Why self-publish?CEO of FGI Publishing

Aims

To show you my experiments with self-publishing

To argue that every creative writing student should have a go at self-publishing, at least once.

To argue that you should form “collectives” with other writers and set up your own publishing imprints

To use the tools of self-publishing to build a career…

A bit about myself

MA in Creative Writing in 1990

Teaching on and off for the last 25 years!

Best-selling ‘I’m A Teacher, Get Me Out Of Here’

Substantial advances for ‘Yob Nation’, ‘Parent Power’, ‘Working the System’ and ‘The Last Day of Term’

PhD in Creative Writing since 2009 with Blake Morrison and educational commentary with Professor Rosalyn George: a revolution of the mind?

The old ‘writing’ paradigm?

The slow burner

William Boyd, Margaret Atwood, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Andrea Levy

Small advances from a major publisher lead to big advances

Literary reviewing covers costs

The sensation

Zadie Smith, Bo Fowler (?), Hari Kunzru

Prestigious media/teaching jobs

Celebrity, prizes

New paradigm?

From blogging, social media to book

Much more target-oriented: fan fiction, self-help, diet books

The “prolific” writer is now free!

The “niche” writer: small presses, collectives, can produce beautiful books at relatively low cost (Rick Puskinsky & Gilbert)

The “calling card” book: book to TV/radio/talks/jobs/ festivals

GONE: relying on advances/book reviewing to sustain a career (D.J. Taylor, Michael Arditti, Hugo Wililams)

Collapse of publishing?

Amazon

Pirating of books; most famous books in copyright available free online

Bookshops disappearing

Publishers struggling

Rise of self-publishing

Self-publishing

Advantages

Control of your own work

Print on Demand (PoD) now cheap, not a huge investment

E-books can look professional

Royalties straight to you

Disadvantages

No quality control

Not as “professional” looking, esp. paperbacks

No “advance”

Self publishing websites

Amazon: Createspace.com & Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

Indie: BOOK BABY www.bookbaby.com

Photos: BLURB www.blurb.co.uk

Great title rater: LULU www.lulu.com

Design tools: SMASH WORDS www.smashwords.com

UK based: AUTHOR HOUSE www.authorhouse.co.uk

Live-chat: IUNIVERSE www.iuniverse.com

Author-centric (?): XLIBRIS www.xlibris.com

FGI Publishing

Started with e-Books on Kindle last summer: a backlog of study guides

Graduated onto paperbacks and e-Books Sept, 2013

Useful for teaching

“Calling card”

Easy to change; I really like the control. It’s my “mess-up”, no one else’s (Yob Nation nightmare)

Good tool for planning over the next few years.

Jekyll

Romeo and Juliet

Jekyll drama

Blake

Learning Matters

Becoming a publisher of other writers

Roger Titcombe, ‘Learning Matters’

Amazing to work with one or two authors in same subject area!! Incredible learning experience…

You realise what a privileged job being an editor with TIME is…

My rules

As little money as possible invested (even ISBNs);

Need help with cover design (cover designer tools);

Have to work on PC, use Word etc.

Why?

Free to experiment; all I have to waste is my time!

Learn a little about book design (for free): http://www.newselfpublishing.com/

Proof-reading: I hate it but it has to be done, and still there are mistakes…

Recommendations

Be humble: be prepared for people to laugh, say your book is crap.

Think about what you really want from your writing life.

Devise a “career” strategy for being a writer; think long-term if you’re serious about writing, think 20 years from now!

Explore “non-media” career avenues: we need more “creatives” in SCHOOLS, on exam boards, in government, in the corporate world, in businesses…

Look very carefully at any contracts you sign with a publisher; “no advance, poor royalties” from a traditional publisher is a BAD DEAL!!

Experiment, nothing to lose but time and pride?

Get a non-fiction string to your bow: do a journalism course. This is tremendously useful for any job. Six week NCJ courses are fine.

Work with other like-minded people, set up a collective, e.g. Blackbird Books

Email: sir@francisgilbert.co.uk, and www.francisgilbert.co.uk

Further contacts

The Literary Platform

The Literary Consultancy

The Alliance of the Society of Authors

The London Book Art Centre

Curved House

Society of Authors