I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press and gone on to become professionals in the field to write about their experiences. Today, Michael Pryor shares his experience.
Very early on in my writing career, indie press was vital to me. One of my first short story sales featured in the first issue of Aurealis, which kicked off a long association with that publication. I’ve had nine stories published in Aurealis, two of which picked up Aurealis Award shortlisting. I’ve also done a fair bit of behind the scenes work with Aurealis, working on submissions and story selection, writing articles, carrying boxes and generally helping out. I’ve been an Associate Editor and now I’m one of the three publishers behind the scenes.
This experience has been crucial to my writing career. For a start, it’s let me see behind the scenes of magazine publishing and how it works. I’ve seen the passion and the enthusiasm of all those who work on a small press publication. I’ve seen the hours put in. I’ve seen the keenness of the writers out there, published and unpublished. I’ve seen the joys, the disappointments and the misunderstandings.
All this means that I approach my own writing career with a level of insight. I understand the rejection process and how it works. I know how much time it takes to work through submissions. I jump to it when an editor asks for a rewrite. I adhere to deadlines, because I know of all the concomitant arrangements that are dependent on that story coming in on THAT date and no later. Coming to terms with the concrete demands of publishing emphasised to me that small doesn’t have to mean amateurish. A professional outlook and approach is something that most indie press strive for, so I was determined that as a writer I could do no less.
As genre publishing began to boom, I also had stories published by Wakefield Press, Ford Street Publishing and FableCroft Publishing. Behind each one I saw the people involved and their dedication. It’s both affirming and inspirational to see how they appreciate a good story, and I admire the way they put a collection together.
I firmly believe that it was my track record as a successful writer of short stories that helped my first novel get published. Partly it was the contacts I’d made after breaking out of the ‘unpublished writer’ rank and into the ‘published writer’ rank, but also it was the contacts I’d made once I’d made this step. The people looking at my first novel submission knew who I was, and that never hurts.
Now, twenty-eight novels later, I work with Random House, a major international publisher, but I maintain my contact with the world of indie publishing. Why, just a few weekends ago I was with the other Aurealis people, stuffing envelopes, making sure the mail went out on time…
Michael Pryor is a best-selling author of fantasy for teenagers. He has published over twenty-five novels and more than 40 short stories. He has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award six times, and five of his books have been CBCA Notable books. His current and new releases include Hour of Need (Laws of Magic 6), published in May this year from Random House, and the first book of his new series, The Extraordinaires, is calledThe Extinction Gambit and will be released in December, again from Random House.
Find out more about Michael and his works at his website.
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press and are professionals in the field to write about their experiences. Today’s post comes to us from Robert Hood, who considers some of the differences between small press and the pros.
Photograph by Cat Sparks
Independent vs Mainstream Publishing
In some ways, issues of small-press vs mainstream publishing have been a bit moot in my own writing history – and I think it’s fairly typical. In part it’s the difference between being a short-story writer and being a novelist. For genre short-story writing (in particular), small presses are inevitable, at least in the long term.
My writing career was undoubtedly forged in the cash-strapped world of the small press. In those early years, though story publication sometimes came via well-paying mainstream markets (such as the National Times, a Century Hutchinson anthology, The Bulletin, Rolling Stone), small-press literary journals and more left-field non-genre markets such as ABC Radio, The Australian Way inflight magazine, Woman’s Day and a Campbelltown Council-funded anthology of ghost stories offered more consistent publication than the mainstream book publishers. This was the 1980s, when simply getting manuscripts into the hands of US magazine editors was logistically difficult and virtually no professional SF/horror markets existed at all in Australia. Few, maybe none, of us were sufficiently well-known for overseas editors to offer invitations to submit to the bigger anthologies.
For me, winning a crime story competition led to publication in a series of Allen & Unwin crime anthologies and then UK editor Karl Edward Wagner chose to include a story originally published in a small literary journal in his prestigious Year’s Best Horror series. But even then single author short story collections weren’t high on the to-do lists of the big publishers, certainly not when they were the demanding progeny of little-known authors. It was inevitably a small press that gave me that opportunity.
A group of (mainly) poets centred on the University of Wollongong foolishly decided to create a co-operative press, as the mainstream presses were even less interested in publishing poetry than they were in publishing short stories. To avoid it being an exercise in vanity or mere self-publishing and to ensure a certain level of independent critical evaluation, anyone wanting to be part of the cooperative had to subject their manuscript to a general cull. Full agreement from prospective members was necessary to get in, so the large number of applicants was gradually weeded down to a few. Eight writers ended up forming Five Islands Press. My collection of genre/semi-literary stories – Day-Dreaming On Company Time – represented the only prose involved. Of course, being published by Five Islands Press felt a little like self-publishing even so – though when the book went on to be shortlisted in the Best Collection by a Single Author category of the 1990 Readercon Awards in the US, it went some way to convincing me that taking the right approach to “self-motivated” publishing (that is, a critical one) was a viable option in the production of quality work. After the first round of publications, however, the co-operative nature of Five Islands Press evaporated and the press, under the auspices of poets Ron Pretty and Deb Westbury, went on to become (for a time) one of the most significant and prolific poetry publishers in Australia.
