My journey into self publishing. May 29, 2018 – Posted in: Blog – Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I am one of the legion of self-published authors in Tauranga, and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about my journey

I wrote “Zeb’s Search” after having a dream about a zebra who wanted to change his name. I have always written, but the only things that saw the light of day were the articles written for organisations I belonged to. I decided to see if I was a reader who wanted to write or whether I had what it took to be an author.

I always write my goals for the year on January 1st and my major goal for 2015 was to see if I had any writing potential. I joined Tauranga Writers and was lucky that they had a group specifically for writers of children’s books. The first time I read Zeb to the group I was told it was about 5 pages too long, but I kept re-writing and deleting and condensing and learning. Jenny was a great help as was Barbara Griffiths who was the first outsider to read Zeb and thankfully, she really liked it. If she hadn’t I don’t know that I would have continued.

Writing is an insular process. It is just you and the computer. In general writers are not the life and soul of a party and letting other people read their work can be challenging. At the launch of Zeb there were 5 other books launched at the same time and all 5 authors said how hard it was having other people read their story for the first time.

I think that is all about fear! It is a story I have crafted, spent time, effort and often tears on, and how will I cope if no-one likes it!

However, we persevere! And like everything in life you must decide which comments and criticisms you will take on board and which you wont, which will improve the story, and which won’t. J K Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected by every major publishing house in the UK before finally being taken up.  So, writers have to find thick skins as well as stickability.

The process for me to self-publish a book was a long and arduous journey. I decided to go this route because there were so few publishing companies to submit it to. The feedback from other authors was that you could wait over a year for a reply which was usually negative anyway! Scholastic for example will only look at the manuscripts of previously published authors! I can understand their reasoning, but it does make it hard to get a foot in the door!

Tauranga Writers had lots of booklets on the process of self publishing and I was lucky in the help I had around me. I found an illustrator, Jenny was the editor and my daughter who is a graphic designer with a lot of experience in designing for the printed page, put the words and pictures together and developed the identity of our company Paper Airplane Publishing.

Every published author must have access to a publishing company. If you are self publishing you can either use an existing company like Paper Airplane Publishing, Little Red Hen Press owned by Jenny, or create your own.

We picked the name Paper Airplane Publishing, firstly because as a family we like to travel and that cannot be done without a good book, but also because of the link with paper.  Rachel designed the website as well as merchandise for Zeb which are on the website. There are banners, gift bags for parties as well as information and teachers notes.

Over the publishing process I got a lot of emails from Rachel asking me questions and there were times when I hid and my in-box got very full. She was asking me questions and I had no idea of the answers. Same with the printer. What weight paper? Who knew? Certainly not me. The process took almost 2 years and Zeb came home from the printer in September last year, 2017.

It was so exciting to hold the printed book in my hand. It looked so beautiful, felt so beautiful, it existed, it had life! Wow, I couldn’t put it down for ages and even now I find myself caressing the cover! I think that means I chose the correct weight card for the cover!

The book is aimed at 4 to 10-year olds. It can be read aloud to younger children and or read by the older children.

It is about the search for identity. Zeb is looking for a name that is just his. He hates being just another Zeb in a herd where every boy is called Zeb. Zeb finds a name by the end of the book after some adventures meeting other animals and it is a name which exactly describes the zebra he wants to be. The search for identity and the difficulties of being different are themes that can be very real for children.

I have also written a sequel which is in the process of being illustrated. It addresses the difficulties of belonging to a herd where you are not supposed to be different. Zeb is now Pedro and he gets thrown out of the herd because his name is no longer the same as everybody else. Obviously, a herd is very important to a zebra who is easy prey out on the savannah all by himself!

So, the first thrill was holding the book. The second thrill was selling a book, and then a second and third one! Other people valued it enough to spend money buying it! Yeeha! But then the reality of marketing the book hit home.

I had been told that marketing was important but hadn’t really wanted to believe it! It’s like kids out flatting for the first time. They still think Mum will be around at some stage to clean up!

If I had an established publisher, they would put my books into shops, onto websites, do the advertising.  A self-published book is also a self-promoted book and the fear of public speaking for example, must be overcome!

