In the early 80’s, hardcore punk bands took the country by storm. These bands—not interested in securing deals with the major record labels that functioned as gatekeepers of the music industry—reinvented the music industry by opting to form their own labels.
Taking a do-it-yourself approach meant the punk artists handled all costs of production and promotion themselves. As a result, emphasis on national markets diminished in favor of supporting the local scene.
Lately, several Lansing area authors have taken this DIY approach and applied it to book publishing.
By printing their manuscripts at their own expense, and assuming the responsibility for marketing and promotion, they have been able to bypass the traditional publishing system.
They've found something smaller and more community-oriented. And slowly, they're becoming local celebrities.
Big Business of BooksLocal writers have opted for self-publishing for a variety of reasons.
For
Eaton Rapids resident,
Joel Krupa, 27, it was about time. When he finished writing his first novel,
Hold On, he wanted to get it on the market as quickly as possible. He looked at various traditional publishing houses, but decided that it would take too long. So Joel turned to self-publishing to release his dark novel in March 2007.
Delta Township resident, Vania Hall, 41, author of
Caged Bird, was frustrated with the process of procuring a literary agent. Large publishing houses receive such a high volume of manuscripts that they rely on agents to find the talent and send it their way. But acquiring an agent can be a very exhausting process.
“99 out of 100 are going to say no,” says Hall, who sent propositions to numerous agents without success before self-publishing in April 2007. “And of the few that may show interest? They still may ask you to submit some chapters or a few pages, and then still decline to represent you.”
For author Daniel J. Hogan, 27, who moved to Delta Township from the Detroit area after college, it was about finding an audience. When he wrote
The Magic of Eyri, Hogan wasn’t sure if anyone would want to read it, so he self-published in May 2007 to see how people would react.
Pounding the PavementThe average self-published book sells 75 copies. All three Lansing-area writers have already surpassed that number. Krupa has sold 354 copies of
Hold On. Hogan has sold 138 copies of his book, and Hall has sold 95.
Nationally, 70 percent of novels published annually by traditional publishing houses sell less than 500 copies, according to
Publisher’s Weekly.
All three authors have their books available on Web sites like
amazon.com and
barnesandnoble.com—an option available to self-published writers who buy an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN.
But these sites account for only a small portion of their sales. Most sales are done in person.
Krupa keeps copies of his book in his trunk. Hogan spends time on the convention circuit in order to promote and sell his book. He also maintains a
Web site dedicated to his writing.
Krupa is the only one who has turned a profit, netting around $700 dollars after the exhausting and expensive job of printing and self-marketing copies of the book. Hall has broken even, and Hogan has yet to recoup his expenses.
Local and LargerWhile self-published titles are available on Barnes and Noble’s Web site, copies are generally not stocked in its stores. Nor are the large chain stores generally open to hosting readings by self-published writers.
But local venues are often more receptive. Hall held readings at Bennigan’s and Rite Aid on Lansing’s Westside. Hogan has held book signings at
Bestseller Books in Mason, and at
Everybody Reads bookstore in Lansing. The
Delta Township library has also played a key role, even hosting a self-published author panel this past fall.
As the community stepped up to help support the local authors, a sense of camaraderie has also developed amongst the authors themselves. Krupa buys locally published books and has a copy of
The Magic of Eyri. Kruppa gave Hogan a copy of his latest novel,
Ground, after Hogen helped him edit it.
But unlike the punk bands of the 80’s, these local authors have ambitions that extend beyond simply achieving success on the local scene. They’d all like to secure a deal with a traditional publishing house and become bestselling authors.
The difference between DIY book publishing and DIY music, according to Stephen Lacy, a professor of Media Economics and Journalism at
Michigan State University, is that “books don’t involve performance.”
There are multiple ways of making money out of the same creative process,” according to Lacy. A band can play a show and make money, even if they don’t sell any CDs.
For an author, there’s one way to make money: selling books. Hosting readings and other public events are just the means to sell that end.
“Increasingly, whatever is done, we’ll see a bigger proportion made up of self-publishing,” Lacy says. But “it’s not going to dominate the book industry, because the distribution system is not very well set up for these types of books.”
Going from self-published to bestseller is not impossible. Both the
Celestine Prophecy and
Eragon started out as self-published books. Later, they were picked up by traditional publishing houses and went on to be bestsellers. But cases such as these are few and far between.
Still, Hall and Hogan have decided that they will pursue an agent for their next novel in order to take their careers to the next level. Krupa is self-publishing his new novel, Ground.
“If making a big profit is not a goal, then [self-publishing] is a great way to do it,” Lacy says. “If you just want to make a little bit of money, if you just want to get your ideas out there, then this allows you to do it.”
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Adam Molner is a freelance journalist. This is his first assignment for Capital Gains.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Joel Krupa
Publisher page in Daniel Hogan's The Magic of Eyri
Daniel Hogan at Everybody Reads bookstore
Caged Bird
Vania Hall
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie