The Small Press Squeeze-out?

This is just a quick post (rant?) today, about something that popped into my head. I have not researched this or looked into anyone else's take on the matter. I'm just blurting it out, and I'll likely go back later and see if there is anything out there to back up my thoughts.

What occurred to me? Small presses seem to be getting squeezed out by the big presses on one side and the mass of self-pubbers on the other side. This may seem a weird conclusion to come to, but bear with me.

We're in a time when publishing is available to pretty much anyone. For almost nothing, and sometimes absolutely nothing, any individual can "publish" a novel, in print and/or ebook, through a multitude of self-publishing venues, like CreateSpace. The vast majority of what is self-pubbed is complete crap. You don't need to research or even read any to know that. Any time there is open opportunity like that, you'll end up with mostly crap. Just watch the initial auditions for American Idol to see for yourself.

But a few self-publishers have wowed the world. Amanda Hocking and Colleen Houck are both paranormal YA romance authors who got their start with self-pubbed ebooks and then were snatched up by agents and bigger publishers because they sold so many books on their own. And this week I learned of an author named Hugh Howey, who self-pubbed a book that seems to be taking the literary world by storm. We all remember The Shack, too, but that was before the mass availability of free/nearly-free self-pubbing.

Those authors have made the world take notice. Enough notice that the other 99.99% of (mostly crappy) self-pubbed books get forgotten in the fog of admiration. We writers stand in awe of the idea of being the next big publishing rebel--and readers, most of whom don't know squat about the publishing industry, look at us and say, "Well, just do what they did."

On the other hand, there are the Big Six publishers, whom most aspiring authors strive to be accepted by. We want that big advance, the marketing budget, the prime spot on the shelves at the major bookstores.

Stuck in the middle of those two: small presses.

I'm going to end this post rather abruptly--and since I'm telling you about it, you need to forgive me. But even if you find it irritating, just think about what I'm saying here:

People see the Big Six as "legitimate" publishing. People are wowed by the guts and glory of the self-pubbed best-sellers. But they seem to see small press authors as the ones who didn't "qualify" for a Big Six house, but don't have the balls to hack it on our own.

Am I the only one to whom this has occurred? Am I seeing it all wrong?

Mentor Me Not

Couldn't find a pic for this topic, so I just went with Snoopy :).

A dear friend-slash-fellow spec-fic author posed a question recently. She wanted to know if there are any author “mentors” out there. Veteran authors who have gone from newbie nobody to multi-published and successful , and would be willing to guide a new newbie nobody through the waters.

I answered her that I would not answer in a public forum. But I do have answers to that question, at least from my own personal experience as a spec-fic author—which basically says, Nope, sorry, yer on yer own, kid.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There ARE authors out there who are willing to help. Who WANT to help. Who bend over backwards for newbies and give advice at every turn and who are genuine and wonderful people. Which is the real reason I said I didn’t want to answer this question in a public forum. I don’t want to dis a bunch of people who have truly been there for me.

Ah, but my peeps have pleaded. And I’m tellin’ ya, there is nothing more heart-wrenching than pleading peeps.

So, here we go. My random observations about why what works for them doesn’t always translate to us.

Genre matters. Target audience matters. If you write sci-fi or fantasy, the marketing techniques of romance writers, chick-lit writers, historical writers, nonfiction writers, etc., will not necessarily work for you. There may be some overlap, but as a YA fantasy writer, I’m not going to find readers the same way a romance writer will, or a women’s humor writer. My audience doesn’t shop the same places. They don’t follow blogs the same way.  We run in different circles and have different priorities. And when you factor in the Christian card—the whole system blows up. Speculative fiction is seen as truly weird and often unacceptable in the Christian market, so we’re generally not allowed in the bookstores where more mainstream books are easily found. Which brings up my next point.

Press size matters. I am published through a small press. Because of that, regardless of genre, I can’t get into bookstores. So, when a veteran author with a big press talks about doing signings at the local Barnes & Noble or whatever, the advice doesn’t apply to me. Those places want nothing to do with me. So, I have to be more creative when it comes to marketing. I can’t rely on someone stumbling across my book as they are browsing bookstore shelves. And even during online marketing, many readers who will purchase through Amazon because they’re cheaper still take the presence of a book in a bookstore as some sort of badge of validation.

