I can see this. Self-published authors buying the works of other self published authors and the sort of trade off that might happen. Nothing wrong with that. Personally, I can't see myself looking for self published books unless I hear about them somewhere else or know the author. But a whole database of only self-published books? I can't see very many people turning to that. But I know very little about self publishing. I think a website that reviewed self-published titles and kept an eye on market trends might be more useful and attract more users.
Niches can be surprisingly small and still be viable. More important is how passionate the people in that niche are about it.
Oh, I hear you. I'm a niche writer myself, in genre with very passionate readers. I've just never heard anyone say they felt particularly strong about reading a book based on the publishing method used. But I may be biased as I don't participate in the self publishing community.
No, rejections so far, but I'm also not nearly as prolific as you. However, I did have a market fold before it made a decision, so it's the same end result. That one was a real shame, since they'd have paid a pro-rate. My only true response so far this year has been an acceptance for a flash fiction anthology. Didn't pay much, and wasn't super prestigious, but it's something. With that said, there will probably be some rejections coming. A story I wrote in the span of about seven hours will most likely be the first one. If I'd had the time I normally set aside for editing, I'd be more confident about it. Unfortunately, none of my ideas were panning out until the last day of the submission window, when I had this weird moment of clarity. That only left time for a hurried pass or two, so you can see why I'm pessimistic. There are some fifteen word stories I have on submission at another place; I have no idea how likely an acceptance is there. I'm most optimistic about a reprint I'm trying to sell, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.
I've submitted three shorts (whilst beating around my novel bush) in the last year to as many publishers. Got a rejection after god knows how many months, got a nil responde as well. I think with them all I...unwittingly (deliberately), held back a bit with the refinement. Leaving a bit of room, some latitude, in which to lick my inevitable wounds and take solace that 'it wasn't quite ready'. Anyways, a publisher has come back this last couple of days who wants to take one of them on. WOOHOO. Subject of course to some 'editorial' adjustment. < Which I can live with as I was...cough...not trying my hardest. A small success, but I'm made up.
Those personal rejections. The ones that make it sound like you were close. The ones that make you think if only you had done something slightly different, it might have made it. The ones that take a super long time and you can't help but get your hopes up. Oh, the personal rejection... I got one of those today.
It`s like those people who say, "It`s nothing personal, just business". Well it`s jolly well personal to the writer, isn`t it?
Even with the second guessing those sorts of rejections tend to cause, I much prefer them to the form rejections, like the one I got just now. At least they tend to give you some indication of why you were rejected, and where to go from there with the story in question. So so far this year I've got one acceptance (which has already been published) and one rejection. Not a bad ratio, though I'm not sure if it will hold.
Yeah, that bugs me as well. Same with anything artsy really. It's a shame works get lost like that to Business with a captial B.
The personal rejections I get never really indicate why something was rejected. I'm just so sick of not being good enough. On top of that my life is in shambles and everything seems to be crashing down on me. It seems to make sense that practically everything I write is rejected. I don't even know if I care anymore. But congratulations on your sale. It seems like the year is off to a great start for you. My acceptance rate in down to 0.7 percent. As you can see I'm not having much luck breaking into the literary journals.
As much rejection as I get, I don't believe Business (with a capital B) really has anything to do with it. People in the arts, even on the business side, have an important role and continuously introduce the world to new works and new writers. I think it's kind of silly for a writer to blame any sort of lack of success on big Business. A lot of these journals run on grants. They have to make smart decisions even if that means rejecting my work. Honestly, I don't see how a writer can put the blame on anyone but themselves when it comes to lack of publishing. Sure, I would love for my failure to be someone else's fault. But really if my work was just better, I don't think I would be having this problem or struggling to this extent.
I don't think it's a matter of better or worse. I think it's a matter of market trend and what is sell-able. I mean, 50 shades and twilight got published :S I mention it not to lay blame, but to point out the byproduct of how the system operates.
My rate overall isn't much better (.12, a little lower if I include the poetry I didn't really care much about), and the sale was for a token flash fiction anthology, so it's not super noteworthy. So far, my efforts at pro-rate markets have been mostly the same as yours: form rejections with a handful of personal ones, so I get the feeling. Perhaps you should look at some anthologies that your writing might fit in. Anthology calls for submissions tend to be more straightforward about what sort of stories they want.
Oh, the literary journals are quite clear what they want -- stories better than the ones I'm sending in. I don't care about the pay as much as the prestige. And I'm not being a snob about this, but there are certain places I really want to publish regardless of the pay (if there is any). I haven't really looked into anthologies. I'm sure a lot would depend on there distribution pan or who was backing the project. I have put so much research into the literary journals and have been reading them for years. I don't have the energy to start the process with anthologies right now. And, honestly, I wouldn't even know where to start.
There`s no reason you shouldn`t aim as high as you want to, art is about that anyway isn`t it? We all aim high, to do otherwise is not to aim at all. I do agree that you can`t apportion blame but you must always work to be better. Still, business has a huge part to play these days too. I used to sell my work as a painter and I got a lot of advice from gallery owners on how to target your work so you could get it accepted. You couldn`t do that, you couldn`t do the other; if you painted that subject matter you wouldn`t sell, etc. Unfortunately business is part of the whole, if you want to sell you have to deal with the whole idea of marketing and selling and product placement and all those other things. It sucks because I`m crap at those things; I`ve always enjoyed the creative part of art but not the business part.
I personally often buy books I've heard about ...from friends, from reviews in newspapers, from adverts, etc. I wouldn't have searched for them if I hadn't heard of them first. That's where traditionally-published books have the edge. They appear in ordinary newspaper/magazine reviews, show in ads, etc. The self-pubber has a very difficult time getting the books noticed, never mind reviewed and/or read. That's why I suggested the list.
Good point, but doesn`t the traditionally published book have a short shelf life. Not sure how long a digitally published book from the big publishers would stay on a digital shelf but I`m sure that a real book only stays on the shelf for a very short period. Whereas the self-published (or digital trad published) have a long time to get a book noticed, even if they have to do it themselves.
Yeah, but I'd still suggest a list. It doesn't help a self-pubbed book to stay on sale for ages if nobody knows it's there in the first place. It won't pop up in a search unless the person doing the search happens to hit on the same subject, or whatever. I honestly don't see the harm of having a list—just a list of 'what's new' in self-pubbed books. Title, maybe book cover pics back and front, author ...that's it. Really. What harm would it do? I often buy books on the basis of having seen one reviewed, or read the blurb, or even hearing a title that intrigues me. If self pubbed books aren't reviewed on a neutral site, or sold in bookstores, or being talked about, then how in heck am I going to know they're out there? I'd love to have a site I could go to once a month or so, just to see if there is anything on the list that attracts me. If there is, I can go look the book up on Amazon, or wherever, check out the 'look inside' feature, and decide then whether I want to buy it or not. Everybody wins. The author wins. The bookseller wins. The reader wins.
True, it is the main problem facing the self published; how will anyone know? A list would be interesting, certainly wouldn`t harm.
Got a very pleasant personal rejection for one story. It praised the prose, and said the story was only rejected because the ending was "too bleak" for their current lineup. If I'm going to get rejected, this is how I like it to happen. I guess I'll be sending this particular piece to another reprint market.
I had a very good start this year, getting three publications in two months. I was sure the momentum would stay but I was wrong; it slowed down tremendously. I've been getting rejections left and right and I'm beginning to think my work is just too difficult to publish.