Before morphing into a solely poetic enterprise, however, FIP managed to produce two other genre anthologies – Crosstown Traffic (edited by Stuart Coupe, Julie Ogden and myself) and Intimate Armageddons (edited by Bill Congreve). The latter, appearing in 1992, was arguably the first anthology of original horror stories ever published in Australia. It also introduced me to Bill, who became a life-long friend and later established MirrorDanse Press – one of the first and most successful genre-focused independent presses in the country.
This was in the early days of generally available computer layout programs – the same ones the “mainstream” used, now accessible to all. It was a form of democratisation brought about by the spread of the home computer that has continued to today. Suddenly “amateurs” could produce books that looked identical to those produced by the Big Publishers, if they had the talent and critical ability, and at a fraction of the cost (because they didn’t have to absorb corporate overheads into their budgets). Available talent and editorial skill, and issues such as how to get good artists and designers to work for peanuts, remained a problem, but it was no longer impossible. Only distribution (and consequently payment levels) remained as a major difference between small and mainstream press.
Since Day-dreaming on Company Time I have had two further collections of short stories published, both through small presses. Still today the likelihood of a “mainstream” publisher being interested in a single-author genre collection is minimal. As always they don’t mind considering “literary” story collections, being generally willing to forego high sales for respectability and the prestige value of good reviews and mainstream awards. They’ll consider collections by bestselling novelists, too, if only to keep them happy while they’re writing their next bestseller. But generally, the answer is, “No thanks!” to everyone else, top-quality writing notwithstanding.
My highest selling collection, Immaterial: Ghost Stories, was published by MirrorDanse Press, put together and edited effectively with the expert help of Bill Congreve. Creeping in Reptile Flesh followed in 2008, published first by small-press Altair Australia and then reprinted (and re-edited) by Morrigan Books (Sweden) – released in both book form and as an e-book last month. I’m interested to see how being readily available on Amazon affects the sales of this one.
During the 1990s I found myself getting published more often in “mainstream” (that is, “professional”) publications (such as Leigh Blackmore’s Terror Australis anthology from Hodder & Stoughton, Paul Collins’ Strange Fruit anthology from Penguin, even the Sun-Herald) and in the odd significant overseas publication (Dark Voices 3: the Pan Book of Horror Stories, edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones for Pan UK, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and the US magazine Aboriginal SF), but meanwhile the small-press in Australia loomed ever larger. Who among my generation of writers could avoid the influence of Aurealis magazine and its Western Australian compatriot Eidolon? At the time, getting published in these two small-press publications was a major aim of Australian genre writers and both fostered many of the older writers still working today.
At this time, too, Bloodsongs, the first ever “professional” and widely distributed Australian horror magazine, appeared on the scene, emerging from a group of enthusiasts rather than any of the big magazine publishers. Bill Congreve and I managed to get the very first issue slapped with an “R” rating and subsequently banned in Queensland. It was an odd high point in my publishing career – a good anecdote to tell at parties. Bloodsongs was in reality a small-press publication, but it paid reasonably well, offered effective and discerning editorial oversight and achieved good distribution through specialist bookstores and newsagents. Then, as now, the difference between “professional” and “small-press” markets for genre short stories in Australia was more-or-less insignificant – at least at the high end.
These days most of my short-story sales are made to anthologies – sometimes produced by the “mainstream” (such as recent sales to Zombie Apocalypse! edited by Stephen Jones, and a major franchise tie-in anthology, Zombies vs Robots, edited by Jeff Conner for IDW Publishing in the US), but mostly “independent publishers” in Australia and overseas. Some of these small presses, being located in the US, have print runs equal to or exceeding those of Australian mainstream publishers. The books, too – as artefacts – are the equal of those produced by the Big Guys. Often they exceed them in quality and sheer beauty, even in Australia. Take a look at the products turned out by Twelfth Planet Press or Ticonderoga Press, for example: award-winning, internationally recognised work in books that are beautifully produced.
As has been the case for as long as I’ve been in the game, the market for short stories still tends to be dominated by the small press, except for Big-Name Authors. If anything, current technological trends have given independent presses a definite edge over their “legitimate” mainstream rivals, certainly in terms of anthologies and collections. And let’s face it: there’s not that many “professional” genre magazines still in business these days. Some of the most prestigious of the genre magazines are in effect small or semi-professional in business mode.
My first novel, however, was definitely a “mainstream” publication, and usefully so. Hodder Headline editor Belinda Bolliger contracted Backstreets on the basis of a proposal. I already had a relationship with Hodder through the publication of a series of short children’s horror/comedy novels under the franchise title CREEPERS, co-written with Bill Condon. Belinda was a great example of a professional editor; her input and oversight helped make Backstreets a significant and successful publication. It wouldn’t have been nearly as effective without her. My experience with the editorial aspects of the subsequent SHADES series of YA supernatural thrillers was equally effective – though the marketing of the books illustrated the fact that the Big Publishers could be just as clumsy and ineffective at selling and distributing a book as the small press was generally reputed to be (and often isn’t).
The future? I have no doubt that small and independent publishers have played a vital role in the development of genre fiction, and, I believe, are increasingly important to its survival, at least as an innovative medium. As book publishing undergoes significant changes and mainstream publishers struggle with profit margins, independent presses represent a viable option for writers and creators generally.
