Boyd Morrison, Author of the The Ark, Tells His Self-Publishing Story

Sarah: When you started your writing career, was your original intention to work with traditional publishers?

Boyd: When I started out writing full-time in 2005, there wasn’t another option besides traditional publishers. Sure you could self-publish, but that route was still seen as a desperate ploy that would end up costing an author thousands of dollars and result in a garage stacked with unsellable books. Very few authors, such as James Redfield and Christopher Paolini, had gone on to widespread success after self-publishing, so traditional publishing seemed the only way to go.

Sarah: But eventually, even when self-publishing was in it’s beginning stages, you chose to self-publish your manuscript as an e-book. What kind of factors influenced you to try this route?

Boyd: Basically because I had no other choice at the time (March of 2009). The Noah’s Ark Quest (The Ark in the US) was snapped up by my agent, Irene Goodman, within a week of querying, but when she went to publishers, we got what I call rave rejections. They loved the story and characters but couldn’t see how it would stand out in a crowded marketplace. In total, twenty-five publishers rejected the book, so it looked like I would have to shelve it and move on to something else.

Around that time, the Kindle 2 was being introduced, and I noticed that Amazon was starting to let unpublished authors post their manuscripts into the Kindle store. I had three thriller novels languishing on my hard drive, and I thought they could just as easily languish on Amazon’s hard drive, so I uploaded them just to see what would happen. To my happy surprise, sales of the books took off, and three months after that, I had a four-book deal with Simon and Schuster.

Sarah: Was self-publishing a lot of work? Did you do anything special to promote the e-book?

Boyd:Self-publishing was a surprisingly easy process. I did have a graphic designer create covers for me because artistic talent is not a strength of mine, but other than that I had no upfront costs. I just uploaded my Word file to the Kindle store, wrote a description, chose the genre, and the books were on sale a day later.

My marketing efforts consisted of telling my friends and family about the novels. That didn’t help much because I knew approximately three people with a Kindle. I also received blurbs from generous bestselling authors who I’d gotten to know at various writers conferences.

Despite my lack of marketing skills, word of mouth started spreading the news about my novels on forums like Amazon, Kindleboards, and Mobileread. I wish I could say I had a brilliant plan, but I think it was more a matter of luck, timing, and stories that were quick reads. I also had the benefit of being in the early cohort of writers self-pubbing on the Kindle store, so there was much less competition than there is now.

Sarah: What was the result of your first e-book sales campaign? And I’ve heard that you are the first person to turn an e-book into a self-publishing deal. Would you mind sharing how that happened?

Boyd: Within a month, THE ARK was the number one techno-thriller in the Kindle store, outselling authors like Tom Clancy, and within three months I had sold 7,500 total copies of my three books. That’s when S&S came calling, and I also immediately locked up deals in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy.

My books were priced at $0.99-$1.99, and 7,500 sales may not sound like much today, when authors like Amanda Hocking and John Locke are selling in the millions. But remember that back in 2009, the Kindle was the only game in town. There was no such thing as a Nook or iPad, and self-publishing was still seen as a little embarrassing. Those 7,500 sales seemed like an astonishing number at the time, so much so that Joe Konrath asked me about how to self-publish on the Kindle store.

I’m not the first self-published e-book author to lasso a traditional publishing deal. That honor would probably go to MJ Rose or Thomas Greanias. However, I believe I’m the first self-published Kindle author to get a traditional publishing deal. Now it has become fairly commonplace, and self-publishing could even be seen as a scouting ground for publishers who are looking for the next big thing.

Sarah: So you mentioned earlier, you were offered a book deal after your e-book sold well. To what extent have you worked with traditional publishers then?

Boyd: I actually work with over twenty publishers, one for each country in which my books are published. For foreign markets, it’s a no-brainer to want a publisher. If I tried to self-publish, I wouldn’t be able to find a competent translator for my novels, I wouldn’t know how to distribute the books, and foreign financial transactions are a nightmare. That’s why I’m so happy to have the best foreign rights agent in the business, Danny Baror. He takes care of all that so that I can focus on my writing.

I have worked with two English-language publishers: Little, Brown in the UK and Simon and Schuster in the US. The Little, Brown editor who acquired my books is now editing JK Rowling’s first adult novel, so I’m proud that he’s such an enthusiastic backer of my books. In fact, my debut novel, The Noah’s Ark Quest, became a top 15 bestseller in England, and I owe that success to the phenomenal effort my editor put into getting word out about the book.

With Simon and Schuster, I published four new books in about 18 months, so it was definitely a challenge to get all the writing and editing done in that amount of time. One thing you give up when you go with a traditional publisher is control, which can be both good and bad. They pay an advance, design the cover, develop the marketing plan, and distribute the books to the stores and online services, all of which takes time and energy that is a joy to let someone else take on. On the other hand, the publisher also has final say over pricing, cover design, marketing materials, and distribution, so you have to trust that they will put the effort into making it all work.

Sarah: What advice do you have for an aspiring writer who has the “writing chops”, has taken the time to polish and edit his or her manuscript? What do you recommend as a first step?

Boyd: It really depends on what your goals are, how much control you desire, and how much effort you want to put into publishing.

For those who need control, whose goals are not necessarily to have a New York Times bestseller (although there are now self-published e-book authors who have made the Times list, including Douglas Richards, whose book I endorsed), and who can take the time and energy away from writing, self-publishing is now a worthy option. There are plenty of writers making a considerable income from self-publishing, and they can publish on their own schedules, which is often much quicker than how traditional publishers work. From the time you get an agent, it can take two years or more before your book is released, and publishers are usually loathe to publish more than one book a year in certain genres (romance is a notable exception).

If you would rather just focus on the writing, a traditional publisher might be a better way to go. You could also have a shot at a huge advance and a big push for your book that would propel you onto the bestseller lists. Although the odds are small, it does happen, like with Justin Cronin. But if you’re offered a tiny advance (in the $10-20K range), you should realize that you won’t get any kind of marketing push, your books will have to fend for themselves, and your royalty percentage will be much smaller per book than the 70% you can get from Amazon, B&N, and Apple. If you’re a go-getter, self-publishing might be a better option in that case.

I can tell you that I will always consider self-publishing a viable alternative and will make my publishing decisions based on the financial and lifestyle choices that will be the best for my career.

You can read more about Boyd at his website or check out his other titles here.