Thanks for stopping by on your tour for Untold Tales! As we talked about before, you are a hybrid author, having both traditionally published your As
The World Dies Trilogy with Tor (Book Three SIEGE coming out April 24th),
as well as self-publishing your other works, including Untold Tales, a
collection of short stories related to the As The World Dies universe. Can you
tell us a bit about why you’re self-publishing Untold Tales?
Rhiannon: Thanks
for having me back! The first untold tale was originally written to
support the trilogy when I self-published it. I wanted to give my fans
some new material while reminding them about the upcoming publication of the
the three books. I am basically doing the same thing now that the three
books (THE FIRST DAYS, FIGHTING TO SURVIVE, SIEGE) are being published by
Tor. I like giving my fans some new insight into the supporting cast of
characters while promoting the main trilogy at the same time. Short story
collections usually do not sell very well (unless you’re a huge name), so the
Untold Tales collections are not something Tor was interested in. I did
let them know I was self-publishing the Untold Tales. They agreed it was
a good marketing idea.
Me:
I love this aspect of self-publishing – the freedom to write something for fans
(or for yourself), knowing you can publish it, regardless of the sales
potential that a publisher has to consider. Of course writers want sales as
well! But with the low overhead associated with self-publishing, I think
writers can take more risks, think more outside the box, whether to reward fans
or entice new readers or just write something that they love (and see if it
finds its audience). This is something I did recently as well, with my short
prequel story MIND GAMES, part of the IN HIS EYES Anthology with the
Indelibles. It was part marketing effort, but I wrote the story explicitly to
give fans an insight into a non-POV character (Raf), as well as intrigue new
readers. And it has turned out to sell really well! Do you see more of these
kinds of non-traditional uses for self-publishing in the future, either with
your own works, or the writing community in general?
writer, I have noticed that the market for short stories is drying up in the
traditional world. I’ve been invited to a few anthologies (I turn down
all of them last year due to time constraints), but overall there really isn’t
a lot of short fiction being published like in the old days. I remember
finding really old copies of anthology magazines at my local library that were
full of unique fiction by very famous names. Those aren’t around
anymore. I had a lot of short fiction just sitting on my hard drive and I
recently went through all of the stories at the urging of a friend to publish
them as collections. I reread my short fiction and realized I really
wanted to offer them to the public.
The first short story collection called BLOOD & LOVE AND OTHER VAMPIRETALES was just released exclusively on amazon kindle. I’m selling the
paperbacks for five dollars on my website. It contains all my vampire
short stories and has a beautiful cover from Claudia McKinney of Phat Puppy
Creations. I’m offering it for .99 and so far the reception has been
really good. I’ve set aside my other short stories with horror themes to
be published in a separate collection in a few months. It’s definitely a
way to give my fans new fiction while providing a little extra income for me on
top of finding a home for short works that may not be published otherwise.
When it come short fiction or novellas, story formats that aren’t popular
traditionally, I definitely feel self-publishing can be the answer.
Me: That’s great that you’ve got such a treasure
trove on your hard drive! And what a treat for your fans as well! So, you’ve
got Tor re-issuing your AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy, you’re touring for the
UNTOLD TALES collection, and you’ve got more short stories coming. What else do
you see yourself doing in the future? Do you feel that the option of self-publishing
has changed the way that you write, or the kinds of things you would consider
writing in the future?
Rhiannon: Right now I’m undergoing the submission process with Tor. I wrote up three book
ideas, they chose one they liked, but asked for revisions on it. I was
fine with that because the book is in its infancy and not fully formed in my
mind yet. Since I write organically, I know the majority of the story
will come to me when I write it. The summary is a guideline. I have
returned the revised synopsis and first chapter to my agent and once she’s done
going over it, she’ll either have me do more work on it, or it will go back to
Tor. My editor at Tor has been amazing to work with, so I hope to
continue that relationship. I’m not particularly stressed over this
submission though. I don’t feel like if she rejects the idea my career is
over.
Because self-publishing is a viable option, I know that whatever the major
publishers reject, I can publish on my own. Major publishers reject good
books all the time. They reject GREAT books all the time. If the
story doesn’t fit what the publisher is looking for they’re not going to buy
it. My agent has told me many times she has turned down representing
authors who write really well, but their stories are not ones she can sell to
the publishers.
I did withdraw my two vampire series from consideration after I realized I did
not want to go through the same process I did with the AS THE WORLD DIES
trilogy. It was a great learning experience to revise the three books,
but it was mentally exhausting to take what was written for fun online as a
serial and shaping it into actual novels. I burned out on going over the
books over and over again. I don’t want to do that with my vampire
series. On top of that, if I were to sell the series to the big
publishers it would be years before the fans would see the next
installment. The first of the series would have to be reissued first.
Self-publishing has definitely given me a lot more peace of mind and power over
what I write.
seriously speaks to me and I feel the same way about having self-publishing as
a viable option. My career feels like it’s in my hands, and I’m the kind of
person that really flourishes in that kind of environment. Thanks so much for
sharing your thoughts with us today! And best of luck with all of your
projects!
***********
You can find all of Rhiannon’s books on her website, including the As the World Dies Trilogy and her Untold Tales collection. She also has the world’s coolest Twitter button.
Reminds me of when Stephenie Meyers put out her novella for free as an ebook. Good marketing maneuver.
Rhiannon, you've said so many good things in this post. But the main thing I want to point out is what you said about the low cost of overhead for self-publishers. This, in itself, makes self-publishing a viable option. I self-published 10 years ago when the process was costly. And, even though I have chosen to go traditional now, I know that self-publishing is still a good option. Because like you said, there are some stories that publishers just won't buy, regardless of how good they are.
Thanks, Rhiannon and Susan.