The Perils of Publishing
Welcome to Katzenhaus Books, where we tell - the stories behind the history.
RSS Follow Become a Fan

Delivered by FeedBurner


Recent Posts

My December
One More Before the Excitement Fades
Trumpets! Confetti! Funny Hats! Screaming Crowds!
Getting On with the Writing
Turning an Idea into a Business

Categories

A new contest
Abolition
absurdity
academic myopia
Almost Free
Amazon
ancestors
Announcement
apocalypse
Applications and software
Appomattox
Arnulf of Lisieux
art of speaking
attracting readers
audience
audio books
Author Central
Author Gifts
author's Plea
awards
baseball
basketball
Battle of Port Royal
Battles
biographical
blind artists
blockade
blog chain
Book Club Guides
Book Design
Book Launch
book stores
book trailer
bookstores
Boxed Set
bright ideas
Building a platform
business
Business plan
Busy-ness
butterflies
Career choices
cats
celebrations
cemetery research
Census
challenges
characterization
Characters
Charleston
children
children's books
choosing a publisher
Choosing a Title
Christmas
Christmas Past
Civil War
commercials
Computer Hacks
Confederates
Conferences
Connections
constitutional amendments
construction
Contract labor
cotton
Countdown Sale
Countdown to Launch
Cover Designs
Cover images
cutting and pasting
Cyber Monday
daily drama
daily events
Dead Mules
Deal of the Day
decisions
depression
diversions
dogs
Do-Overs
DRM
earthquake
e-book pricing
e-books
editing
elevator speech
elmore leonard
Elves and Holidays
Emancipation
England
English class
evidence
Excerpt
exclusivity
Exercise
Expertise
Facebook
fact and fiction
failures
fame and fortune
family affairs
Favorites
Fear of Failure
Fish
flood waters
flowers
food delights
Formatting
Fort Pulaski
free chapter
Free Days
freebies
Friendship
Frogmore
garden
gardens
genealogy
Getting organized
ghost stories
Giveaway
Goals
good business
good news
grammar cops
gratitude
gray horses
gripes
grocery shopping
guest blogs
Gullah
handicaps
Harriet Tubman
Hiatus
Historical background
Historical Fiction
historical puzzlers
historical thinking
history lessons
Holidays
home office
hope and kindness
horse races
horses
hurricanes
identifying your audience
illustrations
imagination
indie authors
Inspiration
inspirations
internet
internet history
intruders
ISBN
Kalamazoo
karma
Kindle
Kindle links
Kindle rankings
Kindle Serials
kings
Klout
Ku Klux Klan
Lack of co-ordination
landmarks
language
Laughs
launch dates
Laura Towne
Layouts
legal matters
lending library
Lessons learned
lessons unlearned
libraries
literary genres
local news
love story
making choices
Marketing
Matchbooks
medicine
medieval-isms
Meet the Characters
Memorial Day
memories
Milestones
military matters
mind-mapping
Misfis
Monthly Musings
name recognition
NaNoWriMo
Nellie Chase
New Blog
New Book
New England
New Research
New Year
newsletters
nonfiction
non-profits
nostalgia
Nurses
oddities
odds and ends
olympics
omens
opening lines
outrage
Oxford
Papacy
parties
Penn Center
photographs
picture book
Pinterest
Pinterest and copyrights
Pirates
planning ahead
plot
point of view
polite society
politics
portraits
powerful women
Predictions
pre-orders
press release
previews
pricing
Principles
procrastination
productivity
Profiles
Progress Report
Promotions
proofs
pros and cons
publishing
publishing companies
publishing ploys
publishing rights
pure sentimentality
puzzlements
quiz
rain
random thoughts
RBOC
read an ebook
readership
recipes
Reconstruction
Relaxation
research
Resolutions
reviews
road trip
rough draft
Roundhead Reports
royalties
rules
SALE
Sales
scams
schedules
Scoop It
ScoopIt
seasons
Secessionville
second edition
Second Mouse
self-publishing
settings
Shiloh
Short Stories
Silliness
slander
Slavery
small world
Smile of the Day
snow, living in the south
social media
software
software disasters
South Carolina
Speechless!
sports
Spring
story arc
Substitutes
Success
summer
Synopsis
Taking a Break
Taxes
Thank You
the difficulties of blogging
The Gideonites
Theme
Tongue-in-cheek
Traditions
trailer
Travelog
trilogies
trolls
Tweet
Twitter
Upcoming Events
using commas
Vacation
vacation photos
Valentine
video
Visitor
vocabulary
Volunteering
voting
warnings
weather
weather trauma
website
word counts
Word-of-Mouth
Words
Words of Warning
Writer Beware!
Writer's Block
Writing Advice
Writing as Career
writing process

Archives

December 2017
November 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010

powered by

"Roundheads and Ramblings"

The Perils of Publishing

I received the following query in my e-mail today.  I'm not going to reveal the writer's name, although I do know who she is.  She raises some important questions, and I thought perhaps the best place to answer them would be here in the blog itself.

She writes: "I've been quietly following your blog for about a year now.  Your topics are fascinating!  I can get lost in historical research. . . . If I may ask, I'm quite curious to know why you chose self-publishing for your books rather than going the traditional publisher route?  There are so many history buffs in the world, I would think there's a huge market for your work, both fiction and non-fiction, and you have the credentials to back you up.  Was it to have more control over your work?  Did you go through traditional publishers at first and they weren't interested?  And, have you had success in self-publishing, volume-wise?"

