Hello, Cro’s Nest readers! I’m Scott, another Newfoundland author. I’m writing this guest post as part of the blog tour for my humour novel Royal Flush, which strikes me as a good opportunity to discuss my experiences thus far as an indie author. Hopefully this will be useful to anyone who’s considering becoming one.
I chose to self-publish Royal Flush, you see, and I’ve been promoting it for a few months, so I feel like I’m in a good position to tell you that self-publishing is a lot of work.
My printer is Lightning Source, and so I was responsible for virtually everything except the actual printing—including writing, editing, cover art, formatting the book, turning it into a PDF, and promoting it.
Royal Flush is about a man known only as the King, who rules a land known only as the Kingdom. It asks the question: can a man who throws his dates in a dungeon succeed romantically?
Five years ago or so, I wrote the first draft in the 18 days leading up to a competition deadline. This was the Fresh Fish Award, a local prize. (I didn’t win that one.)
I then spent several years revising and editing, ultimately going through ten drafts. I wasn’t alone in this, though. I’m lucky enough that many people have taken an interest in my writing, and I would estimate that over 100 people read Royal Flush during its various stages of pre-publication. This includes friends, family, coworkers, and users of Authonomy.com, all who provided valuable feedback. You might say I crowdsourced a significant amount of the editing.
I approached a local artist I went to high school with, Susan Jarvis, with a concept for the book cover, and she made me something very close to what you see today. I was immediately very happy with the cover, and I requested only minor changes.
Formatting the book was a headache. I spent hours researching how to do it. Hyphenation was especially troublesome. I’m glad I invested the time, though, because I think the finished print book looks pretty professional. (Formatting for eReaders, of course, wasn’t as big a deal, since it looks different on every device anyway.)
To promote the novel, I’ve turned to Twitter, Facebook, my blog, and local venues such as Chapters, Coles, Afterwords, Books R Us Plus, The Never Ending Story, the Farmers’ Market, Sci-Fi on the Rock, and the Regatta. I’ve been interviewed in local newspapers and on the radio. And then there’s this blog tour, after which I plan to record the first part of my book as an audiobook and give that away for free, to try and pique interest in the rest of it.
I have an 8-page marketing plan, which never seems to shrink no matter how many to-do items I delete from it. This is because I’m constantly adding new things—both new ideas and things I’ve realized I need to do. If you’re like me, you’ll underestimate just how much work self-publishing is before you go into it. A lot of it is unglamorous logistics. But based on my personal experience, I consider all of it well worth it.
One advantage associated with being self-published (and with being published electronically) is that your book is always ‘in print’. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a huge push immediately after the book is released, and then little to no activity afterward. Since my book is available for as long as Lightning Source, the ebook sellers, and I are all solvent, I can promote at my leisure—mind you, I don’t feel very leisurely. I am having lots of fun, though, and I consider that extremely important!
Scott Bartlett has been writing fiction since he was fifteen. His recently released novel, Royal Flush, is a recipient of the H. R. (Bill) Percy Prize. Click here to buy the ebook ($3.99) or to order the print book ($12.99).
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