Moe Lane pontificates about self-publishing!

I feel the need to unpack this.

I accepted in 2020 that I would never have an agent, never get a book deal, and instead concentrated on self-publishing. Since then I've published four novels, two anthologies, five four-story chapbooks, and I'm doing via crowdfunding/reader patronage.https://t.co/oIa6e9nqnl

— Ogiel (Moe Lane) (@Ogiel23) September 26, 2024

First off, I should note that I am sympathetic about Lauren Kay’s problem (the author of this article). It’s just that we disagree about what her problem actually is. I think she thinks her problem is that it’s hard to get a book through the endless rounds of interest, pitches, meetings, and rejections that make up the mainstream publishing book process. Which to be fair, it is. But that’s not her problem.

Her problem is that she eventually went through all of that crap, got a book finally published… and that’s apparently it. The book she finally got to publish is doing sort of okay, for an unsupported debut novel with no extra marketing push. There’s no follow-up book, no new books in the series, apparently no novel at all on the horizon – Ms. Kay has apparently decided that there was more money in telling people how to publish via mainstream than there was in publishing via mainstream.

Which is, yeah, fair. But most people don’t pick the writer’s life because they have a burning need to get other authors’ stuff published. We call the ones that do ‘editors,’ and a good one is worth her weight in platinum… but I digress.

Many traditionally published authors could sneer that I am not a successful writer, and if they use most of the benchmarks, they would be correct. I have no book contracts, no agent, no options for movie/TV deals, no paid junkets to conventions or fair — none of the accoutrements of success. But what I do have is this: my novels are not funded by household income. The money comes in through Patreon, sales (both virtual and in-person), patronage, and regular crowdfunding. By that benchmark I’m definitely successful.

Not to mention more prolific. I have gotten a lot more books out in the same time period than Ms. Kay has, which is a pretty nasty indictment of the system that she’s gotten herself stuck in. You don’t need years to edit and publish a book. I don’t care what the big publishers say. Their process is bloated and inefficient, and not designed with the writer in mind.

And while it’s a royal pain in the sit-upon when it comes to doing my own marketing and publicizing, at least I don’t have to keep my first novel in a box because publishing companies didn’t like it*. Which is another problem Ms. Kay has, and the answer to that one is simple: if traditional publishers didn’t like it, publish it yourself. Maybe they were wrong.

Moe Lane

#commissionearned

*I actually keep my first novel in a box because it’s horrible, and I don’t have six months scheduled that I’d need to fix it.