You’ve written that brain child and want to gain recognition as a writer. Should you go the self publishing route?

Every writer has probably faced this question at some point. In the modern age, self-publishing is becoming easier and easier. Why spend all the work sending off a manuscript after manuscript only to get rejection after rejection. I mean, it’s simply easier to write your novel then send it off to a vanity press and get your novel instantly published…for a price. Or you can opt for the many online self publishing services. These services will even put the book onto an online store so you can start reaping instant profits. They practically promise your literary and commercial sucess should you go ahead and pay them to publish your novel. So should you go the self publishing route?

No, I do not feel this is the path you should take, should you wish to be a “Writer.” There are two types of writers out there: writers and published writers. If you want to be the former, by all means self publish. But all the “real” writers are published. Real writers have readership. Sorry if that stings, but it’s the bare truth.

Now, there two types of self-publishers out there. The first type are those who want to create a vanity project, with no aspirations of readership or literary success. You can probably throw in those who write a book that has no chance of being picked up by a major publisher because the book has low salability — it’s eclectic or some sub genre that won’t attract to much readership. If this is these are case, then self publishing may work for you. The other type of self publisher are those who want to gain commercial/literary success with their writing but aren’t willing to put the work in to get published.

Now, sorry if this sounds rude, but I feel this is absolutely true. Oh, I’m not saying that these types don’t spend the time to write a book to the best of their abilities. But these types are unwilling to endure the growing pains of becoming a Writer – growing pains that include constant publisher rejections, rewrite after rewrite, and years of writing without seeing any tangible results.

If you are considering self publishing and want to be a Writer, with the capital sense of the word, then don’t self publish – you are shooting yourself in the foot. The problem with self-publishing is that many writers want an easy path to becoming a Writer. That’s fine. But like anything in life, most things worth having or achieving take some god-honest work. In life, there are no shortcuts – this applies to writing as well. I know there are many writer types out there that feel going the published route is giving into the “Man”, that true artistic merit cannot be judged, blah blah blah. These types of self-published authors remind me of those kids who show up on the American idol auditions with delusions of their singing prowess. They are only fooling themselves.

Now, I’m not trying to offend self-published authors here. I’m just stating the facts of how it looks from my side of the fence. Many self-published authors absolutely believe self publishing is a path—or an easier path–to commercial or literary success. I am simply stating in my experience, it’s not and it will probably lead to a dead end or at least delusions of success. What’s the difference between unpublished authors and self-published authors? A string of rejection letters over the years and a hell of a lot more hard work on the part of the published author. Most published authors out there have a plethora of publishing rejections under their belt. They use each successive rejection to improve their writing and storytelling abilities until they get to the “publishable” level. This can take years, maybe even ten years, of single minded dedication.

If you think that simply having a book that you can feel in your hands instantly puts you on equal footing prose-wise or storytelling-wise with writers who have spent years getting rejections by professional editors and using those rejections to improve their writing craft, think again. Any self-publishing website that tell you otherwise is flat out lying.

Now I know there are those lucky few that don’t go through all these hurdles, but these are an exception to the rule. Most published authors can list off a litany of publishing rejections – for writers it’s some what of a in joke to list their battle scar rejections.

But ironically it’s these rejections that help you to get published. There is a lot to say having a pro editor look over your work and offer critiques with the rejection – these rejections and critiques help the writer improve their prose and storytelling, and make each new book effort more likely to meet with success.

Now, if you want to self publish and you know what you are getting into, I truly wish you the best. I’m sure there are many good reasons for doing so, and I am sure they are all valid ones. But if you want to find commercial success and gain a readership as well as social respect, consistently self publishing books is not the way to go — indeed, self publishing your books may only be stunting your growth as a writer. As an experiment while honing your writing chops, sure. But if you want to be a writer with readers, no. If you want to go the self-publishing route, by all means, self-publish away, but make sure you at least understand exactly what you are doing when you do so.

