Let’s be honest, self-publishing is the last resort for writers who can’t get a publisher. Isn’t it?

For any writer, the idea of getting a deal with one of the major publishing houses is the stuff of dreams. You sign your name on the dotted line and then sit back waiting for a life of riches and literary fame. And it can happen… think of Sally Rooney (Normal People) or Jessie Burton (The Miniaturist) or Sarah Perry (The Essex Serpent). These are the new A-listers of the literary world, the elite; and the system works – for them as authors, for their agents, the publishers, the booksellers and, ultimately, their readers.

But by definition, the elite are few and far between. Ten years ago, I signed a contract with a major UK publisher. It started off well and I enjoyed what was, looking back on it, a honeymoon period. It didn’t last long. After all, as a B (or C) lister, I rapidly slid down the priority list. Within a couple of years, I was left with a number of titles the publisher was no longer willing to promote. I could do it myself, they suggested, but I thought why put in all that effort when the publisher was taking 75 per cent of my earnings. And that’s after the bookseller has taken its cut. It didn’t leave me with much.

Maybe, I thought, the answer was to self-publish.

Self-publishing

I started self-publishing in 2013 and from Day One, I enjoyed the control that you get with going it alone. For example, I, not the publisher, have the final decision on the cover design, the publication date, how much to charge for a title, and if I want to reduce the price as a temporary promotion. Most importantly, I feel, I can decide how often I want to publish. So I don’t have to worry about deadlines nor be limited to the one title per year scenario.

Sure, there are certainly disadvantages to self-publishing. For one thing, traditionally-published authors receive an advance. The amount varies, of course, and the six-figure advances, although rare, still exist. Then, as a self-pubbed author, there’s the cost of doing it all yourself – the editing costs, proofreading, formatting, cover design and the production of the audiobook (although the latter is optional, and considerably cheaper if you have the voice to do it yourself. Alas, I don’t).

Also, as a self-published author, you’re very unlikely to snag that deal with Netflix, but frankly, even for a B lister, it’s such a rarity to be not worth thinking about. And you certainly won’t get shortlisted for any literary prizes. Another advantage publishers have is all their foreign contacts. My publisher, for example, managed to get several of my titles published in Russian. Apparently, I was once quite a hit in Vyatskoye.

But writing, like anything else, is a career, a means to make a living. Seen in this light, I believe the long-term advantages to self-publishing far outweigh the disadvantages. At least, in my experience. But only if you are prepared to put in the initial work. You have to write a book that people want to read. And to really succeed, you need to have several books under your belt. You have to teach yourself how Amazon’s ecosystem works. Yes, there are other retailers out there but Amazon is king, especially for the self-published, and will account for the vast proportion of your income.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of self-publishing is that you can take better care of your backlist. Last year, for example, I advertised a novel I published back in 2013 – and it did well. Now, imagine approaching Hodder, for example, and asking, ‘will you market my eight-year-old novel, please?’ It ain’t gonna happen.

In 2016, the author Ros Barber wrote an infamous piece for The Guardian on why she would never self-publish. You can read it here. It’s harsh! Circa 2012, some of her books were shortlisted for various prizes but what about now? Are they still selling? Are they providing her an income today? I checked her rankings on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. Her rankings on all platforms almost have as many digits as my mobile number so no, I don’t reckon they do.

Since lockdown…

So up to the beginning of the first lockdown, I was doing OK with my self-publishing sideline. It was earning me a decent amount of pin money. But lockdown made me worried about my day job – would I be made redundant? As it is, I haven’t, although the risk is still there. So, I decided I needed to up my self-publishing game, and so I learnt how to do Facebook ads. It’s been a game-changer. It’s a complicated process with so many moving parts, and each one of them needs to be aligned for it to work. A year on, I’m still at the testing phase, and still not confident enough to invest heavily. But even at this testing phase, I now earn more from my royalties than I do from my day job.

I belong to a few self-publishing groups on Facebook, and, being private groups, the authors here aren’t shy about posting screenshots of their earnings. And it can be eye-watering… an author writing ‘sweet romances’ earning $30,000… a month, yes, in a single month. Another, writing ‘cozy mysteries’, earning $40K, the couple from Canada who write urban fantasy (I don’t even know what that means) who earned over $60K last month; that’s about £45,000. OK, they may have spent $20K on Facebook ads (a sum that makes me come out in hives), and that figure is pre-tax, of course, but nonetheless – a $40K pre-tax monthly profit is not to be sneezed at.

These authors are in a minority, but it’s a sizeable minority. They are not outliers by any stretch. There’s the chap in Kent who hasn’t written a word for almost a year nor done any work except tweaking his ads, and is still earning £30,000 or more Every Single Month. And all he did was write six novels he thought people might want to read, and then, through Facebook advertising, found those people.

Several of these authors have now been approached by publishers, but the publishers are too late now. Why would these authors voluntarily give away 75 per cent of their income on the vague hope that Netflix might come calling?

I’m nowhere near their level but I have, in effect, doubled my income in less than a year. And every month is an improvement on the previous. The only way is up.

Rupert Colley

My latest novel, Eleven Days in June, is now available.