Tom's Life Bits

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Self-publishing carries its own slings and arrows
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It's not just recently that good books had difficulty getting 
into print. William Kennedy's "Ironweed" was rejected by every 
major New York publisher. It wasn't until Saul Bellow explained 
to marketing people at Viking Penguin how to package and sell 
"Ironweed" that it was accepted for publication. The book won 
the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

John Kennedy Toole, unable to get a publisher interested in his 
novel "A Confederacy of Dunces, committed suicide. Eleven years 
later, Walker Percy championed the book into print. It won the 
Pulitzer.

Things are no easier today for aspiring writers. A recent New 
Yorker article detailed how Simon & Schuster is letting a random 
group of Web cruisers, rather than editors, read summaries of 
potential novels and vote on what books are most likely to make 
money.

Given this climate, increasingly writers resort to self-
publishing. While it's good to see writers being proactive, the 
hurdles are enormous. Rarely will a self-published book be 
reviewed. It's tough to place them in stores or libraries 
because distributors usually won't handle them. Book review 
editors, and other writers, greet self-published books with 
silence or a sneer. Conventional wisdom holds that if the 
writing were any good, a major publisher would take it on.

There's some truth to that. What I've found is not that the 
authors of self-published books lack writing skills or 
interesting stories. Mostly, they rush their books into print 
too soon. Most of the self-published books I've seen would have 
a better chance at being published if the authors had taken time 
-- and spent the money they paid to self-publish -- to hire a 
professional editor to coach them through a draft.

Andrea Ferrell's book, "Autumn Seclusion" (Trafford Publishing) 
is a perfect example. Ferrell's book tells the story of her 
rebellion against controlling, religious parents. She runs off 
with boys, engages in high-risk behavior and ends up with a 
boyfriend who grills her cat and stabs her, leaving her 
hospitalized. "Autumn Seclusion" depicts this woman's descent 
and her eventual healing recovery.

But what is potentially a gripping story becomes difficult to 
read because of the minor yet annoying problems she has with the 
writing. Verb tenses switch from past to present without 
purpose. Some pages need to be split into paragraphs. She begins 
too many sentences with digressive clauses: "Watching me ..." 
"Meandering the trails ..." "Sitting on the mountain ..." An 
editor would have helped her fix this.

The same is true of Elaine Luddy Klonicki's "All on Account of 
You: A True WWII Love Story" (lulu.com). A heartfelt, sometimes 
engaging story about the love between her mother and father as 
revealed through letters, "All on Account of You" suffers from 
anecdotal material that rambles from one memory to another. 
Family anecdotes, amusing in conversation, aren't always "big" 
enough for a book. Klonicki has talent. A good editor would have 
shown her how to parse and focus, to cut unimportant anecdotes 
and highlight those with emotional heft.

Other books have a limited audience, and it makes sense for the 
writers to self-publish, as long as they're content to have a 
small body of readers and to market the book themselves.

John Rogers' wry look at college life from the top down, "Fame & 
Responsibility at Winford College" (lulu.com) may find readers 
among academics who recognize what Rogers is saying in his 
humorous treatment of the way universities put reputations ahead 
of their students.

UNC-Chapel Hill History Professor John Semonche published an 
academic treatise called "Censoring Sex: a Historical Journey 
Through American Media" (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers). The 
book may find an audience among those interested in taking a 
relaxed scholarly look at this subject. My all-time favorite 
self-published book is one I disagree with completely: "The 
Atlas of Creation" (Global Publishing) by Harun Yahya is an 
Islamic refutation of evolution. The book is gargantuan --
weighs close to 20 pounds, 800 pages in length, with more than 
600 pages of gorgeous color photos and a velveteen cover with 3-
D pictures.

Most companies that produce self-published books charge writers 
several thousand dollars. Some claim to have distribution and 
marketing deals, but they rarely follow through. Morrisville-
based Lulu.com, a relative newcomer to the self-publishing 
world, is an online print-on-demand publisher. You can publish 
without spending a penny. Print-on-demand books are sold for a 
set fee, which is too high for bookstores, accustomed to a 45 
percent discount.

It's a good option for writers who have a niche book they are 
willing to sell themselves.

For writers who know what they want to say and are content with 
a small audience of family, friends and colleagues, self-
publishing is a legitimate option. For writers who really want 
to make a career, it makes more sense to spend money and time 
working with a professional to hone their craft before going to 
print.

Reach Richard Krawiec at rkwriter@gmail.com

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