Common Denominators, by Gwyneth Hughes

'COMMON DENOMINATORS' by Gwyneth Hughes at Carr's Pub, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, metro Tuileries, on Sunday June 14, at 7:30 pm.

A briefcase full of stolen jewelry is buried in a garden where the protagonists of a new love affair and an old love arffair meet. Secretly, a third couple do everything in their power to retrieve the briefcase. A musical comedy.

A Lively Debate on Self-Publishing and Publishing on Demand (POD)

SOAF hosted at its ‘First Tuesday’ on 5 May at Carr’s Irish Pub in Paris a lively debate on Self-Publishing and Publishing on Demand. We publish here the minutes, taken by SOAF Secretary, Pamela Lake.

First Tuesday, May 2009. Discussion.

Present:

Gregor Dallas
Pamela Lake
Gwyneth Hughes
Stanley Lover (and his wife)
James Briggs
Margo Berdeshevsky
Paul Francis
Alison Culliford
Pierre Tran
Shelley Power
Annabel Simms
Philippa Scott
Susana Raby

The First Tuesday held at Carr’s Irish Pub on May 5th 2009 took the form of a debate on self-publishing, POD (publication on demand) and e books. Gregor Dallas opened the discussion saying that he was a techno-sceptic and that he felt we lost a great deal if we published our books ourselves. The first things we lose out on by following this route are editing and copy editing; over the last thirty years editors have been increasingly sidelined. Secondly, we lose out on marketing, publicity, distribution and reviews in the press. There has been an enormous increase in the quantity of books published and many of them are rubbish. But people do want high quality work and if we produce it we’ll succeed. He felt it was dangerous to go it alone on self-publishing but perhaps as authors we should get together to self-publish.

Stanley Lover felt that the whole publishing scene has changed over the last twenty years. Because of television and the media, people’s attention span isn’t the same as in the past and one can’t force the public to buy books. Publishers are reluctant to take risks and you have to have a ‘gold-plated’ manuscript for them to accept it. Perhaps books are going out of fashion. More and more people will be reading e books. He argued that people shouldn’t be writing, thinking how much they were going to earn but should write because they have something to say. Stanley said that he had written a memoir which would only be of interest to his family and friends but not to the general public and he was considering self publishing.

Gregor said that it was all very well to say that you shouldn’t think about what you’re going to earn and only about what you have to say, but how do you make a living? Stanley replied ‘You will die a poor man, Gregor.’

Shelley Power said that frequently books that were self-published were books that were of no interest to agents. The problem was how to publicize, distribute and sell them. The author of A Year in the Merde had been fortunate. He self-published his book and went around publicizing and distributing it and it was spotted by a publisher. But this is rare. There is also the problem of storing the books. Richard Binns had self-published but had abandoned it because of this difficulty. Shelley said that Lulu can produce a presentable book but she knew of one instance where such a book only sold a few hundred copies. She pointed out that one was unlikely to be able to sell foreign rights on a self-published book and it would be hard to get reviews in the national press.

Margo Berdeshevksy said that she had self-published in Indonesia and had spent about a year going round publicizing her book of poems in clothing stores where she thought that her work would appeal to customers.

Alison Culliford said that there were companies who would undertake the marketing, publicity and distribution of a self-published book and a new brand of marketing professionals could develop. However, everyone felt that this would come at a high price and there was no guarantee that it would produce high sales. Gwyneth Hughes said that publicity companies charged several thousand pounds to promote a book.

Shelley Power produced an e book for inspection and Stanley Lover maintained that e books were getting better all the time and that if publishers sold an author’s book as an e book they would still pay royalties. He then handed round a copy of The Complete Guide to Self Publishing by Tom and Marion Ross for inspection, together with several examples of self-published books produced by various companies. The presentation of the Lulu book was not very good but Shelley said that Lulu had improved a great deal in the last two years. Stanley recommended looking at the Society of Authors’ Quick Guide to Self-Publishing and at self-publishing web-sites. He also thought that authors should have web-sites and sell their books from there.

Gregor spoke about POD (publication on demand). He felt that any contract for POD should be limited to two years in the first instance and that the author should be paid a fee. Moreover it was essential to make sure that one was still free to sell one’s foreign rights. He has had a book published as POD since 2004 and only twelve copies have been sold. It was very sad that publishers had no interest in back lists and that they only offered POD as a solution. In the end publishers were there to make money with no interest in the author.

In summing up, Gregor repeated that self-publishing could be a route forward if authors joined forces for editing, publicity, etc. However, he felt it was dangerous to go it alone.

Self-Publishing: Is That Where We Are All Heading?

Nick Inman

Nick Inman has some further thoughts about this difficult issue of self-publishing as opposed to what he calls ‘conventional publishing’. He emphasizes the critical role of the author’s own entrepreneurial skills -- and once more opens up the question of whether we need publishers and agents if they are not promoting our works.