And speaking of small presses, there are budget constraints. Bigger authors have review copies covered by their publishing house. Often hundreds of review copies. Small press authors can’t afford to send out hundreds. Most of the time we only sell hundreds! Yes, these days even authors at big presses are required to invest in the marketing, but when you’re with a larger press there’s more of a guarantee of a return on that investment, partially because of the reasons listed above this. With us small press authors, the stakes are much higher.

Also, as far as investment goes—one piece of advice I’ve received is to hire a promotion service. These services can cost into the thousands of dollars. You may read this as a cop-out, but here goes. I have already imposed upon my family by taking gobs of time to write. And to attend critique groups (which also require membership fees), and a couple of conference days (which also require registration fees). I can’t justify taking money from our savings to invest in a service that may or may not pay off. Writing is a dream of mine, but it is not a necessity. I will do what I can, when I can, to promote. But I will not infringe upon the generosity of my husband and children. Also, because of the things I’ve mentioned above, about bookstores and genre, that investment becomes a huge risk. It’s fine to say “only $3k” when you know it will likely come back to you in the form of thousands of book sales. But when you’re talking hundreds, and know you likely won’t break even…

One of the things I’ve heard about promotion services is that they get mailing lists and send out newsletters, and constantly remind readers to remember you, remember you, remember you. This, I think, ties in with the genre/target audience issue. These kinds of newsletters may work for romance and chick-lit, but I’ve found that spec-fic readers, myself included, aren’t big on newsletters. I have subscribed to a few, and subsequently cancelled those subscriptions. I’ve also noted that I don’t need someone constantly sticking their name in my face for me to remember them. If I love a book—and we spec-fic readers love our books passionately—I will find a way to keep up with the author’s newest releases. A way that does NOT involve having my inbox slammed with useless newsletters. Maybe I’m wrong to generalize like that, but I tend to think if I find something annoying I’m not going to subject my prospective readers to it.

Okay, I’ve just realized everything I’ve said so far has to do with marketing. But there’s a lot more to it than that. We’re talking about trying to go from small press to big press. It’s a catch-22, though. The KEY to going from small press to big press is selling lots of books. If you sell a lot, you can get noticed by a bigger press. And selling means marketing….sigh….

Case in point. I follow a particular NYT bestselling author on her blog. She gets a lot of questions from aspiring authors, including requests to see her query letter that landed her a publishing contract. She obliged, and I was soooooo thrilled I’d get to see the letter—until I saw it. It wasn’t the letter that got her first contract—that one was with a small press. It was the letter that took her from small to large, and while written with style and personality, if stripped of those attributes it boiled down to this (in other words, this is NOT a quote from the letter, it is my dried-out paraphrase):

“Dear Agent, I’ve got two books published with a small press. They are selling so well the owner is kicking himself for not contracting that he gets first rights of refusal on everything I write. I now have a book I’d like to shop around. It’s about werewolves. Let me know if you’re interested.”

There was literally only one or two sentences about the actual project, and they were pretty vague. There was NONE of the “hook” we are told to put in ours regarding the manuscript in question—it all came from her style—and more importantly, she’d proven herself with sales.

I think going from small press to large press has to do with sales, period. And what works for one author doesn’t always work for another. We’re kind of destined for our own paths. As small press authors, much of that travel is us putting one foot in front of the other. We don’t have a huge team working to help us along.

Which brings me to:

Big names in some ways *can’t* help us.

I met a fairly big name author at a writers group last year. His path to publication involved having a connection that took him straight to a large publishing house. In other words—his path was nothing like mine. I hope this doesn’t sound bitter or jealous-y. He was one of the *sweetest* people I have ever met. I am truly happy for him. But he went straight to the goal. And it’s another place where genre matters—his writing is purely mainstream.

We had a great conversation while at that meeting, too, where he mentioned he nearly never blogs, nor does a lot of those things we up-and-comings *must* do regularly. Authors with major publishers have “people”—people to schedule their speaking events and signings—and those people have pull. Which puts us back to my original point when I said that we newbies with small presses can’t get signings. That is partially why. We’re not taken as seriously, I think, when we don’t have a publishing house setting our stuff up for us. “What, you’re in here trying to sell yourself? Then you must not be very important…”

I guess what I’m saying with all that is, some authors simply don’t have the answers because their path was sooooo different, and their genre is different, and maybe things just timed right for them. Or whatever. Or maybe they did go the “long way” but it was years ago and they’ve gotten somewhat disconnected from their roots.