In the past, ensuring production quality, adequate distribution and significant market impact were almost impossible goals for small presses to achieve. However, changes to technology and more importantly to the way readers access product have given small presses a chance to flourish. Mega bestsellers may still be outside their purview (though I think that will change) but at least the level of available financial resources and the expensive technology it provides play a lesser role in book production. The mechanics of publishing have become more “democratic” and quality product is now only hindered by the same sort of quality issues faced by all publishers – finding and recognising the best work, having talented artists and designers available, and gathering personnel with editorial skill to whip authors’ work into its best shape. All hard enough to achieve, but in a marketplace where mainstream publishers are becoming more and more conservative – restricted by the cost levels they are forced to maintain by the nature of their corporate structures – their independent brethren can afford to be and are generally more willing to embrace risk. Innovation and imagination require risk. Also as mainstream publishers dump their mid-list authors in favour of the instant profit gratification of the bestselling celebrity, many of these dispossessed authors are looking to small presses as a source of artistic survival, if not continued full-time employment.
Small presses are here to stay. All they have to do is make sure they maintain editorial standards and design/production quality, and find the best way to get their books to the general public – just like the mainstream publishers. Both struggle with marketing and distribution. The mainstream publishers still offer the best hope of gaining “bestseller” status, of course, and hence a full-time writing career, but beyond that it seems to me there’s little difference between them.
Robert Hood’s many stories, which have appeared in major Australian and international genre magazines and anthologies, range from crime to science fiction to dark fantasy, often mixed. Some of these are in his three collections to date: Day-Dreaming on Company Time (Five Islands Press, 1988), Immaterial: Ghost Stories (MirrorDanse Books, 2002) and Creeping in Reptile Flesh (from Altair Australia Press in 2008 and as a second revised edition from Morrigan Press in 2011 – in both physical and digital formats). His novel, Backstreets, was published by Hodder Headline in 1999 – and is soon to be re-issued by Hachette Australia as part of its proposed e-book program. The Shades series – four connected YA supernatural thrillers – appeared in 2001, also from Hodder Headline. He has co-edited five anthologies, including the award-winning Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales and its two sequels (Agog! Press, 2006-2007), and has published many short children’s books and stories.
Often nominated for Aurealis and Ditmar Awards (most recently for ‘Wasting Matilda’ from Zombie Apocalypse! from Robinson Press/Running Press and for Creeping in Reptile Flesh – both as collection and a novella), he has won several Ditmar Awards, the Canberra Times National Short Story Competition, the Australian Golden Dagger Award for short crime fiction and two William Atheling Awards for genre commentary and review.
Coming up, he has stories in Anywhere But Earth (edited by Keith Stevenson for Coeur De Lion), In the Footsteps of Gilgamesh (edited Karen Newman and Pete Kempshall for Gilgamesh Press), Exotic Gothic 4 (edited by Danel Olson for PS Publishing) and in a major anthology of stories based on the Zombies vs Robots comic franchise (edited by Jeff Conner for IDW Publishing). Hood’s website is: www.roberthood.net. He also has an award-winning blog, Undead Backbrain (www.roberthood.net/blog/), which he posts to with varying frequency, as time permits.
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press and gone on to become professionals in the field to write about their experiences. Today, Marianne de Pierres shares her experience.
Like hundreds of writers, I owe a lot to small press. My first ever stories were published with Eidolon, and Cat Sparks Agog! series, magazines which are all now a part of Australia genre history. I know for a fact, that without those opportunities, I would never summoned the confidence or the inspiration to try and become a novelist. That knowledge solidified my opinion that indie publishers are not just welcome in publishing but are a complete necessity for the continued existence of story in written form. They are part of writing ecology. And frankly, I’d hate to see where would be without them.
Many years after my first stories were published I was approached by an up and coming young publisher called Twelfth Planet Press who wished to compile a boutique collection of some of my short fiction. The journey I embarked on then was one of the most, enjoyable and enriching that I’ve had in my career as a writer. You can read my article about the experience here.
There was something so intensely personal and rewarding about being able to be more closely involved with every aspect of the project – from design right through to sales and marketing. It left me with a true sense of ownership and a lasting creative afterglow. I would do it again in a flash given the right publisher and circumstance.
All hail the Indies!
Marianne de Pierres is the author of the acclaimed Parrish Plessis and award-winning Sentients of Orion science fiction series. The Parrish Plessis series has been translated into eight languages and adapted into a roleplaying game. She’s also the author of a teen dark fantasy series and has a collection of interlinked short stories from Twelfth Planet Press.
Marianne is an active supporter of genre fiction and has mentored many writers. She lives in Brisbane, Australia, with her husband, three sons and three galahs. Marianne writes award-winning crime under the pseudonym Marianne Delacourt. Visit her websites at www.mariannedepierres.com and www.tarasharp.com and www.burnbright.com.au
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press and are professionals in the field to write about their experiences. In today’s post, Richard Harland considers the differences between indie and pro publishing.
