What next?

Our lovely fall weather continues this week, and the sunshine eases the pain of hearing the daily churn of nonsense from the House and Senate. Today, at last, it may end, at least temporarily, and for that we can all give thanks. Our social security payments will continue to arrive in our bank account until at least January 15.

My morning walks are a relief from such extraneous matters; instead I can ponder the quiet, or the trees, or the many deer that wander the local paths. Yesterday the air was so still and quiet that even the pine needles were motionless. No breeze swayed the ponderosa branches, nor shuffled the deciduous leaves that lay on the path. Even the Aspen leaves, always in motion, yesterday hung in silent repose. It felt almost sacrilegious to be moving amidst this silence.

It is always my goal to use these walks as a kind of meditation. Mostly I fail at that, but I do get a good deal of thinking done—sometimes it's productive. Lately I've been focused on the details that arise when publishing a book; both for myself and for students of a workshop I'm teaching next week.

The number of people who are self-publishing grows daily, and so do the number of people who write and sell advice for self-publishers. (Or, like me, offer workshops.) There are books and ebooks, blogs and columns, tweets and Facebook posts, PDF handbooks and downloadable booklets. I could spend all day every day reading advice on how to self-publish, and if I lived long enough to work my way through all of it I'd just have to begin again on the newest thousand entries. That's a version of hell that Dante missed.

One would like to assume that the growing number of published books means a growing number of readers, and perhaps that's true. The statistics I've been able to find aren't consistent—maybe because everything in publishing is in flux—but according to a Pew study cited by Malcolm Jones at The Daily Beast, one in five Americans read an e-book in the past year, and the average e-book reader claims to have read 24 books in the last year. This far outpaces the statistics for print books (an average of 15 a year).

All this interests me, since I'll soon have two books on the market, but what I'd much rather be thinking about during those long walks is my next project—and I don't have one. Since I'm happiest when writing, I need to come up with something soon. But when I ask myself the question, "what next?" my mind is as silent as the hanging aspen leaves. And that's very disconcerting.

Why I self-publish

I think I can finally say that the book that's been dominating my life is finished—well, as finished as it will be until it's actually launched in late November. Review copies were ordered a few days ago and a press release is being written. My marketing plan, such as it is, is now at the top of my to-do list. I have taken off my author fedora and put on my publicist beanie.

Several people over the last few weeks have asked me why I decided to self-publish Camping with the Communists. For some people, self-publishing is suspect, and I admit there's a lot out there that should never see print. But every day more and more good, and even great books are being self published. And I'm happy to be part of that tribe. Here's why.

1. I'm impatient. For an unknown author to find a publisher or agent is a time consuming exercise. You first must meet the specific needs of the publisher/agent. Then you send your work out. And you wait. It's not uncommon for a publisher to take two to three months to review your submission, because most get thousands a year. And when they finally get back to you it might be a rejection or it might be, "Great writing! Great concept! But unfortunately not for us. Good luck!" You know that some of America's great writers have gotten plenty of rejections, so that's not enough to stop you. You send it out again. And wait. If you manage to land an agent (I had two once) you still have to wait. And I'm not happy waiting. It drives me crazy. It can take years to find a publisher. No thanks.

2. I'm a control freak. The first book we self-published was in 1995, before digital were common and print-on-demand was somebody's dream. My idea started small, it was going to be a brochure answering all the questions people always asked us about traveling. As I wrote, it grew into a 133-page workbook, How to Plan Your Trip to Europe. And because I was handy with Pagemaker and knew a designer who would help me, self-publishing seemed the obvious solution. We thought it would be fun and I liked the idea of controlling not only the words, but how they looked on the page. And I knew I could sell more books than any publisher because . . .

3. Publishers don't really publicize. Yes, they arrange book tours for celebrity authors, and even a mid-list writer might get some help; but for the average Joe or Jane they do very little. It's up to the authors to create their own platform, their own publicity—in fact when you submit a manuscript to a publisher or agent you're encouraged to tell them exactly how you plan to market your book. And since that's the case, I might as well do everything myself, because (1) and (2).

The publishing world has changed and is changing; very very rapidly. Those famous old publishing houses that nursed unknown talents into greatness no longer exist. They've been bought out or eaten up by others, and now they're part of a conglomerate owned by an oil company, or some other unrelated-to-books business that cares nothing about books, but a lot about profit.

I like money as well as the next person, and fat advances are the stuff of dreams. But for me, the fun is creating something, from the moment it exits my head to the moment a reader picks it up and laughs, or sighs, or hates it or loves it. Writers just want to be read, and if digital presses and print-on-demand can get us there, then for some of us, that's good enough. And because (1) and (2).

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We're off for a few days in the southern Washington mountains. Maybe when I return I can give you a report on Sasquatch. While you wait, check out my new website at karengilden.com.