This sounds strange to most people when I talk about it, but I have
never pursued a traditional book deal. I mean that. Never in my life. I
sent my first novel, The Lost Village, (along with four-hundred dollars) to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency
in New York in about 2001. A nice editor got back to me and commended
me on the ambitiousness of my novel, said I was a promising writer and
that The Lost Village was actually a great book, but, no one
would publish it because it was too long. 258,000 words. He told me
there wasn't a publisher in the land that would touch a first time
author with a book of that length. He qualified that and said that if I
was a celebrity author like King or Patterson it would be fine, no
problem, I could publish my laundry list and it would sell. But I wasn’t
King or Patterson, I was an unknown. And publishers wanted nice tidy
little eighty to one-hundred-thousand word books from unknown authors.
Please send something else along that's at a more appropriate length, (along with another four-hundred bucks, by the way).
Well, that was that, thank you very much. I never sent another thing
to that agency or any other agency for that matter. Maybe I’ve got a
thin skin, but I was no longer interested in what literary agents had to say. I was keenly aware of the statistics, of how many manuscripts ever made it to an editor's desk. One writer friend of mine had been rejected so
many times he was on the verge of suicide.
So, I did the unthinkable. Way back in the dark ages before kindle and
nook and all those other reading devices we now take for granted were
invented, I decided to self-publish my magnum opus. This was before
Amazon or any of the other booksellers were selling e-books. If you
wanted to self-publish a book you needed to go through one of those
“vanity” presses that charged for services. So that’s what I did. I brought The Lost Village out in hardcover and trade paperback and sold
downloadable copies from my website to those who were willing to read an
enormous book on their computer screens. The book actually came out
pretty well. It was formatted nicely, had a good cover. I signed up with
the New England Horror Writers,
did some group signings, made some friends, and, to my amazement, the
book began to sell. Before long I was receiving some nice reviews from
fellow authors as well as readers, and low and behold I found out that
several ‘respectable’ authors with ‘real’ published books had
recommended to the HWA (the Horror Writer’s Association) that The Lost Village
be nominated for a Bram Stoker Award.
But of course it wasn’t
nominated. Back then, and even now, the HWA has a very hard time
recognizing anything self-published. They love their legacy publishers,
and if your work isn’t sanctioned by one of them, well. They claim they
consider all published works, and I believe they do, but it’s been my
experience that very few independent books ever get much consideration. No matter, they are for the most part, a good and
beneficial organization. But I believe in my heart (and this is just my opinion) that if they continue on their present
course they will soon become as irrelevant as bookstores and legacy
publishers.
The Lost Village sold well without the benefit of being sanctioned by a legacy publisher, or being recognized by the Horror Writers Association.
In the meantime I wrote several other books and was doing okay publishing short stories in various magazines and anthologies.
Then, a little more than three years ago, on invitation, I sent my novella, The Haunting of Sam Cabot to a brand new small press publisher, Damnation Books.
Now this is the important part. Are you listening? It was the first
time in my writing life that I had ever sent a manuscript to a book
publisher. You heard me right. The very first time. At the time, Kindle was a brand new concept and
I had never heard of it. Damn my error. Well, I heard right back from
Damnation Books that they wanted to publish my book. Wow! First time.
Couldn't believe it. They subsequently published two more of my books including The Lost Village. I signed five year contracts with
each of those books. I wish I never had. It was just about the time
Kindle exploded on the scene and I was suddenly tied down to a publisher who priced
my books much too high to sell well on Kindle. And oh my lord, the formatting! It was atrocious. To their credit, some of the formatting issues have recently been straightened out, but if you check sample versions of both The Lost Village and The Holocaust Opera you will see that the text of both books is entirely in italics. E-gads! And, to my utter chagrin they
priced the Kindle version of The Lost Village at $9.95. Celebrity authors can get away
with selling e-books at that price, unfortunately nobody else can. Try
telling that to my publisher. I know in my heart that if it had been priced at $2.99
or even $3.99, where it should be, it would have been a Kindle bestseller by now. I
begged and pleaded with my publisher to just try it but they wouldn't
budge. Too bad for them because they have lost me as an author. I am presently in the process of obtaining the rights back to The Haunting of Sam Cabot. The other two will be next. It's going to take some legal wrangling, but it will happen. Not that they
should care, They have what seems to be a massive stable of authors
now, most of which seem quite satisfied to earn 17.5% of the list price
instead of the 70% they could earn as independents. Go figure. I guess
for some the prestige of having a REAL publisher outweighs everything else
including earnings.
Since then I have self-published a collection of shorts for kindle Servants of Darkness
that’s been doing very well for a collection (Collections aren’t
supposed to be good sellers) and I've published a new novel, Apocalypse Island as well as several other novellas,
and a bunch of short stories. Apocalypse Island is doing quite well, and I have a new novel, Soul Thief due out this spring.
So, here I am, right back to square one. I have always been a strong
advocate of self-publishing. I fell down once and signed with a "publisher," but unless I’m offered a huge amount of money and great
e-book terms I will never ever do it again. I'm having too much fun on
my own.
As I said in a previous post, this is just me. Each writer has to
find his or her own path. But if you do choose a publisher, please choose carefully. I feel that my own writing journey is just
beginning. The time has never been better for the independent author.
Any way you do it takes time and patience. If you decide to
self-publish, make sure you have a good book, a good cover and a great
description. Hire a good editor and listen to what that person has to
say. Once all that is done, make sure the book is formatted correctly for digital publication. You can hire that done at fairly reasonable cost. I've learned to do it myself. I've learned to do most everything myself, including some of my own cover art. Once it's ready, put your book out there and promote it until
you’re exhausted. With all of those things and a little luck maybe you
will become the next Kindle bestseller.
Mark Edward Hall
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