In our series of self-publishing interviews, we are talking today to Jackie Barbosa, author of SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY, a historical romance novel.
Jackie Barbosa can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be an author when she grew up, but there were plenty of times when she wasn’t sure she ever would be. As it turns out, it just took her about twenty years longer to grow up than she expected!
On the road to publication, Jackie took a few detours, including a stint in academia (she holds an MA in Classics from the University of Chicago and was a recipient of a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities) and many years as a technical writer/instructional designer for a data processing company. She still holds her day job, but her true vocation has always been writing fiction and romance in particular.
Jackie is a firm believer that love is the most powerful force in the world, which that makes romance the most powerful genre in the world. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise!
You self-published your latest book, Sleeping with the Enemy. Would you please tell us why you chose the self-publishing route?
This is the fourth book in a series, and all the other books in the series are self-published. Given that, trying to shop this book to traditional publishers didn’t make sense.
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?
I’ve been self-publishing at least some of my books since 2011. I’ve also had books published by Kensington, Harlequin, and Entangled, so I’ve gone both routes. For this particular book, though, a publisher just wasn’t an option because, as I said earlier, the first three books in the series were already self-published.
At this point in my career, I’m hoping to place more of my future books with publishers, although I’m not sure I’ll abandon self-publishing altogether. I do love the freedom of self-publishing: the ability to set my own deadlines/release dates, choose my own cover art, set my own prices, and so on. But it is, in my opinion and experience, becoming increasingly difficult to get good visibility as a self-published author, especially if you aren’t very prolific (and I’m not!).
What different online stores carry your book?
Sleeping with the Enemy is available in digital format at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks (Apple). I’ve had limited success with Google Play, so it’s not there for the time being. It will also be available in print on Amazon.
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?
I…don’t, to be honest. I know some self-published authors who have been able to get their books shelved in some independent bookstores by reaching out personally to the owners/operators, but in the interest of keeping the price of the print edition low, I have a very tight margin on my print sales, so I don’t really have that much interest in maximizing them.
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?
All the covers in this series were designed by my friend and fellow author, Beverley Kendall. I think she does beautiful work. You can check out her portfolio here: http://smittenbybooks.com/blog/author-services/
So where do you see self-published authors making the biggest mistakes overall?
That’s a good question, and not one I feel one hundred percent qualified to answer. Personally, I feel that it’s incredibly important to have my books professionally edited and to hire a cover artist. But these days, I can’t say with certainty that those things matter as much as I would like to believe. I’ve certainly seen some authors succeed without investing in either of those services! All in all, I think there is a lot of luck involved in self-publishing and that luck can cut both ways.
What do you believe the biggest advantages are when self-publishing?
Being in control of everything. (Cue evil mastermind laugh.)
But a little more seriously, the one “power” you get as a self-published author that you can’t get from traditional publishing is the ability to decide how to use your backlist to promote your front-list and vice versa. Being able to change the price of a book—whether up or down—to maximize sales and/or revenue is a great advantage.
What was the hardest challenge for you to self-publish your book?
I’ve been doing this for long enough that I don’t find the process particularly challenging or difficult. For me—in part because I took a hiatus of about five years from publishing—the hard part of self-publishing is visibility and converting what visibility I do get into sales.
They say self-publishers are control freaks. Do you think there is a lot of truth in that?
I would say it’s true for me. The control is certainly the aspect of self-publishing that I like the most. And I am definitely a control freak in other parts of my life.
Did you get someone to format your book for you or did you do that?
I do the formatting myself. Back in the day, I used to do it with a program called Sigil and it was all manual HTML and stuff. Now I use Vellum and it’s a breeze. What used to take me 8-10 hours to do in Sigil, I can now do in about 20 minutes.
What steps are you taking to promote it?
I’m doing a blog tour and book blast and doing some guest appearances on some historical romance Facebook groups. I’ll probably do some ads around release day.
I also have the book discounted during the preorder period. It will be $2.99 until release day (September 15) and then go up to $3.99. So the early bird saves the dollar J!
Do you have any advice you’d like to share with other self-published authors?
I’m not sure it’s advice, exactly, but anyone embarking on self-publishing for the first time needs to be aware that it’s a gamble. It might pay off big, but it’s more likely not to. (That’s true of publishing with a publishing house, too, though, unless you’re lucky enough to get a very large advance.)
I like to say that the one sure way to make a small fortune in publishing (self or otherwise) is to start with a large one. In other words, I guess, if you’re just getting started in this game, be sure you’re doing it for love and not for money, because only the love is guaranteed.
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