(Again, let me say, this has been MY experience. If it hasn’t been yours, and you were a small press author in the spec-fic genre, especially in the YA range, and you moved on to a large press, feel free to comment below and tell me HOW you did it. Maybe you can start a service for the rest of us who are struggling along.)

My last point is something I’ve wanted to blog about for a while, but haven’t really figured out how to dig in. Well, here’s my chance.

I said above, it’s about navigating waters. But by that, I don’t mean a river. Instead, think surfing. (Now, I’m not a surfer, but I think I have a grasp on this idea.) Each “generation” of writers is like a group of surfers catching a wave. Imagine a huge, long wave that a whole bunch of surfers could line up and all ride together. The next wave that comes along is going to be grabbed by a different group-but it’s a slightly different wave. The previous group can give some advice, but much of it has to do with the unique variances of the wave you are on. It’s my understanding that the really good surfers go by “feel”-and we have to, too.

Publishing is publishing and is *basically* the same as it was twenty years ago. But a LOT of the details have changed. I’m not going to itemize them all—if you aren’t keeping up with that stuff, you may have no business reading this post in the first place. My point is, the pack in front of us had slightly different challenges to face. Their wave had slightly different properties. They can give us some advice, about publishing (surfing) in general, but it truly is up to US to catch this wave—to read its subtleties and go by “feel” based on the knowledge we’ve attained.

The key is perseverance. Studying the waves, looking at the variances, reading them, feeling them out, then jumping on. Eventually, others will get tired. Or get sucked under. The ones who keep going, getting stronger, learning, will make it the farthest. But we can’t do that by copying the group in front of us. They are on shore already. We have to find *each other* and work together to get on this wave, just like the ones in front of us did.

Have you ever wondered how so many authors know each other? Did you think it was some social club they all got to enter once they hit a certain level? What I’m discovering is that they were all working on the same wave, and got to know each other along the way. Most of them didn’t have someone from the wave in front of them holding their hand and pulling them along. Some did, yes, but not most. They turned to each other. And now that they’re successful, it’s not about them not wanting to help us, it’s about them knowing they can’t necessarily. They can stand on shore and holler advice—“watch out for that shark!”—but they know that ultimately it’s about us learning to feel the waves on our own and catch the one that’s right for us.

Sometimes Being Professional Only Gets You As Far As...

I have been holding my tongue. As a newly published author, I can't afford to mouth off about everything that ruffles me when it comes to the world of writing and publishing. Yes, we're allowed gripes now and then, but writers who slam the publishing industry at every turn are burning bridges. Not smart when you are hoping to move "up" in that industry.

I recently saw a video made by a fellow author (no, I won't mention her name nor provide a link) who was giving the virtual finger to the publishing industry for ignoring her work. The method had me baffled. How does she expect to *gain* respect by showing pictures of herself in outfits that are one step above lingerie, accompanied by music and text meant to accuse the publishing industry of being unfair?

To me, that is taking things too far. Way too far. But it begs the question: How far can we take things? What gripes are legitimate? How much do we voice our opinions and experiences before we have crossed a line?

A couple of weeks ago I experienced something I considered blogging about right away, because I was angry. I held back, thinking it would be in bad form. But the more I've thought about it, the more I realize people need to be aware of things--both writers and readers.

Here's what happened:

I was contacted by a local middle school reading coach, who asked me if I'd come speak to the kids for National Literacy Week. Despite the request coming only two weeks in advance, I said yes. Since I've never done a speaking engagement at a school, I asked about the procedure. I got an email reply describing, somewhat vaguely, what to expect. It included something about "presales" going through a local indie bookstore. I said that would be fine, awesome even, because I'd love to support an indie bookstore, but that being small press I'm not automatically carried at that store.

That was the end. The offer was suddenly dead in the water. I got no further reply from her.

I of course began to question myself. Had I said something wrong? Been unprofessional in some way? I read the email I'd sent over and over, searching for something to clue me in on how I'd killed the deal.

