The Struggle of a Self-Published Author

There are alternatives to the fully paid version of the concept that is “Self-Published Author” in that it takes more effort than what many people presume is a “self-pay” form of publication.

If you did not know by now, I am a self-published author.

I do not shy away from that, as that is the truth. I publish myself by myself through myself with a little help from programs set up by a company called lulu.

But, the option that seems most obvious is “pay for the package that cleans, edits and prepares your manuscript fully for publication” which many authors do through various different companies.

But…and if you have heard me rant before, you probably know…I am a college student, and I have no money for that. I publish for free through Lulu Publishing.

But that means…editing…formatting…clean up…spell check…(and all that marketing stuff that comes later)…are all unpaid for…but a company doesn’t give stuff for free! That’s preposterous!

And you’re right, it is preposterous.

Lulu provides some great service packages, but I don’t buy any. I publish for free because I do all the manual labor of setting up the manuscript myself.

And this brings me to the reason for this long winded tirade of words that you have probably quit on by this point.

No? Still reading?

Okay!

So, Dorm Haze! And actually…several other books as well (The Were-Dragon series)...are all getting revamped...

Dorm Haze not as much…the others really really need revamped though.

But, after getting some useful critical feedback that specifies the issues of the books…I looked back on the books and was utterly dumbfounded to find all of the mistakes I had looked over in my many many reviews of the manuscripts (before and after publication).

*Sigh*

And here is where I get to the point.

I am publishing Dorm Haze anew because it has way too many errors. Some technical things, grammatical errors and misspellings I should have noticed before have all gone unnoticed til this point. And I will be fixing everything that is an error and make sure that I make it suit the proceeding books.

There are a few things that I might as well note here...

They won't be "fixed" because they aren't wrong.

Easiest example?   Fryday    This is a very different world (it's post World War something or other) and has a different set of spellings and norms. Friday as we spell it is spelled Fryday in that future.

So yea, that'll stay.

I respect my art and do not want to change it...BUT!

I can admit when there is a mistake. And I'll be fixing as many mistakes as I can (The Were-Dragon included) just in due time.

With that...I bid you adieu...

I'll be working on editing Dorm Haze and finishing Love is Blind (alongside Loose Dagger and Tale of Two Sisters).

So...if you see any errors, mistakes and technical confusions in my work, please feel free to let me know! You can post a comment to my blog...you can contact me on facebook. I'm also on twitter and tumblr.

Book 1	Book 2	Book 3	Book 4	Book 5
A Dragon's Curse	Ambiguous Flame	Devil's Grace	Taboo	Dragon's Love

Self-Publishing and Freedom of Expression

Well this rant may be random and not applicable to any of you readers...


But I wanted to make something clear, because that doesn't seem to be too clear to at least one or two commenters. One I know of on facebook and one unknown floating around.

Anyways, there are some things that need to be made clear.


I consider myself lucky to have fallen into self-publishing.

With all the crap self-publishers get...that's a bit difficult to say.

But I really am glad.

You see, I get to do things that authors can't do when they have the big companies...and even some other self-published companies.

I get to deal with EVERYTHING.

I've made that sound like a tedious and tiring task in the past, but not this time.

For you see, as the publisher, editor, writer, advertiser, designer, etc, etc...

I have the power!

I control everything!

You don't see anybody telling me what to put in my books!

You don't see an editor telling me what is going to far in a story!

You don't see advertisers targeting an audience it might not even be intended for in the first place, possibly making my novels feel downgraded to something they weren't supposed to be...

Sure I don't have access to artists who can make a masterpiece of a cover for me...but I do just fine on my own.

I have all of the control of the books. For the most part.



Before anybody asks, no I can't lower most prices.

Every book has a base price based on the size of the book and the type. This goes without saying as it actually costs to print a book.

So, there are a few things that are a bit difficult to tweak in that regard.



But otherwise, I have free reign with my writing career.

I don't have any corporate deadlines to meet.


Nobody telling me I can't have my book published three months early because of advertising or some shit like that.

While there are so many perks to be had with the big companies, the big companies are in a war with other companies, and when it comes down to it they want money.

Lulu wants money, but by giving free reign to the authors, they can make a price that suits them...allows them to make some money for every copy bought...so they get a cut just like any publishing company...

But I still own the copyright.


Also...if you come off of goodreads reading this and notice some of my books being changed to "Published by Lulu" don't listen to that.

