The hit crime writer explains why he gave up on print publishers and professional editors and struck out on his own
John Pye -theguardian.com,
‘Why hang about waiting for a publisher to realise how good you are?’ … John Pye
Why did you choose to self-publish?
I spent a great deal of time attempting to get published in the conventional manner. After two years, the penny was beginning to drop that normal publication for an unknown author is virtually impossible. The return of just a few of the manuscripts in surprisingly pristine condition led this retired police detective to suspect its pages had never even been "thumbed". The few replies I did get all included a stock phrase - "not for us".
A birthday present of a Kindle set me thinking and so I began to look into independent publishing this way; it seemed fairly simple and there did appear to be some workable methods of promoting the book. The snag, of course, being that all the publicity would be down to me. I was confident that anyone who actually read my book would enjoy it but realised that it would still be an almighty task to get the general public to notice. I was fortunate to meet up with successful Stoke-on-Trent author Mel Sherratt (Taunting the Dead). Mel talked me through how she had used the Kindle route and how it had rocketed her to the bestseller charts. She went on to explain how useful Facebook and Twitter had been to her.
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I spent a great deal of time attempting to get published in the conventional manner. After two years, the penny was beginning to drop that normal publication for an unknown author is virtually impossible. The return of just a few of the manuscripts in surprisingly pristine condition led this retired police detective to suspect its pages had never even been "thumbed". The few replies I did get all included a stock phrase - "not for us".
A birthday present of a Kindle set me thinking and so I began to look into independent publishing this way; it seemed fairly simple and there did appear to be some workable methods of promoting the book. The snag, of course, being that all the publicity would be down to me. I was confident that anyone who actually read my book would enjoy it but realised that it would still be an almighty task to get the general public to notice. I was fortunate to meet up with successful Stoke-on-Trent author Mel Sherratt (Taunting the Dead). Mel talked me through how she had used the Kindle route and how it had rocketed her to the bestseller charts. She went on to explain how useful Facebook and Twitter had been to her.More
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