10 Reasons I Am So Over Self-Publishing

Welcome to episode 1! Today I'm discussing all the problems I see with self-publishing from my fiction editor perspective.

First, I discuss my values misalignment with the self-publishing industry.

Then I dive into serious issues and points that both editors and authors need to consider.

And to wrap it up, I reveal who self-publishing really works for (except for big corporations like Amazon), and explain why I've pulled away from this space.

Links

⭐  The Alliance of Independent Authors' AI policy:

https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/ai-policy/

⭐  Joanna Penn's positive take on using ChatGPT:

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2023/05/05/ai-assisted-artisan-author/

⭐  The Society of Authors' more critical position statement:

https://societyofauthors.org/where-we-stand/artificial-intelligence/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing
• 3:42 Values Misalignment in Self-Publishing
• 7:24 Quality Concerns in Self-Publishing
• 10:18 Ethical Considerations for Editors
• 13:10 Client Education and Expectations
• 15:37 Navigating Trust and Scams in Self-Publishing
• 18:27 The Importance of Networking for Authors
• 19:36 Creative Control vs. Audience Expectations
• 21:25 Conclusion: Who is Self-Publishing a Good Fit for?

Transcript

Hello, and welcome, folks, to The Freelancer. This is a podcast that discusses all things publishing through a social justice lens. My name is Andy Hodges. I'm a cultural anthropologist turned fiction writer and editor and I own a book editing business called The Narrative Craft. Make sure you subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode, and sign up for my fortnightly newsletter in the show notes if you want more regular updates.

Welcome to episode one, and today's episode is called 10 reasons why I am so over self-publishing. I'm going to start off by just telling you a little bit about what self-publishing is, and how it's different from traditional publishing, and then I'll dig into the reasons.

So with self-publishing, the author funds all the book production services, the cover design, the editorial services, marketing, and promotion. The author then publishes the book via a platform. Amazon KDP is the most famous one here. And the author markets and promotes the book themselves. So with self-publishing, the big plus is that the author receives a lot more royalties. And we're looking at around 70 %, maybe, on Amazon KDP versus 15 % typically for traditional publishing.

With traditional publishing, you write your novel, then you send your manuscript to literary agents, and if you're very lucky, you sign with one. The agent, then, again with a bit of luck, finds a publisher for the book. The publisher then produces the book, so they do all the editorial, cover design etc. The author must usually do some marketing, but they also have some support.

And all money streams to you, so you don't have to invest any money at all as you do with self-publishing, and you do earn royalties but nowhere near as much as with self-publishing.

Now as a fiction editor, I've worked with both traditionally published and self-published authors. And I've carried out developmental edits. That's where you're making big picture edits, looking at things like story structure, character development and so on. And I've done copy edits as well. That's where you're polishing and improving the prose and preparing the book for publication.

So, if you're an editor who works in this space, I hope you find these observations useful. And if you're an author, I hope this gives you something to think about, especially if you're deciding which route to take. And the big message here is that I am not saying here that the act of self-publishing is bad. I'm not asserting a hierarchy between traditional publishing and self-publishing. Sometimes self-publishing is the best option.

What I'm critiquing here is certain aspects of the industry, and there's also a few points that are not even critiques of the industry—they're about my personal preferences—so listen carefully, and see if what I have to say helps you understand your choices and your situation.

The first issue for me is a values misalignment. The financially successful people in self-publishing tend to publish high quantities of genre fiction. The industry doesn't reward slow and careful writing, at least not in a financial sense. And maybe you've heard of movements such as 20 books to 50k. That's the idea that you will write 50 books, no, you will write 20 books and then you will be able to earn an annual salary of 50,000 dollars, pounds, whatever, in royalties from sales.

Writing 20 books is a lot, especially when you think about all the heavy revision and work that goes into producing a book.

My feeling here is, well first of all as a writer, I only plan to write maybe half a dozen books, ten max, in my whole lifetime. So this idea of 20 books to 50k just doesn't sit right with me. And the pace of self-publishing, with these commercially successful authors maybe writing two or even three or even four novels a year, doesn't sit right with me either.

