And now for the news!
Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing!
This week, Publishers Weekly contributor Matia Burnett profiles indie success story, Gurpreet Kaur Sidhu, who wrote her first book in the seventh grade (heavily inspired by Harry Potter, like many of us!) and who always found in writing a way of both retreating from and reframing her relationship to the off-the-page world. Writes Burnett, “As Sidhu came of age and pursued a career in business management—serving as assistant manager at a Fortune 500 company—she continued to find a haven from life’s stresses and disillusionments through writing creatively.” Burnett allows us a closer look at Sidhu’s latest book, a self-published title simply titled Storm. Her journey was, as with many indie and self-published authors, far from straightforward:
Sidhu set out to publish her novel traditionally. “In the very beginning, I was dead set on getting an agent and having my work published through a big publishing house,” she says. But she was pragmatic in her approach, weighing the pros and cons of traditional publishing and self-publishing. The latter won out.
“After getting rejected over 50 times, I decided that if I wanted the world to read my work, I wasn’t going to wait around or be dead by the time they discovered Storm,” Sidhu says. She also recognized that she’d need some expert advice in order to effectively navigate the world of self-publishing and hired an editor and a publicist—a move that she strongly recommends for first-time authors.
In an age of plentiful gadgets and gizmos, finding useful expertise to navigate all of the options is indeed a move that we here at Self Publishing Advisor could get behind, as well. You can find out more about Sidhu’s book by following the link to the Publishers Weekly article, above.
(Hint: Step 6 is to self-publish.) Tarun Varshney writes a straightforward what-to (a necessary prequel to any how-to) in this week’s Entrepreneur that provides, if only as a final flourish, an endorsement of self-publishing for those authors struggling to find publishing homes for their manuscripts. Writes Varshney, there are definitely some structural and sentence-level work that can be done to render your work more appealing to traditional publishing houses, but there are also some manuscripts that are better suited—whether in content or form—for an indie approach.
Rejection doesn’t mean: your book is bad. There could be other reasons:
a. publisher doesn’t know how to sell your book and fears to invest money
b. publisher’s book publishing target for the year has been completed
c. a literary agent is fully occupied
d. a literary agent is not active at that timeSo, do not think about the flaws in your work. Your work is in the best possible shape if you have followed steps properly. Go for print-on-demand model. So you can invest along the way based on the response from readers.
Varshney also reminds readers of Entrepreneur that ultimately, the polish and shine isn’t what brings a book financial success—it’s connecting with readers. And connecting with readers, as Varshney puts it, is “all about awareness about you and your book.” Boosting awareness requires as much time and energy as writing, but there are ways forward through the workload—as we have written about on this very website!
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 each month to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.
Self Publishing Advisor 