I must start by correcting a couple of assumptions.  There are many history buffs in the world, I agree, but that does not mean they make up a huge market for my particular book.  I am constantly amazed at how narrowly some people limit their interests.  I've been writing about a particular regiment -- the 100th Pennsylvania Volunteers.  One descendant of a soldier in that regiment sent me a note, saying he probably would not be buying my first Civil War book because most of my characters were in Company C and he was interested in Company K. Fair enough.  He's entitled to his own interests.

Next, the writer says I have the credentials to back me up.  Again, not so fast.  I am a trained historian -- a retired Professor Emerita at a very good and well-known liberal arts college.  BUT . . .  my own specialty as a professor was in the history of Anglo-Norman church-state relationships in the twelfth century.  How's that for narrow? It means absolutely nothing to Civil War scholars, I can guarantee you.

The explanation of how I decided to self-publish is going to take some time, I'm afraid, because it was not a quick decision.  It stretched out over a period of years.  After I retired from active college teaching, I decided to follow up a long-repressed interest in America's Civil War because, for the first time, I was free to do so.  Before retirement, I had published two books, but both were controlled by the rules and standard practices of academic presses.  I found publishers for both of them because (1) I was fairly well-known within the small subset of historians who were working on topics closely related to 12th-century Europe, and (2) I was willing to accept the fact that I would never make a dime from those books.  

Academic scholars write books to demonstrate that they belong in the profession.  They write because it is a requirement if they want to get a job, and it is an even bigger requirement if they want to earn promotion and tenured status. The first publishing contract I signed guaranteed me fifteen cents per copy of my book -- AFTER the first ten thousand copies were sold. Since there aren't that many people in the whole world interested in a monograph about the diplomatic maneuvers of Bishop Arnulf of Lisieux, I knew from the start that I'd never see that fifteen cents. I was content just to see the book in print and to know that it was being favorably reviewed by other academics.

Now, let's jump ahead several years.  It was 2003 and I was working on a Civil War history called A Scratch with the Rebels.  It was based at least in part on some letters written by my great uncle.  I had a good story to tell, the facts to flesh it out, and all that history training behind me. After I had written a few chapters, I applied for an NEH grant, hoping to finance my research trips to South Carolina. I didn't get it, but one of the judges was sufficiently impressed to tell an editor at  a university press in the state where my regiment had been recruited. She was quite taken by the proposal, sent the chapters off to readers, and came back with the advice to make sure I was writing for a general audience and to concentrate on telling the story. While I waited for a contract, I finished the manuscript. Then my editor left for a better job without warning. The managing editor took over the project, put it on a back burner, and left it there for 10 months. Then she informed me they were no longer interested.  

Undaunted, I shipped it off to another university press where I had a contact, and at first the new editor was enthusiastic.  He sent it off to be read by Civil War professors (and I should have known right then that I was doomed.)  Eventually the readers' comments came back, and they all had to do with things like how much of the book needed to be more theoretical, how I had failed to discuss all the relevant research that was going on in the field, and that too much of the book was based on personal letters -- a story --  rather than "historical records." My new editor really tried, I think, to explain to my critics that I was writing a book for a general audience, not for an academic search committee, but in the end it didn't matter.  I had no reputation as a Civil War historian, and the field was simply not open to newcomers. He retired from his job, and the dog-eared manuscript came back to me.

It had been over three years by then, and I was discouraged.  A e-mail from Editor #1 urged me to give it one more try.  She recommended a small private press that specialized in Pennsylvania history and the Civil War.  Not bothering this time with a formal query letter, I called them.  They asked for an e-mailed copy of the manuscript, and six days later, I had a contract in hand.  SUCCESS?

NOPE! The press was easy to work with and the royalties were three times what I would have received from a university press.  There were drawbacks, however. I had no control over the layout or appearance of the book, which came out looking entirely too much like a high school textbook.  Quality problems existed, too -- the plastic coating on the cover began to peel almost immediately, and all the press offered was a suggestion that I use a warm iron to reseal the coating before I tried to sell my copies.  No one had EVER expected me to iron my books!

The press also turned out to be very inexperienced at marketing and distribution.  They featured A Scratch with the Rebels in their catalog, but it only appeared a couple of times a year and was limited to people who had purchased other books from them. Their chosen distributing company failed to put the books out and simply returned them after a few months. In the end, the press sold only a few books, and my total royalties amounted to about $25.00. The only books that DID sell were those I bought myself at half-price and resold to my friends and at a couple of book signings.

By the beginning of 2009, I had devoted 6 years to A Scratch with the Rebels -- with almost nothing to show for it.  I had made some major mistakes along the way, I admit, but I also had learned that the publishing market for the average writer was a minefield.  By then I was working on a new book -- my historical novel, Beyond All Price.  I knew I needed to find a new approach.  I'll save that story for the next post.

 
http://www.katzenhausbooks.com/blog/2011/01/27/The-Perils-of-Publishing.aspx
www.katzenhausbooks.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-51
115313
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:IAR4CJPBUIKKWHWBLSETWSSLJ7IVZO25
<urn:uuid:905da65e-4d18-4884-945f-aedb7b272940>
2017-12-18T06:48:51Z
46.137.93.54
text/html
sha1:EC33S6IDG3HGWUGNRUGUAMJC5V5DQGYM
<urn:uuid:2b0f38ff-1312-4e5f-acef-170c636f91a6>
http://www.katzenhausbooks.com/blog/2011/01/27/The-Perils-of-Publishing.aspx
response
<urn:uuid:d9845152-355d-4e77-bd2b-8bcd61e70392>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-136-81-210.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-51
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for December 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf