The esteemed buyer, seller, promoter and publisher of GINNY GOOD by self-effacing, mild-mannered me. G.
November 16, 2006
Interview with Paul Cohen re: "Self-Publishing"
GERARD JONES: What a "self-published" book lacks is the vetting process, the assumption that if a reputable agent sold the thing to a reputable publisher, the book's gotta be worth hyping and the media (book reviewers, talk shows, awards guys, booksellers, etc.), hype the Bejesus out of it. If it's "self-published" the assumption is that no good agent could sell it or wanted to sell it and no good publisher wanted to buy it...so why should the media waste its time and no reader, therefore, will waste his or her time reading the thing. People buy hype, period. Hype costs money. Money makes money. With enough hype The Cleveland Yellow Pages will sell a billion copies. Without any hype, the greatest literature of all time won't make a dime and won't be read by anyone who can read. You know all this, but your potential clients need to know it and need to be willing to make an investment in themselves and in their work for their own exquisite reasons, whatever they may be, and not with the hope of realizing a monetary return on that investment.
PAUL COHEN: The vetting process is important. Epigraph is not a self-publishing company in that sense. We will not accept a client's book for publication if it hasn't a chance of competing. What would be the point? The idea behind Epigraph is to level the playing field for authors whose books could compete against traditionally published authors if they were given equivalent access and publishing services.
The bias against self-publishing is at an end. Editors, publishers, booksellers, reps, etc all realize that what makes a book a success is the content and the marketing, not the ownership of rights. Readers do not care or even know who published their favorite book. The bias against bad books, on the other hand, remains. Editors and booksellers understand the difference and they understand too that the publishing industry as a whole is undergoing profound changes. When Steven King self published one of his new novels online a couple of years ago, it sent a message and a question through the industry about the theretofore inviolable structure of traditional publishing contracts. It proved that the publishing contract, and all that it implied, had fallen behind the march of technology. As more good self-publishing companies develop, self published works will be seen not as vanity projects but as author empowered. If self-publishers are smart, they will become known as uber-marketers of their work. If they do that successfully, booksellers will buy their works with confidence.
GERARD JONES: What your "trade publishing" option has going for it is that people will end up with a "real" book, nicely produced, with a credible distribution network. That's worth $10k to people with a spare $10k to throw around, but other than corporate clients, there are very few individual "authors" who can possibly have any hope in hell of recouping their investment.
PAUL COHEN: Authors have to know up front that publishing is not (for most people) directly profitable. Most books that are published do not make money, even for publishers. There has to be some other reason to publish. It's that other reason that makes publishing worthwhile. Whatever that other reason is, it should be worth the initial investment to publish. If authors approach self-publishing in this way, and as an investment in their own work or career, they can have some peace of mind while they are doing it and make better publishing decisions because of it. Those authors are more likely to recoup their investment and even make a profit over time.
Also self-publishing doesn't have to cost $10,000; that's just an example on the website. If you really want to do it on the cheap, say, to get started, you can self publish for free on Lulu.com. Self-publishing is a way to be proactive in the development of your intellectual property. Sometimes it's the only way. Rather than be a victim of the publishing industry you can take matters into your own hands.
Some authors do make money self-publishing. Most recently, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki self published their Why We Want You to be Rich because it allowed them to donate a half a million dollars to their pet project, teaching business and money-making skills to kids in public schools. Self-publishing is no different than traditional publishing in that sense. If you sell a lot of copies, you'll make money.
GJ: You seem to have "hype" options, as well. That gets even more expensive and doesn't ensure a better return.
PC: The hype options are about making sure books sell through. Epigraph, unlike most self-publishing companies, provides national distribution to bookstores. That's not something the author has to do. The author's publicity dollars will go further having that kind of support. The author is also not alone; they are working with a team. As you said, there is no guarantee that promotion will improve your return on investment but from my experience promotion nearly always produces a better end result than no promotion.
Authors have to learn to think more long term about the development of their intellectual property. The idea that a book has only has three months in which it should be marketed is quite damaging to the longer term prospects for that book. What most books need to succeed is prolonged and targeted marketing. The savvy self publishing author will still be promoting when his traditionally published competitor closes shop in 3 months.
Thanks for the interview. It's like the Dalai Lama says, "There'll be no money but on your deathbed, you'll receive total consciousness." So, you'll have that going for you.
GJ: That Dalai Lama guy, he's one smart cookie. Thanks. G.
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