Most of my novels have been published by pro publishers (Pan Macmillan, Penguin, Scholastic, Allen & Unwin, plus Simon & Schuster and other overseas publishers for Worldshaker and Liberator), while most of my short stories have been published by indie publishers (in Australia, US, Canada and France). But The Vicar of Morbing Vyle and The Black Crusade were two novels that came out from indie publishers, Karl Evans and Chimaera; and I’ve had three stories that came out first in anthologies from HarperCollins, Penguin and Harper Voyager (as distinct from stories reprinted in pro anthologies). So I guess I’ve seen publishing from all sides—except one. I’ve been very very lucky with all my publishers and editors. I’ve heard some scary tales about high-handed, unsympathetic pro publishers, but I’ve never copped rough treatment myself. And I’ve heard scary tales about erratic, incompetent indie publishers, but I’ve escaped that too. Maybe there are differences that come out when things get ugly, but that’s outside my experience.
I guess the basic principle is that the more people pay you, the more you have to listen to them! Only my very biggest advance for a pro short story — novella, really — comes anywhere near my smallest advance for a pro novel, and that was for “The Heart of the Beast” in Tales from the Tower, Vol 1, published earlier this year by Allen & Unwin. And yes, in that case I did have to take in quite a few structural revision suggestions, as many as for my pro novels. But I’ve never encountered a pro editor who was unreasonable: suggestions are only suggestions, and while you’d be mad to turn them all down (for the good of your book, quite apart from the good of your future career), there’s always room for negotiation. American editors tend to be more blunt, Australian and British editors more
tactful, but nobody just lays down the law in my experience.
Indie publishers can sometimes be blunt, bull-in-a-china-shop blunt, but they’re not usually in a position to lay down the law. I think a good indie publisher tries to work with the writer; a pro publisher is more likely to say, we see a problem here, can you think of a way to deal with it?
I can’t remember a time when an indie publisher has said to me, this is great, but we can only publish if you make such-and-such major revisions. I guess that might be because my indie experience is mostly with short stories, and a short story either works or it doesn’t.
When it comes to copyediting and proofing, most indie editors really aren’t far behind most pro editors. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I’ve found most indie editors very painstaking. Though nobody compares with the Americans — or at least Simon & Schuster in America — for sheer amount of care and trouble. Unbelievably thorough!
The worst thing about pro publication are the deadlines. Not so much the big first draft deadline as the little, later ones—for the various levels of revision to be completed, for checking, incidental material, etc etc. Everything is always needed by yesterday. I pride myself on never having missed a deadline, but hey, I can work all hours of the day only because I don’t have a second job.
The worst thing about indie publication — I suppose it’s the other side of the coin — is that publication schedules get changed and all sorts of unexpected things happen. I had one year when four magazines that had accepted my short stories all went down the gurgler, one after the other. I had almost nothing published that year. It’s nobody’s fault when publication gets postponed or axed altogether — it’s just the different conditions that indie publishers work under.
Actually, I wouldn’t blame any publisher, pro or indie, for anything—at least, not when I’ve had time to calm down and reflect! Indie publishers work for love—as an author, you just have to thank God they exist. For me, they’re my only means of getting SF and horror ideas out in the world. As for pro publishers, well, the people in the industry are there for love rather than money too, because no one in their right mind would put in so many hours of work for so little pay!
Richard Harland is the author of many fantasy, horror and science fiction novels, including Liberator, Worldshaker, the Eddon and Vail series, the Heaven and Earth trilogy, and the Wolf Kingdom quartet (winner of the Aurealis Award.) He lives in Australia. Visit him at richardharland.net.
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press and gone on to become professionals in the field to write about their experiences. Today’s post comes to us from Cat Sparks, who not only knows small press publishing as an author, but as an editor and publisher too.
In 2005 I had the great privilege of attending a prestigious writing workshop in the US. One of the tutors was a writer I hold in great esteem but I had cause to argue with one piece of advice he offered the class. Never go with small press, he told us. Small press is below the professional writer, or words to that effect.
I argued. I pointed out that in Australia, if small presses didn’t publish SF short stories, no one would. Back then the internet was not the golden gateway it is now and cracking US markets via snail mail was a lengthy and troublesome process for my countrymen & women.
Years later the esteemed tutor approached me at a World Fantasy Convention room party with the express purpose of reminding me of that moment when I challenged him in class. You were right, he said. I’ve just signed to do a collection with a small press and I’m very happy with the arrangement. This author’s star was – and still is – on the rise, so he wasn’t settling for less than he was worth. Rather, the playing field had changed.
The term ‘small press’ can be misleading. The US’s Nightshade Books is considered a small press, yet it has produced titles with print runs of 80,000+. Most people would be shocked to learn how few books an Australian print run for a new author actually contains.
Small press fills a niche and as the publishing landscape continues to morph and evolve, those niches are getting bigger, wider and more varied. Major publishers are not the only major players any more. Readers are increasingly taking power for themselves and the industry is being forced to adjust itself accordingly.
I’m employed three days a week by a small press which is still in the process of adjusting itself to the e-book revolution. A couple of years ago it became starkly evident that we would have to tailor our products to suit a readership that wasn’t yet certain what it wanted. E-books? What formats? What distribution systems? How do these factors affect copyright permissions? We’re surviving OK, probably because we’re a small press rather than in spite of it. We were able to act quickly, reskill, adapt, think on our feet because we did not have committees to explain things to, boards to appease, shareholders to convince, etc. We just learnt what we needed to know, applied the knowledge and got on with it.
