On Monday’s post, I received a comment
from Colleen…she was interested in hearing more about balancing or approaching
life as a hybrid writer—someone who is both traditionally published and
self-published.
She mentioned (and she’s right) that many
self-pubbed/indie authors aren’t at all interested in being traditionally
published. She was curious about how I
handle both worlds.
And…it’s interesting sometimes. But for me, a job is a job. I have
traditionally published series with readers who want more books, so I’m
providing them more books. I recently
signed a contract with Penguin for more mysteries in the Southern Quilting
series.
How I
manage the two parts of my writing life:
Since I was traditionally published
before I was self-pubbed, I don’t have expectations about my having much input
into the production side for traditional publishing. I work well with my editors, I hit my
deadlines, I promote in a quiet way.
I’ve got readers who enjoy these series and I’m not planning on walking
away from the series or those readers while I’m still being asked to write
books for them.
That being said—my bread and butter is
the self-pub—the Myrtle Clover series. While I put self-pubbed projects on hold
to finish traditionally published ones (they’re higher priority because I’m
paid in advance and because I have a deadline in my contract), I always return
to the self-pubbed projects as soon as I can.
I’m not one of those who enjoys the
control I get with self-pub. I enjoy the
royalties I get there, but the
production process always carries a little residual stress for me. But once it’s done, I do feel a sense of
pride with the project—maybe more than I get from my traditionally published
ones…simply because I was responsible for the entire package.
What I’ve
noticed in the past couple of years:
Readers frequently don’t seem to notice
or care which books are self-pubbed and which are my traditionally pubbed—at
least, from what I can tell from Facebook messages and emails. But they will
fuss that my traditional pubs aren’t on audio and will ask me how one series is
and the others aren’t. I’ve never,
oddly, had a reader ask me why they couldn’t find a Myrtle Clover book when
they went to Barnes & Noble.
I’ve noticed that my print sales are
definitely slipping in comparison to my digital sales. But there are still
readers who contact me about the lack of availability of particular print
titles (and they don’t want to read a digital book).
And, if something isn’t available on
Nook, I hear about it. Unfortunately,
one of my traditionally published titles isn’t on Nook—I had no idea until I
heard from a reader a couple of weeks ago.
I contacted Midnight Ink about it and haven’t heard back yet. I sent the
reader an old print copy of the book that I had at home—she’d read all my other
books but that one. I don’t think of
Nook as sending too many sales my way, but there are obviously readers who have
invested in that platform and aren’t going to read on other types of devices.
International sales take a while to start
up, but once they do, they add up quickly.
My international sales were dead until the last 8 or 9 months, and now
books are selling briskly there. I
suppose it works the same way as it does here with online retailers—once a few
sales are generated, your title gets more visibility.
I somehow feel compelled to tell family and friends who ask about my books that
I’m doing both traditional and self-pub.
I have no idea why I feel this is important to disclose. My disclosure is usually met with complete
confusion, which leads me to think that many non-writers aren’t really
following the self-pub revolution. They
always recognize that ebooks are less-expensive—I do hear that all the time. But they seem surprised that I’m choosing
this path. Surprised…and usually
concerned. Have my series been
discontinued? I’ve found that a brief
explanation doesn’t seem to exist.
The more avenues you can open up for
already-published content, the better. I
didn’t learn this until this year. So
you’ve got some published ebooks. If
they’re in demand, go ahead and offer them in print and audio. Make your content work harder for you. I’ve been so focused on creating new content
that I didn’t think about branching out.
Are you a hybrid writer? Do you have any insights about publishing or
self-publishing to share here?
A note:
Congratulations to my friend Alex
J. Cavanaugh for his new release, CassaStorm! Alex not only has a successful series, but he
also has a terrific blog and a wonderful community for writers, the IWSG. You
can find my interview with Alex in this month’s newsletter for the Writer’s Knowledge
Base and here.
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