I facepalm every time I see this. Cause I enter the information, and a librarian comes along thinking they know better.


Lulu specifically gives authors the ability to make for themselves an alternate "publisher" and I make mine as published by "McGlothlin-Clason Publishing" so yea.

Take that know-it-alls.

It shouldn't bother me so much, but they obviously don't know how Lulu works.

Because Lulu acknowledges that there is a lot of work a person puts into books, even when they purchase services, that end up on their site.

Anyways...where was I?

I keep doing this where I go off on a tangent and lose my train of thought.


Oh yea...I have the power!

It's great!

I can do whatever I please with my stories, and I don't give a phluck if somebody thinks I'm doing it wrong.

So far, all I have to worry about is if the beguiled monsters trolling Amazon and Goodreads decide to target me as they have done to many other authors.

I'm not so vulnerable I think.

If you've read my work...my more recent work...then you may have the inkling that I don't really care about image.

That's another thing about being a self-published author.

While I am attempting to build my reputation as respectful and decent, I'm not about to sell myself as some brilliant mastermind of poetic pieces or some shit like that.

You've all read the cusses in my blogs.

You may or may not have read the crazed stuff placed into my books.

Nothing is quite below me...yet...

Well of course it has a reason to be in the book...I'm not going to put crazed stuff in my books for the sake of it being there...that would be stupid.

I was going to say silly, but I like silly. Stupid sounds better there because it really would be stupid.

Everything that might scare away the younger and more innocent viewer is there for a reason.

So I'm just waiting for somebody to read that.

One of those weird little trolls [pretending like they themselves aren't also an author] to come by the work...become appalled by it...and spit something about it that is nonsense.

I say let them.

If you're going to be convinced by one reviewer, then you clearly haven't found your own taste yet.

If you like my books you like them.

If you don't, it wasn't meant for you.

That's another thing, while it's hard to build an audience, it's easier to get my own point across without people targeting an audience that might end up hating it.

That can happen. The wrong audience being targeted.

And then what? They just say it's a bad book without realizing that it was misplaced in the wrong sections of the library...

Never to be discovered by the readers who would truly enjoy it.

I digress.

This all kind of leads me to a link that was posted to one of my facebook posts.

I was only wanting to know about novel length and opinions on that, but I mentioned prices due to publishing and the person sent me the first publisher link he found.


I facepalmed so hard.




It's a children's and youth publisher.



Facepalming soooooo hard right now.



Soooo hard...




I've already mentioned in this post that I have no interest in being published with a big company...

I certainly don't have any interest to make any of my work "kid friendly" or to target it to a specific audience.

Frankly I don't care who reads my works. I'd just like them to be appreciated.

From my perspective, the youths (I mean teens) shouldn't be so limited as pushing them towards the bigger books makes them expand upon what they are reading and how they are thinking.

But I digress...again...

My works aren't for everybody in general.

My works are definitely not "kid friendly" nor are they for the faint of heart.

Aside from my first two books...everything I've written since...I think it was 2012...has been too much for the youths to handle.


That's not to say my works are "sooo hardcore" or something like that. It just happens to contain some scenes and messages that are a bit heavy with adult themes and imagery.

I don't think the average teenager will comprehend the ideas of manic depression, rape and overcoming mental situations...not to the extent that adults will find in some of my books.

And that's not to undermine teenagers...this is why I dislike the idea of YA books...because the teenagers go there and then there are so few among the ones who read adult stuff.

But, what would my target audience be then?

If my books stayed this way and a company advertised it...they would form a genre around it.

I'm not fond of that idea.

I'd like to use Academia de Diversidad as an example.

Where it currently stands, I think it could almost be considered a series of YA novels with some graphic language and a couple of adult themed scenes.

But it would become so completely lost in that genre, because it's not what the series is intended for.

The first novels might be started like that, but that is not my intention.

And that's the fun part of all of this.

It's reflected even in my first series...

The most innocent book I ever wrote was A Dragon's Curse...written by teenage version of myself in high school and kept to a certain level of decency due to a lack of knowledge on who would be reading it in my classroom.

By the fifth book of the series, I had put the character through so much torture, pain and mental confusion that I had some readers upset that he didn't die in the end.




Go ahead and leave a comment if you think I'm blowing out my ass.

I don't really think the authors published by big companies have no control. I just feel more in control this way.

