By Mike Bodnar
The impacts of Covid-19 on the mainstream book market are many, with closed bookshops, cancelled book launches and pub-lishers’ plans in disarray. However, none of this seems to have stopped writers.
With more time stuck at home due to the pan-demic, an increasing number of people are using the opportunity to write that novel, memoir or history book, and submit it. In a recent report, one publisher said that their normal workload of four or five manuscripts a day had increased since Covid to as many as 16 a day.
So competition is intense, but you can bypass mainstream publishing altogether by self-publishing, which an increasing number of indie authors are doing – and not necessarily due to a fear of rejection.
Self-published books are finally breaking through the decades-old stigma they’ve had, namely that if it’s self-published then by defi-nition it’s inferior. (And yes, it has to be said that some books are sadly wanting.) On the upside, self-publishing has become the meth-od of choice for many successful writers be-cause it generates a bigger share of sales reve-nue, while offering more control over the work.
The Martian, Fifty Shades of Grey, Still Alice, and The Shack are all successful self-published works, but what ‘success’ looks like is important, as we’ll see.
Self-publishing options are many, largely thanks to the internet and digital publishing opportunities; on-demand printing, eBooks, and audio books can be achieved easily, and with potentially much greater profits than traditional publishing.
Then there are self-publishing companies, providing everything from proofreading and editing through to cover design, printing, mar-keting and sales management. You choose how much of a package you want, or can af-ford.
But before you start you need to ask, ‘How will I define success?’ In the examples of sell-out self-published books above, success is in sales numbers, rave reviews, contracts and film deals. But success can be a lot more modest than that.
For example, let’s say you wish to write your family history. Your ‘market’ is likely your immediate and extended family. So, they get to own a professionally-published record of the family history, while you have the satis-faction of being the originator of the work. There’s no financial reward and no film deal, but your market – small and intimate as it is – will be delighted with what you’ve created.
Or you might write a travel memoir, based on your adventures riding a motorbike half way round the world. Here you want to entertain and inspire others, so your target market is the armchair traveller and would-be adventurer. Success therefore might be readers saying they enjoyed your book so much that they’re now planning their own adventure.
But success could also include that your pub-lishing and promotional costs have been cov-ered by sales, to the point where the book doesn’t owe you anything. Any subsequent sales are a bonus, (maybe enabling you to create an audio book version!).
Success in self-publishing is what you make it, and not just about rave reviews, getting on a best-seller list, or striking a movie deal.
So if you’ve been thinking of using lockdown to finally turn that book idea into reality, go for it. But decide upfront what your success is going to look like. Now, get on that keyboard!
Mike Bodnar is a local self-published author and blogger. He is keen to start a Sunbury writers’ group once lockdown restrictions allow. If you’re interested, email Mike on mgbodnar@gmail.com