The Insiders Guide to Self Publishing

What difficulties did you encounter in the publishing process?

The main problem was a series of minor delays caused by various computer crashes by different members of Richard's team, which meant that the books were going to print just before I departed on holiday. It was then a race against time to get them delivered before I went. In the end I realised that I had to be philosophical about this; I only wanted copies to take with me and sell on the boat anyway (I was travelling to a small offshore island), and have my 15 minutes of fame. However, I also needed time to catch my breath and step into this new role, going from writer to published author. When I look back, this was why I booked the holiday at this time, one year in advance, not knowing that the book would be about to go to print, to give myself time to adjust to this new role, so that I would come home refreshed and raring to go. The universe works in mysterious ways ……

Whether I took books with me or not did not really matter - they would be there waiting for me when I got back, and people could still buy them from the publisher or from amazon if they wished to. That to me is one definite advantage of self publishing - YOU are totally in control, and YOU say what publicity you are prepared to undertake and what YOU feel comfortable with. A traditional publisher would probably not have allowed me to go on this holiday, but would have expected me to shoulder the cancellation charges …….

How did you market, sell, and distribute the books?

As soon as they were published, and I was sure that I was happy, I ordered 50 copies to sell myself and send as review copies. These I bought for print cost plus 25 percent of the cover price. Mostly they have been sold via the church I go to (St Michaels Sanctuary in Ewell), which is the centre of my spiritual life, where I do regular talks and services. My partner, who is a website designer, has also sold some to his clients. Some have also gone to members of various forums that I post on as well, both here and in America. I have recently taken over the editorship of the local newsletter Boxhill News, and enrolled for a course in Journalism, so that should certainly help as well.

To encourage sales, I have set up a Paypal account so that people can order direct from my own website. I had been bulding up a website and mailing list over several years during the writing process, and it now has over 200 people on it. I send regular updates to them with news regarding the book, and notifying them as and when new articles are added to the site. Many of these subscribers are complimentary therapists and writers themselves, who have in turn told their own clients and readers about the book. At least one runs a new age shop and has offered to sell copies.

I have sent quite a lot of review copies now, all of which I obviously had to pay for along with the postage. They were sent to various magazines, including Nexus, Writers Forum, The Self Publishing Magazine etc, as well as the book shops, which I will mention below.

Initially I managed to get the book into three book shops - Waterstones in Epsom (with Waterstones buying decisions are made on a branch rather than national level, so you have to contact each of them seperately), the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, and Borders in Kingston, where I did a talk in January 2007. They actually arranged to have the book taken on by their Head Office as a listed title, meaning that in theory, any branch could stock copies - this did not mean though that they did.

It is not difficult to get your book into shops, but you need some persistance. All I did was email the information sheet, and offer to send a sample copy. The one biggest barrier though that I continually came up against was that the book was not available at a high enough discount (initially 25 percent, since Gardners buy most of Richard's title at 40 percent off), or on sale or return. This is difficult with POD, since print costs are generated as soon as the books are printed, and Lightning Source need to be paid. In August 2007 though, Richard took the unprecedented step of asking Gardners to carry stock of my book, and offer it to book stores at 40 percent on sale or return, thereby competing with the larger publishing houses on more equal terms, and removing these barriers.

It has paid huge dividends, as straight away I noticed a difference in attitude. Doors that had previously been slammed in my face, now swung wide open, and at the time of writing (a week after the decision was made) over a dozen stores, up and down the country have placed definite orders, with others expressing more than a passing interest. I have also been booked to do my first book signing in oen of Waterstones branches, and am on the waiting list to do a talk at another of their stores.

It is vitally important that you set up a proper database of all outlets that you contact, so that you can follow up and ensure that any information that you send, including review copies, is received. Whenever I send review copies etc out, I also enclose a form for them to send back to me, with return postage, detailing what their thoughts are and whether or not they will be buying or reviewing it, and if so, when.

I have done several book fairs now - one at the open day at my local church, and one at the Questing Conference in London. I was lucky in that I managed to also get some local press coverage which helped, even if they did print a picture of Dot Cotton instead of me (the actress who plays her is also called June and recently moved to my area). This actually turned to my advantage though, since many people turned up thinking the book had been written by this famous actress instead of me!

I am continually in the process of organizing talks and other events further afield, all of which help. Among other things I have tried psychic fairs, craft fairs and talks at various spiritually minded groups. There are plenty of opportunities out there if you do your research, know where to look and are prepared to network and self promote. There are loads of things you can do, but it will depend on what type of book you have written. These are the most important things though that I have done.

If you have quoted other copyrighted works, did you have to negotiate or did your publisher do that?

Originally I had intended to use various quotes from my favourite science fiction television series Babylon 5 beneath the chapter headings, but this was not to be, as tracking down the relevant person to give permission proved problematic to say the least. After being shunted from pillar to post, from one agent to another, I was eventually told that I could only get permission to reprint two small quotes which was insufficient to illustrate the points that I hoped to make. In the end then, I had to give this up as a bad job.

If you quote less than around 300 words, then this falls under what is termed 'fair use' and you do not actually need to get permission. Since most of my other quotes fell into this category, it was not necessary for me to worry about getting permissions. The one exception to this I dealt with myself, by writing to the publisher concerned, outlining the material I wished to use with the details of my publisher and expected print run. They did not ask for a fee, but I did have to print their permission in the front and send them a copy. Bear in mind that when requesting such permissions, this is the one time in an authors career when it pays to be modest, since the higher the expected sales and print run, the more they are likely to charge a fee, and the higher it will be.