Chris’s Note: I’ve never run a guest post on this blog before, nor on any of my other blogs for that matter. I thought it was about time. Rebeka is a fellow indie author and vampire fan who hails from Australia. She was gracious enough to write up her thoughts on the self-publishing process, and I’ve published them in their entirety below. Thanks, Bek!
Self-Publishing: The Vampires Revealed Odyssey
Christopher asked me to write something about writing or the writing process which might be interesting. This, I must confess, I found quite a challenge. Instead I decided to take a look at what I found out after the writing was finished and considering publishing.
You see, before I was confronted with which publishing route to take, first I had to decide whether I not even wanted to publish my work. To publish or not to publish? That was the question.
Vampires Revealed as a project, was unplanned. I liken it to a ‘happy accident’.
Rather self-indulgently I set about answering any number of nagging questions I had about vampires. No portrayal of vampires in books, movies or television had ever given me the complete picture.
Armed with an A4 page full of questions, I sat down and wrote what became the first draft of Vampires Revealed. All the answers I desired were there and I was satisfied. Falling back on my experience of writing for newspaper the initial version was somewhat brief, but I gave it to a friend to read anyway. She devoured it and vehemently demanded MORE!
Back to the manuscript and slowly but surely it transformed into what is now available to readers. Once again I gave it to my friend to read. The seal of approval was given, I had provided ‘more’. Now what?
I published it on a website in an attempt to gauge if people liked it or not. To cut a long story short, much to my surprise (me being the typical creative type with insecurities) people liked my work and my characters. Then I started to be asked, “when will it be published?”
Unless you permanently wear rose-colored glasses and live under a rock in Utopia, everybody knows how very difficult it is for an unknown author to obtain a publishing contract. What other option is there? Self-publishing of course.
This was a brand new concept to me, I knew nothing about it. Always one to keep my options open I decided to do some research. For the sake of expediency, I won’t recount everything I found, only the key points which culminated in my decision to go ‘indie’.
In an ever-worsening economy, traditional publishing houses simply don’t have the marketing budget to use on promoting new authors. They are accepting less new authors each year. Even if, and I must stress the ‘IF’, you are lucky enough to obtain a publishing contract, the burden will be on you the author to find ways to promote and sell your work.
With increasingly more brick’s and mortar bookstores closing their doors, publishing houses are losing their ‘go-to’ avenues for marketing. Furthermore, it is unlikely you will obtain a contract without the representation of a literary agent. Basically this means, in addition to the publishing house taking a major cut of your royalties, even more potential royalties will go to another middle-man.
After winning the publishing ‘lottery’ and getting a contract signed, as a new author you can be compelled to sign away valuable rights to your work. Losing control over content, image and cover design; how you and your work are portrayed to the reading public. You may even lose the right to publish (by any means) other non-contracted and pre-existing work you own. It has happened.
It seemed to me, whether I chose traditional publishing or self-publishing, I was going to have to do a lot of hard work. Certainly I didn’t want to forfeit my intellectual or artistic rights. I concluded if I was going to do all the hard work, I wanted to keep control over my work and didn’t want to lose potential earnings to a middle man. So I chose to self-publish.
Many authors naively choose self-publishing because they believe it is the ‘easy’ route. This is very foolish. Without the support and resources of a publishing house, there are any number of tasks that will fall on your shoulders. Writing the manuscript is only the first step of many before releasing a published work.
Various authors more experienced than me have written excellent guides on the traps and pitfalls to be aware of when self-publishing. My advice to anyone considering self-publishing is to take the time to investigate and discover for yourself. The internet is a vast and incomparable source of information, use it. Knowledge is power. Arm yourself with knowledge, devise a plan, prepare yourself for ceaseless hard work… and self-publishing may just be the right path for you.
Making the decision to self-publish and go indie was right for me, but it’s not for everyone. Yes, it has been a lot of hard work and will continue to be so for some time yet I imagine. Self-publishing places you as Master and Commander of your writing career. Whether you succeed or fail rests entirely on your shoulders. I am entirely satisfied this is the right choice for me right now.
About the Author
Raised in country Victoria, Rebeka started her writing career working for the local newspaper as a teenager. While she decided not to pursue this as a career, she has always enjoyed writing and being creative. With so many varied interests and eclectic taste in most things, Rebeka enjoys incorporating all of them in her writing. She particularly enjoys writing about vampires.
Rebeka seeks to define and explain vampires in a way not done before. This has been achieved with her debut title “Vampires Revealed”. Following titles will revolve around exploring the world and characters created in her first release.
Currently Rebeka lives in Melbournewith her “demented” but lovable cat, dividing her time between writing and managing a small boutique entertainment agency.
Vampires Revealed is available for purchase on Amazon and Smashwords. You can find out more about Rebeka by visiting her blog or the online home of her characters.
About Vampires Revealed
“Leave behind your preconceived ideas, forget the horror stories and disregard everything you think you know about vampires.
For centuries the debate has raged; are vampires real? There has been plenty of myth and superstition regarding vampires but not a lot of truth or answers. In a unique piece of work, Bektamun a 3000 year old vampire, puts to rest all the myth and finally reveals the truth about the legendary creatures known across the globe as vampires.
Vampires Revealed is a journey of discovery. Never before have humans had and an opportunity such as this. To know the unadulterated truth, for every question you may have ever had about vampires to be answered”
I think I’m going to try an experiment with this blog — I’m going to ask if you fine folks, my readers, have any particular questions for me. They can be about my writing process, or about the II AM Trilogy, or pretty much anything else you can think of. Ever have a question about one of the characters or events in Blood Hunt or TBTB? Ever wanted to know where I do my writing, or when I work, or how I come up with these zany ideas anyway? Now’s your chance!