The age of the stately publishing gatekeepers is coming to a close. New auxiliary industries will spring up as navigating the oceans of unfettered self-published crap become the primary challenge for eager readers. How do I find the stuff I like to read? Power bases will shift, empires will fall, new ones will rise from the ashes. One thing amongst so many others seems a sure bet: small presses with identified readerships, myriad delivery systems and quality merchandise are certain to survive the flames.
Cat Sparks is fiction editor of Cosmos Magazine. She managed Agog! Press, an Australian independent press that produced ten anthologies of new speculative fiction from 2002-2008. She’s known for her award-winning editing, writing, graphic design and photography.
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press to write about their experiences. Today’s post comes to us from Patty Jansen, whose stories have been finding homes with many indie publications, and who has recently started self-publishing some of her work.
New authors and indie press: a few thoughts on publishing venues
When Tehani asked me to write about my experiences with indie press, it occurred to me that the term ‘indie press’ is the most incorrectly-used and loaded in publishing at this point in time.
As far as I’m concerned, indie press means small press not associated with any of the big guns in publishing.
Indie – small – press in Australia is very healthy. Not only do small presses publish almost all Australian SFF short fiction, they also publish the majority of new writers before they make it big, and often continue to do so afterwards, with special collections and boutique editions and fun projects that aren’t commercial enough for the big guys. I’ve sold a number of stories to Aussie small presses, most of them to Russell Farr at Ticonderoga Publications. Australian and overseas indie presses gave me my first sales.
Lately, the term indie press has become a euphemism for self-publishing as a way for an author to say that they’ve self-published without saying so. What are those authors afraid of, really? Do they want to sound bigger than they are? I will say it out loud: my name is Patty Jansen. I have self-published. OK, that wasn’t so hard. Where is the stigma?
The pro market for SFF in Australia is miniscule. If you write short fiction, you will need to go overseas for the vast majority of submissions at this level. Ditto if you write Science Fiction novels. I’ve sold enough short fiction at pro level to be a full member of SFWA, but none of it in Australia. When you submit at this level, you’re competing with many, many people and your chances are small, even when you’re an established writer.
I mention these three avenues – small press, major press and self-publishing – because I think they’re all valuable tools in a new author’s toolbox. Much as you may dislike the marketing lingo, the words audience and platform are mere synonyms for readers. Which sensible writer would willingly ignore opportunities to get more readers?
People who primarily buy their mass-published books at brick-and-mortar bookshops are different from those who will buy many of their, small press, books at cons or mail order them from the small press’ website, and both of those groups are very different from people who buy most of their books as ebooks. Like a Venn diagram, there are overlaps, but each group reaches into demographics the other groups don’t.
Small press in Australia is uniquely excellent. Small press can give you a leg-up or can give life to projects no one else wanted to tackle. Small press wins awards. Good small presses aren’t grabbers of rights. You may sell print or e-rights only, or rights revert back to you after a certain period. Small press often puts out books that are really beautiful, crafted with love and not conforming to a single publisher’s template.
My experiences with small presses worldwide have been mixed. For an author, it is definitely a try before you buy situation. Small presses are often run by single individuals and, being human, they overcommit, get sick, develop a severe hatred for accounting and lose enthusiasm. They don’t tend to warn their authors if this is going to happen. They may be skilled in certain areas and not-so-skilled in others. They may be simply too busy to give your work enough attention. Or they may be wonderful and do none of these things.
There are a lot of overseas e-presses springing up, and while as new author it may feel good to say I’ve been published by so-and-so-[never heard of]-press, it definitely pays to do some legwork and check out the press’ editing and marketing efforts. You probably won’t be the first person asked to sign a crap contract asking for rights the minuscule press will never use, for a crap return, with crap marketing and no efforts from the publisher to get reviews. And that is if the press honours all its commitments and actually publishes your material. I suspect that in some cases you’d be better off publishing the manuscript yourself.
Apart from the fact that self-publishing is a great way to keep out-of-print material available, and that it’s simply a lot of fun if you like the hands-on approach, I have discovered that the greatest advantage of self-publishing is the ability to give stuff away in formats that, with a bit of effort, resemble professionally published ebooks. You can do this for promotion or fun or whatever reason. Industry people can – and do – check out these give-aways. The chance that anything self-published will make it big is probably the same as landing a major publishing contract, but an upcoming author no longer risks damage to a future career by self-publishing. It is all about–and I’ll use another hated marketing term–exposure. In other words: readers.
Patty Jansen is a writer of hard Science Fiction and daft fantasy. Find information about her fiction and the science behind her stories at http://pattyjansen.com/ She is currently giving away free e-copies of her collection Out of Here, which contains short stories which have been published in various small presses. Patty is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and her story “This Peaceful State of War” won the second 2010 quarter of the Writers of the Future Contest, for which she recently attended the annual workshop in LA. She has also published in the Universe Annex of the Grantville Gazette and Redstone SF. In Australia, she has most recently published in Dead Red Heart, Midnight Echo, Belong and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. While she continues to seek traditional venues for her short stories (watch this space), she has temporarily abandoned the agent search in favour of self-publishing novels, because it is a heck of a lot more fun.
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press and gone on to become professionals in the field to write about their experiences. Today’s post comes to us from Simon Haynes, an author who has experienced success professionally and is also experimenting with self-publishing.
I’ve had a long association with small press. My first paid publication was an SF/horror story in issue one of Ben Payne’s Potato Monkey. “Sleight of Hand” won the Aurealis Award for horror that year, which I’ll put down to beginner’s luck.