Let me reply both to Carol Howland and to Stanley Lover, both of whom are struggling with the contemporary author’s quandary over self-publishing.

I don't think we should think of authors being self-publishers or not. I suspect that many of us will all become self-publishers in the future -- but not exclusively. When it makes sense (and is possible) to publish a book conventionally that is what we should be doing. But when it makes sense to self-publish, why not? Self-publishing suits: (1) novels that haven't got an obvious appeal; and (2) specialist subjects; (3) subjects of local interest; (4) controversial subjects; (5) memoirs and other very personal texts; (6) re-issuing out-of-print books. I also see it as a way of an author maintaing a power over the presentation of his/her work.

Conventional publishers are not always terribly good at promotion, and some of them are plain appalling when it comes to distribution. The result is that there is no clear division between conventional publishing, with the built-in assumption of being distributed, and self-publishing where at least you know you will have your books sitting in your bedroom.

But what I really want to say is you can turn the self-publishing argument on its head. Rather than being a sad, last-ditch resort, self-publishing can actually be a geneuine opportunity for an author. Distribution, likewise, is both an obstacle and a challenge for an author, depending which way you look at it.

Print on demand is a somewhat different matter, since it takes away the risk: your book can exist on Amazon while it is virtually cost-free to you.

The essential point is that, whether you publish or self-publish, you are faced with the same challenge: to get your book known and to get a buzz going. Now, for some books this is an uphill or impossible struggle. In the case of a first novel or an esoteric subject you may have to be content with the book just being in print. You may have a strong selling point. Then it is up to you -- even if you have a great publishing marketing department behind you.

Two other points:

1) Use what looks like a handicap to your advantage. If your book is only available on the web, that means you can market it to the darkest parts of China and beyond:

2) Don't write off local bookshops. If your book has a strong local appeal you can make a living by distributing it locally. There was someone in The Author a few issues back who was doing just that, taking all the profits, and not just a measly 5 or 10%.

As to practical knowledge, I have this to say (as I have worked in publishing and have self-published):

1) Do it well. You must do everything to distance yourself from vanity publishing. Keep control over the process yourself and set yourself professional standards. Get your MS edited and proofread even if it costs you money. Get a book designer to lay the thing out, improve the photos and do the cover. Get a publisher's cartographer to help you with the maps. Homemade looks homemade. Let professional people advise you -- they may tell you to cut one third of your precious MS but if it makes a better book, just do it. Even if you are doing a hundred copies for friends and family, make it as good as it can be.

2) As for distribution, think creatively and expansively. Your aim is (a) to start an unstoppable stream of publicity via word of mouth and (b) to inspire someone somewhere in the media. You could be just as effective as a professional PR person in a large publishing house. You could do worse than read the Frugal Book Promoter by Carloyn Howard-Johnson, which verges on the outrageous but will give you some good ideas. Think like a journalist and find the angle in your book: all the media-people are looking for a "hook" to build up an article or develop a radio or TV piece. Give them something to latch on to.

Phew! I just felt like saying all that. The common thread in this is that writing is not the end of your involvement in the production process. But that is even true if you are working with a conventional publisher.

Publicity and Distribution for Outsiders

Carol Howland


Carol Howland, who chairs the Society of Authors, Nice, is the author of several high quality travel books, including Dragons on the Roof: A Year in Vietnam (The Goi, 2008) and Vietnam: Globetrotter Travel Guide (New Holland, 2002). She points out the problems she has encountered in publishing in Vietnam and particularly the built-in barriers to publicity and distribution in the West. This is a warning, she notes, to anyone embarking on a self-publishing venture.


It will be interesting to hear what is discussed at the next First Tuesday in Paris (7 May 2009) on self publishing.

Let me share with you my own experience in a somewhat related domain. My books are published in Vietnam where, although the country has joined the ISBN system, they still haven't got a proper international publishing system up and running. This means that I find myself, in the West, in a situation similar to someone who has self-published. I have to act personally as the distributor of my books! Yes, they can be ordered with a credit card through the publisher's website, but no Western bookshop will do this -- they are used to ordering books, sell or return. Vietnamese publishers only sell books and make them pay for the postage as well. You can understand the problem.

I know that theoretically you can sell books on Amazon, if you use their in-house self-publishing services. So, a friend put one of my books on Amazon's Sell My Stuff site -- with my dubious backing. How, I wondered, is anyone to do a search when they do not know my name? Finding my book on Amazon is surely going to be about as likely as stumbling across one's great aunt's favourite tea set in a shop window ten years after she has died.

My worst fears were confirmed. If I now do an Amazon search on Vietnam, my book doesn't doesn’t appear in the first 30 (!) pages.

So I would be very interested in what self-publishers have to say about distribution and selling their books on anything beyond a local bookshops-round-the-corner basis.