and self-publishing. It’s been about eighteen months so far and I haven’t once regretted the decision to retire. I sometimes have to stop myself writing seven days a week – it just doesn’t seem like work. The publishing side is work, but it takes up little of my time. I’ve rarely been happier.
Books about self-publishing rarely cover the topic of quality adequately, if they cover it at all. I wanted to see if I could write and publish books which didn’t appear self-published, and after a lot of hard work I’d like to think I’ve succeeded. My readers tell me I have. And I’m doing what I want to do with my days so Bob Dylan thinks I’m a success, although he hasn’t had the good grace to tell me so. Typical.
In my professional career I bought countless different goods and services, but I never bought dreams. But I think that when writers – and especially new writers – spend money with vanity publishers on ‘publishing packages’, they’re buying dreams. Whatever a publisher may say, if you’re spending your own money to have the company publish your work, the company is a vanity publisher. Full stop. The only question is what type of vanity publisher they are.
I shudder when I visit some of the vanity publishers’ websites offering publishing packages. One is currently selling packages for almost £11,000. Another publisher states that your books can be printed in any one of a variety of fonts. Wow, like, amazing, man. They often have a range of templates for your material to be put into, which helps them keep their costs down. And your costs too, to be fair. But I don’t like any restrictions when it comes to my writing and publishing. I want to retain full creative and business control at all times.
The only restrictions I will accept – because I must – are those imposed by technology. And even then I’m not happy if I want to do something with a book that isn’t technically possible, or only possible at an uneconomic cost. Researching for this book led me to a vendor, CPI Antony Rowe, prepared to manufacture a single copy of a book with a colour plate section at a low cost, something I’d been seeking for some time.
At the time of writing this – August 2011 – if you order any of my books for delivery outside the UK, the chances are that it will have been printed by Lightning Source’s print-on-demand (POD) model. The copyright page early in the book will tell you who the printer was. Lightning Source is the largest POD book printer in the world, and Chapter 7 gives an account of its business model, a boon to publishers and self-publishers alike.
If you adopt my self-publishing model you’ll probably only need to deal with three parties: the printer, a copy-editor/proofreader, and a cover designer. Maybe a photographer too, if your cover requires a bespoke photograph. You may be surprised to learn that most book printers, even the largest, will be delighted to deal with you directly. Margins in the printing sector are perennially low, and printers can make a better margin from individual customers than they can from large corporate customers with buying power.
Self-publishing by dealing directly with third parties has a number of benefits other than cost. If you’re dealing directly with a printer which prints digitally – and indeed by offset lithography too, if you’re selling enough books to merit ordering in quantities of 300 copies or more – you will have a huge array of options when it comes to your book’s specification. There are fewer specification options with POD, where the book is only manufactured after a buyer has ordered the book. But the POD model has a number of benefits, financial and other, and I’ll be taking you through them.
At a number of points in the book I refer to a ‘standard’ book specification, especially when I’m trying to make points about costs. The specification should be taken to mean a 272-page paperback with a colour cover and black content text. The specification of this book excluding the plate section, as it happens. What are the chances?
I’ve adopted the increasingly popular convention of leaving the ‘www.’ prefix off website addresses, and I’ve put them in a smaller font than the surrounding text.
It took a lot of time and effort to track down the quotations I put into this book. If you’re a fan of quotations you might like to read through Appendix 1 before you start on Chapter 1. If you’re not, then don’t. Take my advice: reject my advice whenever you feel inclined to do so.
A few words about the cover images showing myself and my œuvre shortly before the publication of this book. The more fashion-conscious reader of a male persuasion interested in adopting the English gentleman look – and how could he not be? – will wish to learn the provenance of the elements of the look. He may be surprised that I’d be willing to divulge this information, but that’s the kind of chap I am.
The bespoke pure new wool suit was tailored by Austin Reed of Regent Street, London – tailors to the stars – and the shirt was bought from Charles Tyrwhitt of Jermyn Street, London. The silk tie came from Christian Dior’s legendary 1992 spring/summer collection, while the very comfortable brogues were manufactured by Cheaney in Desborough, Northamptonshire. The latter were recently repaired by Morgan, a family-run business in Cardiff, cobblers to the Welsh. I am informed by an acquaintance of the American persuasion that brogues are termed ‘wingtips’ in America. Extraordinary.
The umbrella was made by Fox Umbrellas in England, ‘Makers of the world’s finest umbrellas’. Their motto is, ‘Keeping you dry since 1868’. If you’re at least 143, then possibly. Out of sight but contributing to my evident joy are my navy blue pure cotton boxer shorts (Marks & Spencer’s 2009 autumn/winter collection) and red silk blend socks (Moorland Hosiery).
Spectacles from Specsavers – opticians to fashionable Englishmen and Englishwomen for generations – and hair by the lovely Samantha at Bedford’s Toni and Guy completes the look.
I wish you well in your self-publishing venture and I hope this book helps you. If it does, and you feel sufficiently generous to send me a complimentary signed copy of your book, I should be most appreciative. My address is provided on the copyright page.
A word on my use of the word ‘he’ throughout the book when I refer to writers and readers generically. The term should be understood to mean both genders. Political correctness raises my blood pressure – don’t get me started on militant feminist politician Harriet Harman – and this is all I have to say on the subject.
A final thought on the terms ‘writer’ and ‘author’. Which should you call yourself? I’m inclined to call myself a writer on the grounds that until and unless a writer become very successful the term ‘author’ can sound a little pretentious. A bestselling writer once said he always called himself a writer, on the grounds that, ‘I write, I don’t auth.’ Until the next time.
mike buchanan
bedford, old england
1 september 2011
1| MOTIVATION, PERSISTENCE, ADVICE, WRITING AND SELF-PUBLISHING
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you
To be just like them.
Bob Dylan 1941– Maggie’s Farm (song, 1965)
This chapter covers:
-motivations for writing books
-the importance of persistence
-taking advice
-developing distinctiveness as a writer
-plotting
