Publishing Gremlins
Good morning from my borrowed desk, aka the mini IKEA dining table in our rental, where I am ushering my brain gremlins away so I can write. Today's gremlins are mostly about publishing.
Assorted Thoughts
Serialization – Every so often I get the urge to try to post chapters of my work in process, sharing things as I go. Some writers do this as an income-making technique, on Patreon or Ko-FI, but honestly the thing that appeals to me is the deadline. Knowing people will be reading, week by week, sounds like a good way to organize myself. If I did a Patreon thing, I could even throw up the kinds of things behind a paywall that I'm loathe to share in public. Story planning. Drawings. Research materials. It could be a full-on watch the sausage getting made scenario.
So what's stopping me? A few things. First, I'm concerned about what happens when I'm twenty chapters into a novel and I decide to throw out a whole-ass subplot. If people are reading, am I taking something away from them? Second, I'm not sure enough people would be interested to make it worthwhile. Third, I'm loathe to ask people for money for anything other than buying a book from me. The paywall seems necessary to keep out bots and scrapers, and to be frank, to motivate me to do that extra work. But I have a mild feeling of ick around subscription services, and that, combined with the rest of it, stops me from moving forward.
It could be fun though. Maybe.
Paperbacks – When I set up my bookstore I was mostly excited about being able to sell ebooks directly to readers without middlemen, and without DRM. But the plan was always to sell paperbacks through my store as well. Someone could place an order, and my printhouse would print the book, package and ship it. Easy peasy, right? Well, it's not so peasy after all. There's shipping and taxes on shipping and customs regulations and print house quality issues. The cost of duplicating materials in different databases. The time cost of managing it all. The risks of returns and so on.
I was willing to do all that. But after more than a year of thinking it over, I'm leaning against selling print books directly in my store. If someone's going to buy a print book, I'd rather they get it through their local bookstore.
One thing that the indie author community is sorely lacking (in my opinion) is a notion of solidarity with our peers who are booksellers, illustrators, artists, and narrators. Perhaps it comes from the fact that we started as the underdogs, the ones that no one took seriously. The attitude often feels like: Bookstores didn't give a shit about us, so why should we care about them? Well, I think that's changing, for one thing. And it's never a bad idea to support the broader ecosystem that you're a part of. When it comes to small and mid-sized businesses, we succeed or we fail together.
So... if want indie bookstores to exist, so why not send them my print business? In the process, I'll save myself and P a lot of hassle. But I'd consider selling signed editions. Something specific like that.
Anyway, that's where I'm leaning right now. I reserve my right to pivot wildly and without warning, as I often do. Ha.
Welp. That's enough blathering for one morning, I say. Back to the book in progress. Loretta's in trouble and I need to figure out how she's gonna wiggle outta this mess. Fun times. Possibly some explosions. WHEEEE!
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Photo by me: street art in central Athens