And now for the news!
This week in the world of self-publishing:
Milo Yiannopoulos, who just resigned from Breitbart News on Tuesday after some highly condemned comments about pedophilia, is currently in an interesting position as far as being an author goes. When a lucrative book deal falls through due to this level of bad press, celebrity figures of Yiannopoulos’ status find themselves in the same position of aspiring authors of lesser status; no publishing company will touch their book.
In this article, James Hibbard points to other celebrity figures who’ve been in a similar situation to Yiannopoulos, such as O.J. with his title If I Did it with a hypothetical confession of the double murder and Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho with its graphic and violent content that angered too many people. Seeing as how the O.J. book was picked up and sold over 100,000 copies through a small publishing house, there is speculation that something similar could happen for Yiannopoulos. Jason Pinter, a publisher with Polis Books says, “I think it’s going to be a situation like with the O.J. book, where even if somebody publishes it, a lot of bookstores will refuse to carry it.” The logic follows, if bookstores won’t carry it, publishers probably won’t want to touch it, no matter how many copies he pre-sold, especially if those pre-sold copies were to his previous supporters who have since abandoned him do to his lewd comments.
So I guess the moral of this story is…even if you’re a celebrity with a huge social media and right wing media platform, you could still very easily end up in the shoes of those of us who can’t get a publishing company to touch our work. Silver linings: at least ours isn’t ignored or pushed aside because of infamy.
If you’re looking for a fantastic, in-depth and honest article about self-publishing children’s books, look no further than this piece by Ashley Eneriz. Eneriz begins with the priciest part of children’s books: the illustrations.
Eneriz gives a rough estimate for what a quality illustrator might cost, so you can know if you’re being high or low balled right off the bat, which I found useful because a lot of people don’t know what a reasonable price is for a book with a color cover and 20-40 color illustrations inside.
As far a time as something that was “spent” by Eneriz, she says that she spent about an hour a week for 15 weeks, which when you break it down like that, doesn’t sound too shabby for writing an entire book (albeit one for children)! Another time commitment she had to invest was in-person marketing at craft fairs and other special events, as she said that almost none of the 2,000 copies she sold the first year were online sales.
So, her final questions was, “is it worth it?”. While admitting that she barely broke even and that she makes more money in a month at work than she did in a year of selling her books, it was a dream come true for her, which was ultimately priceless. Sometimes, profit is not the goal, but following our passion is. If you think writing is a get-rich-quick scheme, sure, you may be disappointed, but hopefully you write for the love of it and not the love of money.
As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry. This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.
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