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According to Bowker Books in Print and Bowker Identifier Services, over 235,000 print and ebooks have been self-published as of 2011.
What’s even more interesting is that
many traditionally published authors are also going indie, all
for a variety of reasons—some because they were unhappy with their publishers’ marketing efforts, others because their publishers no longer wanted to publish their books. But after talking to six traditionally published authors who have since turned to self-publishing, it became clear they all had one common motive for making the switch:
they wanted control.
Barbara Freethy , author of 34 books including the Wish series and the first author to sell one million books on both Nook and Kindle, said that she has been writing for 20 years, via four different publishing houses. Then in 2010, she got the rights back to her backlist books and decided to self-publish the ebook versions.
“Once I saw how well my self-publishing books were doing and how much more attention and focus I could put on my own books, it was a pretty easy decision [to continue self-publishing] because those books have been doing so much better,” she said.
Freethy said that she prefers self-publishing because she has more control and power over her own product.
She can also publish her work more frequently.
“I’ve always written more quickly than my publishers have had spots in which to publish my books,” she said.
“To put out three books in a series in one year is a fantastic opportunity.”
John Harnish started his self-publishing career in 1972.
“Back then, self-publishing wasn’t even a term,” he said.
He wrote a 300-word essay called “The Immortalization of Fuck,” and printed and mailed copies to buyers. Through an interesting turn of events, Pinnacle got a hold of his essay and printed it in one of their books. Just before the book went to print, an employee at Pinnacle noticed that the essay had been copyrighted, and they called John in a panic to obtain his permission. He has been writing and publishing books ever since.
Harnish said he likes
the freedom of being able to price his own books at affordable rates, and owning all the rights. Last year, he was contacted by a Danish publisher who wanted to sell one of his ebooks.
Barbara Morgenroth said she likes indie publishing
because she no longer feels pigeonholed into a specific genre. She has written YA, romantic comedies, mysteries, cookbooks, and photography essays.
“I wasn’t allowed to explore everything I wanted to do in traditional publishing,” she said. “Now no one cares.”
Originally published under multiple publishing houses and imprints, including Atheneum, Berkley, Alpha Penguin, and Avalon, Morgenroth has been self-publishing since 2008-2009, and currently has 15 indie books out.
“Traditional publishing was ridiculously easy to abandon,” she said.
Marie Force, author of USA Today bestsellerFatal Deception and 22 other books—15 of them self-published—has been self-publishing since 2010. Next year, she’ll be writing and publishing three to four new books in her McCarthys of Gansett Island series.
She said
she decided to self-publish because she had completed a few books, and though no traditional publishers were interested, readers were clamoring for them.
“I published the first of my 15 self-published books in November of 2010, and I’ve never looked back,” she said. “
Self-publishing has been the best thing to ever happen to me as an author. I’m delighted to have a way to get books to readers quickly and efficiently.”
Force prefers indie publishing because she can control every aspect of the book, she said.
“I love being able to offer a sale any time I want and having the ability to experiment with different strategies to sell books,” she said. “
I love finishing a book in November and having it on sale in December, rather than waiting six months to a year for a book that readers really want now.”
Helga Kleisny, an author who has been published by Bertelsmann in Germany, started indie publishing by offering two of her books on demand. The first book accompanies her lectures to journalism students, and the second book, titled Why Flies Get Bored in the Movies, is a humorous book on bionics. She said she plans to continue self-publishing, starting with the fiction book she will be writing next year.
Kleisny said she was unhappy with her publisher because they had promised to print one of her books in color, but it ended up being printed in black and white. Because the book was full of pictures and diagrams Kleisny had created herself, she felt black and white did not do her work justice.
“
I want to decide how my work goes to the readers, and not be restricted by the company because they think the book market is not big enough or they want to put their money elsewhere,” she said.
Having control is important to her as a self-publisher, she said.
“If you bake a cake, why should somebody else tell you what color the icing should be?” she said. “You baked the cake, so it’s your product; it’s your book, it’s your heart that goes into it. So somebody else should bake his or her own cake.”
James C. Martin published two of the three books in his trilogy, Push Not the River and Against a Crimson Sky, with St. Martin’s Press. Although the first book has done well and gone through nine printings, St. Martin’s told Martin they would not publish his third book, The Warsaw Conspiracy, citing low sales numbers for his second book.
Martin’s agent convinced him to self-publish The Warsaw Conspiracy, especially
since he had a fan base waiting for its release. Both of his books have been bestsellers in Poland, where the story takes place.
“More and more I’m hearing this whole area of doing it yourself is growing like crazy,” he said.
Martin said he will wait and see how his journey into self-publishing goes before deciding whether or not he will stick with it. In the meantime, he is working on a fourth book, which will serve as a prequel to his trilogy.
So far, he said,
he likes that he has more control over his book, especially when it comes to the covers.
(fonte Sabrina Ricci)