Chapter 3 - Traditional vs. Indie Publishing

I know you’ve been looking forward to getting to this part.  Or probably, you skipped the other two entries to get to this part?  If this is what you did, I suggest you go back and read them first before going back here.

This is a self-help blog post, a companion you will always (or maybe not) carry with you as you take the Indie Publishing journey.  And you have to make the most of it.

Go on and read back.  When you finish, this entry will still be here waiting for you.

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Zzzzzz…

All right!  Welcome back to this post.

Brace yourself because this is going to be like high school.  We’ll define terminologies so that we’ll be aligned all throughout the book.

What is Traditional Publishing?

Traditional publishing is a rewarding and yet could be quite a long process.  It begins not after you finish writing your book.  Rather, after you made your manuscript sit for a few months in your desk drawer, and review it and come up with draft two, and three, and four, after several months.

And yet, after re-reading your manuscript and you thought there’s no way it could still get better because let’s face it, you’re an amazing writer, you have a beautiful mind, and the world is only waiting for your book to be launched, somebody tells you need to edit the whole thing again!

Bubble burst.

But that’s normal.  A friend or a family member could do that.  Or if you had joined a writing group, that could also happen.  The tip is, be open-minded.  Allow yourself to listen to their ideas.  But never follow every recommendation anyone gives you.  You know your book.  You know your story.  So in the end, trust your judgment.

Anyway, traditional publishing does not even begin yet.  After your edits, you will need to write down your synopsis, if you haven’t already.  I write off-the-pants, so synopsis comes last to me although in my head, I have a sense already of what’s going to happen in my novels.

The synopsis is usually a page to 8 pages long, depending on the length of your book.  It should give the plot of the story.

After writing the synopsis, you will write your blurb.  Yes, a blurb!  A book blurb to be specific.

A book blurb is what you find in the back of a book flap.  It is that piece of art that entices a person to read what you wrote.  It is quite important that you write this well and to follow certain rules.  Like, don’t write the blurb in past tense.  Don’t give away the ending.  Don’t confuse the reader.  Use only hifalutin words if they’re necessary and uplift the blurb, otherwise, drop them.

So you now have a synopsis and a book blurb.

Don’t forget your book’s tag line.

It is a one-liner that summarizes your book.  It is something that when read by someone else, would immediately be reminded of your work of art.  As an example, it could be a famous line like Jerry Maguire’s “You complete me.”  But this is in the movies so let me give you a more apt example. 

“What would you do if you had to choose?”

Can you guess what book this tag line represents?

Clue:  This is a Young Adult novel by Gayle Forman.

 Nothing yet?  Not familiar?

Another clue:  This book has been turned into a movie.

 Nothing still?

 Okay, it’s from “If I Stay,” which was a brilliant tale about a girl in her teens who had an accident and while in coma, her spirit kept transcending between the past and the current, and all throughout the story, her family begins to die.

Oops.  Sorry for the spoiler.

But you see, my point is, the tag line should be captivating enough to capture a reader.  It shouldn’t be like how I just described the book’s plot.

 Conciseness.  Brevity.  And a twist in imagination.  These are the key to writing tag lines that stick to the reader’s mind.

Now, before we proceed with the rest of the discussion, I want you to go on an exercise first.  Because whether it’s Indie to Traditional Publishing, you will still have to come up with these:  Synopsis, Book Blurb, and Tag line.

In Chapter 1, you claimed you wanted to become a writer.  Go be one.  If you haven’t come up with either of the three yet, then write them down now.

Of if you already had because let’s face it I’m here to just tell you about Indie Publishing Hacked, then just copy from your documents and put them down. 

 Synopsis:

Book blurb:

Tag line:

You’re not yet done.  The next part is actually the more challenging one, or if I may put it, the clincher in this exercise.  Here is where you create a query letter.

A query letter is a letter that introduces your book and yourself to an agent.  But it’s not that simple.  Writing one is probably even more difficult than writing a novel.

An agent is the one who will represent you and your work to a publisher.  Take note that the major publishing houses do not entertain communications directly with writers.  Therefore, if traditional is the way you want to go into, then an agent is crucial. 

