What a Debut Author Can Expect After Their Book Is Published by an Indie Press
Plus 9 recently added indie presses on Chill Subs!
In this week’s guest essay,
shares what she learned after her first book was accepted for publication and gives us her reaction to the reality of the book publishing process. If you are a beginner or newbie, this could be helpful!ONE: It will take approximately two years for your book to be released from the time it is accepted by your publisher.
I love everything about holding a new book: the smell of the paper, the crisp edges of the pages, the anticipation of what lies within. So when I learned that my debut novel, Blurred Fates, had been accepted for publication by She Writes Press, I saw myself holding it—this book I’d created, a real book with a cover and an ISBN number and a first page that read “This book is a work of fiction”—in my hands, soon. Very soon. And then I learned it would be more like not so very soon, as in twenty-three months later. I signed the contract in September 2020; the release date was August 8, 2022. [Btw, release dates, aka pub dates, are always on Tuesdays.]
I also learned that two years (or so) from signing on the dotted line to pub date is normal in the industry. And though it sounds like forever on the day you sign, those two years are chock-a block with activity: cover design, copyediting, proofreading, reviewing first-, second-, and third pages (your book post-interior design), and working on publicity. Which leads me to . . .
TWO: The most critical months for publicizing your book are before it comes out.
Yup, that’s right. When my publisher suggested hiring a publicist, they recommended selecting one a year out from my pub date, because, get this, they would begin working for me six months prior and finish when the book came out. “Wait, what? They finish on my pub date?” I asked. I was flummoxed. Wouldn’t they need to be pushing the book after it came out. No, because (this is worth repeating) “the most critical months for publicizing your book are before it comes out.”
Another btw, your initial print run (the number of books to be printed at the start) is determined by your pre-orders, which are determined by how many people express interest in buying your book before it is released (See #6 below). Which is why . . .
THREE: Your book will appear on online bookstores months before your pub date.
I was on a writing retreat when I received a text message from a friend saying she’d seen my book on Amazon—a year before the pub date. “Was I excited?” she asked. Yes, but also totally shocked. I would soon learn I shouldn’t have been. A publisher’s sales team goes out to bookstores, online sellers, and libraries several months before pub date. (This is why (See #2 above.)) That text message was a wake-up call. I didn’t even have a website yet (and a bookstore buyer might just check that), let alone a marketing plan, which I was soon to learn was up to me because . . .
FOUR: Publicity and marketing are related, but they are not the same, and regardless of your status as an author, you will be responsible for much of your own marketing.
Around this time, someone told me, “Publicity is letting people know you and your book exist. Marketing is selling your book.”
Ergo, publicity is getting trade reviews for your book and media interest in you. Publicity is finding placement for articles you’ve written and spots on podcasts, television, and radio (yes, this still exists). Publicity is pitching your book to Book of the Month or Oprah (a girl’s gotta dream).
Marketing is buying advertising. Marketing is blogging to your email list or Substack subscribers. Marketing is you posting on social media about your book and yourself (a mini-surprise, readers are often as interested in you as they are in your book: How much of it is based on your life? Where do you write? What books are next to your bed?)
What I’ve learned is that even bestselling authors do a lot of their own marketing. [Yet another btw, due to PR cutbacks at the big five and indie presses, some bestselling authors are hiring their own publicists. Of course, anyone can hire a social media proxy (someone to post and run ads for you), but you may find you enjoy the creative aspects of it (I do).]
Many bookish things qualify as both publicity and marketing. For example, scheduling and promoting appearances on panels at book festivals or conferences OR a book launch or appearance at a local independent bookstore, which may lead to a brief uptick in book sales, but after the event . . .
FIVE: Independent bookstores are likely to carry only one or two copies of your book (if they carry any at all).
This is not because they don’t support authors or because they don’t like you personally (which, as sensitive souls, many authors may believe to be the case). It is because book selling is a business, millions of books are published each year, shelf space is precious, and ordering has become streamlined; if two copies of a book sell, replacements can arrive from the distributor in a couple of days. You will be lucky to have your book on the shelf, let alone have “face out” versus “spine out” placement.
And for the most part (unless you know the bookstore staff personally), forget prominent placement. Sales reps and booksellers’ marketing and buying staff have made decisions about which books go on the front tables, end caps, or in the window months before the display goes up. The “Perfect Beach Reads” promotional display you see when you enter a store at the beginning of June was decided behind closed doors when there was still snow on the ground and a chill in the air. So, if you aren’t one of the chosen . . .
