Should You Publish Your Book on Medium?
Back in 1974, I self-published a fantasy novel for kids and adults, The Lizard of Oz. That was long before eBooks and print-on-demand. I provided the printer with pasteups that they used to make film for use in offset printing. Very few people self-published in those days.
I hand-lettered the text to give it a child-like feel. Great illustrations by Christin Couture and an eye-catching cover by my old college roommate Dave Gleason helped me get reviews in Library Journal, The Booklist, and The Philadelphia Bulletin. For about $1000, I got 1000 copies. The reviews led to orders from libraries. When the first printing (with hand silkscreened covers) sold out, I ordered a second printing of 3000. When that was about to sell out, I ordered 5000 more. I still have a few boxes of those in my closet.
I had hoped that this self-publishing success would lead to interest from major publishers. No such luck.
More than forty-five years later, I returned to The Lizard, expanding it and making many improvements. I packaged it with other children’s stories of mine and sent out queries to over fifty agents and publishers. Still no luck.
I considered self-publishing this new edition as eBook and print-on-demand. But then I discovered Medium (thanks to Alison McBain, who edits a Medium magazine Morning Musings). I’ve been experimenting here since September. I’ve posted nearly 200 stories, essays, poems, and joke collections and have over 1500 followers. I’m making less than $30/month at Medium. But that is double my combined royalties from five novels in print at a small independent press. In print, I’m reaching only about five customers/month, and at Medium, I’m getting 1000 viewers and 330 readers/month.
So it finally dawned in me — why go to the hassle and expense of self-publishing and self-marketing, when, at no cost, I can probably reach a larger audience and even make a few dollars more by posting the book at Medium.
So, I’m now running an experiment, publishing The Lizard of Oz at Medium, one chapter per week, through Morning Musings. The ToC with overview and links to the chapters is here. Feedback welcome: seltzer@seltzerbooks.com.
