Dan Moren
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Lois! Longtime fan, thanks to my cousins, who introduced me to Cordelia & Miles some twenty years ago. As an SF author who's mainly gone the trad route and only dabbled in self-pub, I'm curious about the process of self-publishing the Penric novellas vis-a-vis the traditional publishing route. What's the process like for Penric? Do you hire editors, copyeditors, etc.? Do you prefer one way over the other? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Long years of self-training and self-editing meant it was already my custom to turn in manuscripts as camera-ready as possible. (I prefer to get most of my editing in before the story is done, because I'll be too tired and wired at the finish line to do a good job.) So I don't hire anyone, relying instead on my circle of test readers as before; some fellow writers with whom I trade crit, some old friends whom I just exploit. People drop in or out of this small circle as per their interest and time.
I publish through my long-time literary agency (I've been with Spectrum since 1989), who has a tech wizard who does all the formatting and uploading for me. I could learn how to do that but I'm glad I don't have to. Spectrum also collates the proceeds and sends them on in tidy monthly lumps, and handles the subrights sales -- audio, paper reprints, foreign translation sales. So they fully earn their 15%.
In our early outings, said tech wizard and I devised the covers ourselves, which was a valuable learning experience for us both, but now that it's clear the ebooks will pay for the outlay, I hire out the cover art to a pro, also a long-time friend, at his standard (rather modest) e-cover rate.
Here in my semi-retirement, the virtues of indie epub, besides the higher royalty rates and the broad reach and durability of its market, is for me exactly its independence. I can write what I want, when I want, and no publisher has to eat the costs of any failed experiments. I am especially not obliged to perform more PR than I want to because someone else has bet their money on me. (The semi- in my retirement is largely from public speaking, book tours, and convention travel, all a lot more uncomfortable for me than they used to be.) So I prefer epub now, though trad pub was certainly excellent in its day.
Ta, L.
Long years of self-training and self-editing meant it was already my custom to turn in manuscripts as camera-ready as possible. (I prefer to get most of my editing in before the story is done, because I'll be too tired and wired at the finish line to do a good job.) So I don't hire anyone, relying instead on my circle of test readers as before; some fellow writers with whom I trade crit, some old friends whom I just exploit. People drop in or out of this small circle as per their interest and time.
I publish through my long-time literary agency (I've been with Spectrum since 1989), who has a tech wizard who does all the formatting and uploading for me. I could learn how to do that but I'm glad I don't have to. Spectrum also collates the proceeds and sends them on in tidy monthly lumps, and handles the subrights sales -- audio, paper reprints, foreign translation sales. So they fully earn their 15%.
In our early outings, said tech wizard and I devised the covers ourselves, which was a valuable learning experience for us both, but now that it's clear the ebooks will pay for the outlay, I hire out the cover art to a pro, also a long-time friend, at his standard (rather modest) e-cover rate.
Here in my semi-retirement, the virtues of indie epub, besides the higher royalty rates and the broad reach and durability of its market, is for me exactly its independence. I can write what I want, when I want, and no publisher has to eat the costs of any failed experiments. I am especially not obliged to perform more PR than I want to because someone else has bet their money on me. (The semi- in my retirement is largely from public speaking, book tours, and convention travel, all a lot more uncomfortable for me than they used to be.) So I prefer epub now, though trad pub was certainly excellent in its day.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Derek Knox
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Do you follow any online authors? I enjoy a few, like Drew Hayes, who post a couple chapters a week from his latest work. Allowing fans to act as beta readers, before the final polish. Another good one is Wildbow. Since they write just for online, they aren't restricted in length and write until the story is told. I think Worm, (https://parahumans.wordpress.com), is the best one. It's about equal to 10 books.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more