When your manuscript gets into the hands of an agent, it gets reviewed, commented on, and sent back to you for editing.  Then after that, you work on editing your manuscript to beat the deadline you agreed with the agent.  And then your agent is going to do the job of selling your book to publishing houses.  Some are lucky and could sell books (if the book is really great) rather fast.  But of course, the result could vary.

Once your manuscript gets sold, it will be edited further.  Inputs from the editor would come in, and you will have to stay up killing your darlings.  Yes, those parts that you felt were significant on the story may to an editor not even relevant at all.  So be prepared.

But it’s not all that bad.  Actually, the truth is, I still want to get published the traditional way.  Because this is where your book would become widely available, and the chance for readership is higher.  Marketing expenses are also paid for by the publisher.

The way to that though, in summary, involves the following:

1.    Finish your manuscript

2.    Review and revise at least three times

3.    Write your synopsis, book blurb, and tagline

4.    Write your query letter

5.    Submit queries to agents

6.    Once an agent contacts you, submit a copy of the full manuscript to the agent.

7.    If an agent accepts, negotiate with the agent, and sign the contract.

8.    If an agent sells the manuscript, edit, edit, and edit the manuscript until the publisher’s editor fully accepts the revised book.

Then you sit and wait while the millions start coming into your bank account.

Oops.  That was just a joke.  Of course, don’t expect that the book is going to sell like pancakes.  Even world-renowned authors probably don’t have that high an expectation.  Or maybe a few does.  But before we make small talk about this, let’s take you into the world of self-publishing.  What is it?  Why take this path? And blah blah blah.

What is Indie Publishing?

As the name itself implies, it is independent publishing.  This means that you take matters into your own hands.  The book cover, the editing, the final edited manuscript.  Everything. 

There will be no need for you to kill your darlings.  No editor would care except for the gentle voice cooing inside your head telling you to never, ever, kill the darlings.

Indie publishing or Independent publishing is an alternative to publishing traditionally.  Instead of looking for an agent and having him or her sell your book to a publisher, you will be left to doing everything on your own.

Let’s see.  A book in order to sell and get into the hands of readers has to undergo or have the following characteristics:

1.    Full professional edit.  When I say professional edit, it has to be someone who is not yourself.  You will always be biased about your work and this could make you less objective in spotting technical errors.  Believe me, no matter how many times you’ve gone through your manuscript, if you get it into the hands of professional editors, they will still find misses in the document.

2.    Book cover conceptualization, design, and layout.  This could get messy.  As the author of a story, you know somehow what you want for the cover, but getting this idea represented by a picture is far more difficult than you could imagine.  Hell, that’s why we are writers and not painters!  We use words to make images.  And that’s why this could be a challenge. 

With the Internet and Google though, searching for an illustrator or a graphics designer who could help you with your cover is easier now.  So all you need is your creative idea of what you want for a cover, what font you’re going to use, etc.

Font, hmm.  Let’s see.  Yes, even font matters.  The font is the representation of your title.  Imagine seeing The Kite Runner in its book jacket in Comic Sans.  How would you feel if after reading the book you finally learned that the story was far from being comical at all?  Wouldn’t you somehow feel cheated?  So there.  Pick a font that will also represent your book.  Remember, this is critical since the book cover is what’s going to grab the attention of potential readers and make them read the book blurb.

Be careful of Papyrus font though.  Although this may seem to you as catchy and looked interesting on the cover, many say that this font shouldn’t be used at all if what you’re after is a sense of uniqueness or something that would make your book stand out.

3.    Good plot, if you cannot strive for great plot.  This one’s self-explanatory.  How many times have you wanted to throw a copy of a book against a wall because the plot sucks?  Once, twice?  Or couldn’t keep count anymore? 

If you have all of these and no agent has paid you any mind yet, my hunch is that you’re hands are itchy and couldn’t wait to take the steps to getting your book out there.

Right?

Before you answer me with a resounding yes, I advise that you think it over one more time.  Do some more research over the Internet.  Check out the pros and cons of going indie over traditional publishing.  And then sleep on it.  Think again.  And when you’re convinced that you want to go Indie, get back to this book, and move on to the next chapter.

In the meantime though, I’m leaving you with a table of pros and cons.  Write down as much as you can about Traditional and Indie.

Traditional		Indie
P r o s	C o n s	P r o s	C o n s