I was very lucky that Barbara, who contributes articles to a magazine called “Teachers Matter”, was happy to review Zeb and develop some teachers notes to go with the book. I was able to put these on the website.

My time now seems to revolve around a mouse, Edward Mouse Adventurer. I am in the process of bringing him to life. It might take years for Edward to see the light of day. And even though I have a publishing company and all this knowledge, it still isn’t easy!

I have changed completely in how I view myself since first writing my goals about becoming an author. I now refer to myself as an author, I am gaining confidence, and I now push myself to say yes to talking in front of people. I have a mind continually thinking of situations that a mouse who lives on a NZ dairy farm could be getting into and once Edward is illustrated there will be 5 books on Amazon written by me.

I was also brought up reading Georgette Heyer regency romances. At the end of a long day I loved to curl up with a story where you knew the outcome and it was always going to be good, and you didn’t need to turn your brain on. I still use regency romances to counteract brain fugue after a day spent thinking and am 40,000 words into a regency romance.

I joined the Romance Writers group called Coast to Coast to help me on my romantic journey. In the local group I go to, which spreads from the east coast to the west coast and Te Kuiti to south Auckland there are so many published authors, mainly through Amazon, and a lot of knowledge is freely given away.

I got 200 copies printed of “Zeb’s Search”. I now have 40 left so that is 160 sold since October last year. It can be found in Paper Plus in Te Puke and Papamoa and in Books a Plenty and sells through a local distributor and Wheelers the distribution company used by schools and libraries. Of course, printing so few meant that the cost per book was high.

The other outlet for any book is Amazon or equivalent. Amazon accepts any book and once you have mastered the process you can put any book that you have written up there. Right now, you can buy an eBook of” Zeb’s Search” for $2.29 US on Amazon.

I was so lucky being able to delegate that process to Rachel. It’s a wonder she is still talking to me!

The fact that anyone can publish their book on amazon does mean that there is some rubbish up there to avoid but it also provides an outlet for writers without mainstream publishers and without the money or the wish to print their books.

This is where reviews are so important. (And as an aside could I ask anyone who has read Zeb and enjoyed it to review the book on Amazon!) How do you choose between a poorly written book and one that you might love? It must be reviewed. And what is well or poorly written is subjective. A lot of people said that “Fifty shades of Grey” was badly written but it sold like hot cakes and made the author a lot of money.

The difference between a well written and a badly written book can be small. It might be the difference between using an editor or not using an editor, using spell and grammar check and not using it. Reading it through to yourself aloud and reading it in your head only.

The importance of reading the book aloud, as if to another person, is huge. You can hear how the words flow, what is stilted to read, and that you have just used the word “obviously” for the fourth time and you are only on page 3!

While we have so much talent in New Zealand we do not have many publishers. Our population base is so small that most of the large publishers have left our shores and our books go to Australian or American companies. This means that the books that reflect the reality of living in New Zealand, the slang, the way of life, the birds, do not always appeal overseas.

It does mean that there is a wealth of writing that does reflect our country out there for local publishers to choose from, but local publishers might publish only 10 NZ books a year. That sounds an even smaller number when you realise that the 10 can include adult fiction through non-fiction as well as children’s picture books!

It was suggested to me that I set my story in New Zealand, but I decided I had to give the zebra I dreamt about a life.

It was also suggested that I have it translated into Maori but if English books have a small market in NZ, the Maori books have an even smaller one!

Self publishing is no way to get rich. All the costs are yours. It is difficult to find a cheap illustrator and still get good illustrations. They are, unfortunately, worth the money they charge. Consequently, the number of books you must sell to recover their costs is huge. The average number of books sold by a self-published author in NZ is small and they usually have boxes of un-sold books in their garage. Not because their book is not a good one, but because of the difficulties in self- marketing and getting your book into the chain bookshops, schools and libraries.

I read the book to a class at Te Matai School and a boy asked me how much money I was making. When I said “nothing at this stage” his face fell, and you could see him mentally deleting writing as the career of choice!