And then I realized it was not me.

My email was professional, polished, and positive. Error-free, grammatically correct, well-formatted, and clearly worded. I showed willingness to work with them, on their schedule, at the drop of a hat. I was willing to comply with any and all procedures, and I followed up quickly.

The reading coach who'd contacted me, on the other had, wrote her email in a cutesy font, in one-big-ginormous-paragraph, with no paragraph breaks at all. It contained improper grammar and punctuation, sentences that started with lower case letters, and run-on sentences. Not to mention it meandered all over in content. The one thing she did make clear was that this was a hassle for her, mentioning "red tape" several times. And she made sure to tell me that the "big names" who'd visited their school never charged a fee. Thanks. Way to make me feel small. Especially since I never brought up money in the first place.

Now don't get me wrong. I know teachers and pretty much anyone working at public schools are overworked and underpaid. But she is the *reading coach*--I would expect a better grasp on email writing. And I felt snubbed. She should have emailed me back and explained, or sent a "sorry, this isn't going to work" form letter, rather than just dropping the conversation like a hot potato.

The writing world is one of competition, of trying to shine above the rest. Of being bold and professional to prove we have what it takes. Yet, when we do work hard to polish and edit our books to perfection, painstakingly create and arrange original cover images, and step valiantly out of our comfort zones, we still get shot down. Because the local indie bookstore won't carry indie writers. Because of  "red tape."

And what irks me the most: Because of other people being unprofessional.


Small press publishing has a bad rep for being filled with bad writing, bad editing, and bad cover art. But many of the same people who feel it applies to ALL small press and indie authors exhibit those same things in their dealings with us. Slapped-together emails. Snarky replies. Patronizing statements. Unclear descriptions for procedures and parameters. Lack of organization and detail. And sometimes, flat-out rudeness.

Yet we are to clamp our mouths tight, except for the words "thank you for your time" and move on.

I'm not posting all this as a gripe, or a rant, or to vent. I am doing so because I think indie writers need to know what they are in for. You will be snubbed at some point, probably by someone with half your professionalism. You will have to take the high road, books tucked under your arm, unsold, and search for another venue.

And readers, you will be barred from reaching a lot of awesome books because there are unprofessional people who put themselves in the way. My books will not reach the kids at that school now--not because I was unprofessional, but because their reading coach was.

Time to finish the statement started in my blog title:

Sometimes being professional only gets you as far as the unprofessional people let you.

**Fortunately, though, there ARE professional people out there--like the awesome people at Bloomingdale Library, who are letting me speak and sell books THIS SATURDAY, Feb. 4th, at 3:30. The whole experience so far has been organized and detailed and clearly explained. The librarians have been immensely helpful and quick to answer questions, and for that, I am grateful!**

The Other Side of Me

I realized I've spent a huge amount of time on this blog talking about my writing. Well, that was, of course, the original intent for this puppy.

But I'm not JUST a writer.

You know this, I'm sure, as you've seen me slip in here and there about my artwork. But it's been sorely neglected, really, considering that was my first and only love for many, many years.

When I was a kid, you'd catch me drawing any time a pencil or pen and paper was within reach. Actually, anything I could draw on without getting in trouble was fair game. My jeans and sneakers were always covered in doodles.

Everyone expected me to "be an artist" when I grew up. I had no idea what that meant, though, and my passion ended up fizzling out after I graduated high school. Oddly, though, it came back when I start writing.

This is the first thing I drew after probably 15 years of not drawing:

My sweet, sweet old boxer, Rocky :).

The really cool thing is that my connections to other writers opened a door for my art. Grace Bridges from Splashdown Books posted a call-out for artists on a writers forum. I answered the call-out, and my drawing of a key ended up on the cover of Caprice Hokstad's "The Duke's Handmaid."

This was a double honor, because Caprice's writing is top-notch!

Sooooo.....what I've decided is to do some blogging here over the next few weeks about my artwork. Get a little more specific, and give you an insider's look at doing work for publishers.

In the meantime, check out Caprice's book. You can find it on Amazon in both print and Kindle edition (the Kindle version is only $4.99!). Also, at Barnes and Noble in print and NOOKbook. (Again, the Nookbook is only $4.99!) If you need it in a different ebook format, you can find that on Smashwords.