Self Publishing works for me

by Titia Bozuwa
(Wakefield, NH, USA)

My second book

Writing came to me before I ever thought about being published. Our daughter died at age 29 from breast cancer and she became my muse. But I realized that writing a good story was not like letter writing of which I had done a lot. So, I took a course in creative writing at the University of New Hampshire. It proved to be a good move, because not only did I learn about writing, it also brought me in contact with people who knew the publishing world. A network started to form itself with other writers, editors, proof readers, and hearing many anecdotes about the ups and downs of finding an agent.

My writing instructor told me that it would be best to start writing about a loss after 7 years to prevent it from becoming a "poor me" tale. She edited my small bundle of three stories. This was crucial. Trained, fresh eyes see the flaws immediately and the important lesson I learned was that good writing has been rewritten many, many times before it sees the printing press.

At the age of 68, I knew that getting an agent and going the big publishers route was not in the cards. Agents will take you on (maybe) if they think you have more than one book in you! I bypassed the entire agent/publisher/name branding route and got myself some books on self publishing. The one by Tom and Marilyn Ross was extremely helpful.

My great luck was that I have a husband who gave me start-up money and a son who'd just become president of a large printing company. He did not give me a free ride or even a discount, but he pointed the way.

Being a photographer helped with adding pictures to the book and an eye for composition was useful in designing the cover.

The first book came out in 2000. We had 560 copies printed. At the time we ran an art gallery in my husband's old medical office. This helped the marketing greatly. We live in a small town and many people had known our daughter and if not, they had been my husband's patients. Within a few months we were sold out and we printed another 1000. The sales paid for the costs and I could even make a substantial donation to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

My next book was about living through WW II in Holland, where I was born. We printed 800 hard covers and 1600 soft covers. My son used the best paper and we worked hard to make a catching design for the cover. The attention to details paid off. The result looked very professional, hard to distinguish from a Random House book.

Meanwhile, I had discovered a non-profit organization devoted to independent publishers called PMA (Publishing Marketing Organization.) The $90 membership was well worth it, because it opened my eyes to the broader marketing possibilities. The monthly magazine is full of excellent advice. Most importantly, it hooked me up with the wholesaler Baker & Taylor Books. If you want to get into the bookstores you have to do it through a dealer. I got a professional to design a website, had cards and bookmarks printed and launched the book locally with a reading and reception afterward. The first book had established me as a writer. That helped. The subject matter of the second one was appealing to men who'd fought in the war as well as Dutch immigrants. I could target the readers.

The book reached Holland and I sold the rights to a publisher over there, who paid my way over when it was brought out. As you can imagine, that was a wonderful experience.

The third book was about immigrating to the US. I could pay for the costs of editing, printing and marketing from the proceeds of the previous books. 1500 copies were printed.

Meanwhile, my son was not in the book printing business anymore, so with the fourth book, an Anthology, I used Adibooks.com to have 350 copies digitally printed. They did a great job and were wonderful to work with. I had found their ad in the PMA magazine. They gave a price quote over the internet, which they stuck to.

There is a lot of leg work involved in self publishing, but I do not mind most of it. Marketing is not easy. It requires selling yourself before you can sell your product. Speaking to groups is one of the best ways, I found. Placing ads in papers is a waste of money. Word of mouth is tops. Amazon.com is helpful but it takes 55% of the retail price.

Being represented at Book shows is also beneficial.

At this point, I have 300 copies left of the first book, 400 of the second, 794 of the third and 40 of the anthology.

I have repaid my husband and money left over to do a fifth book.

It's been lots of work and lots of fun. But writing the books remains the best part of it all!

Visit Titia at Triple Tulip Press.