BitBoR: Publishing Process Update 1

Several things have happened recently that have me both excited and stressed. I haven’t posted an actual blog entry in some time, so I figured now was as good a time as any to start blogging the whole post-writing process. So far what I’ve learned is that everything that has to happen after you write your novel takes much longer than writing your novel, and is much more work. So, if you think writing is hard… well, you’ve some surprises waiting for you.

Editing Woes

The first point I’d like to cover is the whole Editing process. Well… my novel is fairly large. Not huge, by epic fantasy standards, but definitely on the larger side. Now, it’s worth noting that writers think in terms of word count, rather than page count. The reason is simple: page counts change, even without a change in word count. Page count doesn’t just rely on how many words your story has, but also the dimensions of the page, your margins, the “gutter” you leave to allow for the book’s binding, your font choice, the font’s size, line spacing, word spacing…

You can have a story that is 2,000 words long and format it to take up 20 pages, or 2. So… what value does page count really provide, when discussing the length of a book? Well, there are general formats that most books tend to adhere to, but that’s still no guarantee of accuracy.

So, what about my book? It’s 219k words. As it originally exported from Scrivener, before I adjusted formatting, it came out at a whopping 838 pages. I have since changed the font family and size, to get it down to around 700 pages. Once I play with margins and gutter, it will probably land at around 720 pages including the necessary leading pages (known as “front matter”) and trailing pages (known as “back matter”).

“But Rick, why is all of this relevant? I thought you were talking about editing?”

Editors usually charge either by word, or by page. Those that charge by page typically, from my research anyway, expect Manuscript formatting, which means double spaced lines and fairly large font. Well, by word I’m looking at whatever price they charge times 219,000. By page, the formatting change shoots me up to somewhere around 1,054 pages.

The editing services I’ve seen offered online—and that’s my only resource, since I don’t yet know anyone in the industry—come in at a whopping $5,000-$8,000 to have professional editing done. And… well… since I’m not sitting on a huge pile of cash, and since I’m not a fan of doing things like a “go fund me” or a “kickstarter” just to fund something like that, I have to either hope that someone reaches out to offer their services cheaper, or put in exhaustive efforts to accomplish the task between myself and my lovely wife (who was unfortunate enough to volunteer to do it).

I use ProWritingAid’s guidance, lots of re-reading and editing passes of my own, my wife’s down-in-the-weeds nitpicking through the entire novel, more re-reads and edits from myself, another pass through PWA just to make sure, Proofreader feedback from my buddy Aaron Stevens, and Beta Reader feedback. It’s the best I’ve got, for this first novel. I can’t justify walking into a bank to ask for a loan to pay for professional editing services, when I know that the entire success of this venture depends wholly on my own marketing prowess… and knowing that I suck at marketing.

So far, I think I’ve spent a total of 2 1/2 months actually writing the book, and at least 3 months editing between all those various methods. At least 2 of those months editing were 8+ hours a day, 7 days a week. While I can say with confidence that I’ve learned a lot about writing and my 1st draft of scenes toward the end of the book were far superior in quality, and that means great things for future novels, the entire ordeal has been exhausting.

Publishing Decisions

Then we get to this lovely piece of getting a book out there. Sure, if I wanted to just throw the book into the wind and hope, with no care for branding or control of distribution, I could toss my book onto Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) just like everyone else that apparently wrote a book during COVID. But, that’s not me. That’s not who I am. That’s not how I work. To those that know me, this comes as no surprise.

If I’m doing a thing, I do it with every ounce of my being. This means I need to be in control. of. everything. It’s just how my brain works.

Furthermore, the traditional publishing route is both unrealistic for my specific venture, and increasingly underwhelming in regards to risk vs reward. Return, again, to the diatribe above about the size of my book. Most agents and publishers won’t even entertain a book that is larger than 70k words. In fact, more than half want books that are around 50k words. My novel is more than four times that size.

“So why don’t you break it up?”

It is already broken up. This is book one in a five part series, which represents one very long, continuous saga. If all five books end up being exactly the same length, you’re talking over 1.1 million words long, or roughly 3,500 to 4,000 pages long, depending on formatting.

The story in book 1, as it stands, can’t be split up further. On a whim, I sifted through and found my 50k word mark. If I cut the book right there… you’d have a novel about a boy who goes through rather horrible circumstances, then sets out to handle the situation and… never arrives anywhere; never accomplishes anything. Who would read that? I wouldn’t read that. Plus, if that’s what I was forced to do, I’d end up with a 20 book series instead of just 5.

What that means is, the list of places that would even entertain my novel long enough to read it and decide whether or not to accept my submission and even talk to me can probably be counted on a single hand… and you might even have fingers left over.

So, while little ole eleven year old me that used to lie in bed at night and daydream about being an author one day would be disappointed with my choice, I feel like I have no option but to self publish. Then again, if self publishing works out I stand a greater chance of earning enough to make a career change. So, maybe it’s not all bad?

To make matters worse—or easier?—systems like KDP have specific requirements when it comes to book size. My original font and formatting choices… kicked me right out of their upper limits. What’s the upper limit, you ask? 750 pages. With my original formatting, I couldn’t even publish through KDP had I wanted to. I briefly investigated the process, and ultimately decided KDP wasn’t for me.

So…

Ingram Spark, Here I Come

I will be self publishing through Ingram Spark. Fun fact, if you publish through KDP and tick that little box that says you want your book distributed to libraries and physical stores… you’re publishing through Ingram Spark for that distribution. You would just be doing it indirectly.

I figured, why not go straight to the source?

Ingram Spark distributes to amazon, so the book will still be available on Kindle. But, it’ll also be available on Nook, apple store, google store, my website… if I can get it distributed somewhere, I can probably get it there directly from Ingram Spark. So, why not just do that? Why futz with every other company’s formatting and such… just set it up in I.S. and go to everywhere else from there.

I haven’t learned all of the facets involved yet. I’ll blog that learning process as I go through it. But, I have taken a few first steps that I wanted to share:
  • I have registered Ayrelon Press with the state of Virginia as a fictitious name, which is effectively a Sole Proprietorship
  • I have acquired a federal tax ID for Ayrelon Press
  • I have acquired a state tax ID for Ayrelon Press
  • I have to wait until January 2021 to get a county business license, using the tax ID’s acquired above
  • Once I have the business license, I can get a P.O. Box and bank account for the business
  • Once I have all of that, I can register my own ISBN codes for each format I’m publishing in
  • Once I have those, I can start the publishing/formatting process through Ingram Spark
  • After that I can order proofs, and make sure everything is as I like it
  • After that I can actually schedule a publishing date, set up pre-orders, etc
  • Then, finally, I’ll be able to make announcements about those dates
Uh, yeah. I’ve done what I can, and it’s exciting. However, there’s so much more to do. Including, finding a way to reach more people and market this beast.

Newsletter Imminent

To that end, I am starting a newsletter in the next month or so. That newsletter will include exclusive short stories that will not be published elsewhere for free, at least until after the novel has hit shelves. I am currently planning, and writing, 16 stories for that newsletter. SIXTEEN stories. So, stay tuned and be ready to sign up. Trust me, you won’t want to miss them.

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