Adventures in Publishing (Continued)

 Last January I posted a rant about how I was through with the publishing industry. Since it is an intelligent person’s prerogative to change his mind, I’m modifying the original argument, though the sentiments remain the same (i.e. ‘publishing sucks’).

 

I began to waver when I found I didn’t enjoy releasing my Western, Dead Shot, as much as I thought I would. This rankled because I think Dead Shot is one of my three best books, maybe number one. It took a while to figure out what was missing until it occurred to me there’s a difference between posting something to one’s website – which might as well be a blog post – and putting it out there for people to buy and comment on.

 

What pushed me over the edge was unsolicited feedback I got at both the Bouchercon and Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity conferences. People I respect and whose opinions I trust told me my books were too good to give away like some urchin passing out copies of ‘Grit’ in a parking lot. (If that reference doesn’t date you, I don’t know what will.) Audible was suggested, as was Ingram.

 

I think I knew this and forgot, but Audible is part of the evil Amazon empire and it’s Penishead Bezos who started me on this ‘publishing is dead to me’ kick in the first place. So that’s on the back burner, though, as noted above, I’m not saying I’ll never change my mind.

 

I looked into Barnes and Noble self-publishing, which turns out to be a hybrid operation where B&N provides various editing and marketing services for prices ranging from a few hundred to a thousand dollars. ‘A few hundred to a thousand dollars’ pretty well describes my career earnings from writing, so that’s a non-starter.

 

I checked into IngrarmSpark once before and got tangled in their book creation process. A writer I met at C3 suggested I try again; she’d help me if I had trouble. So IngramSpark is back on the table. What happens after creating the books is still undecided. Check this space for updates.

 

My current status is to see what it’s like to work with Ingram and re-evaluate from there. I’ll use either Dead Shot as a guinea pig, or possibly the new Nick Forte novel I want to have out by the end of the year. Could go either way.

 

As for the books now available for free on my website, they’re not going anywhere, with the possible exception of Dead Shot. Anything I self-publish commercially from this point forward will, I hope, be available at reasonable cost. What’s currently free will remain so.

 

Why am I telling you this, when not even I know what’s going on? Two reasons. I like to work things out in writing. The process makes me turn things over in my mind, similar to an archeologist checking every angle of an artifact. Whether I post what I write is a game-time decision, which you will only learn if I post, though it’s not like you’ll feel as though you missed anything if I don’t.

 

Another reason is I have learned there are people who read this blog for educational reasons, if only to learn from my mistakes and, by so doing, avoid them. I’m a teacher at heart, so I’m happy to provide that service, such as it is. Maybe someone who’s struggling with what to do about their writing can benefit from reading about my struggles. If that’s true, this will have been worth the effort.

 

Stay tuned.

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