SIX: Even if you are a dedicated supporter of local independent bookstores, you will have to play the A game.
Passions run high about Amazon, about how it has ruined the intimacy of the book buying experience and how it is driving local indie bookstores out of business. I have heard indie booksellers refer to Amazon as “the A word,” akin to Voldemort, “who must not be named,” at least not within the store. I mean the former, not the latter. After all, the Harry Potter series (and books like them) are the lifeblood of bookstores; as a buyer once told me, “I wish we could stock more indie published books and quiet literary foreign translations, but it’s the bestsellers that pay for the rest of the books to be here.”
As a result, for many authors (including those who wrote those indie published books and quiet literary translations), the vast majority of sales come from Amazon: Amazon is easy; Amazon is quick; Amazon does not require you to leave your house.
Moreover, Amazon pre-orders are one of the major sources of information used to determine your print run. Amazon sales rankings and banners (those little flag things) are marketing tools in and of themselves (“#1 in New Releases in Female Friendship”). Amazon provides authors with control through their author page, including the ability to directly link Facebook ads so an author can evaluate the success of ad campaigns. And Amazon algorithms reward book sales with increased exposure to possible buyers, thereby driving additional sales.
As an author, I try to direct as many folks as I can to local independent bookstores and bookshop.org (which gives a portion of profits to those indie stores), but I acknowledge that I need Amazon sales, particularly now that my book is on the backlist and a million more books are waiting for that spine-out spot on the indie bookstore shelf, including my second one (The Other Side of Nothing, pub date: May 28, 2024).
Which, btw, I can’t wait to hold in my hands.
PS, if you notice that little bit of marketing in the second-to-last line, yes, that was intentional… because, See #4 :)
Anastasia Zadeik’s debut novel, Blurred Fates (She Writes Press, August 2022), won the 2023 Sarton Award for Contemporary Fiction and the 2023 National Indie Excellence Award in Contemporary Fiction. Her second novel, The Other Side of Nothing, will be released in May 2024.
Looking for some indie press publishers? Here are some of the latest in our database!
*Make sure to DYOR on indie presses. Most are good-hearted folks, but I’ve seen too many turn out to be churn-farms for my liking. Your book is your baby. Make sure it’s going to a good home.
The Words Faire
The Words Faire is a curated community of the curious and unique. The independent press publishes Zines, Anthologies, and will expand into manuscript submissions in the future.
Persea Books
Persea is an independent, literary publishing house founded in 1975 by Michael and Karen Braziller. Persea has published hundreds of engaging and consequential books ncluding poetry, fiction, essays, memoir, biography, and revived classics.
Ghost Orchid Press
Established in January 2021, Ghost Orchid Press is an independent publisher of horror, Gothic, and supernatural fiction based in Cambridgeshire, UK. We are dedicated to championing new and emerging authors in these increasingly popular, versatile genres.
Switchback Books
Switchback Books challenges gender inequity in literary publishing by producing and promoting books of poetry by women and non-binary authors. Publishing exclusively women and non-binary poets comprises a feminist act.
Purple Ink Press
We are a small, independent non-profit press. We are BIPOC founded and aim to publish what is unusual and work about in-between spaces. Our publications o highlight unexpected and wonderful places. We especially seek to amplify BIPOC and Queer voices.
VA Press
VA Press is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation committed to the idea that books have the power to change lives. We print works by authors often overlooked by traditional outlets, authors whose words we believe will inspire and benefit those who read them.
June Road Press
A tiny editor-run independent poetry press based outside Philadelphia, publishing two finely crafted collections a year, often by debut authors. We aim to make books that are timely and timeless—books for the journey, books that connect us across time and place.
Voice Lux Press
An independent press that publishes e-chapbooks and print books, Voice Lux seeks to spread the work of lesser-known artists as they emerge, build community for poets at all stages of their careers, and bring attention to amazing work. Let your voice be heard!
Middle West Press LLC
Iowa-based editor and publisher of non-fiction, fiction, journalism, and poetry. As an independent micro-press, we publish from one to four titles annually. Our projects are often inspired by the people, places, and history of the American Midwest.
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Just FYI: I work with my authors at least a month or more after their pub date! Not all of us publicists end services on the pub date. I also incorporate marketing into my proposals--some of us do, some don't, but always ask!
Interesting read! Reiterates how everything in writing is a marathon and not a sprint