (1572-1631)