This is an abridged version of a full-length article that appears in the premiere issue of the ePublish Yourself! e-zine, available on ISSUU.
Author, playwright, college English assistant professor, and educational consultant, Melda Beaty would like to see the books she writes stimulate an awakening of social consciousness. From her first self-published collection of essays My Soul To His Spirit: Soulful Expressions From Black Daughters To Their Fathers, to her stage play Front Porch Society, which delves into the complex lives of four elderly black women in the rural Mississippi Delta on the eve of the 2008 presidential election, Beaty wants readers to think and engage.
In her most recent self-published novel, Lime, the Chicago-based author juxtaposes common perceptions and illusions of modeling and beauty with the persistent crisis of domestic violence. Self-publishing too brings its own social challenges, as Beaty shares, though none that can’t be overcome with a combination of hard work and savvy marketing.
ePublish Yourself: What led you to become a self-published author?
Melda Beaty: At the age of nine, my mother introduced me to the game of Scrabble and I think that’s where it really began. She encouraged my vocabulary growth and, by high school, when school was out, I was reading novels in the summer and writing book reports for her. She wasn’t a teacher, but that’s what she required of me.
I remember that I was really into African-American authors, and it sort of turned a light bulb on in my head. From then on, English was my friend and I always did well in English courses. Ultimately, I ended up majoring in Journalism as an undergrad and Writing for my Masters degree. The storytelling part came during that time as well—I was always writing stories. I remember composing a story at the age of nine and entering it into my elementary school’s hobby fair. And I won!
Not to sound cliché, but from then on, stories talked to me all the time. The story for Lime began to speak to me back around 2003 or 2004. And it has been a long process in trying to get it published.
I guess the issue weighed on me more than I thought. And, as a writer, I just began journaling and writing about it. After I moved back to Chicago from school, I remember bonding with some girlfriends, and we would sit around and talk. I noticed that we all had very similar stories about our relationships with our fathers. I didn’t see a book at that point, but I did want to record their experiences and perhaps write a story about it.
What ended up happening was that I put out a call on the Internet and started collecting stories of black women across the United States. Amazingly, I received over 500 submissions, ranging from stories about daddy’s girls to fathers who were now deceased. I didn’t know what to do with the resulting book, so I went the traditional route. I tried to find an agent, and I got very close, but something about the contract didn’t sit well with me. So after some time, I just decided to pick up Dan Poynter’s book on self-publishing and I followed it to a tee. And that’s how I got that first book out. That was 2005.
EY: How different were your experiences with your current book, Lime?
MB: Today, it’s much easier and much more professional. In my case, I chose CreateSpace (an Amazon. com company), which I discovered through a segment on NPR about a woman who had a very similar story but kept getting constant rejections from traditional publishers.
For me, the CreateSpace process was just wonderful. They are so professional. For Lime, I had already hired a graphic artist and I did most of the editing myself, so we didn’t have to start from scratch. But the services CreateSpace provided were second to none. So today, as an independent author, there’s really no excuse, in my mind, for putting together a poor book. The writing needs to be done well, and that’s the responsibility of the author. But in terms of presentation and distribution, you couldn’t ask for better services.
EY: What were your goals when you started, and how were you going to measure success?
MB: It’s all relative, I suppose. Of course, there are sales and rankings. I hear about that constantly because I’m always on the Internet researching how to market and promote my book. But for me, success comes when people read my book and they write to say that they couldn’t put it down. When someone says, “I am not a reader, and it takes me forever to finish a book, but I finished your book in a day or two,” that’s success.
I also really believe that word-of- mouth recommendation is part of success. It’s important that a wider audience has an opportunity to read my book, made easier of course by being able to download a book right to your Kindle, for instance, and take it wherever you want. So for me, it’s not just a quantitative measure, it’s also qualitative.
EY: Was it ever your intention for self-publishing to lead to a traditional book deal?
MB: In the beginning, it was. I started writing Lime in 2004, even before I published my first book, and I just knew that I was going to get a big contract with Simon & Schuster or Random House [laughing]. So that was my intention. But I received stacks and stacks of rejection letters. And the most frustrating part was that everyone had an opinion about what I should do with my book.
Some felt that the protagonist needs to do this or, maybe I should limit that, or you need some of this, or you need more of that. And it got to the point where I kind of felt that I was losing my voice, and I was losing the focus of my book. I just didn’t understand why there was no general consensus of what needs to be done with my book. And that’s when I decided to create my own consensus and just publish it myself.
Now, I could probably try to go back to the traditional route, but honestly, I fluctuate back and forth. I’ve heard some of the horror stories [with traditional publishing] and I’ve heard some of the realities. And with as much marketing as I’m doing right now, I know that I’m going to have to do just as much with a major publisher.
On the other side, there’s something about having ownership and control of your book that’s fulfilling for me. That’s not to say that if Simon & Schuster comes knocking at my door, that I’m not going to open it [laughing]. But it is to say that based on what I have learned, it would make me pause and think twice about it.
EY: What are the special opportunities, and challenges, of using self-publishing to address special or niche topics?
MB: My first book might fit more along that vein because it’s a book about black women, their fathers, and the relationships and impact of those relationships on a black girl. Because this is a niche, in a sense, I had to find more innovative and creative ways to get that book out there. One thing I did was design a curriculum around the book. Being an educator, I thought there was some value in trying to get the book into the hands of black teenage girls. So you could get the book along with a reading and writing study guide that goes with the book. So one way to grab an opportunity is to be creative and innovative in what you do.
Everyone has a story to tell, but if you’re going to write about risqué or taboo topics, be prepared to reinvent the topic in some way so that it’s more acceptable to a mass audience. Domestic violence is not pleasant, but it’s real. There are millions of women, not just in the US, but around the world, who are experiencing it. And we have this new age of fashion and modeling that’s everywhere on TV today. That has allowed me to reach an audience about this topic.
Top of Melda’s reading list: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Favorite musicals: Annie and The Color Purple
Favorite radio programs: Fresh Air with Terry Gross and This American Life with Ira Glass
Most visited web site last month: www.meldacreates.com
Reminder: This is an abridged version of a full-length article that appears in the premiere issue of the ePublish Yourself! e-zine, available on ISSUU (free for a short period).