Great book, no publisher? Try DIY

Self-publishing may be the way to go for those prepared to put in the hard yards. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The slush pile is the place manuscripts go to die. It's the heart-sinking term for that big stack of writing by every publisher's desk that's destined never to make it into print. Or is it?

Increasingly, would-be authors are taking matters into their own hands. Instead of being discouraged by rejection slips from agents and publishers they are choosing to bring out their own books. And although self-publishing is far from easy, it's cheaper and more accessible today than ever.

Aucklander Thea Hughes wanted her first novel, Buen Camino: Beyond The Journey, to reach as wide an audience as possible. It's the story of a woman called Ana, rejected by her mother and sexually abused by her father, who goes on a spiritual journey by walking Spain's 780km El Camino Trail.

"I used to work with children who had been sexually abused," Hughes says, "and wrote the book to give inspiration to women to help them understand they can move forward despite what's happened."

Even though her novel won first prize in an American competition for unpublished material, Hughes couldn't find a publisher and "got all these rejection slips which was difficult and demoralising".

Eventually she managed to interest a United States agent who assessed her manuscript and sent it to a publisher, Eloquent Books, interested in a joint venture. So Hughes paid $700 towards costs and they looked after the practicalities of editing, design, ISBN number and barcode. Plus they sold the novel in an online store and printed it on demand. "The problem is unless you have a proper marketing campaign behind you, the book just sits there," Hughes says. "I think in 18 months I sold about 20 copies."

That's when Hughes decided to try self-publishing. She found a printer in Hong Kong whose work she liked and paid $3000 to have 1500 books printed. "Now I have all these boxes in the garage," she says.

As Hughes has discovered, getting a book printed is barely half the battle. Marketing and selling is where the real work begins. It's difficult to get the big chainstores to stock self-published books as they tend to do all their ordering through head office in Australia. Independent bookshops are more approachable and Hughes has been helped by a very favourable review in Canvas magazine.

"It's been a difficult path to go down but I don't regret it. I've learned a lot and had great feedback from people who've read the book."

There are some huge self-publishing success stories out there, particularly in the children's book genre. Hawke's Bay grandmother Gill Pittar is a good example. She and her husband, formerly farmers, began producing books based on a doll Pittar made and sold 10 years ago.

They've now published more than 50 Milly Molly picture books from their base in Gisborne, selling millions of copies and spreading worldwide their message of tolerance and harmony.

Auckland psychologist Dr Shara Ray found inspiration in that success. Since she was 18, Ray has yearned to be a writer and last year self-published her first children's picturebook, Stand Tall Like A Mountain, with illustrations by a family member.

"The book is designed to provide creative solutions for kids to help them deal with low self-confidence," she explains.

Aimed at children aged 3 to 7, Ray's story stars a feisty mouse that presents what she describes as "a toolbox of creative strategies and coping skills". She did try a few mainstream publishers but had always considered self-publishing and spent a lot of time researching. "I read books and manuals, went to a workshop and met other self-published authors," says Ray, who found the Storylines Festival of New Zealand Children's Writers and Illustrators particularly useful.

Eventually Ray set up a company, Rainbow Gifts Press, and a website. She says her book is now selling well.

There are plans to publish two more children's stories this year and Ray hopes to explore markets beyond New Zealand, possibly even have a presence at the big European children's book fairs.

"One of the reasons I ended up self-publishing was the creative freedom it gave me," she says. "That's one of its delights. If you have an idea you can run with it and there are no limits put on you by someone else."

To begin with Ray focused on the end result, having a finished book in her hands, but now realises self-publishing is a continual process and that it is important to learn from setbacks and disappointments and try to enjoy the experience.

"I call it riding the wave and holding the surfboard," she says. "And I've never looked back. I consider publishing this book one of the five best things I've done in my life."

Occasionally a self-published book is picked up by mainstream publishers and, when that happens, it can be a bit of a wake-up call as author Dr Dave Baldwin, a GP from Bulls, discovered. His non-fiction book Healthy Bastards was published this year by Random House but started in far rougher form, being sold through his medical practice and website.

Originally Baldwin's motivation was to get a few simple health messages across to a section of the population he meets every day through his GP work.

"I'd spent 20 years dealing with really unhealthy bastards and seeing them dying early," he says. "It's the most gut-wrenching thing being in the morgue and signing off people you've spent a decade telling to lose weight and stop smoking."

Baldwin also runs a flying doctor business providing aviation medicine to pilots and, when he was asked by Pacific Wings magazine to write a series of columns about health, he hit on an idea. "Right from the beginning I wrote each one as if it was the chapter of a book," he says. "After two years of columns I had my masterpiece."

Baldwin got his mum to do the copy-editing for him although he says it took her six months to even pick up the manuscript because she hated the title so much. He then sent copies to several publishers.

"My real concern was that there would be blood on the floor with them all fighting for my manuscript," he laughs. "I was so stupid. They all said no."

That's when Baldwin decided to go it alone. A mate put him on to a printer and he paid them to produce the book the way he wanted it. Every copy sold and, while Baldwin had made a negligible amount of money, he was convinced he had a winner on his hands. The book's "Kiwi bloke" tone set it apart from other health manuals and he'd noticed how lots of women had bought it for their husbands.

"So my next mission became getting a respected publisher involved," he says.

What convinced Random House to take on the title were the huge crowds Baldwin was pulling in for the very funny talks on men's health he gives.

They could see there was a ready market for a book such as Healthy Bastards.

Even once he had his publishing deal Baldwin discovered things weren't going to be as easily as he'd imagined.

"I was a novice going in to a very tough profession," he says. "The publisher's perception of what the finished book would be was very different from mine. They didn't want the word 'bastards' in the title for a start. To me that was paramount, it was part of the real Kiwi bloke, Barry Crump tradition."

Baldwin rewrote the book over a couple of weeks and did some negotiating. "They were very patient with me," he says. "There were lots of things I didn't know about.

"The copies I did by myself were driven by passion and to hell with the world. When you work with a big publisher you're a cog in the machine and you have to understand that."

Baldwin is now negotiating with a TV production company interested in basing a series on Healthy Bastards and he's hoping the book will jump the Tasman and be distributed in Australia.

He'd like to write another book, this one aimed at older people. "The elderly can be so preyed on these days," he says. "I work at the coalface and see some terrible things. A book to help protect those people would be quite cool."

So self-publishing or mainstream? Baldwin has no doubt which turned out to be the better option for him. "When I look back now my self-published book was neat to have done but it was an amateurish, rushed job," he says. "Still it got me going and gave me confidence. And most importantly I had my marketing test case."