{"id":84186,"date":"2018-11-02T14:35:34","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T03:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=84186"},"modified":"2018-11-02T15:58:04","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T04:58:04","slug":"dianne-blacklock-self-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2018\/11\/02\/dianne-blacklock-self-publishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Going it Alone: Dianne Blacklock on Self Publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Going it Alone<\/strong>
\nby Dianne Blacklock<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was one of the lucky ones. My first manuscript was picked up off the slush pile two weeks after sending it off. This is mostly unheard off, not because my manuscript was so brilliant, but because of that thing I just mentioned \u2013 luck. It was the year 2000, and my publisher had been looking for women writing stories about their everyday lives: that nebulous genre known as \u2018women\u2019s fiction\u2019. Right place, right time. Dumb luck.<\/p>\n

What followed were some of the most rewarding years of my professional writing career. Having my books edited, produced, distributed and marketed by a large publishing house was a privilege, not to be taken for granted. But things were changing \u2013 the internet had taken over the retail space in ways that are still having an impact. There are now hundreds of thousands of books published every year worldwide, and buying them is as easy as clicking a button. There was no time any longer to make an impact \u2013 in a few weeks your book would be replaced on the new releases stand and a copy or two relegated to the \u2018general fiction\u2019 shelves in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not complaining. I had an established and very loyal readership. My books always sold, but to keep up I needed to get a book out every year, come hell or high water, and if I really wanted to be successful, more than one.<\/p>\n

I discovered I couldn\u2019t write under that kind of pressure. I\u2019m full of admiration for those who can, I honestly don\u2019t know how they do it. But I\u2019m not envious. I relished the time I was able to spend gestating a story, writing and rewriting, shaping and finessing, and I realised I wasn\u2019t enjoying it quite so much anymore.<\/p>\n

So I told my publisher I was stepping off the treadmill. I took up editing other people\u2019s books and I love it. But the readers kept at me \u2013 when would there be another book? After dipping my toe in the waters of traditional publishing again, and recoiling just as quickly, I saw that there might be another way.<\/p>\n

\"dianne<\/a>Self-publishing has grown far beyond its creaky beginnings, and there are now unprecedented options for writers to produce as professional a product as the big publishing houses, with the same editing, typesetting, cover design.<\/p>\n

Distribution and marketing is more of a challenge, but as I still had that loyal readership, it was less of a risk for me than a writer starting out. And while I\u2019m not experiencing the massive highs of \u2018release day\u2019 \u2013 being ferried around to prearranged events by my own publicist, stacks of my books displayed prominently in stores \u2013 nor am I experiencing the debilitating lows of impossible deadlines, the frantic tracking of sales, the fear of rejection.<\/p>\n

I had the rights of my entire backlist reverted and now all my book babies are under my wing. It\u2019s a small business, but it\u2019s mine. I can choose what I want to write, when I want to write it, and I can go back to relishing the process, which is the only way I believe I can produce a book my readers will relish also.<\/p>\n

\n

About the Author
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Dianne\u2019s first manuscript was picked up off the publisher\u2019s \u2018slush pile\u2019 in the year 2000, and since then, she has written ten novels of contemporary fiction.<\/p>\n

To find out where Dianne is appearing to talk about her writing, you can follow her on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for her newsletter, Book Chat, which she shares with fellow authors, Liane Moriarty and Ber Carroll.<\/p>\n

You will also find news about upcoming courses, seminars and workshops. Dianne is also a busy freelance editor, working for a number of Australian publishers. To find out her rates and availability, or to discuss your project, please feel free to email her directly below.<\/p>\n

Click here to view Dianne Blacklock’s books<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us @The Booktopian<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going it Alone by Dianne Blacklock I was one of the lucky ones. My first manuscript was picked up off the slush pile two weeks after sending it off. This is mostly unheard off, not because my manuscript was so brilliant, but because of that thing I just mentioned \u2013 luck. It was the year 2000, and my publisher had been looking for women writing stories about their everyday lives: that nebulous genre known as \u2018women\u2019s fiction\u2019. Right place, right time. Dumb luck. What followed were some of the most rewarding years of my professional writing career. Having my books edited, produced, distributed and marketed by a large publishing house was a privilege, not to be taken for granted. But things were changing \u2013 the internet had taken over the retail space in ways that are still having an impact. There are now hundreds of thousands of books published every year worldwide, and buying them is as easy as clicking a button. There was no time any longer to make an impact \u2013 in a few weeks your book would be replaced on the new releases stand and a copy or two relegated to the \u2018general fiction\u2019 shelves in alphabetical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":84192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6677,1],"tags":[1638,9352,2303,9353,9354],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Social-dIANNE-bLACKLOCK.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84186"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84200,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84186\/revisions\/84200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}