Because it doesn't give enough time, in my opinion, to focus on the kind of detailed revisions that are important for refining things like character goals and motivations.

On to point two, and point two is another values misalignment here. Organizations such as the Alliance of Independent Authors, they've leaned heavily into AI and ChatGPT use. Here's a statement they've made as part of their AI policy on their website. They say, the Alliance of Independent Authors recommends that authors bring a spirit of curiosity to their consideration of AI and be willing to explore the potential of AI in their work as writers and publishers. They do add and they should be clear with their readers about if and how AI is used in their work. And that's really important because Amazon at the moment is being flooded with new books that have been written by generative AI. So there's a real need to demarcate human creativity from books which have been produced using these technologies. 

Now, the Society of Authors, and that's a UK trade union for authors and writers, they take a very different stance. They say, in their AI policy [position statement], the creative industries are founded on human creativity. There's no reason, cultural, financial, professional or otherwise, why that should change.

Creators business interests and their rights must be preserved and respected. And this is much closer to the default position among editors and authors in my network who are curious about generative AI as a whole, but they're also strongly critical of how it's been implemented so far, and consider a lot of the processes and things involved like the training of AI on text.

They and me understand that as copyright theft.

So the whole kind of take or curiosity present in the self-publishing industry or sector towards generative AI doesn't quite sit right with me.

On to point three. There's a lot of low quality writing out there in the self-publishing space because new writers don't know what they don't know. What this means is that all projects need heavy vetting for me as an editor, and I find that tiring. Now this is true for traditional publishing as well. This is why literary agents exist, and I don't envy their work, looking through all of those query packages and writing samples.

And the issue here is the lack of a filter. I've received inquiries about editing texts that look like a first draft with no awareness of fiction craft techniques and so on. And that's easy to happen because there's a whole romantic idea and tradition about writing that it's bringing up stuff from the unconscious and sharing it. It's like a creative well or a spring or something like that.

And that whole ideology just doesn't sit right with the idea of creative writing as being a craft that is learned. That's one of the big issues here. Another reason that contributes to this is what's called the Dunning-Kruger effect. And that is not just true of creative writing, it's true of many different areas. People who are novices in a new skill tend to massively overestimate their competence in that skill.

And that's one of the reasons why a lot of these new inquiries happen, where the texts just aren't ready for editing yet.

Alright, on to point four. Well, there are a lot of copy editors out there who are willing to edit texts that need heavy developmental work, that need heavy work improving the plot, the character development and so on. And that happens because these copy editors are often well-meaning, but they don't know what they don't know. They haven't trained in developmental editing. And this creates a bit of an ethical minefield.

My stance here is firm. A fiction copy editor needs to be trained in the fundamentals of developmental editing even if they don't offer that service so that they can say to the author, your text isn't ready for copy editing yet, send it to a developmental editor first. If they don't do that, then you can get into the proverbial putting-lipstick-on-a-pig situation where they're making very fine changes to a text, you know, making sure it's grammatical, that the commas are in the right place or whatever, when the text needs really heavy work.

And the issue here is one of what I call informed consent.

The editor needs to be able to assess a manuscript and offer the best prescription, using all the knowledge that they have available.

If the self-publishing author is consenting to a copy edit when the text needs much heavier work, then if the editor knows that and they're not sharing that information with the author, that's ethically dodgy territory in my opinion. Not legally dodgy by no means, but they are offering a service that doesn't truly serve the author in that situation. And for me that's a problem.

And problems arise here simply because of how the market works. For one, some self-publishing authors can only afford a copy edit or a proofread. And they might know that it needs more work, but that's their budget, that's what they're doing.

And equally, some editors find it hard to turn work down if they have an empty schedule. A heavy copy edit can take two to three weeks and it can be a substantial amount of money, you know, it could be 1500, 2000 pounds or whatever, even more. And some editors will find it hard to turn that work down if they have an empty schedule. So this is where things get dodgy.

