June 27, 2013
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Review of The Self Publishing Playbook, by Shane Lee
I knew this book was a must-have as soon as I saw the chapter sub-headings. Not only has Shane Lee researched the success methods of twelve successful authors, he has extracted the key points and questions that each author has addressed strongly, and this hit me straight between the eyes, as all are questions that have troubled to me in my own marketing struggles.
The debate between the fading glamour of traditional publishing and the almost punk of self, the must of independent editing (which may not be a must) the relevance or not of the much-touted social networking: Shane’s twelve hit the lot.
There are many ‘How To’ books on the market in the field of self-publishing and book marketing, but in too many of them the source of guidance is the book’s author alone. I’ve read a bunch of them. ‘That sounds logical,’ I often think, chewing on one of the nuggets of wisdom asserted, ‘but is it really that way? Who is this guy insisting I must do this, or that, while so and so says just the opposite? Both tell us firmly how to market fiction, but has either written as much fiction as a short story?’
The answer is usually no.
Shane here takes a better, sounder route, standing aside as interviewer to let us listen directly to twelve real people, who have not only trodden the long, lonely road from blank page to final manuscript, but done it many times. Twenty times, in one case, which makes my own twice pretty tame. Yet, paradoxically, some have hit success on the first shot.
Without minimising the many difficulties to be overcome to achieve marketing success, Shane writes in an encouraging, up-beat manner as he interviews twelve authors to identify the ever changing does and don’ts. Each had a different story, and differed on some points I’d thought fixed and beyond argument, yet all agreed on points I’d have thought a matter of opinion; all in all, very enlightening.
Reviewed by Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven and Zorn.
