I will always be grateful to the New York agent whose rejection letter contained the sage advice “books about Africa don’t sell”. Those five words lit a fire in my soul that inspired me in a way no other rejection letter ever could have. I’d spent five years writing The Chicken Thief and I simply wasn’t prepared to accept that outlook. But in the absence of a publisher clamouring to get their hands on it, self publishing seemed like the logical route to proving the agent wrong.
While my act of self publishing was done partly to prove a point, it was also a means to an end. I still wanted a traditional publishing contract and continued to pitch to agents and publishing houses. I never saw the two as mutually exclusive. Self publishing allowed me to market test my work, to get a good sense of my demographics and to engage with readers about what they connected with in the story. It also gave me the confidence to keep writing. And as time went on I was able to tailor my pitch with more and more specifics, and also to demonstrate the long term commitment I was prepared to make in order bring my work to print. Publishing is a business venture and the more you can do to demonstrate the viability of your work the better.
Working with Penguin Books has been a very different experience to self publishing. Firstly it has been a huge weight off my shoulders having the support of a team of highly skilled people who’ve done this many times before. I’m no longer alternating between writing, reading how-to books on publishing and marketing and pitching hundreds of reviewers hoping that one will bite! I always say yes when I’m asked by someone in marketing to write an article for a blog or magazine because I remember all too well the dreary days of cold calling.
Secondly it has brought me into a well-established publishing community with a reputation for quality and that is something I value highly. When you’re self published you have to work twice as hard to get people to take your work seriously. I received several reviews that contained comments along the lines of “this was surprisingly good for a self published novel”.
Having seen both types of publishing firsthand, I strongly believe that you have to be an active participant in the process. Gone are the days (if they ever existed) when authors could simply hand over their work and wait for royalty cheques to roll in. Authors have to be actively engaged in the selling of their work regardless of their publishing approach.
I’ve greatly enjoyed both my publishing paths, and appreciate all the experience I’ve gained. I know it is fashionable to view the world through a prism of doom and gloom, but personally I believe that with all the publishing options to choose from, it’s a fabulous time to be an author…even one who dares to write books about Africa.