Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2010

Most aspiring writers spend their entire lives insisting that they’ve got a decent book in them. Hugh Ashton went ahead and published his.

A technical writer of over 20 years, the long-term Japan resident found himself “between engagements” awhile back, and used the time to pen a novel entitled Beneath Gray Skies. It was, he says, “probably about my third or fourth novel that I’d finished, but the first one I really felt happy with.”

Finding a publisher wasn’t to prove easy, though. “If you’re not writing about Japan and you live in Japan, it seems that a lot of publishers and agents aren’t interested,” he notes. And by setting his book in an alternate 1920s where the American Civil War never happened and Confederates are rubbing shoulders with the Nazis, he hadn’t exactly made life easy for himself.

After a string of rejections, Ashton turned to online print-on-demand service Lulu. While self-publishing used to mean ordering a bulk load of books that often ended up getting repurposed as household furniture, websites like Lulu allow customers to print one copy at a time. They can also take care of finicky details, from designing a cover to getting an ISBN number and obtaining distribution.

“I was making music in ’78, ’79, and that was the time of the independent record label,” says Ashton. “I think that we’re seeing the same thing with fiction. So I call it ‘independent publishing’: it sounds better, but I also think that it’s actually closer to the truth.”

Kathleen Morikawa, author of the 2006 guide Self-Publishing in Japan: What You Need to Know to Get Started, agrees about this sea change in the book world. “With the state of the economy and the publishing industry now, I think many people, both authors and readers alike, are beginning to realize self-publishing may be one of the few viable options for new authors,” she writes by email.

Morikawa founded her own company, Forest River Press, to publish her first book, The Couch Potato’s Guide to Japan: Inside the World of Japanese TV. While conceding that print-on-demand services are an attractive option, especially for work aimed more at an overseas audience, she stresses that the route she took also has its benefits.

“One is control,” she says. “You do it yourself, you are in control of every decision. That’s huge. You are not at the mercy of the fine print, not dealing with a company thousands of miles away, and you have an entire print run at your fingertips.”

Either way, there are some issues that technological advances have yet to remedy: “No matter how you decide to publish, the biggest hurdle will always be sales and distribution—finding people to buy your book and a variety of ways to get the book to them.”

Ashton has tried a number of methods to promote Beneath Gray Skies: he established a website to plug the book and discuss self-publishing techniques, and has been gently encouraging readers to post reviews on Amazon—where, as he puts it, “all books are created equal.” He’s also been holding reading and discussion sessions around Tokyo, where a copy of the novel is included in the admission price. “Once they’ve got the book, they’ll probably read it,” he says, perhaps a bit too optimistically.

The next time I contact him, he tells me enthusiastically about a new service that he’s discovered, Smashwords, which lets self-publishing authors create ebooks and distribute them via retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

“There’s an awful lot of crap there,” he admits. “It’s all too easy to slam out something which lacks structure, style or sense, in any combination you care to mention, and upload it.”

Such, alas, is the company that self-publishers have to keep. “If there’s a barrier to be overcome in independent publishing, it’s the one of quality,” he says. Well, that and finding time to read all the damn things.

For more information about Beneath Gray Skies, see http://beneathgrayskies.com

To what extent do you think online services like Lulu and Blurb have removed the hurdles described in Self-Publishing in Japan?

Well, as I point out in Self Publishing in Japan, it has always been possible for self-publishers to throw some money at a company and in a month or two get a few boxes of books deposited on their doorstep. Now in the 21st century, high-tech world, you throw some money at an on-line POD (print-on-demand) company and in a few weeks they send you five books, and assure you they can print up more just as soon as someone orders one. You may have even prepared your own camera-ready copy for them and we call this progress! I don’t know. Is it? At least in the old days, you had actual boxes of books and if they didn’t sell, you could throw a furoshiki on them and call it a coffee table.

The important thing is to analyze your manuscript and have a clear vision of your book. Some books (such as controversial tomes, big-budget coffee table books with lots of photos, and university language texts aimed at Japanese students) don’t lend themselves to self-publishing. They need the resources and distribution channels of an established publisher. Books with a Japan connection that will find their primary audience inside Japan are often the best bets for self-publishing by setting up your own sole proprietorship (kojin jigyo) here in Japan. POD is probably one of the best options for books geared mainly to an overseas market (novels, poetry, memoirs, other books you want out there but may not sell many of), or for authors who really don’t have any time or energy to invest in publishing.

Are there any hurdles that you think self-publishing authors are always going to face – the jihi shuppan stigma, for instance?

Actually, the jihi shuppan stigma is probably very slowly beginning to fade. With the state of the economy and the publishing industry now, I think many people, both authors and readers alike, are beginning to realize self-publishing may be one of the few viable options
for new authors. No matter how you decide to publish, the biggest hurdle will always be sales and distribution–finding people to buy your book and a variety of ways to get the book to them.

Given how simplified print-on-demand has become, do you think there are still compelling reasons to set up your own company, rather than use a service such as Lulu?

Yes, many. One is control. You do it yourself, you are in control of every decision. That’s huge. You are not at the mercy of the fine print, not dealing with a company thousands of miles away and you have an entire print run at your fingertips. Also, I’ve read that in the US, the media can recognize the ISBN numbers of the POD companies a mile away and seldom if ever deign to give them review space.

Those who use POD often have trouble finding ways to make the book available here in Japan. Say, the book sells for 2,000 yen. They may be able to buy copies at a 50 percent author discount, but then they have to pay to ship them to Japan too, and local booksellers and distributors would like a 30 percent discount or more for handling the book. After all the hard work and effort, that doesn’t leave the author with much of anything. Meanwhile, the author will soon find a reader on Amazon marketplace trying to peddle their used copy for 1,200 yen. Most of all, self-publishing requires a sense of humor.

And of course, if you set up your own kojin jigyo, you’ve got a business and the potential for publishing all your future works, and you are no longer a self-publisher but a small independent publisher, who has merely opted to select yourself as your first client.

Hugh said that one of his biggest mistakes was not hiring someone to proofread his final manuscript.

Yes, the proof is in the proofreading. And that is another problem with POD. Usually only one proof is included in the deal. You have to pay extra for more and you really need at least two, preferably 3 or 4 to make sure all the mistakes in the first proof are properly corrected.

You should find a pro or several good friends to read the proofs for you. The author is just too close to the project. After you’ve written it and read it 10 or 12 times, you just don’t see it anymore. Whereas, every typo pops out at the reader in boldface and gives them just another reason to say: “Aha! Yappari! It’s a self-published book.”

Are there any other potential pitfalls that you’d advise people to watch out for?

Every book presents its own problems and solutions. The most important thing is not to go into debt to publish your book. The profits, if any, are far down the line and you don’t want to have a loan hanging over your head while you wait. Overall, the satisfactions of doing it yourself far outweigh the pitfalls.

See the Forest River Press website for more information.