Going Solo 16. Sean

In Paperback Writer, I made reference to my Work in Progress (WIP). The working title is Sean 1. The novel exists in several forms. On Scrivener, On Ulysses and in several cardboard folders on paper.

Writing a novel is a challenge on many levels. Finishing the manuscript is tough. Revisiting and editing that manuscript is torture, (I am currently avoiding any and all revisiting) and once one is happy with the product, a whole new avalanche of tasks arise. How to get the novel to readers?

Publishing

Partly as procrastination, and partly through genuine curiosity, I researched the various publishing processes.

1. Traditional.
i. Step 1 is to find an agent. You may or may not succeed and if you do it may take years.
ii. Step 2, the agent finds someone to publish your work. This too may take years.
iii. As author, you will get a small % of the cover price of each book sold. In turn, you will pay a % of that % to the agent.

The above is a gross over-simplification, but the reality is that it’s incredibly difficult to get traditionally published, and then incredibly unlikely that any money will result.

2. Self-publish. The giant in the sphere is Amazon. Sure there are other players – Apple Books for example. However, the majority of e-book sales and even self-published paper books go through Amazon. Amazon takes the majority of the cover price, but unlike a traditional publisher, Amazon does not source the expertise required to publish a novel as a traditional publisher does.

Again, this is an over-simplification, but the result is not dissimilar to traditional publishing – you are unlikely to sell much and if you do, you won’t make much.

Alternative

I’m not an experienced author, but I have done a bit of business – so I looked at these models from that start point. As an author, current publishing models stink.

Hence, stuartlennon.com. I have a membership model. I ask members to pay £12 per year. £1 per month. In effect, buy me a coffee once every 3 months. In return, Members get access to me directly in a bespoke Slack channel, a Members post each week and early access to anything that I publish during their membership. There are costs to hosting a website and managing a membership scheme, but other than those, that £12 per year comes to me. Not to a publisher, not to Amazon and not to an agent.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not picking up hundreds of new members, and anything that I write will live or die by its quality, but as a businessman, maintaining control at least makes me feel that I am in charge of my own destiny.