I’ve started a new best fantasy series recommendation list. The recommendation list compiles the best epic fantasy series that I’ve come accross. Many of the books are taken from the Top 25 Best Fantasy Books list, but rearranged into a different ranking. There are also some other new fantasy series recommendations you might not have seen on any of the other lists. The page is still underdevelopment — I’ll be reordering some of the rankings, fixing up typos, and adding more comment links to each book, etc.

It’s my goal to try to keep adding new fantasy recommendation lists that address different reading tastes for each fantasy reader. So, keep tuned for some more recommendation lists!

I thought, hot on the heels of my last Advanced Book Review Copies(ARC’s) Expose, I would offer a few suggestions for you small publishers and self published authors — since I’ve been getting some emails asking for some advice about this. Here is my .02 for how small publishers can get more book sales and quality book reviews.

1. High Quality Cover Art
You know the saying “don’t judge a fantasy book by its cover.” Well, the saying, unfortunately, is very true when it comes to books, especially books not published by established publisher. If your book cover looks like something my 12-year old nephew whipped up in a couple hours with some free image editing software, you may find that getting book reviews (and readers!) a difficult.

Humans are shallow creatures. We tend to judge things, be it people, music, and books by our surface impressions. Yes, in an ideal world a person would, for the sheer love of literature, ignore the book cover. Unfortunately, that world doesn’t exist. I understand for you self-published authors and small publishers, budget is a big deal. But upping your budget for quality, professional cover art may be one of the best ways to promote your books effectively.

2. Ensure you have a Professional Looking Website
The first thing many book reviewers (and some readers) do upon receiving a book review request, is to look at the publisher’s website. If the website looks shoddy, said review will likely reject the book review offer, or if he or she does receive the book, place a very low priority on actually getting around to read and review the book.

Your website is your virtual office. Think of it this way: if you have important clients who you are trying to sell some idea or product to, would you bring them into an office building with cracks all over the wall and paper strewn about the rooms? I don’t think so. People will judge the quality of your company and people by the way your website looks. Sad, yes, but very true.

Again, I realize that some people have crappy websites because they don’t have the funds to hire a professional. But sometimes it takes money to make money, and your website is the FIRST thing you should be spending money on. Scope out major publishing companies’ websites for inspiration. But the bottom line: your website should look good. I can’t tell you how many small publisher websites I’ve gone to only to reel back with horror at how bad the web design actually is.

Web designers are cheap these days. You can probably get a very professional fantasy book publishing website done for fewer than 5k, maybe much less if you shop around. A good looking website may also attract more talented authors to pursue your publishing services as well.

3. Print Your Books on Paper
There is a pretty big stigma associated with online-only publishers. Besides having to destroy our eyes while reading that massive honking PDF on our monitor screens (unless we have an Amazon Kindle), online-only publishers lack an air of legitimacy. To me, the line between a vanity publisher and online-only publisher is thin indeed. What gives publisher legitimacy? An army of qualified editors and copy editors. Online publishers don’t tend to have to much in the way of an “editing” process for their books. Which takes me to my next point.

4. Have Good and Qualified Editors
A good editor will make or break your book. Now like everything else, this is probably one of the more expensive personal investments to make, but a good book without good editing is bad. My experience with small publishers is that the editing is not very good and there are a lot of errors with grammar and punctuation – a very big turnoff for any potential reader. Part of the success of established publishers is their strong team of talented editors. So, if you are a mom and pop publishing operation, please throw down the cash to get someone who’s actually qualified to edit your books. Just because you got an A in grade 11 lit class does NOT mean you are qualified to edit a novel.

5. Publish Books with Unique Stories
It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyways), you should only publish good books. In the fantasy genre, there are more “village boy Joe finds a magic sword, becomes a great hero and slays dark lord” type plots than you can shake a book at. I may be willing to suffer through yet another cliché plot if the book is backed by a major publisher – but certainly not a self published author or a unknown small publisher. Publish books that do something original with the genre. If the plot sounds interesting and UNIQUE, the potential reviewer will be more likely to pick the book up and say some nice things about it that may just encourange peopel to buy the book. If you are going to go the Robert Jordan clone route, you’re going to lose big time; the established publishers have the monopoly on this type of fantasy story.

There we go, 5 suggestions to help you small publishers sell more books and get more book reviews.