Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Do You Want to Know if a Novel is Self-Published?

User avatar
LoveHistory
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3751
Joined: September 2008
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Contact:

Post by LoveHistory » Wed February 22nd, 2012, 6:52 pm

I know what you mean, Justin. I've prepared myself to become a 20 year "overnight" success, if I ever reach that at all. Eventually the cream does rise to the top. The rapid increase in the number of books (electronic or otherwise) does make it a bit difficult, but because of eBooks more people are reading, and reading more, so it's likely that it will eventually balance.

User avatar
Justin Swanton
Reader
Posts: 173
Joined: February 2012
Location: Durban, South Africa
Contact:

Post by Justin Swanton » Wed February 22nd, 2012, 7:58 pm

My educated guess is that, with kindles and other e-readers steadily allowing ebooks to overtake hard copies in accessibility and affordability, reviewers are going to become very important as the only means of making a digestible selection out of the great mass of books on offer. As a consequence it will necessarily become harder to get the attention of the prestigious review sites. This might lead to 'pre-reviews' done by people the big reviewers trust, and whose recommended selection they take ahead of the offerings of individuals. A bit like the relationship between publishing houses and literary agents.

Publishing as such will hardly feature: download Calibre and you can create your own ebook (I can). Find someone who is a dab hand at Photoshop and you have the cover (I can too if anyone's interested).

Right now epublishers seem to promote just about anything given them - I suspect they will become fussier in future as ebooks become mainstream and 'respectable'. They will effectively turn into reviewers.
Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

Author of Centurion's Daughter

Come visit my blog

User avatar
Justin Swanton
Reader
Posts: 173
Joined: February 2012
Location: Durban, South Africa
Contact:

Post by Justin Swanton » Wed February 22nd, 2012, 7:59 pm

[quote=""LoveHistory""]I know what you mean, Justin. I've prepared myself to become a 20 year "overnight" success, if I ever reach that at all. Eventually the cream does rise to the top. The rapid increase in the number of books (electronic or otherwise) does make it a bit difficult, but because of eBooks more people are reading, and reading more, so it's likely that it will eventually balance.[/quote]

Loved your site by the way, and the extract!
Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

Author of Centurion's Daughter

Come visit my blog

User avatar
bevgray
Reader
Posts: 113
Joined: February 2012
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Contact:

Post by bevgray » Thu February 23rd, 2012, 5:49 pm

As someone who spent several decades trying to get an agent and/or publisher, I chose to go the self-publishing route. I had many positive rejections but they were still rejections for a variety of reasons; most of which had to do with the subject matter or the approach. One very enthusiastic agent, for example, loved the books, loved my style, but wanted the entire series rewritten from the women's perspective since she felt it would be more appealing commercially. I took six months in an attempt to do the rewrite and then emailed the agent with a thanks, but no thanks. It spoiled the whole thing for me to the extent that I stopped working on the series for several years. For me, self-publishing in ebook format has restored much of the fun in writing for me.

I was surprised when a stranger bought the books, enjoyed them, andtook the time to write a very nice review on Amazon in which he cited the flaws as well as the positives. Gave me a nice little glow on a very personal level.

I have made my living as a technical writer/editor for thirty years. I view my work in fiction as my hobby. When a site is kind enough to list the books, I prefer that they are identified as self-published because that is what they are. I would rather have a reader go into the books knowing that's the case so that the reader won't feel misled or disappointed.
Beverly C. Gray
Army Brat and Lover of Historical Fiction
Guests are always welcome at my Web Site

User avatar
LoveHistory
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3751
Joined: September 2008
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Contact:

Post by LoveHistory » Fri February 24th, 2012, 12:41 am

[quote=""Justin Swanton""]Loved your site by the way, and the extract![/quote]

Thank you. I'm rather proud of that particular novel. My best work so far, in my opinion.

T.D.McKinnon
Scribbler
Posts: 5
Joined: February 2012
Location: Tasmania
Contact:

Post by T.D.McKinnon » Fri February 24th, 2012, 3:04 pm

As someone who is brand new to HFO, and just finding my way around, I found this thread very interesting for several reasons. I too have experienced the same frustrations doing the ‘agent, publisher merry-go-round’.

Also, during my travels on the said merry-go-round, I have come into contact with the disreputable, the fringe feeders: failed agents and publishers who take advantage of long suffering, frustrated writers who just happen to live in the wrong places, don’t have the right contacts and just never seem to be in the right place at the right time, with the right material. Sure, many of them are not good writers and may never be, but that is no excuse to take advantage of them.

ePublishing is the future, I don’t have any doubts about that, and there will be a glut of fairly bad literature for some time to come. However, as LoveHistory very eloquently put it, ‘the cream will rise to the top’, and with more and more authors (new and established) choosing to ePublish independently for any number of reasons there will be a levelling out, and I’m sure once the main ePublishing distributors, like Kindle, realise it’s in their best interests to do so they will become more discerning.

