From self-published to Scholastic

AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

Image by Tristan Barrocks

As you work on building and shaping your own writing careers, I think it’s important to look at how others have built and shaped theirs.

I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been self-published, published by an indie imprint, and published by large publishers. I want to use those experiences to break down what it’s been like at each stage, and answer some of the burning questions I’m sure you’re asking yourself.

Why did I self-publish?

When I started writing my first book back in 2007, self-publishing was like Scarlett letter. The general cultural consensus was that self-published authors were the drunk uncles of the industry; not to be taken seriously and not capable enough to be a real writer. I had professors tell me not to self-publish because it doesn’t count. That was the environment when I chose to go down that path.

But I did it because I wanted to learn. I was very aware of myself and my abilities and I knew I had a long way to go to become a great writer. Self-publishing my first book was like building a startup, and just like a startup, the only way I’d ever know if my product was any good was if I put it out into the world and got feedback. So that’s what I did.

When I published that first book in 2014 (yes, it took seven years), I didn’t just wait for feedback, I solicited it. I asked my friends for feedback, messaged readers on social media and asked for feedback, emailed strangers and asked for feedback. I dulled all my sensitivity and put aside any hurt feelings. I wanted to get better and that’s exactly what the feedback allowed me to do.

The other reason I wanted to self-publish was to understand every part of the industry. I wanted to know how to build a readership, how to sell books, how to market, how to network and build partnerships — I learned all of that self-publishing.

The final reason for self-publishing was to play the long game. I knew that self-publishing would pay me a higher royalty rate than any traditional publishing deal I signed. So even though my ultimate goal was to be published, having a self-published title meant I had the chance to earn 5x on each sale. If traditional publishing worked out and gave me the exposure I hoped it would, then surely readers would flip through my catalogue and give my self-published titles a chance. And when they did, I would earn so much more money in the long run.

How did I get my publishing deal?

I networked; that’s how it started. I was attending a lot of local literary events in Toronto and one of the bookstore workers took notice. They introduced me to my first agent and even though that agent didn’t work out, it was still a valuable experience.

The way I got my second agent was a bit of a weird story. I wrote an article that went viral and that agent read it. He wanted to potentially sign me based on a story idea around the article I wrote, but I was already signed to that other agent.

Fast forward a few months and when my relationship with my previous agent ended, I reached out to who is now my current agent and we made a deal. To be clear, I still had to query my current agent. He didn’t like my first book idea but when I sent him Boys and Girls Screaming, what would become my first published novel, he ate it up. We signed a contract the next day.

I tell people this story because there’s more than one way to wiggle your way into a publishing deal. I networked and produced content that caught people’s attention. By the time we got to Scholastic, they actually reached out to me. They had a book idea and reached out to ask if I could create a story around that concept. I enthusiastically accepted now here we are. No query necessary.

Why did I decided to go with a traditional publisher?

The short answers is for the experience and the exposure. Publishing has always been a very physical industry. Despite iPad’s and Kobos, despite us living in a digital-everything era, physical books dominate the publishing industry, and by a fairly wide margin. And even while I was self-publishing my second book in 2017, the industry was bouncing back from battling e-books, which everyone thought would dominate publishing (spoiler, it didn’t).

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I mention all of this because publishers have reach and relationships with physical bookstores that would be impossible to replicate as a self-published author. I wanted that kind of broad exposure and working with a publisher has certainly made that more possible. Even with my indie publisher, I was placed in far more bookstores than I accrued while self-publishing.

Which leads me to my next reason for going the traditional publishing route; the experience. You don’t know what you don’t know, and I wanted to know if there was a major difference in having the support of a major publisher. And the biggest difference I’ve noticed is the support.

Writing for both Scholastic and for Tundra/Penguin Random House, the teamwork has been next level. Starting with the editing, both publishers really challenged parts of my novel. They asked questions I never thought of, suggested directions I never considered, and presented their ideas and edits in a manner that left the final decision to me. I never once felt like they didn’t completely understand my story, and they handled it with such care that it’s actually surprised me a bit. Tundra, specifically, let me choose my book cover designer and the voice actor for my audiobook. It was a completely collaborative experience, which we’ll talk more about later.

Then there’s the promotional stuff. My novel with Scholastic doesn’t come out till the Fall, but with Tundra/PRH, they’ve really done well getting me into festivals and events, and coming up with campaigns that I believe will draw attention to my novel. What’s been really valuable is just having a full team dedicated to promoting my book. They send the emails, they handle all the logistics, I just need to show up and do my thing, kind of. I’ll explain why this is partially true in the next section.

What differences have I noticed between self-publishing and traditional publishing?

For me, if I could sum up the difference in one word, it would be this: ownership.

When I self-published my books, I had all of the data. I knew who I was reaching out to, how many emails I sent, how many daily RSVPs I had for my book launch, how many books I sold week to week, and what was working and what wasn’t. With traditional publishing, all of that information belongs to the publishers. I can obviously inquire, but it’s not the same as directly owning the data and making decisions based off of that.

In the last section, I also said that publishers essentially handle all of the logistics when it comes to marketing and promotion and that’s mostly true. But what’s also true is that I still do a lot on my own. Or what is more accurate is that we work in tandem.

For example, I had a list of book reviewers that I built relationships with as a self-published author. Once I became published, I maintained those relationships, but when it came time to share my book with those reviewers, I provided my publisher a list of who needs to get ARCS. My publishers also had their own list and we collaborated to make that happen.

Another example is for my book launch. I had a very specific vision for how I wanted this launch to go. I got on a Zoom call, explained it to my publisher, and they took it from there. They communicated with the venue, handled budget, and were open to all of my ideas. Anything that I wanted outside of our budget, I paid for myself.

I’m sharing all of this because I don’t want to give the impression that a publishing deal absolves you from doing any promotional work. That’s not the case. It’s more like having a genie that grants wishes, and just like the genie in Aladdin, there are restraints to those wishes, but it’s still pretty cool. That said, you still need to do the thing. Your book, your responsibility — I live by that.