Some Thoughts About E-Self-Publishing
Jul. 17th, 2011 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreAs I was prepping my (still not available) book for e-self-publishing, I felt a weight lift, and I thought I'd talk about that. This intertwines nicely with some of Lev Grossman's insightful writing about what fan fiction offers to writers and readers.
Esther's "Chicks" series published five volumes, and I'm given to understand that a sixth is highly unlikely. However, that's not the extent of the market, just the extent that will make money for Baen.
Two of the rejects for Turn the Other Chick also went through my local writers' group. I can say, having read them, that they were good, solid stories that would be great in a collection or anthology. They merely lacked that je ne sais quoi that Esther was looking for. One of the authors has since died, and I believe that piece was never published. The other was definitely never published.
Catfantastic published (I think) five volumes, and at the time, that was considered to be the entire market for fantasy short stories about cats. I beg to differ.
Back after Catfantastic ended, many editor's notes said "no stories about cats" -- implying there were a lot of Catfantastic rejects zooming around from desk to desk. Sure, they may not have been the best fantasy shorts about cats. Maybe they were, though, but they just didn't fit with the rest of the volume. Or they weren't to the editor's taste.
I have written drafts of three other stories in the Rhonda universe, one of which is Rhonda's earlier adventures as a sword. Those of you who know my drafts know they seldom resemble -- in any sense -- the final draft. All that's left from the first draft in the published short are the title, a couple of ideas about Rhonda's capabilities and invocation, and two character names.
However, perceiving that there wasn't any market for them, I never polished them and sent them out. Since the other story with Rhonda is about a young boy, it wouldn't have even fit in the sixth Chicks volume.
Self publishing allows one to address a market that isn't being served. It is likely to be a small market (given the reasonable assumption that publishers do have a sense of where money is likely to be made), but it is a market nevertheless. It may even be a viable market for an author.
Esther's "Chicks" series published five volumes, and I'm given to understand that a sixth is highly unlikely. However, that's not the extent of the market, just the extent that will make money for Baen.
Two of the rejects for Turn the Other Chick also went through my local writers' group. I can say, having read them, that they were good, solid stories that would be great in a collection or anthology. They merely lacked that je ne sais quoi that Esther was looking for. One of the authors has since died, and I believe that piece was never published. The other was definitely never published.
Catfantastic published (I think) five volumes, and at the time, that was considered to be the entire market for fantasy short stories about cats. I beg to differ.
Back after Catfantastic ended, many editor's notes said "no stories about cats" -- implying there were a lot of Catfantastic rejects zooming around from desk to desk. Sure, they may not have been the best fantasy shorts about cats. Maybe they were, though, but they just didn't fit with the rest of the volume. Or they weren't to the editor's taste.
I have written drafts of three other stories in the Rhonda universe, one of which is Rhonda's earlier adventures as a sword. Those of you who know my drafts know they seldom resemble -- in any sense -- the final draft. All that's left from the first draft in the published short are the title, a couple of ideas about Rhonda's capabilities and invocation, and two character names.
However, perceiving that there wasn't any market for them, I never polished them and sent them out. Since the other story with Rhonda is about a young boy, it wouldn't have even fit in the sixth Chicks volume.
Self publishing allows one to address a market that isn't being served. It is likely to be a small market (given the reasonable assumption that publishers do have a sense of where money is likely to be made), but it is a market nevertheless. It may even be a viable market for an author.