From 2000 to 2003 I self-published three novels, which put me into contact with editors and artists active in small press. I chose self-publishing because I was writing for a niche market, one which trade publishers weren’t interested in. My goal wasn’t to sell lots of books, it was to prove there WAS a market, and then snag a deal with a publisher.
I helped set up Andromeda Spaceways in 2001/2002, and I spent almost ten years assisting in the running of the magazine. As a writer, if you ever get a chance to read slush … take it! Learning to evaluate stories – to decide which are publishable and which aren’t quite ready – was a massive help when it came to my own work.
In 2004 my self-pub gamble paid off, and I was offered a contract by a trade publisher. Over the next four or five years I worked with industry professionals to get four Hal Spacejock novels edited and released to bookstores. I absorbed as much knowledge as I could, and enjoyed every minute of the process.
Fast-forward to 2011, when my next niche project was ready for submission. This time I’d written – of all things – a hard science fiction comedy novel for readers aged 9+. Okay, ‘hard sf’ is probably an exaggeration, but I tried for something as realistic as I thought I could get away with for that age group. (Hal Junior features a young lad living aboard a space station in the distant future. It’s the opposite of the kids-flying-spaceships scenario you get in movies like Jimmy Neutron).
Why did I write junior science fiction? I’ve always loved kids’ books, and it seemed a natural progression to me: mix things up a bit, graduate from writing for adults, and publish something to fire up younger readers. Plus I do a lot of school and library visits, where I usually speak to upper-primary kids about the magic of science fiction. It always seemed a shame to get them interested in SF, then explain all my books were for adults.
I submitted Hal Junior to a couple of publishers, but I was already debating whether to self-publish. When a certain someone familiar to readers of this blog (thanks T!) informed me Lightning Source had just set up in Australia, I wrote to the publishers I’d queried and asked them to delete my submissions.
Yes, I was that keen on self-publishing.
The term ‘indie-publishing’ appears to be fashionable these days, but I don’t think the terminology matters. I just think it’s important to write a decent book and employ professionals to bring it to market: especially the cover artist and editor.
Working with small press gave me the confidence to publish my own work. Without Andromeda Spaceways and the odd science fiction convention I’d never have met the network of contacts which are so vital to the future of small press in this country.
Here’s one example: Last night, at well past midnight EST, I had a three-way email exchange with several people involved in next month’s Conflux SF convention. On the spur of the moment they organised a launch for my new novel, agreed to hand out signed bookplates, and gave me the address to deliver copies of my book. Ten minutes later, via Facebook, someone else attending Conflux agreed to do a reading. (Thanks Gillian, Mary, Karen and Devin!)
That’s why small press is strong in this country. We all work together.
Simon Haynes was born in England in 1967. He moved to Spain with his family in 1976, and enjoyed an amazing childhood of camping, motorbikes, mateship, air rifles and paper planes. His family moved again in 1983, this time emigrating to Australia.
From 1986-1988 Simon studied at Curtin University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Film, Creative Writing and Literature. Simon returned to Curtin in 1997, graduating with a degree in Computer Science two years later. An early version of Hal Spacejock was conceived during the lectures.
Simon divides his time between writing fiction and computer software, with frequent 25-40km bike rides to blow the cobwebs away. His goal is to write fifteen Hal books (Spacejock OR Junior!) before someone takes his keyboard away. Find out more at www.spacejock.com.au
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press to write about their experiences. Today’s post comes to us from Martin Livings, a well-known name in the Australian speculative fiction field.
My bookshelf is filled with mammals!
Sixty five million years ago, the world was dominated by enormous coldblooded creatures. These mighty beasts roamed the lands and swam the sea, and even flew the … airs? At any rate, they, like, totally ruled the Earth. But there were other creatures there too, small, furry animals that mostly lived underground. They may have been minuscule compared to the kings of the world, but they were fast and smart and nimble and, importantly, adaptable.
Then the thunder lizards died out. Nobody knows exactly why. Some say climate change, others a comet striking the planet. A few even suggest the rise of a Justin Bieber-style dinosaur, and the rest simply lost the will to live. At any rate, the enormous reptiles faded into pre-history, and we mammals rose in their place. Small and adaptable defeated huge and restricted. We were the kryptonite to their Superman, the paper to their rock.
Sixty four million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and eighty one years later, I was published for the first time. And by a mammal, not a dinosaur.
I keep a shelf of books and magazines that I’ve been published in, right here on my computer desk. They’re arranged there to remind myself why I keep writing; it ain’t for the cash or the chicks, after all. And you know what? All bar one were put out by indie publishers. My first two stories appeared almost concurrently in 1992, fighting one another for precedence, one in Aurealis and one in Eidolon, both published by independents. Glancing across the spines of the publications on my shelf, I see indie press after indie press; Agog, Mirrordanse, CSfG, Altair, Brimstone, Ticonderoga, Twelfth Planet, Morrigan, Eneit, Fablecroft, Tasmaniac, Blade Red, Apex … it’s like a who’s who of local independent publishers, with one or two internationals thrown in for good measure. I look at these books, almost twenty years of working with indie presses, and I see … yes, furry little creatures hiding in burrows.