There is presently a stigma attached to ‘self published’ books, but authors who are confident of their work are turning it around by firstly giving themselves a label and then displaying it with pride. I am an ‘Indie Author’ and I have just launched five eBooks, among them is one historical fiction, ‘Terra Nullius’; the 19th century from a very different perspective. Like you, lauragill, I too work fulltime at the job of writing, which is my passion. It may not be your cup of tea but I spent two years researching and writing ‘Terra Nullius’, and I most certainly would not have then published it without having it professionally edited; as I do with all my work.

So, on the question that began this thread, ‘do I want to know if a book is written by an ‘Indie Author’? Both as a reader and as an author (an ‘Indie Author&#8217 ;) , it makes little difference. However, I want a reviewer, after reviewing a book (Indie or otherwise), to give me their opinion of the finished product, and not to begin with, ‘This Self Published book is...’

Terra Nullius

User avatar
bevgray
Reader
Posts: 113
Joined: February 2012
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Contact:

Post by bevgray » Sat February 25th, 2012, 11:29 pm

I stumbled across an article by Michael Allen several years ago at a low point in my life. After a few years of thought, it served to help me focus on just what I want to do with my fiction writing and contributed to my decision to go forward on my own (there were quite a few factors but Allen's observations certainly helped). I think all writers should read it as a way to perhaps make a more educated choice between the journey of agent/publisher or taking the plunge into the realm of self-publishing.

Here is the link to Allen's article.
Beverly C. Gray
Army Brat and Lover of Historical Fiction
Guests are always welcome at my Web Site

User avatar
EC2
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 3661
Joined: August 2008
Location: Nottingham UK
Contact:

Post by EC2 » Tue February 28th, 2012, 10:06 am

I've just read Charlie's Diary this morning. An excellent common sense piece on traditional publishing and self publishing. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-st ... lishi.html
Les proz e les vassals
Souvent entre piez de chevals
Kar ja li coard n’I chasront

'The Brave and the valiant
Are always to be found between the hooves of horses
For never will cowards fall down there.'

Histoire de Guillaume le Mareschal

www.elizabethchadwick.com

User avatar
Justin Swanton
Reader
Posts: 173
Joined: February 2012
Location: Durban, South Africa
Contact:

Post by Justin Swanton » Tue February 28th, 2012, 11:23 am

[quote=""EC2""]I've just read Charlie's Diary this morning. An excellent common sense piece on traditional publishing and self publishing. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-st ... lishi.html[/quote]

Yes, very good. The one sentence that stuck out the most:

There are many paths to it, and no one of them are easy, but the raw fact is that the world wants good books, and if you can make them, it is very likely that you will find a way to one of those levels.

Heartening words.
Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

Author of Centurion's Daughter

Come visit my blog

Helen_Davis

Post by Helen_Davis » Mon April 29th, 2013, 9:59 pm

[quote=""lauragill""]I admit that many self-published novels suck, but not all of them do. Sometimes, an author has to turn to self-publishing and promotion because she's tried to go the traditional route with no success. Unless you know someone in the business, or have sold before, it's very hard to persuade an agent to look at your work. I know that sounds like my product wasn't good enough. No agent has ever said that was the case. Sometimes, it's simply a case of an agent not being interested in a project set in the Bronze Age. Maybe a Regency novel would do better.

I do know that I worked the equivalent of a full time job editing, polishing and researching my novel, and ran the final product through a copy editor before publishing.

If you are interested in anything to do with the Trojan War, or the House of Atreus, I encourage you to check out a free preview of my novel to assure yourselves that you are getting a quality product. I would like to publish my previous effort, Helen's Daughter, which is set right after the Trojan War, and is the story of Helen of Troy's daughter Hermione, but am testing the waters with The Young Lion before putting a second novel out there.[/quote]


QFT, lauragill.

Most American agents didn't think a book a bout Evita Peron would sell. They want Tudor, Tudor, and more Tudor, or occasionally Marie Antoinette, Napoelonic, or Plantagenet. I got very good feedback from Argentine and Spanish publishers and the Spanish version of my novel is currently with an agent. So there is really good self pubbed stuff out there, especially in periods that aren't hot right now.

Post Reply

Return to “Questions and Research”