Self-Publishing Part 1: ebooks, technology, and the creative process

When I started this journey, I didn’t plan on self-publishing. I thought I was creating an online business that offered classes to help people understand their creative process. The book idea came at the same time as the classes, but it seemed best to wait on it. I was wrong, of course, and ultimately wrote the book first to understand my energy, including having the authority to create something new under my own bandwidth and willpower. It was a new experience for me, and I felt pushed along by a current of intuitive guidance. Every time I tried to get others involved, it always fell apart, prompting me to choose my own direction, including working with independent distributors in the $1.2 billion dollar - and growing - self-publishing industry, according to EAbookspublishing.com.

While I have a tourist level of information and experience of the self-publishing industry, I am an expert on my creativity and have an in-depth knowledge of how technology and industry impact our creative processes, as it was my master’s thesis topic. Though everyone’s creative process is varied, we can focus on how the behaviors of technology and software programs impact our behaviors as both creative generalists and experts. The self-publishing path tends to force a direction and we’re told, “That’s just how it’s done,” or “It’s industry standard.” When we’re forced in a creative process and output that we don’t want to engage with, we find ourselves in a stream of self-doubt and lack, rather than creative flow. Understanding this push and pull brings in a new awareness of how industry and technology impact our creative lives, which are important for 21st century innovation.

Formatting

Creating an ebook is a process of letting go of your creative stretch, which is half the writing process, in my opinion. For example, the reader may not care about fonts, but the book's author, editor, and designer do. It makes our brains go haywire when our creative endeavor — something we have conceived and brought into the world — is cut down by a seemingly minor choice like font type. We all know how it feels when our creativity is undermined, and that’s what it feels like when you have to let go of something as simple as font choice.

Format is a big issue when creating an ebook because there are a lot of known unknowns. Reflowable format, as ‘industry standard,’ causes your copy to resize, redo, reformat and any other ‘re’ I can think of, including releasing you from your ability to control your artwork. The process is not intuitive; you have to keep trying different things until you get the best result. There are pros at this, but as a self-publisher, it’s disheartening.

File Types

File types are almost as varied as there are e-readers. While some people are valiantly trying to create a standard for the way we read online (because that is what an ebook is, a glorified webpage), the industry seems to be running away from it as companies develop their own e-readers and their own way of converting one file type into another. Proprietary file types for e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle, force self-publishers to rework their files based on the company’s software. Once complete, it becomes a one-two punch as the retailer takes control over the pricing, another opaque process.

The ‘universal’ epub file type gets you to most retailers if you’re willing to let go of the proprietary ones. Many people chose both, setting them up for more distraction. But the epub file isn’t clear either, because there is an epub2 and an epub3, which I didn’t know until I was done formatting and uploaded my file to be distributed. The file type alert that came back sent me up a tree for a few moments, but I came down quickly due to exhaustion from formatting — the proverbial “f**kit” moment, which shouldn’t be. It should feel joyful sending out a completed creative work into the world.

Pricing

In my opinion, ebook pricing is the Wild, Wild West of the so-called gig economy and is part of a wave that is ushering in its end. Pricing comes from the individual, but the ‘industry standard’ is to take a deep cut, or ‘discount’ on the book's price, leaving the author with little return on their creative endeavor. While it’s true that the service provided should be fairly compensated, fairness seems to be lacking for the person who put in the actual work to create. Lack is the key word here because it causes people to find a side hustle. Side hustles happen because the main job doesn’t pay enough to meet daily needs, which sends a person into a spiral of spinning time — not enough time to sleep, eat, be with friends, share with loved ones, etc. All of this becomes a misunderstanding in their hearts, which turns into a deep sense of shame and self-denigration. The unfair process of price setting needs to stop or there will be consequences out of our control. Just look at what happens when someone doesn’t get enough sleep. Enough said.

All this and more came up while trying to upload a single file for ebook publication. There’s more in part 2. From a creative endeavor perspective, there is much room for change, but there are many reasons why it’s good to self-publish. I approach it from a creative impact perspective, which also affects our economy, tied to innovation. I know many people are doing their best within the constraints of a system. But people set up the system, so we should model what we want from it, not the other way around. Coming up with an innovative solution is a gold mine that fixes the misinformation and malcontent in this billion dollar industry of ‘us vs. them’ and ‘more is less.’