Stretching the metaphor a bit? Maybe, but let’s take a look at indie versus mainstream. Firstly, indie presses are small. Which would seem like a disadvantage, but it really isn’t. Smaller can mean that you can take chances, experiment with form and content in a way that the large mainstream publishers simply can’t afford to do. When you have a print run of a million books, that book had better sell a million copies, and thus appeal to a million people. Lowest common denominator becomes an absolute business necessity. When your print run is a hundred, you can publish things that are less generic, more daring. Tightly themed anthologies like, for example, Morrigan’s Scenes from the Second Storey, based around songs off an album by the God Machine, could never have been published by a mainstream dinosaur. Morrigan have done not one, but two excellent anthologies on this theme. Two books we’d never have seen, if it wasn’t for the mammals. I could go on; Agog’s Daikaiju books, Ticonderoga’s Scary Kisses, Fablecroft’s Worlds Next Door … all thanks to small furry animals. The most adventurous, challenging and fantastic fiction comes out of the indie presses, simply because it can. And long may it continue to do so.
Another advantage the mammals have over the dinosaurs is adaptability. The larger you are, the harder it is to cope with change. With the recent rise of the e-book, mainstream publishers are struggling to adapt to a whole new market, a whole new way of selling books. But the indies have taken to it like a duck to water. After all, taking paper out of the equation must be a godsend to the average independent publisher, no longer having to deal with the dramas of print runs, the costs involved, the postage, occasional stuff-ups (I absolutely treasure my contributor’s copy of Twelfth Planet’s New Ceres Nights, which has the entire book bound upside down! I tell you, it’ll be worth a fortune one day!). E-books are becoming not just an acceptable alternative for indie publishers, but in many cases it’s becoming the standard form, with a print run as a secondary option. What threatens the dinosaurs provides nothing but opportunities for the mammals.
But you know what I think raises indie presses above the mainstream ones the most? The fact that they’re not doing it to make money (though it’d be nice if they did!), but because they’re entirely passionate about what they do. Why else would crazy, wonderful people like Alisa Krasnostein, Russell B. Farr, Tehani Wessely and Mark Deniz, just to name four, continue to put themselves through the pain and suffering? Why would new publishers, like Craig Bezant’s Dark Prints Press, go into it with their eyes wide open, filled with horror stories from the existing presses? These people are clearly dedicated to what they do. They must love it, or else they wouldn’t be doing it, it’s as simple as that. And thus their editors are quite simply the finest I’ve ever worked with. I’ve learned more about writing by having my work covered in red pen by editors like Jeremy G. Byrne and Angela Challis than I ever did through reading or writing or, heaven forfend, attending some sort of creative writing course. With broad crimson strokes, the editors pretty much taught me everything I know today. Even my one mainstream dinosaur of a book, my novel Carnies from Hachette Livre, was painstakingly edited by the amazing Sarah Endicott from Edit or Die and ex-publisher of Orb Magazine, so it still inevitably arcs back to the indie presses. And so that’s the third advantage of these mammals over the dinosaurs. They’re warm blooded.
(What? Oh yes, I know dinosaurs were probably warm blooded as well, but, y’know, for the sake of the metaphor, let’s say they weren’t, okay? Geez…)
Indie presses are, in my opinion, the most fantastic place for writers to grow and develop, because they’re allowed to there. The shoehorning into genres, the stereotyping into particular kinds of writing, the pandering to a public with apparently-severe attention deficit disorder and an obsession with anyone called Kardashian … none of this is present in the indie press. What we have instead is freedom, and creativity, and support, and a genuine camaraderie that warms the heart in an increasingly cutthroat world. I look at my shelf, and the mammals that inhabit it, and I feel privileged and proud to have worked with them, and hope and pray to continue to do so in the future.
Of course, I wouldn’t mind a couple of dinosaurs up there at some point to make things interesting. Everyone loves dinosaurs, after all.
Perth-based writer Martin Livings has had over sixty short stories in a variety of magazines and anthologies. His short works have been listed in the Recommended Reading list in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and have appeared in both The Year’s Best Australian SF & Fantasy, Volumes Two and Five, and Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2006 and 2008 editions. His first novel, Carnies, was published by Hachette Livre in 2006, and was nominated for both the Aurealis and Ditmar awards.
His next book will be Living With the Dead, a collection of short stories, to be published by indie publisher Dark Prints Press in 2012.
I’ve invited a number of people who have published in indie press in its various forms to write about their experiences. Today’s post comes to us from Alan Baxter, an author who has experienced some different aspects of indie publishing.
When Tehani asked me for a guest post on indie press I was happy to oblige. I’m a huge fan of the small and indie press scene for a lot of reasons. The people involved are invariably passionate about their work. As a writer that’s very satisfying, as you know those people are buying your work because they love it and they want to share it with others.
The indie scene also gives authors a chance to get things into print or published online that would otherwise never find a home. Indie press can take chances the bigger publishers won’t risk. They can put together themed anthologies that people enjoy but larger presses avoid due to the work involved in getting stories, producing and marketing them. I love to write for that kind of project.
I know for a fact that being published in the small and indie press has directly helped my career. I’ve had people tell me they bought and enjoyed my novels because they had already enjoyed my short fiction. And vice versa, people have sought out my short fiction after reading my novels.
