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| Cover for Gideon Marcus's book Kitra via Goodreads |
Last week, I argued that professional editors were
not necessary for self-publishing authors. I feel that the fate of the
story has largely been decided before it would ever get to an
editor. To produce a commercially viable book these days, it must be
targeted at a commercially viable readership, delivering the tropes,
the story beats, the cover, and the blurb that those readers expect. No amount of editing will sell a story by
someone who doesn’t know how to write, nor a well written story,
if the writer has not done their research and/or lacks the resources and/or know-how to market
their book.
This week I’m
going to use Marcus Gideon’s YA science fiction book Kitra
as an example of my premise. As I said last week, he drew the short straw
because I recently read his forceful advocate of professional editing, has published a book, and has shared some sales results that will
allow us to examine the proposition.
So to start, here is Marcus’ “get an editor” pitch:
“I’ve written
thousands and thousands of pieces in my life. I compose almost as
effortlessly as breathing.
I always have an
editor go over my work. Sometimes several editors. You should too.
Here’s why:
When you have an
audience of one, you know exactly where your characters are, their
motivations, their traits. You’ve got a clear idea of the universe.
You know what you’re trying to say. Until someone else reviews what
you’ve written, you don’t know if “someone else” knows what
you’re trying to say.
So for anything
you want to publish, and especially stuff you expect to get paid for,
you need an editor. And not just any editor. You need, at the very
least, an experienced writer to bounce your ideas off of. Otherwise,
the best you’ll get out of them is a vague, “I liked it!” or a
“It needs something, but I don’t know what.”
It may be tough
finding the editor that works for you, someone who 1) you can work
with, 2) offers good advice, and 3) is affordable. I’m still
reeling from the loss of one of my favorite editors, who is coping
with a chronic illness. But when you find the right editor, your work
will ascend to the next level.
Finding the
experienced editor (or several) is the first hurdle. The second is
your ego.
No one likes to
be told that their magnum opus doesn’t work. No one likes to spend
months pouring themselves onto a page only to have to rewrite the
whole damned thing.
Let me tell you
something: when starting out, you will spend more of your life in
editing than writing. If that bugs you, you’re in the wrong
business.
Sure, eventually
you’ll get good enough that you can work out a lot of your bugs
prior to the editing process, but that first book? It’ll go through
the wringer.
Kitra, for
example, essentially went through four drafts until it was good
enough for the public. It’s doing pretty well. Folks like it. If
I’d released any of the earlier drafts?
Three sales on
Amazon.”
He offers some valid points. Every writer would likely benefit from some sort of feedback on their story. It should be proofread. But does it need a "developmental editor" to go through and fine tune the story similar to the process in traditional publishing? And is it worth the money?
Marcus
Gideon is a professionally published writer. He is the proprietor of
the website Galactic Journey, and the small publishing house, Journey
Press. The quote comes from a blog entry entitled “Time in Service”
on the Journey Press blog section. You can find the complete blog
post here:
Journey Press Blog
Strictly
speaking, Marcus is not a self-publishing author, but the founder of
a small press that published the works of others, besides himself.
His SF anthology Rediscovery features stories by women SF
writers from the 1950’s & 60’s. Marcus is well known in SF
circles, and the subject matter of this book generated a lot of free
publicity upon its release in SF circles. Much more than any
self-published author, no matter how popular on Amazon, could expect
with any new release of their own. In addition to publishing Kitre,
he has also reissued a 1964 B-side ACE double story by Tom Purdom, I
Want the Stars. For some reason. He has spent the last year or
more building up a network of some 500 independent bookstores that
offer his books. And owning a website that is visited thousands of
times a month which he uses to promote his books, I think it is safe
say that he’s pretty solid on both the distribution channel and
publicity side of selling books. So with those very important
ducks in order, you would think that the sky’s the limit for his
professionally edited debut novel. But, ah… not so much.
As
it turns out, the YA non-dystopian, non-post apocalyptic science
fiction market is not a vibrant market, according to Alexa
Donne, who should know. She has had two YA non-dystopian, non-post
apocalyptic science fiction novels traditionally published, and knows
the YA market backwards and forwards. She offers weekly videos on that
market on Youtube which you can find here:
Alexa Donne Videos
In several of them she has talked about her experiences as a YA
non-dystopian, non-post apocalyptic science fiction writer. From what
I could gather, a runaway best seller in that market would be a
disappointing release for a YA fantasy book. Fantasy sells, while
non-dystopian, non-post apocalyptic science fiction books are lucky
to sell a couple thousand copies. Whether this is because
there is no interest in them in the YA audience, or because
traditional publishers don’t know how to promote them she feels is
an open question. But the fact is that the ceiling is low for the
type of SF story that Kitra represents. And Marcus seems to
have been aware of this, since he writes; “Let’s face it —
YA is often associated with dystopia, grim stories where the evil
Queen or the fascist government is the big bad. Kitra is a hopeful
story, one in which teamwork and perseverance see the characters
through. There’s a hunger for these kinds of stories now.” That
last line strikes me more as wishful thinking that market research. In any
event, his sales so far fail to justify that optimism.
Kitra
was release in April 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Prior to the
pandemic, he reports that his company was selling around 200 books a
month – which would be the Rediscovery title with its
significant free publicity. During the pandemic, sales have dropped
to around 70 copies a month, split between the three titles. Much of that decline, can certainly be blamed on the pandemic. Still...
Both
versions of Kitra are offered on Amazon. The ebook version on
Amazon’s bestseller list is ranked in the 1.5 millions when I
looked it up for this post. That translates to a copy every month or
so. Trust me, I know that from experience. The paperback version is
in the 2 millions, so it has sold a non-zero number of copies on
Amazon. These are in line with the results you could expect from a debut novel
without an Amazon focused advertising budget.
On Amazon, Kitra
has garnered
six
reviews from actual purchasers of the book, four
5 star, two 4 star reviews in
eight month.
It has a total of 22 rating/reviews, but the
other reviews
likely come from free copies
of the story given in
exchange for reviews. This
technique is common
in the trade to spur sales
with
lots of reviews upon release.
However, there are too many
incentives for all
parties in
the system to
favor good reviews, so
I don’t consider
them completely valid. It
also has 31 ratings on Goodreads, with 26 reviews for an average of
4.06 stars, again with at least half the reviews coming from free copies, plus
Marcus Gideon’s own 5
star rating.
So
the book is well received. I’ll leave credit for how that is divided up
between the author and editor
to them.
However, even with good reviews, I think it would be
hard to make the case that its
professional editing has done
much for sales. Certainly not enough to overcome the handicap of
writing a book for a small, low demand market.
All
of this is not to say that Kitra is a failure. It is
a modest success to date, and has
many years to earn out its cost. And,
with future sequels,
it may do… Okay.
Sequels can stir interest in
the previous volumes, but they
inevitably sell less with
each sequel.
However,
if you’re in the business
of writing and publishing stories to
make folding money,
I think it is fair to judge a
book as a product and a
product by the money it earns. As a product, Kitra,
with all its editing, does not seem like a product with much promise
by that metric. Not because it is poorly written or edited, but
because there’s relatively little demand for this type of story.
The publishing business,
self-publishing or otherwise, is a very competitive business, and I
don’t think anyone is
going to succeed at making money in
it, if one doesn’t shot for the stars. And that means
identify and mastering a
potentially lucrative market, and writing to it.
So
I say, first know your
audience, and then trust
your talent. Critique
partners, and beta readers can offer much of the feedback an editor
would provide. If you have money to spend, spend it on a
good, proofreader and a cover artist.