Another issue, I'm not going to dwell on this one too much, is that rates in this niche are skewed to low. Not compared with fiction traditional publishing—that's a whole other conversation, and I'll be doing another episode on that. But reasonable rates, so what I would say, you know, 40, 50 pounds an hour because you really can't edit for more than five or six hours a day. These are really peak rates in this niche whilst they're pretty standard in my other niches.

So if I'm going to work for a lower rate, my personal choice is that I'd rather work on a traditionally published book that's been vetted by multiple people, publishing professionals.

And sure, there were a lot of discussions on social media about scammy editors and about authors who are only willing to pay a few hundred dollars for a copy edit, which would not be a liveable wage. I've always tried to keep away from those conversations. I'm pretty anti-social media, as you're to learn through this podcast anyway. I don't think they're quality conversations and you can easily get into an emotional tug of war between editors and self-publishing authors and you also don't always know who you're talking to, what background and expertise those people have, and I've seen really big pile-ons on social media, and they are not good for anyone involved. That's my opinion.

Alright, point six. The client education aspect can be exhausting. So if you're working with self-publishing authors or indie authors, new authors make up a fairly large part of the market. And that means you'll be correcting basic issues often with things like dialogue punctuation in a copy edit, for example. Or if you're doing a developmental edit again, it'll be story fundamentals like big POV problems, that's point-of-view problems. Some people love doing this educational work and I can see that, especially people, I guess, with a big teaching background. But it's not for me. It was exciting for me a few years ago, and I learned a lot through working with authors at that stage in the process. But right now I prefer a more like meaty challenge, like some more subtle problems, and I like to see authors doing really interesting, slightly quirky stuff in their writing too.

So I find this kind of beginner-level client education aspect just a little bit exhausting.

Point number seven. There are a lot of grifters in this niche because of the fantasies linked to publishing a book.

What that means is, you as an editor have to do extra work to build trust. And authors too. And I know this because I write fiction as well. Authors are being very vulnerable, and they're sharing parts of themselves with you.

Also, a lot of authors, and especially new authors, have unrealistic expectations about all sorts of things. About what an edit will do, how long it will take, etc, etc.

And they don't, not every self-publishing author understands, especially new ones, that they have to do a lot of marketing and promotion. So it's quite common, and I've seen this a few times, that people self-publish a novel that doesn't sell, especially when you look at Amazon, etc. today with all of the ChatGPT-produced books on there. It can be difficult to stand out.

A related problem here is that self-publishing authors often struggle to get a handle on editorial expertise and what separates different kinds of editors from one another, newbie editors from more experienced ones, etc. And that's because the field's unregulated, so that's a tricky one. Not all self-publishing authors understand how editing works.

I know I didn't when I wrote my first book before I even dreamt of becoming an editor. And then there are lots of scammers and grifters in this space. There are people charging thousands of dollars for a one or a two hour call with you, et cetera, et cetera. You know, that could in principle be reasonable if that person had 20, 30 years of experience in the publishing industry. But when it's somebody who made the decision to switch to editing last year, then...

You know, I raise my eyebrows.

All of this creates a tricky environment for service providers to navigate and also for authors to navigate too.

What this means is extra work building trust is necessary. So most editors I know in this niche are very active on social media, producing a lot of blog content that shows off their knowledge, the first steps to building trust.

That, again, involves a lot of extra labor so you have to factor that into the prices that you're charging as well.

And that links to point eight and point eight is that clients are often one-offs. Not everybody is producing that series. And often if they do decide to produce a long series, they're often plumping for a cheaper edit as well. And because there's a lot of one-offs, and they're coming at you from all directions—there are people in all walks of life making the decision to write a book. It's not like you go to LinkedIn and key something in, I don't know, environmental scientists or something like that, and then find a list of people who you could work with [as clients]. So editors have to do a lot of marketing work in this niche, and that's not for everyone.

