Will Kindle Demons Eat My Baby?
April 25, 2011 8:37 AM   Subscribe

I want to self-publish my urban fantasy novel, but I'm worried about shooting myself in the foot with a number of decisions.

I have a finished, novel-length work of urban fantasy, with strong doses of erotica, humor and adventure. I initially wrote it just for fun, but it has done so well that I would really like to see if I can make a little money with it.

It's already online for free at literotica, where it has done REALLY well. At one point last year, several chapters ate up the #1 - 7 spots on the "top reader votes" for all categories overall in addition to the sci-fi/fantasy category and stayed there for weeks. Even now I still hold the #1 and 2 highest vote score averages ever. Mileage varies with any sort of fiction, of course, but I'm confident that the book doesn't totally suck. :)

I have cleaned it up a lot since then, editing and revising and making it into an even better story. I've spent months mulling over whether to take it off the site and try to get a traditional print publisher or to go the self-pub route. Obviously the fact that it was already online for free hurts its chances as a print deal...and other concerns just lead me to believe that self-pub really is the way to go.

I have no illusions about making gobs of money on this. If I get $50 out of something I wrote for my own amusement, I'd be happy just on general principle -- but I'd like to make what I can of this.

My concerns:

*It needs a cover. I don't think I could cough up more than $100 - $150 for cover art. Would that get me very far on a place like deviant art? Would I be able to see a sketch or something before I commit to paying an artist?

*I'm in the running for several contests on literotica, which pay cash prizes up to $150. I imagine I could get a couple hundred bucks out of these, which would be great...but then I'm obligated to keep the piece online for six months. Should I take it down before I'm committed there? What's better -- the visibility value of it being highly-rated on that site, or taking it down so future readers will have to get it through Amazon? I've had quite a few readers comment that they'd be happy to pay for something like my work and/or get it on Kindle, but it's not like everyone will be so conscientious about paying for something they can get for free. :)

*Because it has an inherently erotic angle, I'm really worried about self-marketing. I teach, and I do not ever want these two angles of my life intersecting, EVER. I love my job and I feel very strongly that school isn't the place for stuff like my smutty story, and I don't ever want students asking me about it (let alone parents & such). That means I need a pen name, which is fine, but then I'm kind of hampered about linking it on my Facebook page, ever putting up an author photo, etc.

*Naturally, I'm worried about plagiarism. Is there any way I can find out if someone has already stolen my work, changed the name, and put it up themselves? It has happened to others. So far I have no indication that it has happened to me, but it's a concern just the same.
posted by scaryblackdeath to Media & Arts (7 answers total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
As far as a cover, Glendon at Streetlight did very well for me. It was about $100, 50% up front, and he revised quite a bit, including putting up with my fussyness about fonts. No relationship other than happy with their work.
posted by korej at 9:13 AM on April 25, 2011


I self-published a book, and used a photo I had staged and taken for the cover. Worked for me. Good luck.
posted by craven_morhead at 10:00 AM on April 25, 2011


I have cleaned it up a lot since then, editing and revising and making it into an even better story. I've spent months mulling over whether to take it off the site and try to get a traditional print publisher or to go the self-pub route. Obviously the fact that it was already online for free hurts its chances as a print deal...and other concerns just lead me to believe that self-pub really is the way to go.

You mention going the traditional route here, and so I'll speak to what would be involved with that. Keep in mind that this is something you'd want to try before self-publishing.
  1. Take your writing off literotica. The fact that it was posted there once shouldn't be a big deterrent for an agent or publisher so long as it's not there once you begin querying.
  2. Write a query letter. To figure out how to do that, check out QueryShark and the Absolute Write forums.
  3. Compile a list of agents you'd like to query on querytracker. I'd recommend querying about 10 agents at a time, for a month or so. Send each one a personalized query letter, and wait for their responses.
  4. Repeat the above for a month or so. It will cost you nothing, and so there's really no reason not to try.
Seriously, the fact that traditional publishing requires no expertise in marketing or cover design at the outset means that there's absolutely no reason not to just give it a shake for a month or so before you consider self-publishing. You might get nowhere with all of the above, at which point you're still free to self-publish, or a reputable agent might be willing to represent your book, to discuss things like pen names with you, to find a publisher willing to foot the bill for everything that you can't afford to do through self-publishing, and so on.

As for plagiarism, there's really nothing you can do about it, other than pursue legal avenues if and when it happens. Your writing is copyrighted from the moment you create it, and plagiarism happens even to published writers (see: Cassandra Claire and Pamela Dean; Kaavya Viswanathan and Megan McCafferty).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:04 AM on April 25, 2011


Self-publishing (well) is more work than most people realize. Unless you relish the prospect of messing with ePub files and ONIX metadata feeds, you're probably better off going with a publisher. Given how well you've tested, it shouldn't be to hard to get someone's attention, especially since it's pretty much all indies in your subgenre. Try querying a few specialty e-first houses like Ravenous Romance, Ellora's Cave, or Carina Press. (The Erotica Readers and Writers Association maintains a market list here.) If you don't get any bites, then look into DIY. (On preview, I'm with PhoBWanKenobi.)
posted by libraryhead at 10:19 AM on April 25, 2011 [1 favorite]


From what I've heard across the Internets, it might help your odds of publishing these days to prove that you have an audience already for your work.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:29 AM on April 25, 2011


Best answer: If you approach artists with a request for a free sketch, it probably won't go well. You'll come off as disrespectful. Artists who take commissions regularly may flat out ignore you (speaking as an artist, if we want to work for nothing, we'd rather spend the time working on our personal projects). However, you could ask about requesting a sketch for a small fee that would be like a down payment on the final work should you decide to continue. For instance, rough sketch for $25, which would be 25% down on the final $100 fee. It sounds like you need reassuring that you won't hand over money and then not have any input in the process. Artists who take commissions should be happy to show you the piece in various stages to allow for approval and correction as they work. There's usually a rough sketch phase and 2-3 other opportunities for correction before you get the final.

Look through galleries - find a few artists you like - contact the artist and ask any questions about their commission process. Make sure the artist answers promptly and is easy to communicate with. Know what you want - traditional media or digital, etc. (Honestly, if you pick an artist whose style you really enjoy and they seem on the ball and easy to communicate with, you should have a very good commissioning experience and not need to request sketches from multiple artists.)

I would also look at the image requirements for whatever self-publishing route you choose so that you know the resolution and size requirements for the cover and you can pass them to the artist.
posted by griselda at 11:50 AM on April 25, 2011


Chiming in on the cover art - $150 is pretty low for a commissioned cover, so I'd keep that in mind. If you're sticking to ebook form, and therefore lower resolution, you may be able to negotiate a lower price than a print-quality piece would run with someone you like, but you may be best off with licensing a piece of existing work they have sitting in their gallery. It'll spare you the need to play art director, which is a skill unto itself, as well as probably netting you a cheaper piece. If you really, really want to have a cover particular to your novel, then griselda's advice is spot on; most of us are quite willing to do revisions until clients are happy, but there's no free work.

I'm not sure if you were planning on doing the cover design yourself (the text elements) or if you were looking for an all-in-one person, but you'll also need to factor that in when thinking about it and discussing it with illustrators/designers.
posted by tautological at 10:17 AM on April 26, 2011


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