A friend of a friend wanted some information on self-publishing so I checked out the deal MWA (Mystery Writers of America) has (for the time being) with I-Universe.
Listening to booksellers and reviewers complain about the self-published legions and having picked up a few publish-on-demand titles full of typos, I'd never considered the option.
I believed publishing is simple Darwinsim. If your book is good, someone else will invest. If it isn't good enough for someone else to invest in, make it better.
But I've been working on my 2003 taxes. My first year of full-time writing delivered a record low income, although it is much easier to total than any time in the past decade. One full place has fallen away from the left side of the decimal point.
It's funny what that can do to idealism.
The I-Universe site says they'll deliver a copy of my book in trade paperback format in six weeks for $99. That's less than it cost me in postage to eventually secure my (terrific) agent and a fraction of what I spent on office supplies and research.
For a couple hundred more I could buy copies for every well-meaning friend or relative who asks why they can't find my name at their local bookstore yet. For the annoying folks whom I really don't like, I can just send them the Amazon.com link... and talk my friends into writing great Amazon ratings.
My high-minded ethics are melting.
For $99, I wouldn't have to qualify myself with all those years of newspaper columns and magazine articles to call myself a writer. I would have my own ISBN number. I would be an author.
Ninety-nine dollars is less than the individual price of most of the college textbooks we bought this semester for our daughters or one refill on the dog's hip medicine.
This is where my stubborn Eastern European stock has to kick in and remind me it is better to get paid to write than to pay someone else to publish. That anything worth doing is worth the effort it requires to do it right. Any schmuck can pony up a c-note.
At the Edgar symposium last year, Michael Connelly talked about his pre-published time being the most productive of his writing career. He said to keep your head down and keep writing. It made perfect sense.
But $99...