It’s also true that success with indie press helps to generate success in other areas of writing. Bigger publishers will pay more attention to people who have run that indie gauntlet. It’s hard to get noticed otherwise. After all, if an editor of a publication, however small, has bought a story from someone, that author must have some skills worth considering. And the better reputation the indie press has, the more vicarious credibility is passed onto the writers whose work they buy.
I’m still enjoying a slow build in my career. I’m becoming a better writer all the time by practicing my craft and I’m finding success with higher profile publishers as a result. But all this is built on the back of indie and small press success. I’ll never forget that and will always try to write for indie press as often as time allows. They produce quality stuff, from talented authors and their publications are always worth reading. They support authors at all stages of their careers, but especially emerging authors. It’s certainly how I got my start. They deserve our support in return.
Alan Baxter is a British-Australian author living on the south coast of NSW, Australia. He writes dark fantasy, sci fi and horror, rides a motorcycle and loves his dog. He also teaches Kung Fu. His contemporary dark fantasy novels, RealmShift and MageSign, are out through Gryphonwood Press, and his short fiction has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies in Australia, the US and the UK, including the Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror. Alan is also a freelance writer, penning reviews, feature articles and opinion. Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website – http://www.alanbaxteronline.com – and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.
Recent publications include Murky Depths, Wily Writers, Pseudopod, Midnight Echo and a variety of anthologies from publishers like Coeur De Lion, Ticonderoga Publications, Dark Prints Press, CSFG Publishing, Seven Realms Publishing, eMergent, and Kayelle Press. Also, the non-fiction writers’ resource, Write The Fight Right.
I’ve invited a number of people who have worked in indie press to write about their experiences. Today, Alisa Krasnostein of Twelfth Planet Press talks about her ongoing indie journey.
I fell into indie publishing by accident. A friend of mine where I was doing postgrad, Barbara Robson, was getting her first publications in places like AntiSF and ASIM and that was how I first found out we even had a scene here in Australia. After finding out more about it, I joined the ASIM cooperative. I’d been noodling around writing and editing science nonfiction and was really interested in learning how to edit fiction and also to see how a magazine worked. I slushed for about a year at ASIM before I coughed up my entry fee to the cooperative and spent another year seeing the backroom secrets of running ASIM. In the meantime, I’d started up ASif! as a means to provide more dynamic criticism of the local scene.
I always look back nostalgically at the time I spent at ASIM. I made some lifelong friends in the cooperative, several of whom have had large roles and influence in the founding and evolution of Twelfth Planet Press. After learning the ropes and the obstacles for small press during my time at ASIM, I wanted to have a go at it myself and see what was possible. And so without ever having edited an issue of ASIM, I had a go at publishing myself with two electronic projects – New Ceres and the YA magazine Shiny (coedited in various combinations with Tansy Roberts, Ben Payne and Tehani Wessely). I learned a lot from both of these projects and I’m very proud of the work that they produced. But back then epublishing, whilst promising to be something, was still too out on the cusp and didn’t really get much circulation.
And so the Twelfth Planet Press label was born and our first anthology 2012 which I coedited with Ben Payne, was printed. And from there it has been one wild ride. In a blink of an eye we’re now working on getting our 15th book in four years to the printers! I think a major highlight for me was having a booth at Worldcon last year in Melbourne and having so many of my friends, mentors and supporters come by to say hi and stand in under the Twelfth Planet Press banner. Because it hasn’t just been my labour of love. And that’s probably what I love most about small press – it’s so personal. I love the synergy of working with other editors, designers and writers and interacting with our readers first hand at the sales end.
I have made so many lifelong friends and found so much to energise, inspire and challenge me in indie publishing. I love the freedom I have to take an idea and run with it. And I am always humbled by how generous people are with their time and expertise. Because without the in kind investments that others have made, and continue to make, in Twelfth Planet Press, it wouldn’t be where it is and wouldn’t have produced what it has.
Sure there’s the downer parts of indie publishing – I’m still yet to see most of the money I have invested come home again. Distribution is hard. It’s a bumpy and challenging time for publishing as an industry. And the short story is a niche market. But those also work to make better products, sharper plans and a clearer vision. And, I love a challenge.
Alisa Krasnostein is an environmental engineer by day, and runs indie publishing house Twelfth Planet Press by night. She is also Executive Editor at the review website Aussie Specfic in Focus! and part of the Galactic Suburbia Podcast Team. In her spare time she is a critic, reader, reviewer, runner, environmentalist, knitter, quilter and puppy lover.
Very early on in my writing career, indie press was vital to me. One of my first short story sales featured in the first issue of Aurealis, which kicked off a long association with that publication. I’ve had nine stories published in Aurealis, two of which picked up Aurealis Award shortlisting. I’ve also done a fair bit of behind the scenes work with Aurealis, working on submissions and story selection, writing articles, carrying boxes and generally helping out. I’ve been an Associate Editor and now I’m one of the three publishers behind the scenes.
Michael Pryor is a best-selling author of fantasy for teenagers. He has published over twenty-five novels and more than 40 short stories. He has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award six times, and five of his books have been CBCA Notable books. His current and new releases include Hour of Need (Laws of Magic 6), published in May this year from Random House, and the first book of his new series, The Extraordinaires, is called The Extinction Gambit and will be released in December, again from Random House.
FableCroft 