Comments on: unpublished novel vote

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:51:00 +0000

Just to clarify … the question is less “what things should I do” and more: “if i do these things, will it hurt my chances of getting my other novel published?

given that none of them has a cost – except effort – i figure if i do it, I might as well do it all! podcast, blog, pdf, lulu, wiki … what else? maybe act it out on youtube!

i think i will just do this as an “experiment.”

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:44:11 +0000

From your options I'd say #1 but I'd put in another vote for a PDF version, like Getting Real or Mobile Web Design, I think you would make more money and reach more people with a nicely formatted PDF than with Lulu.

By: Dan Parsons

Dan Parsons — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:58:23 +0000

Wil Wheaton (of star trek tng fame) wrote a book, a few years ago, that no one wanted to publish, so he published it himself. Since then he’s become quite a successful writer, making most of his income from it, etc. I don’t know if a real publisher ever picked him up, but at this point it doesn’t seem to matter for him. His site is wilwheaton.net

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:18:44 +0000

exactly, each with it’s own line of blind spot lunch pails, action figures, special bonus features (interviews with cafe waitresses “he just seemed to sit there most of the time, occasionally he put his forehead on the table, but other than that, just sat, really, and then left eventually) … and so an empire becomes a twinkle in my eye.

By: miette

miette — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 15:19:51 +0000

And then the Ridley Scott run of “The Real Director’s Cut,” the “I Mean It This Time Director’s Cut,” and “Honest Guys This Is The Director’s Cut.”

You’ll make a mint!
— Mtte.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:56:48 +0000

re: wiki – well there can always be a “director’s cut.”

By: miette

miette — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:22:51 +0000

Pull a Radiohead, and offer a pdf for sale-by-donation?

The vanity attached to Lulu is in assuming people want to buy it. I think the assumption should be that maybe people want to read it. Why not put it up on your site, as a pdf, as a podcast, whichever (I’d be happy to contributare) and a donation button should people be interested?

As I see it, this is less stigmatised as an approach: you’re building an audience on your own dime, while cultivating “new” publishing methodologies without the need to have something bound and ISBN’ed.

The wiki idea is radical, and wondrous, but only if you’d be willing to live with the results of such an experiment.

— Mtte.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:50:20 +0000

@julien: thanks.

@chrishughes: i’m not worried about that scenario … if they really like the 2nd one, they’ll want the third more than the first. which would be ideal. and if they really want the 1st they won’t care that it was published online. and further: that’s too much of a “potential” – who knows what happens with #2.

@sean: re: stigma, the problem is not so much hucksterism, but: “he couldn’t get it published, so he published it himself…” it’s a judgment on quality.

the buzz, yes, it depends on how much buzz is created.

another thing to note, #1 is VERY different from #2, and I’ve even thought of (self)publishing #1 under a different name.

By: Sean McGaughey

Sean McGaughey — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:00:31 +0000

Go for all of the above. People like Matthew Wayne Selznick, Cory Doctorow, JC Hutchins, Jim Munroe and Scott Sigler are all having some success with the DIY approach. I’m sure Evo Terra at podiobooks would be happy to talk to you about the pros and cons of putting a podiobook– Out there.

I’m not a publisher and I know there is a stigma against self-publishing (largely due to the hucksters running old style vanity presses
). Lulu seems to be one of the companies that gets it… Applying the new media realities to an old kind of business. I think that the more you get your name out, and create a buzz around Hugh McGuire, the more attractive your second novel will be to publishers.

The buzz could go something like… “Hey, the librivox guy has written a book and he’s podcasting it on the net…”

And I agree– not a librivox book. When I recorded my brother-in-law’s unpublished novel, White Trash Land, we were very happy with releasing it on podiobooks. Podiobooks brings a built in audience eager to try out new stuff. Couple that with your librivox, podcasting and social media contacts and you could create a bit of a buzz from the start.

By: Chris Hughes

Chris Hughes — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:15:27 +0000

Much as I would like to read it, it might be prudent to wait until you know about the second book. If the second book does really well, they may be interested in the first one.