Michael Allen - A Writer's Guide To Everything Important - The Omnibus Edition Of Seven Essential Guides For Fiction Writers

Incidentally, when it comes to bestsellers in ebooks, the most successful publishers, in 2013, were unsurprisingly drawn from the Big Five. Using appearances on the Digital Book World ebook bestseller list as our criterion, Hachette, Penguin, and Random House did best. But, if we imagine self-published authors as forming one indie publishing firm, the indie authors beat everyone else. Beat HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, et al.

Unless you have spent the past fifty years struggling through the treacle fields which defended the old system, as I have, new writers cannot possibly imagine what a gift from the gods has been vouchsafed to you in this, the digital age. The best advice I can give to any writer is this: for your own sake, make the most of this breathtaking opportunity; and as you do so, give thanks to whatever gods you fancy that you live in such blessed times.

3.4 The coffee-shop printing machine

And what, you may be wondering, of that other digital development which was forecast by Jason Epstein around the turn of the century?

Epstein, you may recall, predicted that before long there would be machines on every High Street (possibly in coffee shops, hence the name Espresso Book Machine) which would print you a copy of almost any book within a few minutes. Well, we’re nearly there.

In September 2012 it was announced that the Espresso Book Machine developers would be co-operating with Eastman Kodak to incorporate these machines in Kodak Picture Kiosks in up to 105,000 locations worldwide.

And if you haven’t actually seen such a machine yet, neither have I. So it’s no good pretending that this innovation has had the massive impact of the Kindle. Neither do I think it ever will. It may never prove to be a viable business model. But the idea isn’t dead yet, and there are still quite a few people around who like the concept.

Suppose you’ve just read a cracking good novel and you think your Aunty Jane would love a printed copy for her birthday. Or, more precisely, when you meet her later on today. It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if you could get one printed in your lunch hour?

3.5 Success stories of the digital age

When you join the self-publishing community (the indie-publishers), you will be joining some eminent company. In 2010, the marketing guru Seth Godin, author of 12 print bestsellers which have been translated into 33 languages, announced that in future he will no longer work through traditional publishers. He argues that, in an ebook world, there are viable ways of cutting publishers out of the loop out (a process known as disintermediation). Now he can reach people just as effectively, if not more so, without traditional publishers, and end up making more money.

Prior to coming to this conclusion, Seth had been talking to many established print publishers and he was unimpressed by what he found. ‘Most of them looked at me like I was nuts for being an optimist. One CEO worked as hard as she could to restrain herself, but failed and almost threw me out of her office by the end. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t heartbroken at the fear I saw.’

But there’s no need for writers to be afraid. Quite the reverse. As I shall now demonstrate.

Before I move on to describe some success stories, let me say that successful writers have always been the exception. By a huge margin. And this is true however you care to define the word ‘successful’.

Success for some people simply means getting an article printed in a magazine. Or winning the local writers’ group monthly competition for a ten-line poem. For others, it means selling more copies than Stephen King and Danielle Steel combined. Either way, success is unusual. And it must not be considered inevitable. It is not a case of just do this, followed by that, and plug it on Twitter and Facebook, and you are bound to hit the big time. Never was, never will be.

Nevertheless, it is an established fact that some talented writers have not only managed to use their talent in the digital age, but have also had the good fortune to be in the right place at the right time with the right book.

The runaway successes of the digital age have been widely publicised, and I am not going to do much more here than mention some of their names, just in case you are a newbie to this game and have not come across them before. You might like to look at these writers’ web sites and other blog posts et cetera about them.

To begin with, it’s worth noting that Amazon itself often publicises the self-publishing successes, in order to encourage others to use their Kindle Direct Publishing facilities. In early 2012, for instance, Amazon published a list of the top ten bestsellers on its site in 2011, combining the sales of both print and ebook versions. Of these ten books, two were novels which were available in ebook form only. And – vital point – both these books were self-published. I’d never heard of either of them until I saw the Amazon list. One was The Mill River Recluse , at number four, and the other was The Abbey , at number nine.

The Mill River Recluse is by Darcie Chan. And when you look this lady up you find that hers is an absolutely classic story of the digital age. It took her three years to complete the book, after which she tested it out on her family and friends, polished it up, and sent it out to traditional publishers. Got absolutely nowhere. Scores of rejections. Sent it out to dozens of agents, with the same result. Then one top-class agent took her on (Laurie Liss at Sterling Lord). Laurie sent the book to all her best contacts, over a further two-year period. But still no sale.

By that time Darcie had become aware of this new-fangled digital self-publishing business. So she gave it a try. Edited the book herself, did her own formatting, designed her own cover, and handled her own publicity.

The book was published in May 2011. In June, she was thrilled when 100 copies had been sold. After that, aided by some hard work on marketing, and a little bit of advertising, things began to snowball, until in the latter part of the year the book was selling several thousand copies a day.

This book was, it’s worth repeating, the fourth biggest-selling book on the whole of Amazon in 2011, with no paper edition at all.

Other famous self-publishers include Amanda Hocking, John Locke (the eighth author, and the first self-published one, to sell over 1 million ebooks on Amazon), and Hugh Howey.

What distinguishes these books and their authors from ten thousand others? Ah, if only we knew. All we can say, with any confidence, is that sometimes a book will find its readers and really take off. But mostly it won’t.

3.6 Two-way traffic in the digital age

An interesting phenomenon in the digital age is the two-way traffic between traditional publishing and indie publishing.

At a certain point, some indie publishers who do absolutely everything themselves have come to the conclusion that they will never have any free time, never live a normal life, until they find someone to help out with the everyday stuff.

Amanda Hocking, for example, was eventually offered $2 million by St Martin’s Press, to enter into a conventional publishing arrangement with them. And why did she sign?

‘I want to be a writer,’ said Amanda. ‘I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling emails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc.’ In other words, she wants someone to do the manual labour for her.

Conversely, some famous writers have finally accepted the point made by Jason Epstein in Book Business, namely that they don’t really need a publisher at all. If they already have experience of the publishing process, they can hire in the help as necessary. Barry Eisler, a thriller writer whose track record includes a Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, actually turned down a new contract with St Martin’s Press, worth $500,000, and decided to control his own fate thereafter, as an indie.