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Self-publishing: the Odds of Success

© Deborah Cannon

Last weekend I was cruising the bookstores at my local mall and something occurred to me as I scanned the titles on the shelves. I was looking for something new to read. But it appears that chain stores only stock household names like Stephen King, Danielle Steel, and Tom Clancy. Even the literary section offered mainly familiar names: Margaret Atwood, Richard B. Wright, Carol Shields, Mordecai Richler. These books had either won awards, or the renowned authors were dead, thus heightening their market appeal. Clearly, bookstores, perhaps even publishers, are only interested in sure hits.

Before I started this article, I visited some of my favourite writer's links. I noticed a distinct interest in self-publishing. More often than not, people were asking for advice and information.

Why this trend? It occurred to me that even if you got your book published the traditional way, was there any guarantee it would be available in bookstores? From what I saw, it is likely customers would have to go on-line to Chapters, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Is this one of the reasons why so many authors are considering self-publishing? Numerous self-published books are now listed at electronic bookstores.

What are the pros and cons, and the chances of success if you go this route?

At the October meeting of the Canadian Authors Association, Virtual Branch, this topic was discussed. Author/editor Sharon Crawford noted that some of her clients were self-published and that it is possible to get a big-name distributor to distribute self-published books. Vigilance is required to get the book into the twice-yearly catalogue. Authors pay for their own editor, but a Print-On-Demand publisher will often look after some of the marketing.

Freelancer Joan Eyolfson Cadham, author of books and articles, mentioned that a friend of hers successfully self-published. When the author was interviewed on national radio, the book took off. She found a distributer, and eventually a traditional publisher re-issued the book.

"Self-publishers were once assumed to be artless hacks," Joan said. "They are now known as entrepreneurs. Book stores will stock self-published books. Newspapers will review them."

However, self-publishing means a lot of hard work. You must be writer, editor, designer, distributor and promoter all at once. You have to do these things even if you are paying people for these services. Science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer (who was published the traditional way) says that you must begin self-promoting even before you are established. For exposure, he handed out free copies of his latest novel at a convention to anyone who wanted one.

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