Interview with Self-Published Author David H. Reiss

In our series of self-publishing interviews, we are talking to David H. Reiss who as he says was a weird kid with his nose in a book and his head in the clouds. He was the table-top role-playing game geek, the comic-book nerd, the story-teller and dreamer. Fid's Crusade is his first published book.
  

You self-published your first book, Fid’s Crusade. Take us through the process. You had an idea for your book, you wrote it, then you decided to find a publisher. What were your experiences with that? Or did you decide to self-publish without looking any farther?

When I finished the book, I started looking for a literary agent to represent me in my search for a traditional publisher. The process was slow, and the skillset required was very different from the one needed to write a book. I made a lot of mistakes early on.

I misspelled my dream agent’s name in my very first query letter. Lesson learned: Don’t write query letters at four AM.

My skills did improve, but the process dragged on. 

Over time, my single-minded drive towards seeking a traditional publishing deal began to fade. For one thing, I noticed that my particular sub-genre—superheroic prose—didn’t seem to be of high interest to the big five publishing houses (of the top one-hundred books in Amazon’s ‘Superhero Science Fiction’ category, only three were from traditionally published authors). For another…I realized that I had certain time-based limitations that mattered more than my immediate professional goals. My grandmother’s 100^th birthday was coming up and I wanted to give her a signed copy of my first published novel.

So, I started looking into self-publication and eventually formed my own personal publishing company. Again, the skillset required was very different from the one needed to write a book. Again, mistakes were made early on. 

I regret none of them.

If I’d stayed the course, I’m certain that I would eventually have located an agent and a publishing house for Fid’s Crusade—it is, after all, a very good book—but that might have taken years. I got to give my grandmother a signed copy of my first novel, and she got to read the dedication. Nothing else matters.

As I move forward as an author, I may decide that other works will benefit from a traditional publisher…but I also feel that self-publication was the correct choice for this particular series. I’ve learned a great deal from the process and will continue to improve..

Also, I’m having a lot of fun. 

What different online stores carry your book?

Currently, my eBooks are available only through Amazon, but the paperbacks are available to all online retailers.

Authors who go the traditional route have an edge over self-published authors in regards to distribution to bookstores. How did you handle that as a self-published author? 

Very, very poorly.

My paperbacks are printed via Ingram Spark and are available for distribution to retailers everywhere, but even after Fid’s Crusade was named a finalist for the Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize and was mentioned in Locus Magazine’s “2018 Recommended Reading List”, I’ve met with very little success attracting attention from brick & mortar bookstores. A few local stores have been willing to carry my books after local author events…but really, the overwhelming majority of my business has been via eBook sales and Kindle Unlimited borrows. 

On the other hand, self-published authors have the edge over traditional books in the regards that the author has all the control. I’d like to begin with your cover. Did you make it or did you have someone else design it? If you had someone else, can you tell us who it is?

Originally, I made my own cover for Fid’s Crusade. It was objectively terrible and book sales suffered as a result. So…I re-made the cover and improved the art a bit. Still terrible, sales still suffered, so I decided to get quotes from several cover designers. Eventually, I found Hampton Lamoureux from TS95 Studios.

He did a great job for Fid’s Crusade.

So where do you see self-published authors making the biggest mistakes overall?

That’s difficult to answer. Different self-published authors make different mistakes. I’m finding new mistakes to make all the time!

Although…if there’s one thing I do see fairly consistently, it is that many self-published authors (myself included) publish without having a clear marketing and advertising plan in place. Very few seem to have realized how much effort would need to be put towards self-promotion in order for even wonderfully-written and edited books to see any significant success.

What do you believe the biggest advantages are when self-publishing?

For my very-special case, the biggest advantage was the ability to set my own schedule as to when the book would be released. For the more general case, I think that the biggest advantage is that authors who choose to self-publish can earn greater royalties from every sale.

What was the hardest challenge for you to self-publish your book?

Self-promotion! I’m bad at it. 

I’m not particularly adept at building a social media presence nor am I skilled in salesmanship. Very slowly, I am learning some of the skills necessary to advertise my books. I expect that it will be years before I am even vaguely comfortable when confronting that particular challenge.

They say self-publishers are control freaks. Do you think there is a lot of truth in that?

Not really. I can see why self-publishing might appeal to control freaks, but I also feel that the possible reasons to self-publish are legion. Most of the self-published authors that I’ve spoken to just want to share their work with the world; the idea of focusing upon control simply wouldn’t occur to them.
Did you get someone to format your book for you or did you do that?

I formatted all of my eBooks myself. I hired David Bryant from Catspaw DTP Services to format the paperback version and he did a wonderful job, but I ended up having to make edits and re-format much of the book myself.

I did all the formatting, both for eBook and for paperback, for the sequels to Fid’s Crusade.
What steps are you taking to promote it?

Well, for one thing…I’m participating in interviews from interesting blog sites. J I also entered my novel into literary contests and was a finalist for the 2018 Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize (and winner of the “Science-Fiction / Fantasy / Horror” category), as well as being recognized as a medallion honoree from the Independent Book Reader Appreciation Group (IndieB.R.A.G.)
More generally, I am advertising on Amazon and FaceBook, running occasional promotions with third-party promoters like Book Barbarian or the Fussy Librarian, and sell at local book festivals and sci-fi/comic book conventions.

Really, I’m still learning.  

Do you have any advice you’d like to share with other self-published authors?

If you don’t advertise, it doesn’t matter how good your book is. No one will read it because no one will know that it exists. So…when you finish your first book…Wait. Take a deep breath and then start researching how you’re going to get your book in front of an audience. Don’t hit the ‘publish’ button until after you’ve developed a promotion plan!

The self-publishing community is remarkably supportive, and you can find incredibly helpful groups on Reddit and Facebook (and likely plenty of other places as well). Take advantage of those resources and make your book launch a success!

If you would like to find out more about David H. Reiss and his books, take a look at his website and follow him on Facebook or Twitter.