Why I say a book is self-published

There seems to be some kind of annoyance going around among more traditionally-published authors over indie and self-published authors who are promoting their books as “self-published.” It appears that self-publishing is gaining in popularity among writers and that authors of self-published books are working harder to get some footing in today’s competitive market. Many self-published authors have actually been successful with their books and it seems like other self-published authors hope to be counted among that group, as well. Also, some authors who are not self-published tend to enjoy looking down on the self-published author because they “stuck it out” despite rejection or got the readership their fellow author could not.

Myself, I do not market my book as “self-published” – it is a POETRY book and I therefore market it as a poetry book – but if someone asked me who published it, then I will answer that the book is self-published. Also, when I talk about my efforts in self-publishing a book, or announce a new book that I myself got into print, I will note it is self-published. But I am not doing this with any hopes of gaining any kind of response or rewards from anyone.

I am ONLY being upfront with people about it.

I make no attempt to try to pretend that my own self-published books have been published by a traditional, POD or indie publisher. I am not going to hide under some unknown name and act like my book was selected for publication by someone else. And I am not going to tout my book as self-published hoping to gain any favor, attention or recognition among my peers.

My decision to self-publish my poetry books came out of a terrible experience with an indie publisher who reneged on her contract with me. I also took notice of several indie and traditional publishers closing their doors to poetry book submissions. So I decided I wanted to have complete control over what happens with my poetry books. The best way to make that happen was to self-publish them.

And my noting a book is self-published when it comes out is only my attempt to be straight with people about how this book came about. I am the one who wrote it, yes, but I am also the one who decided to publish it, hire an editor, hire a cover designer and upload the final, formatted document to a printing service. I am the one who did ALL of that and nobody else. It was all on me!

And I don’t mind noting as much. I’m going to be completely honest about this book and say, yes, it IS a self-published book, and leave it at that. I can only hope that the book will be judged by its contents and not for the fact that it is self-published, but unfortunately, there are book snobs out there who refuse to give any self-published book a chance.

All the same, I don’t promote my book as a self-published book. I say it’s a poetry book or a children’s book. But if they ask who published it, I’ll say it’s self-published. This is NOT my attempt to get better treatment, attention, notice, a pat on the back or to get a hundred thousand followers on Twitter. This is only me being honest about how the book was published.  That’s all it is and all it ever will be.

Dear Distracted Author: Stop being so distracted!

In case you're wondering, I'm still here. Just been very busy. This time, however, it is not so much being distracted by all the networking via the Web, but mostly because of the Revisions book. On that note, I have news.

After sharing with my publisher just how ginormous the manuscript was becoming, she said we'll probably have to turn this one book into a series of three books. Up until then, she had this idea, but it didn't really take center stage just yet. We played it by ear. Then the decision was made to, yes, go ahead and serialize it. So now this one Revisions book will be a series of 3 books. The first one will cover editing, revising novels, and revising nonfiction books. The second one, which I have been working on this week, will focus on revising articles, poetry, song lyrics, and scripts. Now it turns out that it will cover something else, as well.

Earlier this year, my publisher suggested that a section on revising short fiction should be in the manuscript. I, in my naivete (or was it distractedness??), thought that short fiction writers could benefit from the section on revising novels, so I thought it wasn't needed. However, after putting together a rough draft of the second book, and analyzing what it covered, I went back to her saying, "You know, Liz, I think we should include short fiction." She probably saw that note and thought, THAT'S WHAT I SAID! LOL (Sorry, Liz.) So I put together a list of chapters to include for a section on revising short fiction, focusing specifically on the mechanics of short fiction and the elements which separate short fiction from book-length fiction. I have articles written up on short fiction and I'll be going through the unpublished ones to see which ones can be revised so that they can be chapters for this book.

That said, the hunt resumes for interviewees. This time, I will need to find writers of short fiction to interview and obtain quotes for this book. I will go through my database of writers to see who writes short fiction, but I welcome inquiries from writers not included in the original manuscript. That door will remain open -- even for scriptwriters, freelance writers and songwriters.

We are also going to get in touch with literary agents for a special "agent section," which will go into all 3 books.

And I'm adding new chapters to the "Getting Out of Revision Hell Alive" section (Book 3).

Unfortunately, however, all of this busyness has kept me pretty distracted from other things -- namely, book reviews I have on the table, checking up on the haunted houses book (though miraculously I remembered to e-mail my co-author about this last night), taking care of business with the newly-accepted children's book (MUST! GET! TO! POST! OFFICE! Or the mailbox before the mail comes), and checking out other opportunities.

Those opportunities include an invitation from one of the musicians included in the book to contact someone she knows about getting a song I wrote set to music (oh, joy!) and getting short stories ready to submit to anthologies. I have one I'm currently working on for stories for children, and I just came across another call for stories for an anthology looking for dark tales.

Now all I need to find is an anthology accepting science-fiction short stories, and I'll be all set!

In other news, I recently had a short story published in a brand new anthology called Inner Fears. My story is called "A Phone Call Away." Check it out!

Inner Fears

Finally, I'm holding a "launch special" for my poetry book, to celebrate its print release. Stay tuned!