It's also the only niche I know where editors are routinely and frequently asked to offer samples and often free samples, which they can of course reject, and yeah, I just made it my policy not to offer free samples, and this is a topic really for another episode, but for me that's a orange flag as well if some authors are expecting something for free. I think it's fine to ask, but when there's a tone of expecting, that's a problem. 

Number nine. Some indie authors try and do too much by themselves rather than building a solid network. For example, it can be super frustrating to work on a fantastic novel and then see a really bad cover that I'm not going to put on my website or in my portfolio, etcetera. I do notice this tendency more with men authors rather than other genders. I think there's a tendency among men to kind of go it alone and not share their writing as much, not have as networked an approach to the whole process. But this kind of individualism and like, be strong, like trying to do it all by yourself, that can be the downfall of a good book.

If you're listening to this, and you're either planning to become a self-publishing author, or you're working in this space already, please, please, please build up a solid network. I think a writer network is crucial for whatever you're doing.

And finally, reason ten. The desire for more creative control can lead to a situation where authors aren't receptive to feedback that would improve their novel because it doesn't fit their vision. So the point here is, and it links to the individualism in point nine, is that the authors have the final word. They can choose to reject editorial expertise. And sure, there are some editorial calls that are quite subjective and they [the authors] should absolutely have a voice at the table. But this can be frustrating for an experienced editor. For instance, if an indie author is insisting on changes that are grammatically incorrect, for example. And I've heard horror stories about this kind of situation from friends and colleagues. And there's a deep question here, which I think is a really interesting one for creative writing in general.

And, that is, is the author at heart writing for themselves or for other people? It's called storytelling because it's the art of telling other people a story. Having the creative ideas is relatively simple. But turning those amazing ideas into a good story is much more difficult. So think about that as well. Who are you writing for?

Are you really writing for other people or are you writing for yourself in an important sense? You know, and either can be fine, but if you're interested in either being commercially successful in the self-publishing space or making a traditional publishing career for yourself, then you need to be thinking of your audience all the time.

So to wrap up, who or what is self-publishing good for? If you're publishing for yourself or for your family and friends and not for another audience, then self-publishing can be a really good option. It's also a great option for people publishing large quantities of genre fiction and who want to make a career out of it for themselves. But it's not an easy career to make.

If you're doing this for purely entrepreneurial reasons, definitely take a look at other industries and sectors because it's, you know, not exactly lottery odds, but we're going in that direction.

Then it's a great option for people who are publishing one or two books and that might be for art or for some deeper personal or social purpose like to communicate with a certain audience, for example, or an activist community. 

I actually really like doing these kinds of self-publishing projects where they're less of a kind of entrepreneurial writing-to-make-money approach, and it's personally meaningful in a really significant and important way.

And self-publishing is also great for people like Taylor Swift who have a massive audience already and don't need the publishing knowledge, marketing, and distribution networks that trad publishing can offer.

And finally, what did I decide to do about all of this? So I've voiced all of my critiques, my gripes with this space. Despite that, I've really enjoyed working in that space over the past few years. What I've done though is, I've made some big changes to my business. I've stopped marketing in this niche because I realized it's not the best fit for my values and my energy.

I definitely avoid participating in these online social media discussions now with self-published authors. 

But I still do content or developmental editing work for people who find me through my website, whatever their publishing goals, and often when people have a first draft, they're not sure what they're going to do next.

But for copy editing, I decided I'd rather earn a slightly lower rate but work on a book that's had several editors carefully review it.

So I'd only consider self-publishing clients who are fully invested in all of the steps in this process, have worked with a developmental editor, et cetera, et cetera.

And that's it, that's episode one. So thank you folks for listening. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to my thoughts on this topic, and I'm also really curious to hear your thoughts too. So get in touch.

Don't forget as well to take a look at the show notes for all of the useful links. And if you want to keep in touch with me, you can sign up for my newsletter, subscribe, rate and review. And that's it. See you next time.

Thanks.