My Self-Publishing Adventure: Part IV

Even though some writers subscribe to the Romantic notion that an artist should create without wasting any thought on business, you gotta eat. If you don’t earn any money from your art, you’re likely to need a day job, which leaves little time and energy for creating. Better to treat your craft like a business from the beginning, including spending time, effort, and cash on marketing and publicity.

Some squirm at the thought of self-promotion, and it is hard. But don’t you want to reach an audience? Don’t you want lots of people to read your book (watch your film, listen to your music, admire your painting)? If not, that’s great—if you’re writing a journal that you don’t want anyone else to see or if you destroy your paintings once they’re done because they’re too private to share, that’s up to you. But like many, I want to share my thoughts and ideas and characters with readers.

I’ve related before how a chance conversation with author Sue Bartoletti made me re-think of writing as a business. The lesson has stuck.

Those of us fortunate enough to have a good agent can leave a lot of the business end of things to her (or very occasionally, him). A traditionally-published author also has the publisher to take on the production and some (from just about none, up to a lot) of the marketing and publicity.

Not so the indie author, who is forced into making business decisions, something that many of us aren’t used to doing. This is, for many, enough of a hurdle to keep them from trying indie publishing, even when (like me) the author has an expert giving advice and taking care of a lot of the process.

I had a lot of up-front expenses associated with Orpheus (see this post for a breakdown of what they were). Lara, my agent, presented me with options for each of the services she helped me find. Since fees for all the options covered a wide range, I’m not going to say how much all this cost me—you can spend a lot less than I did, or a lot more. Expect to go into four figures, up to five, for high-quality work.

Is this expensive? Yes, it is. But it’s a business, just as a KFC franchise is a business. And considering that a KFC franchise costs between $1,250,000 and $2,530,000, I feel like my much, much smaller investment in Orpheus was money well spent.

One of my added expenses was getting a review from Kirkus Reviews. You have to pay for their review of an indie book, but this doesn’t guarantee it will be favorable. They allow you to choose whether or not to publish their opinion, and rumor says that at least 90% of the time, the author chooses not to do so—Kirkus is notoriously tough! This was another financial risk, but it paid off: Orpheus received a glowing review!


For more on the business side of writing, see this article.