Every aspect of my book is decided by me.

Aside from coauthored works, those decisions are mutual between myself and my coauthor.

Don't send me companies to try to send a copy of my manuscript to.

Most companies don't even accept manuscripts unless you have an agent.

I'm talking only about the ones who apply to such a fantasy genre that would encompass my books.

I'm an Indie Writer...I'm an Indie Publisher...

I sigh and look around to see nothing but emptiness.

I sigh and look around my desktop to see only more projects that need to be done.

I sigh and look upon the many faces that are compiled files meant for each book and each project that needs completed in each step of its process towards publication.



It's harsh to look at all of that and know it's not getting done yet.


Why are you looking at me though?



Oh yea...cause I'm the only one doing all of these.


Well you can't blame me solely.

Blame real life...I guess.

In the end, writing and art are hobbies...

Hobbies I wish I could make into my career...nonetheless...

I have much else to do outside of writing...



So why am I wasting two minutes to post a blog here?



Well...


I can't help but feel like I can't reach out to anybody without something done.

And yet nothing is done.

So for the people waiting for this to get done, I'm sorry, it's all in the works.


For those who stumbled upon this post by chance...



Good luck figuring out what I mean.


Alright.

Alright.

I'll tell you what I do.



I write stories.

 No novels.

I edit the novels.

I format the novels.

I make for them covers.

I make a pretty internal layout.

I set up the information for them.

I advertise them (to the extent that I have within my grasp).

I fix all of the problems the publishing system has with the books I upload.

I publish the books.

I redo all the manuscripts in a format that allows them to be eBooks.

I format headers for a table of contents.

I check and double check all of these headers and the formats of the paragraphs.

I work through the process of making them into eBooks, starting over whenever there is an error.

I finally publish the eBook format...


And in the end...

I see only free eBooks go...flying everywhere off the cyber-shelves of various retailers.



So yea...it's a long process that is even HARDER than it sounds.

It's very time consuming.

You think the writing part is hard?

Psssh!

That's the easy part!

The hard part is formatting EVERYTHING, setting up EVERYTHING, drawing EVERYTHING, fixing EVERYTHING, and in the end publishing it to see its copies go nowhere but into nooks and kindles that might just be downloading anything and everything free they can find.


That's not to say I don't have diligent and wonderful fans though!


I argue that I've gotten a following of people who have indeed read my books.

They have taken the time to download or buy the manuscript I poured my heart and soul into before this publishing process.

And in the end, I'm very happy to do it.




I'm just trying to explain that...




IT'S NOT SO EASY AS IT SEEMS TO JUST GET PUBLISHED LIKE THOSE BIG MACHINES!

Look, I'm not trying to whine, but it's coming out that way.

You're all going to have to be patient for your candies.

Because those of you reading War of the Zealot Empire...

You're just dying to know aren't you?

When will book 6 be published?

When will it be done?

I don't know!

I really don't!

Everything is in a huge process of editing.

We did a number of scenes that I feel are much too obscene and would scare you all away...

Not that this series started with pandering to the fans anyways.

But the massive amounts of...ssssstufffff... that is in this book...

Has left me with hours and hours of editing and tearing apart this manuscript.

Every other book has been fine. Once it is written, it gets a quick editing that lasts just a few hours and then it goes off to print.

But this book...



I'll leave it to your imagination what we did before I got my editing gloves on.




So happy reading to you all.

Hope your holiday season is wonderful.

I'm spending it in classes, while Santa is paying a visit to your sleepy home.

And all the while, I'm trying so hard to make your precious book come to life on the page.



Thank you all for reading, and have a wonderful Holiday season!





Wanna know about my books? You could check them all out on Goodreads.

Writing for money

It seems like that's all the writing society and publishing community think about.

All I hear about are how one company can rip you off due to what they take outta your royalties.

I'm not going to complain about royalties taken from my works. I've done the math on them, and I don't think it's a terrible loss.

What I'm putting out isn't something I spent carving in a shed, getting blisters for. Or worked tirelessly over a stove to create.

No, I'm making art.

When you can sell art, you're doing alright.

Easy to say that you want to be a writer. Easy to say you want it to be your "career" but it seems to everybody else in the world to imply that you make money.

I guess this was sparked by an article that I read just a while ago.

It seems silly that the importance to the readers of that article is that they get the majority of revenue. That was where they complimented the stores the most.



