- Barry Finlay

A FEW WORDS ABOUT PUBLISHING

My new book, Remote Access, which is scheduled for release this spring, is my 5th so I’ve been down the publishing road a few times. I thought I would share a few thoughts for those considering publishing a book or for others who just have some interest.

There are three options available: traditional, self publishing and a hybrid of the two. The best option depends on your writing goals. Is it a career? A hobby? No matter what it is, it’s every author’s dream to be traditionally published by a big publishing house, have their book promoted and sit back and watch as millions of dollars in royalties roll in. There are definitely benefits, such as widespread distribution, marketing and mainstream exposure and the credibility that comes with all that. There is also a downside.

Just be aware that it’s rare that a traditional publisher will publish an unknown author and it’s almost always preceded by finding an agent and more rejection letters than you can count. IF it does happen, the reality is that unless you are a big name author or your book is the best the publisher has ever laid eyes on, your work could languish near the bottom of the pile for a long time before it sees the light of day. The publisher may pay an advance, which comes out of your royalties, and the percentage of royalties you will receive on sales is markedly lower as a result (remember the publisher wants to make money from your book). Your book may not look the same either when it is published. You may be asked to make a number of changes before it goes to print.

The second option is self publishing. This is the easiest and quickest route to follow and the one that pays the most royalties. You need a good cover, a good book description, an editor and a quality book if you want people to keep buying. You are totally in control and because of that, you will spend a lot of time marketing your book. Your royalties are yours to keep. Marketing is a lot of work and you will lose all the benefits of traditional publishing.

A third option is hybrid publishing. With this option, you get some of the benefits of traditional publishing, including distribution and the publishing house brand on your book, which might help with mainstream promotion. You are still required to do much of the marketing. The author shares the upfront costs with the publisher (editing, cover design, formatting). The cost to the author may or may not be as significant as self publishing. The author’s share of royalties is somewhere between self publishing and traditional. The publisher wants to recoup their share of the upfront costs plus they want to make some money on sales.

My personal experience has been with all three options to a certain extent. I’ve followed my own advice and sent out a handful of queries to agents and got a handful of rejections from those who responded. My goals are different at this stage in my life so admittedly, I didn’t spend a lot of time on it. I published one of my books initially with a hybrid publisher and my experience was not the best. The value added by this particular publisher wasn’t apparent to me so I got my rights back and self published the book. Still, I found a hybrid publisher recently that came highly recommended and that seemed to have high quality standards. They accepted my manuscript and they spent a lot of time answering my questions. I think they would have been a good fit for me, but I was already down the road of self publishing Remote Access (the book was edited and formatting done) so the timing wasn’t right.

In the end, I have chosen the self publishing route for all my books. It fits my goals and I don’t mind the marketing aspect. For my thrillers, I’ve hired a marketing guru who has been pretty successful in promoting the e-books. I do book signings and my own promotion for my print copies.

My suggestion is to assess your goals and the pros and cons and choose the option that works best for you. At least go into it with your eyes open. I still believe authors owe it to themselves to try to find an agent to pursue their dream. You never know, you could have a bestseller on your hands. Check out Query Tracker as a first step to finding an agent. If the hybrid solution is best for you, make sure you pick one that will do what they say they are going to do. Do your due diligence. There are many vanity publishers who will publish anything for a price and do nothing for you. Avoid them! If you decide self publishing is best for you, be prepared to do your promotion and make sure your book is the best it can be.

No matter which route you choose, be proud of your published work.

The Writing Process

While my new novel, Remote Access is meandering through the publishing process, I thought it might be interesting to share some thoughts on the writing process, at least what works for me. The one comment I get more than any others when I’m doing a book signing is, “Oh, I should write a book.” My answer is always, “So…do it.” Here are some initial thoughts on one person’s approach to writing.

Most important to me is to make sure you have a story that can be teased out into a book. It takes me awhile to come up with one. There’s inspiration everywhere, but it has to be something that interests you. My latest thriller is woven around today’s political climate, which is of interest to me. Lots to write about there. A Perilous Question arose out of an actual question I was asked by a teenage girl at a dormitory we had helped fund in Tanzania, Africa. The Vanishing Wife came out of a thought I’d always had about how awful it must be when a loved one disappears. It just needs to be something you can get your teeth into. Of course, I’m talking about fiction. I found when our son and I wrote our non fiction book, Kilimanjaro and Beyond, the story just unfolded the way it happened. It was the same for I Guess We Missed the Boat. The point is, the story will be much more interesting if you have some connection with it.

My experience now that I’ve written my fifth book is that there’s no right or wrong way to approach writing. There are those who sit down at a certain time every day, five days a week and write. I call it writing on command. Kudos to people who can do that. I have to write when I feel the urge. If the words aren’t coming, I walk away and pick it up later.

Some people prepare detailed outlines before starting. I heard a well established author say he writes over 100 pages of outline. It’s a great way to avoid writer’s block. Others fly by the seat of their pants. I’ve developed a hybrid style. For Remote Access, I wrote a high-level outline in a software package called Scrivener, and then proceeded to let the characters take me where they wanted to. I was sometimes surprised by where they went and how the story unfolded and that’s one of the joys (to me) of writing. I always tell people when I’m writing that I can’t wait to finish writing the book so I can see how it ends.

That’s enough for now. Next time, I’ll write about settings and detail in your writing. When Remote Access is published, I will be sharing some thoughts on the publishing process.

In the meantime, if you have questions, fire away. I would be happy to answer.

Cheers!

The Editing Process

People ask all the time about the editing process and why it takes so long. There are many types of editing, including manuscript evaluation, developmental/project editing, substantive and structural editing, stylistic editing, copy editing, proofreading, rewriting and checking/reference checking.

Many of these overlap and are done simultaneously. The first round for my editor and I could be considered substantive/developmental/copy editing/checking as she goes through every line in detail, challenging facts, improving grammar, suggesting changes to remove redundancies or expand on descriptions… It’s a lengthy, time-consuming and sometimes frustrating process. We do it line by line and chapter by chapter.

After I agree or disagree and make changes, my editor reads it along with some other people, searching for typos that have crept in and to make sure the changes done in the first round have not introduced new problems. She may also challenge items that I have disagreed with in the first round.

The manuscript then goes for formatting to prepare it for publication. Different formats are required for paperback and e-book.

When the manuscript goes for publication and one copy of the finished product comes back, it’s time for proofreading. This could eliminate more typos and should ensure formatting is correct.

It’s a worthwhile process. After all that work writing the book, an author wants to ensure it’s as good as it can be.

A word of caution though, unfortunately, even after all that, glitches can and do show up from time to time. We sometimes see what we think should be there, not what is.