Broadly speaking, there are two ways to publish a book, traditionally and independently. Traditionally is probably what you think of when thinking about how a book comes to market. The author submits a manuscript to an agent or a publisher (Penguin, Houghton-Mifflin, Scholastic, etc.). If the agent likes it, they can shop it to the publishers. If a publisher likes it, they publish it. Independently means skipping the agents and publishers altogether. Technology has gotten to the point where an independently published book can look and feel as good as a traditionally published book.
I chose to publish All We Need: The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t independently. There were a bunch of reasons for this, and no, it wasn’t because I couldn’t publish traditionally. I didn’t even try the traditional approach.
First of all, traditional publishers are very conservative. I don’t mean that in the political way. I mean it in the risk-averse way. That’s why you see so many celebrity-penned books out there. Celebrities have a built-in audience. When a publisher publishes a book by Jimmy Fallon, they don’t need to do any real work. The book practically sells itself. That’s just not the case with unknown authors. Now, I’m not saying that celebrities’ books are necessarily bad. BJ Novak’s (Ryan from The Office) The Book with No Pictures is great. My kid loved it when he was young. He loved it even more than Mo Willems’ book with the same concept.
A second, related, reason is that I’m not any kind of influencer. My total social media presence is less than 800 people: 191 on Facebook, 111 on Instagram, 3 on Bluesky, 61 on Threads, and 387 on LinkedIn. I’m not even on Twitter. I’ve heard some people say that a traditional publisher wants budding authors to have at least 10,000 followers. This, again, is so that the author can do the marketing, and the publisher doesn’t have to.
A third reason is that I don’t have an MFA. I have also never attended a writers’ workshop. I don’t work in the industry. In other words, I have no real-life connections. There’s no one to recommend me to a publisher. It’s kind of amazing how many of the authors who are not celebrities were in the publishing industry for a long time before their books were published. Again, this isn’t a complaint. It can be looked at as paying their dues. And it doesn’t make the books bad at all. Juliet Grames’ The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is absolutely wonderful.
Maybe I’m cynical, but I’m guessing I wouldn’t have been successful if I had tried the traditional route. But there are positive reasons why I chose independent publishing. The main reason is that I was able to keep complete creative control of my book. I chose my editor and illustrator, the wonderful Marci Bohn, and layout designer and all that stuff. That means I could accept or reject their work at any time in the process. I rejected very little because I liked the work of the people I hired, but it was nice having the option.
I also got to choose the format and price point of the book. I went with paperback and $9.99. I’m not expecting to get rich off of my book. I wanted to make it as affordable and accessible as possible. That’s also why I chose IngramSpark to do the actual, physical publishing. Amazon would have been much easier, but then it would only be available on Amazon. IngramSpark gets it into every online store out there.
So, that was my basic thought process. Of course, the downside of publishing independently is that I have to do all the marketing of my book myself. In fact, this is a thinly veiled attempt at some marketing. If you have any interest in children’s literature, know any kids, like great artwork, etc. please get a copy of my book. And, if you do get a copy, don’t forget to rate and review it. That helps a lot.
All We Need – By Gene Glotzer (paperback) : Target
All We Need: The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t a book by Gene Glotzer and Marci Bohn
All We Need by Gene Glotzer; Marci Bohn
All We Need: The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t by Gene Glotzer | Goodreads