Don't get me wrong, I think we need to know these things. And I think it was the point of the article. I am not stabbing at the writer, because they shared important information.



But are readers of this article, writers seeking to be published, realizing the mentality?

Is it worth it to put that art to being nothing more than the piece of wood you carved?

I dunno, maybe I'm crazy and over thinking this.

I got into the writing because it helped me get by in school.

Then I wanted to try out publishing, cause at the time I thought publishers would read it and tell me if they thought it was good or not.



(silly me that's not the case!)



So, I ended up with Lulu (second publisher listed) and have been happy publishing hard covers, paperbacks and ebooks ever since with that self publishing company.


Maybe it's just not for everybody.

Maybe I'm just not seeing everybody else's drive for financial success.

I'd LOVE to make money with this. If I could change over to being a writer full time as a career and make X amount of dollars on each book, I'd go for it without a second thought.




Publisher: "We'd love to pay you for your books and we'd like to make your payment X amount so would you-"



me: "YES!"



That's not reality.



But it's my art, so I never give it up.

Instead, I'm going for a career in language. Maybe I'll become a teacher.

Still I will write.


Still I wonder, after spending my time writing and learning to love it as an art...do all people see writing as a capital function rather than an artistic expression of the human mind and intellect?


Mmmmmmaybe I'm over thinking this.

I am an Indie Author...and damn proud

The times are changing...and big publishing companies are dying.

I have to admit, I felt a little pride when I read this article.
 
I am an indie author after all, and with that comes more work than the average big publisher contracted author.
 
I think even some indie authors have less work. They hire people to do the work I do. But I would rather not hire somebody to do my work...I enjoy it!
 
Makes me happy to think about after months of working a job I really did not like.
 
In the end, I think I made the best choice. I own the rights to my work, I choose what happens to it, and I get to manipulate how it looks and where it goes. I am happy as a clam.

Oh...right...by the way, this all came from an article I was reading...

It is rather interesting to hear about indie authoring from a previously published author who was in the big leagues.

I feel like that is all the justification I need for my work.

Think about it this way too...there are tons of great musicians, dancers and other artists who can be justified in their work simply through sharing it online. Like a youtube video.

So, why do people scoff at the idea of indie publishing for books? Writing is an art style, so we should be moving forward away from the single-mindedness that only the few write books while the rest dabble in nothingness.

Of course there are going to be bad books that come out of indie authoring, but there were always books that should not have been published, before there was indie publishing.

Today, anybody can get their work published.

With their own cover.

Their own title...

Their own story...

What is missing is the confidence to follow through with the project. That comes from within the author.

Although...maybe there is some know-how missing.

I know it can be scary to get an editor on one's work.

Spirits know that I haven't gotten a single family member to actually read through a single piece of my work.

So, when it comes to the general works being good...it is a matter of perspective.

70% of people on youtube will comment negatively/horribly on a video. Some comments will be made about somebody's voice. And a lot of dislikes will come the video's way.

But in the end, somebody will have liked that song, that dance routine, or that compilation of artistic compositions set to a certain mood of music. And that is because it is art...beauty is within the eye of the beholder... 'tis it not?



I personally feel I have progressed over the years. My skills at editing, formatting and even writing have gotten better.

I still find it strange that A Dragon's Curse comes out as a fan favorite so far...

But in the end, I can see my writing improving in its format and usefulness.

I hope I keep getting better. Because that is how I will have even better stories to share in the future.

And the better I get, the more I can help others, like my coauthor Andrew Gray.



While working with a coauthor sounds complicated and hard, it can be done. With a little practice, some cooperation, and fundamental ideas to stick to, any pair of writers can work together.

I have known Andrew a long time though. We practiced writing for years in the form of role playing. It was completely written out, with descriptions and actions included within the writing.



If not for this form of role playing, I might not have had the jumpstart on my writing that I did. I mean the actual writing. That is where the book starts, after all. You cannot even think about titles, covers and publication before you have a book.

If you are a writer, I would advise you to look into the idea of role playing. Larping works fine, but the more hands on you are with the written word, the better. Especially when you are in a larger group, where you have to type quickly to get your message out.

If you are a writer...don't cease looking for help. Look for that person who can review your work.

Don't stop sending out that manuscript. If you have that dream, stick to it.

If you have any questions about publishing and/or writing, feel free to ask!