[stylist] a different take on archaeology

[Jackie Williams]

Chriss,
This was far back in what I  saved. I did want to comment that I do agree
with all of your points on self-publishing, and most strongly, that I almost
rather die than try to sell anything to someone, and in particularly
something I wrote myself. I enter contests for all of my poetry, and my
poetry manuscript in poetry book contests, on the basis that if it is good
enough, it will be selected eventually. If it is not, I either have not
found the right market, or my skill is not good enough, or that I have not
been disciplined and persistent enough. 
My mother was nominated Poet Lauriat   in AZ in the 1980s but the position
was not funded. She self-published nine books, in     spite of being invited
to join the Mark Twain Society when  I was a teen in Chicago. Somehow it
never occurred to her to send a manuscript out anyplace. Secretly, I do not
think she wanted anyone to edit her work. 
I still have many copies of five of her books, while the others have sold
out. But under a thousand copies each, as you mentioned. She never made any
money as a profit over costs.
This does not mean I don't admire those who put in the massive effort of
self-publishing. But, it like you, I could not do the marketing, have great
difficulty doing styles and art, and so on.
Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz	 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Chris Kuell
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 7:37 AM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] a different take on archaeology

I'll address several comments below.

Vejas - Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed my story. At 5,600 words, it's much too

long for Slate and Style.

Bridgit - Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to read and 
critique my story. I agree with your comments 100%. John worked for what I 
needed in the story, but he is rather two dimensional, and it wouldn't be 
hard to add a little complexity to his character. While I enjoy reading 
praise and kind words about my writing, I really appreciate the types of 
helpful comments you gave me, which will help me to become a better writer. 
All great writers are great because they have good critical readers.

Donna - There are several reasons why I haven't taken the path of 
self-publishing. The primary one is that there is still a stigma about 
self-published books, and this stigma is actually well earned. Yes, there 
have been some excellent self-published books in the past, but 98% of them 
are still pretty bad. As a result, the public is very reluctant to purchase 
them. Again, sure, a handful of writers have made excellent money 
self-publishing their work. But only 1 in a hundred sells more than 500 
books, and one in a thousand sells more than 2000 books. And according to an

article I read a few years ago, almost all published books sell at least 2 
thousand copies. The reason is that the publishing house is invested in your

book, and even though they can't publicize it like they once did, they still

want to help you sell books. And I'm the kind of guy who needs that help, 
because I'd pretty much rather get a root canal than try to sell somebody 
something. I just can't bare the thought of me standing on a corner with a 
book in one hand and a gun in the other, shouting "Buy my book or I'll shoot

this dog!"
Because I actually like dogs.

Plus, theoretically I could publish for free, but not realistically. I'd 
need to hire someone to do the cover art, and hire someone else to do the 
formatting, and another person to do the copy editing. I'd spend weeks and 
months trying to get people to buy my book, and I'd be lucky if I broke 
even.

If you're really interested in reading one of my novels, we can work out a 
deal. If you'll donate $2 to your local NFB chapter, and promise not to 
share it, I'll send you the novel as a word doc. In the meantime, I'll keep 
querying.

chris


 


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