Today's post is more of a journal than anything. I thought I'd share a bit about my publishing experience and how A Thief Among Liars ended up where it did.
So, once upon a time...
I'm totally kidding. But also, I started writing A Thief Among Liars in 2018. So it was a long time ago. For those of us bad at math (myself included), that's six years from first draft to publication.
I get asked a lot if I went to school for writing now that I'm an editor and published author. Ironically, the answer is technically "no". I went to post-secondary for hair styling first, and then I wrote the original draft of ATAL (then called Thief of Hearts) between semesters at Humber College for Fashion Arts and Business. It wasn't until a couple years ago that I started taking online courses for editing, and by then, I had already written eight books.
Back when I started drafting A Thief Among Liars, I wasn't expecting to publish. I was just writing because I wanted to write. I had this idea for a story about a thief who had to steal something intangible. How would they respond? Why was it necessary? What did it mean for them?
And so, Ceylon was born.
From the beginning, I loved what this story could be. It changed a lot through the drafts. At first, it was only written from Ceylon's perspective. Through editing, I realized that it felt like something was missing, and I added in Malachi's perspective later.
When I finished the first draft, I wasn't really sure what I was doing with it, but I knew that I really liked it. It was the second book I'd written to completion, and it was so different from the first. I loved the emotion behind Ceylon's motivations. I liked that she was this tough, fierce thief who, at her core, was afraid of love.
I knew that this one was something special.
Eventually, I ended up passing the story off to some beta readers. From what I can remember, I had more than five different people read various drafts. The final version that went to publication was actually the tenth draft.
I started querying in 2023 after I'd shelved my first book. At the time, the book was called Daughter of the Underworld. (I had to change the title again when someone released a book with the same title the year before I planned to publish!) I don't remember how many queries I sent out, but it was something like 90+ (honestly, not that many in the grand scheme).
This project got feedback. I got partial requests and full requests and responses like, "Great writing, but I'm repping something too similar" or "Super fun, but not the project for me at this time."
It was frustrating to say the least. I know I'm not the only author who has been in the query trenches and experienced something similar.
I have a lot of respect for agents. I know it must be hard to get as many queries as they do. These feelings aren't a slight against agents by any means. Instead, I was frustrated at the publishing industry.
Here I was, along with other authors, who have fantastic books that are getting denied publishing access because of uncontrollable aspects. All the while, books that are marketable with less interesting content are being published every day.
I understand it. I've worked in marketing for years. Does that make it fair? No.
Basically, I got to a point querying where I was realizing I had something good. I could keep going and eventually find someone to represent me. But I didn't want to wait for validation from some publisher to tell me my work was good enough when I knew that it was already.
Now, I'm under no illusions that I'm the next big thing. I didn't write a book that will change people's lives. I wrote a fun story that's light on the fantasy and full of adventure.
The point is I am proud of it, and I knew that I would never be satisfied if I let someone else dictate the possibilities for my stories. I'd put so much time and effort into it that I didn't want to just set it aside. These feelings were supported when my critique partner told me one major reason she self-published was because she didn't want her kids to see her putting so much work into something she loved only to let it sit on the shelves for years. What king of message did that send her children?
I don't have children, but the idea of sharing possibilities struck a chord with me.
I was also fortunate enough to be able to afford an editor and a cover artist. I had the benefit of being relatively confident with my developmental elements as an editor myself and having gone through the sheer number of reads I did. I know that self-publishing is not possible for everyone in the same query-trenches situation that I was in.
So, in late 2023, I decided that I would self-publish. Based on my research, it seemed like the best method was to print through Ingram Spark in conjunction with Amazon for physical copies and optimal distribution. Then, to additionally list through Draft2Digital for eBook copies. That's what I did. (I have thoughts about Ingram, but I'll talk about those another day.)
For full transparency, here is my approx. cost breakdown after various exchange rates (in CAD):
Line Editor: ~$1600 (paid over 12 months)
Cover: $475
Map: $250
Proofreader: Free (from a friend)
Interior Formatting: $201.30 (one time cost for Atticus - formatted myself over ~7 hours)
Publish through Ingram Spark: Free uploads and revision within 60 days
Publish through Amazon: Free uploads
Publish through Draft2Digital: Free to upload, small fee per sale
Print Proof Costs: IS - $23.24, $103.29, $27.83; Amazon - $11.91
Giveaway and PR shipping: $75
Author copies: $422.55, $422.55
Copyright: $63
ISBN: Free in Canada
Costs I didn't mention but still paid for include: website and Instagram Ads, not to mention all the time I put into edits and re-reads and networking and research etc.
I think there are things I missed, but what's listed here totals $3675.67. For context, after one month of physical pre-orders and approximately one week of the book being out, I've made back about $1000 across all sales platforms, selling about 60 copies.
Do I think my sales will ever cover the publishing costs? Maybe not for a while. But I always knew self-pub was a long game. And again, I'm fortunate enough right now to be able to take those costs on.
Often, I would recommend a developmental edit and copy edit on top of the edits I did, but I'm trained in those areas, so I didn't necessarily need to pay someone else to do them.
I do think I could have made a bit more back off the top if I'd had more energy to market, but I didn't at the time. As it stands, I relied on Instagram and word of mouth and friends sharing about it in their circles.
But now it's in the world, and I'm really proud of it. I hope you love it, too. <3
If you have any other questions regarding my self-pub journey, I'd be happy to answer! Shoot me a comment or message, and I'll do my best to answer.
You can find purchase links here (paperback) or here (eBook) through my website, or online from Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Indigo, and Amazon, among others.
Happy writing,
Erin