It's been a LONG journey to get my first two novels published. I wrote the original manuscript back in 2001, and spent years trying to get it published by a traditional publisher. As I live in New Zealand, I started with New Zealand publishers. I collected three rejection slips, before I received a letter from HarperCollins that arrive THREE DAYS after I sent them a query letter, synopsis, and the first three chapters. They said they were very interested and wanted to read the rest of the manuscript.
I jumped around the lounge for a bit, before stopping when I realised that I had no idea whether that was something special, or standard practice. I phoned two traditionally-published author friends and asked their opinion. NO THAT IS NOT STANDARD PRACTICE!!! I recommenced jumping around the lounge, then raced to the Post Office and sent them the complete manuscript.
Three months later I received a generic rejection that said "This manuscript does not suit our list". I had no idea what that meant. I'm still not entirely sure, but I think it's something like "We are going to publish X amount of novels in your genre this year, and we already have X amount of manuscripts". Gutted, I started sending the manuscript out to other publishers, and eventually collected a generic rejection slip from every publisher in New Zealand.
Dame Christine Cole Catley, from Cape Catley Publishing, was kind enough to include a hand-written note that stated "You have a wonderful style of writing that is quite unique. However, your manuscript is far too big for my little publishing company and, in all honesty, I think is too big for any New Zealand publisher. I suggest you try overseas publishers."
After sending her a thank-you note I did just that, sending the manuscript to over 20 publishing companies and literary agents in the UK, as much of the novel was set in Wales. Aaaaaand ... I collected another pile of rejection slips. The one that made me throw in the towel for a few years was from
Anubis Literary Agency who dealt exclusively in science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. This was a hand-written note that said "Your story is very well written and, I think, will sell very well, but I don't personally like science-fiction or fantasy stories so will be unable to publish it." Say what?
It was probably three or four years later that I decided to have another go, and by this time (about 2010) self-publishing was starting to become a) more affordable and b) less perceived as vanity publishing. However, my belief in my work had been pretty knocked by all those rejection slips, so I really wasn't sure whether it was any good. To test the waters, I posted the first five chapters on-line, messaged people through Facebook who seemed to be interested in science-fiction/fantasy, and asked if they would care to read it and let me know what they thought. Gobsmackingly, I had over two dozen people do just that ... and everyone who replied to me said they loved it. Here's just some of the feedback that early draft received:
"WOW!!!! I just finish reading the chapters in your website, let me
tell you, that was awesome. You left me wanting to know what happens
next. I NEED to read the next book, I'm already in love with the
characters, your writing is awesome."
- Oswaldo Navarrete, Mexico
"This story is really brilliant, I will tell all my friends."
- Dolma E. Acosta, Puerto Rico
"I must admit I was a dubious about the whole
book-on-the-net thing, wondering how you could get your name out there
this way. Boy was I wrong! I love it and wish you all the best."
-
Jennifer Hart, New Zealand
"This is brilliant. It needs to continue. So good."
- Sean Low, Scotland
"I'm very impressed with what I read."
- Brent Pettway, Australia
"I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be telling all my mates to become fans."
- Leticia Smith, New Zealand
"I started reading this morning and look forward to reading the rest - love it so far and will pass it on to my son."
- Pamela Nelson Mason, Australia
"I started reading the story online - it's amazing."
- Samantha Steinhauer, U.S.A.
"I can't believe it took so long trying to get this published. I
remember reading the first draft - loved it then, love it now. I will
get as many people as I can to read it - think it's great."
- Debbie Jess, Australia
"I'm only up to page 29, but I just had to let you know how fantastic the story is - I love it."
- Evan Davies, New Zealand
"I've become a fan and have suggested the link to a lot of my F/B peeps."
- Cate Morgan, England
"Okay. Since you wrote me and
told me to read it ... I did and *drum role* ( LOL ) I LOVED IT! PLEASE
KEEP IT GOING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN."
- Cheyenne Cooney, U.S.A.
This much-needed boost to my self-confidence was just what I needed to convince me to try again. This time around, however, I decided to do it properly and hire a professional editor. After narrowing my search down to two editors in New Zealand I took out books by both of them from the library. While I enjoyed both books, neither were my genre, or my style, so I decided to look elsewhere. As it turned out, this was a narrow escape as one of the editors was Jill Marshall, author of the internationally best-selling
Jane Blonde series of spy novels. Jill's publishing company collapsed, and she fled New Zealand for her native UK, leaving behind thousands of dollars in debts and broken promises. She is still being investigated by the New Zealand authorities for fraud. (
Read the full story.)
Serendipity stepped in at this point when I visited the local library and was handed a copy of
The Bone Mender by one of the librarians, with the comment "Read, this, you'll love it - it's right up your alley." I read it, I loved it, I Googled the author (Holly Bennett), discovered she was also an editor, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Holly polished the manuscript in ways I hadn't thought of AND floated the suggestion of cutting the manuscript into two books. At that stage it was 472 pages long; when I went to page 236, I found it was the end of a chapter, and the perfect place to end the first books. Again, serendipity. The editing process was long and arduous - mostly because hiring a top quality editor made me realise how much work I needed to do on my writing. But eventually we got there, and turned out a fabulous first two books for the series.
