I’ve always been a huge proponent of self publishing.

Years ago, self publishing wasn’t easy. Many authors ended up with boxes of books gathering dust in their garages. They wrote the books and paid to publish, but they had a hard time finding buyers for them.

With the explosion of the Internet and social media, the publishing landscape has changed. We have Print On Demand technology that cuts out warehouse costs and cuts down on print costs. We have blogs, podcasts, social networks and online bookstores to sell our stories.

What authors still need is the same thing they needed 20 years ago: The determination to SELL.

One factor I see in many struggling authors is the lackluster enthusiasm for sales. They don’t want to market for a variety of reasons: It takes time from writing; they don’t like it; they don’t want to do it; they don’t know how to do it and don’t want to try.

To me, this is ridiculous. The author is the best salesperson for their novels. Authors are passionate about their projects – they’d have to be to put up with the grind of the publishing industry. They know the stories intimately, can connect to them in a way that generates amazing enthusiasm – an enthusiasm that carries over when talks to people about it.

Though die-hard fans are excellent salespeople, too, authors cannot rely on them completely to sell. Authors MUST be out there, with a Web site, blog and social media presence. In today’s tough publishing market, it doesn’t matter if you have a major publisher or publish on your own, you MUST be out there.

Don’t like marketing? Let me share the wisdom of one of my coworkers, when I was whining about a design assignment a few years ago:

Suck it up, cupcake.

I laughed for several minutes after she said this to me (partially in jest) and I never forgot it. It’s a fun phrase I use to get my butt in gear. Whenever I have something I don’t want to do, I tell myself to suck it up – then I get some Ghirardelli chocolates and get to it. (Sometimes, I bake cupcakes in the spirit of it.)

The Authonomy blog has some terrific stories of authors who did it on their own. Through sheer grit, they created their own writing success.

Be sure to check out the post.

What are your own stories of success? When do you get out the cupcakes?

Recently, YA author Brenda Estacio commented at Market My Novel:

During my experience in getting Gateway To DreamWorld published, I learned a lot about the real world hidden behind the publishing scene. I once believed that the publisher handled all the marketing after the book was released.

Now I am totally lost in what to do to get the book out to the public and to movie agents.

Brenda needs to reach the YA audience, but she wants to do more behind-the-scenes marketing – like online promotions.

My suggestions: Facebook and MySpace are good places to reach a young audience. Create a fan page or a group to promote the book. Start an Amazon blog; you can feed the RSS from your current blog right into Amazon. Ask a top reviewer from Amazon to review the book. Send review copies to YA-specific review blogs, and ask if they will do an interview or post a guest blog for promotion. Connect with parents of YA readers to promote in forums, chats and social networks; they need gift ideas for the holidays. This is a perfect time to reach them.

What suggestions do you have for Brenda? Leave your comments below.

The husband and wife writing team of Christine and Ethan Rose have two terrific posts about publishing today and it's future thanks to Amazon, e-books and other electronic mediums now available to struggling authors. One of Christine's most poignant comments comes in Amazon & the Future of Publishing:

The more I read, the less I want to find an agent and big publisher.
Unless a publisher offers us a HUGE advance (like $500K or more for a 5
book series + a huge marketing budget & media connections/movie
deal, all of which over 95% of their authors DO NOT get), I really
don’t see what they can do for us that we can’t do for ourselves…
except print larger runs (and accept larger returns) and take 95% of
the money.

We’ll *still* will have to do our own promotions with our own money.

I think we’ll stick with the little guy for now.

I know for nonfiction, I will self publish. That is a given. But when it comes to fiction, more and more I lean toward an electronic beginning – one that builds a fan base and  allows me to control my content. Not only that, I'm marketing myself – just like I do as a freelancer – so feast and faminine times will be expected. I'd be doing the same thing if I signed with a major publisher because newbie authors just don't get the help they need.

I know that self publishing in any way will be an uphill battle – especially for fiction. But I really don't care. Not at this point in my life. I have a business plan, a marketing strategy and copy for fans. That's all I need.

That's all YOU need, too - and the larger-than-life confidence it takes to forge ahead in this overcrowded marketplace.

Every tip and trick you see at Market My Novel and other blogs are here to help you become a literary star in your own right – whether you are with a major publisher or not. You just have to tackle marketing every day of every week.

Ethan Rose also wrote a terrific follow up post titled Industry Sub-Standards, where he rants about the state of the business today – and offers some terrific thoughts for struggling authors.

As a reviewer, I see a self published book and run as fast and far away as I can.

As hard as I tried to champion self-published authors, too much crap came across my desk to make it worth it. Sure, there are diamonds in the rough, but finding them takes way too long for me and my crew at Pop Syndicate.

This is an ironic turn of events, because as a writer, I am 100 percent for publishing my work on my own. I have the skills to write, know who to help with edits, who to hire for book covers and how to market once it is finished. I would much rather go this route with fiction and nonfiction to stay in total control of my work, and sell it in various venues.

Karen Syed of Echelon Press recently posted a column about how authors trash talk self published authors. It was terrifically honest – and refreshing to read from someone other than a self-published author. Check it out – and be sure to leave a comment for her.

http://www.popsyndicate.com/column/story/cant_we_all_get_along