Read Write Edit Play Repeat vol. 31
Publisher vs Self-Publishing
Publisher vs Self-Publishing
I had a lot of fun at the Scares That Care Charity Weekend convention the end of last month and beginning of this month. I got the opportunity to talk with a number of successful horror creators who have been doing this a long time and ones who are new on the scene, but are doing well as they rise quickly. I do my best to learn as much as I can from both groups.
I livestream my short story writing on Twitch and following Scares That Care I was separately asked about both older and newer authors. This link is a 3 minute video of some general advice I offered for new authors. And this link is a 6 and 1/2 minute video discussion of getting older as a writer and what I think older authors should be doing. One of my first pieces of advice in the first video is to be careful who you take advice from. So, proceed accordingly.
I’ve been in the process of writing a horror western and fully intended to submit it to a prestige publisher who had expressed interest, but now I question if that is best? As I look at where they are in the industry, where they may have overextended themselves, and the recent experiences of other authors, I wonder if I’m better off self-publishing this one too.
· Freedom vs Support
Self-publishing allows me to work at my own pace and release work when I want. Working with a publisher, requires their timetable and my release has to be coordinated around many releases that came before mine. They handle editing, cover, formatting, etc., but there is a lot of that I can do myself or with pros I can work with directly, and I have more control over the results.
· My Money vs Our Money
The publisher covers the cost of the cover and editing. Then, we split the royalties. 50/50 if we’re lucky, but usually less than that. I tend to sell more copies of my self-published work than I do works with publishers. This is true even with the good presses out there. I have no idea why. Maybe because I control advertising with my self-published stuff. Maybe there is a difference in the covers and other content that I control. I really have no idea why. I try to diversify my work, so I have income from multiple sources, but the work put with publishers does not pay off for me anywhere near the same level.
· What Do You Bring to the Table I Can’t Do Myself?
The longer I go as a full-time author the less answers I can find to fulfill this requirement for me to go with a publisher. I’m getting better at the various aspects of the business while more and more publishers are struggling to hold on. The industry is evolving faster and faster with the definition of publishing and the avenues for writing income expanding more and more. If I have to explain to someone else how these things work, what is the point of splitting my money with them for fewer sales?
My next release is likely to be Stone Wicked. Here are the covers I’ve made for it so far, front and back. We’ll see if these end up being the final versions, if I self-publish it as planned.
Here are some things you might be interested in:
After Billy Summers
by Jay Wilburn
“If noir is a genre, then one-last-job is a subgenre.” With this, Stephen King tells us what kind of story he’s presenting for us to enjoy …
Author’s Note: This one goes back to before I was a full-time writer. I wrote it, delivered it, and sold in less than two hours. It was one of my first paid pieces. I did give it an edit before I put it up on Patreon a few years ago. I tried to not to change too much. Some rough edges give a story its character. It can also remind me of bad habits I avoid in stories now. I think this one does its job in a short space.
“One Potato”
by Jay Wilburn
Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look back, he repeated the words in his mind as he ran until they had no meaning to him anymore …
Watch Jay Wilburn write live on Twitch.tv/JayWilburn three days a week.
Thanks, Everybody
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One Potato is great! I’m not usually a western kind of girl, but Stone Wicked sounds great!