Last night was our local Society of Authors meeting - we had two people, John Dawes and Richard Lloyd to talk about their experiences in what is being more politely called "author publishing" - self publishing seems to have connections with vanity publishing and I must admit, there is a sense of wondering whether a lot of self-published books are worthwhile.
Richard seems to have turned out a number of books that people have enjoyed. He gives talks for money and then flogs the books... His is a very different model of generating sales and suits him. I have to say I would not wish to go around talking about writing to WI's and other groups in the hope of generating sales - or rather, I wouldn't mind doing a bit of that, but I wouldn't want to do it more than once a month, as it would take a lot of time away from writing.
It's clearly a "horses for courses" matter - I think everyone was intrigued by the idea of getting out from under publishers - but at the same time, I think most of us felt that marketing was not our metier.
Richard has turned his back on the digital world - doesn't use the internet - and is clearly missing out on a great deal of potential income that way. He also seems very pleased to have generated £5000 from one of his books - but most of us wouldn't regard that as exactly a best seller. In lots of ways he represents a particular strand in author publishing - a rather parochial individual - likes to be in control of things etc. and this way of doing things is obviously designed for him. Personally, I am still looking for the validation that comes from having a "proper publisher" and to not having to do much personal marketing....
Richard seems to have turned out a number of books that people have enjoyed. He gives talks for money and then flogs the books... His is a very different model of generating sales and suits him. I have to say I would not wish to go around talking about writing to WI's and other groups in the hope of generating sales - or rather, I wouldn't mind doing a bit of that, but I wouldn't want to do it more than once a month, as it would take a lot of time away from writing.
It's clearly a "horses for courses" matter - I think everyone was intrigued by the idea of getting out from under publishers - but at the same time, I think most of us felt that marketing was not our metier.
Richard has turned his back on the digital world - doesn't use the internet - and is clearly missing out on a great deal of potential income that way. He also seems very pleased to have generated £5000 from one of his books - but most of us wouldn't regard that as exactly a best seller. In lots of ways he represents a particular strand in author publishing - a rather parochial individual - likes to be in control of things etc. and this way of doing things is obviously designed for him. Personally, I am still looking for the validation that comes from having a "proper publisher" and to not having to do much personal marketing....
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