Self-Publishing Resources

Posted By Sue Collier on March 2, 2011

This is another installment from our series 11 Questions for the Indie Publisher. This time we are featuring indie author /publisher Bill Beaman. Please let me know if you would like to be featured!

Name: Bill Beaman

Website: www.theiowafarmer.com

Books: The Iowa Farmer’s Wife

1. What is your background? I am a third generation farmer born and raised in Madison County, Iowa. (You may remember The Bridges of Madison County?) I married a farm girl and together we’ve survived all the joys and disappointments life in the country can offer while raising a family along the way.  Although I struggled with a lot of subjects throughout high school and college, writing was always easy for me and I enjoyed it.  I got hooked on reading at a fairly young age (Cowboy Sam books) and the appetite for a good read has never dwindled. However, there came a point where a lot of the books I was reading were becoming less satisfying.  At times I found myself putting down a book in disgust and saying to my wife, “I could write a better book than this!”

2. What led you to self-publishing? In the mid-nineties, when many family farms like ours were struggling, I decided now is the time. With pen and paper I began writing whenever I could find the time in a fairly busy schedule of farming, rainy days, during blizzards, etc. We didn’t have a computer at the time so I would write longhand and then my wife would type. Eventually we had a manuscript and began sending off queries, waiting for replies from anxious editors and publishers. Apparently they weren’t all that anxious, so the manuscript remained in one of our kitchen cupboards for nearly seventeen years, getting pulled out from time to time for a change here, a change there, but essentially the project was dead.  Then two things happened: 1) With the evolution of computers and the Internet, we eventually became tuned in to hundreds of new resources available to unpublished authors and I got hooked on the self-publishing movement.  2) Our daughter, who was eight years old at the time I first wrote the book, grew up, graduated from college with a major in graphic design, started a career of her own and said, “Dad, it’s time to publish your book.”  With her as my technical advisor and my wife as my editor we were on our way.

3. What have you found to be the biggest challenge in self-publishing? There are two huge challenges to self-publishing. Number one is the question, “Now I’ve written a book, but is it actually any good?”  You can’t get the answer from family members and friends; you have to gain it from a larger audience of people you don’t even know. You have to spend a considerable sum of money to get that first pile of books published and then wonder, “Will they sell?”  When the first 500 copies of my book arrived, our joke was that we would have Christmas and birthday gifts available for the next twenty years.  But we sold that first 500 books, then another 500, and on it goes.

The next big challenge in self-publishing is that you, the author, are probably going to have to do all the work promoting and selling the book and that can be daunting. I could write a book just about the marketing side of this experience. Believe me it’s a lot of work and I can say that if you’ve written a great book, self-publishing it will not carry the day. You have to be a good salesman, be able to take occasional rejection, and methodically carry on.

4. What has been the biggest surprise about self-publishing? The biggest surprise has been how easy it is to get a book published. With the technology available today, anyone can put together a book that can be read by someone else. Of course that doesn’t address the quality issue of your book’s cover, layout, editing, plot development, etc., but there are actually endless resources to help with these as well. You don’t have to print a million books; you can print any number you want. You don’t have to have your book featured on Oprah, it can be featured at your community book fair or craft show.  The stigma of self-publishing has largely been broken and for those that have complained that they can’t get a editor or publisher to even look at their work, the chains have been broken.  Maybe you won’t make a million dollars a year but you might make ten thousand dollars, gain a hundred new friends along the way, and build on your newly found knowledge.

5. Describe your writing process? When I first wrote The Iowa Farmer’s Wife I knew that there would be three books in this series. However, when my first efforts went nowhere, I sat on my hands for years. I should have kept on writing and that’s good advice to a lot of unpublished authors. Now I’m writing again and it’s a little bit random, running a farm and writing, but I do use an outline and a timetable, which I refer to frequently. From the outset, I know how the book will start and how it will end. The challenge is getting a quality story in between those two things.  I’ve promised the sequel to the first book, and I have a growing number of followers reminding me that they are waiting.   I have days when I feel inspired to write and I can knock out two or three thousand words fairly quickly.

6. How do you stay self-disciplined? I don’t.  Living on a farm with crops to tend to while grazing sheep and cattle, there’s always something that has to be done today. In between those jobs I find time to write. After the animals have been taken care of on a bad weather day is a good time to write. Something about a howling wind blowing snow across the fields makes sitting in front of the computer in a warm house and writing feel good. I am motivated by people pushing me to finish my next book and I have set deadlines for myself.  That’s the nice thing about being a self-published author; deadlines are all of your own making. It’s all up to you to determine where your writing career is going.

7. How are you financing your publishing project? We have other income from the farm and off-farm work that helps. Book sales furnish the bulk of the financing. We know the exact cost of each book printed and have priced them so that we are assured a profit. New self-publishers should do this as well. We were fortunate to find a book printer early on who laid out what our total expense would be from the git-go and that served as a foundation for our business plan. Avoid “vanity” publishing. Find someone who just prints your book for a fee and you be the publisher.  E-books are a different deal. If you have enough computer savvy, e-books can be offered for sale for very little expense.

8. What is your favorite self-marketing idea? I pick out a store that looks like it has a lot of traffic. Then I walk in and hand the manager a copy of my book as a gift. Everybody likes to get a gift. (Don’t forget to sign the book for them before you leave.) They are then usually receptive to my three-minute story about myself, the book, and my desire to sell it in their store letting them have a share of the profit. Remember, this store will probably not be a bookstore. You want to be a big fish in a little pond if you’re a self-publisher. If the proprietor likes you, and especially if that person reads and likes your book, you’re on your way. You want your book to be offered by itself somewhere near the counter where staff can give it a plug to potential customers. Visualize a customer thumbing through your book and a nearby salesman saying, “I read that book and I loved it.”  My biggest sales success has taken place in convenience stores. Big bookstores are great but remember you’re going to have to compete against thousands of other books.  If I get a call from Oprah I’ll change my tactics, but while I’m still an unknown in most of the world, I’ll take it one new sales point at a time. Keep good records, stay in touch with your vendors, and make sure there are never any misunderstandings on book inventory, sales and revenue sharing.

9. What advice do you have for burgeoning self-publishers? Somewhere I read that less than 7% of authors who get a book-deal contract sell over a thousand copies of their work. I can’t verify that statement but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were close to the truth.  Keep that in mind when you set out to market your book.  We all want to be bestsellers and retire rich and famous but very, very few ever do.  Write your book, edit your book, and market it with realistic goals. Don’t wait or expect anyone else to market your book; that’s your job.  If sales grow and your writing becomes popular, be thankful and don’t rest on your laurels.

10. When you’re not writing what do you do for fun? I love farming, anything relating to the outdoors, and my family and friends. My opportunities to have fun are endless. I hardly ever let a day go by without reading. My favorite authors are Tony Hillerman and Elmore Leonard.

11. What project are you currently working on? I’m working on a sequel to The Iowa Farmer’s Wife that will be released in early 2011.  Stay tuned to our website, theiowafarmer.com for updates.

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