I commissioned a talented young artist from Christchurch to design the covers, had the supremely tenacious Dr Paul Vincent do a final proof edit, and voila, after a journey of over 10 years, I finally had a novel. I only published the first book to start, as I wanted to make that success before launching book two. Bad idea. Book one succeeded only in failing spectacularly to sell more than a handful of copies. The people who read it loved it, and I had two wonderful reviews from "Highly Qualified Persons", but despite spending thousands on marketing, at the end of the first year my royalties totalled $142. The cost of getting the first book out was $4850. Combine that with marketing expenses, and I had a ROI of about 0.02%.
In November last year (2013) I spoke at the same seminar as a representative from New Zealand's biggest book distribution company, and after reading, and loving, the first book in January, the company agreed to take me on. HOWEVER, I had spent $1500 on the original covers:
The Book distribution company said they were way too busy, wrong fonts, etc, etc. The artist I had used was no longer available, so I went in search of a new one. I found a freelance illustrator on-line who did beautiful work.
Things were going very smoothly, until my book distributor suggested
only having Briana on the cover, rather than Briana and Hamish. I
queried this, as I thought boys might be more likely to pick up the book
if a boy was on the cover. My book company said 75% of my readers would
be girls, and if there was any chance of a boy picking the book up, a
hot teenage girl on the cover might do it. I passed this suggestion onto
the illustrator. That's when I discovered ...
My Artist is a Fruit Loop.
He began by accusing me of degrading women and exploiting children,
and said my book distributor obviously wanted to screw enough money out
of me to buy himself a subscription to
Hustler magazine. He
then said I should be ashamed of myself for wanting to put a "teenage
vixen goth slut" on the cover of my book. Foolishly, I tried to douse his
fire, and said by "hot" I meant "pretty, cute, attractive, good
looking", and sent these samples:
This elicited a long-winded rabid post about me on his website as a "potential
employer who got pissed off with me when I refused to draw filth for
her". Then I discovered
Dollar Photo Club and did these covers myself for a total cost of $4.
Ahhhhh - hindsight!
But, finally, onwards with great new covers, and a promise to get my books into the retail stores throughout New Zealand. I was asked to have a marketing plan to the book distribution company by May 20, and I duly supplied them with a 32-page plan. This led to MONTHS of waiting, hoping, wondering, delays, and frustration. I was promised order numbers by the end of June, then July, then August. In mid-August I booked a stall at the Auckland Independent Book Fair, an inaugural event held in a small venue that was lots of fun, but hit me hard financially as a hard day's work resulted in sales of just six books. I was most chuffed to have an awesome looking stall though!
However, I wasn't too worried as I had also booked a stall at the Storylines Festival for Manukau, to be held at the 3,000 capacity Vodafone Events Centre. Storylines entices self-published authors to book a $280 stall with the promise of "want to tell up to 25,000 children and their families about your books?". This was it ... this was going to be the turning point for my books! Well, it was the turning point ... but not in the way I thought it would be. THIS is what they put on:
At first I was a little annoyed I'd been put in a back hall ... until I discovered after an hour that no, THIS WAS IT! I was so gutted I packed up, and came home (a two and a half hour drive), and cried for the first half hour of the drive. I flatly refused to pay the fee for a stall, but I was still out of pocket for petrol and overnight accommodation. Comparing the two festivals led me to design this:
For me, the Storylines Festival was the final straw for 1) trying to sell print books directly to the public and 2) trying to sell books in New Zealand. Print books are too expensive; the New Zealand market is too small. I also decided to part company with the book distribution company who was going to get my books into the retail stores in New Zealand after doing some number crunching.
I could get my novels printed in Taiwan for $1.94 each plus shipping. But ... in order to do that, I had to order 2000 copies of each novel, for a total (including shipping) of $8300. The books would retail for $20, of which I would get paid $6, distribution company $6, book store $6, and $2 for local freight etc. In short, I would have to pay $8300 up front to get the books printed; 60 days after they arrived in New Zealand the book distribution company would pay me $24,000. Finally, a profit! A profit? Errr, not quite. Those books ... are sale or return.
A fellow author signed with the same company sold just 300 books. So, if I also sold only 300 books, I would have to buy back 3700 books, at a cost of $22,200. And, as any author who has had to buy back books will tell you, after being packaged at the printers, un-packed and re-packed at the distributors, un-packed and put on the shelf at the book store, thumbed through at the book store by many sets of hands, re-packed, sent back to the distribution company, re-packaged again and sent back to me, they are in no condition to be sold as new books. I would have had $22,200 worth of paper to start our fires with the following winter.
The other option is Print on Demand, which I can land (including shipping) for $6.50 per book. The distribution company would pay me $6 per book. I hasten to add that they are one of the top book distribution companies in New Zealand, so these are industry standard figures.
Sooooo ..... that is why I am now doing this:
E-books ... the way of the future. I held out against them for a long time; as a reader I much prefer print books. But as an author, I can't afford print books, and with less and less authors being picked up by traditional publishers, e-books are really the only option for new authors.
