Self-Publishing: Is it for You? Part 2

An interview by Marilyn Forsyth

Catherine Lee

A big welcome back to Catherine Lee, indie author of 'Dark Heart' and the recently-released 'Dark Past', who is here to share more thoughts about her journey along the self-publishing route.

Marilyn: Hi Catherine. Can you fill us in on why you’ve opted for self-publishing again with your new Quinn and Cooper novel, Dark Past, rather than attempt traditional publishing this time around?

Catherine: Thanks, Marilyn. It’s great to be here again. Basically I’m committed to the self-publishing process as a long-term option for my career, so it wasn’t really a matter of deciding at this point. I made the decision back when I published Dark Heart that I would commit to this process for at least five books and re-assess once I’d had my marketing strategy implemented for a significant period of time (which hasn’t even started yet). So it’s still early days.

Marilyn: So you might consider going that route at a later stage?

Catherine: Traditional publishing would always be an option, down the road, but I’ll make that decision once I’ve seen how this route pans out. The biggest turn-off of traditional publishing for me is the fact that you have to sign your rights away to someone else. It doesn’t sit well with me, after all that effort, to put my work in the hands of a stranger. To have someone else decide its fate. I’d rather fail on my own terms than have no control over whether it lived or died.

Image courtesy of inkygirl.com

Marilyn: That makes a lot of sense. It also puts you in control of the quality of your product. How do you feel about the glut of indie authors who, unlike you, haven’t engaged an editor to ensure the quality of their work? Do you feel it affects your own credibility?

Catherine: Professional editing is a must for anyone who wants to put out a quality product which readers will enjoy, engage with, and seek out more of. Those who choose to skip this step and publish a sub-standard product will quickly find out that readers are not stupid. They’ll slam a book in the reviews section if it’s not up to standard, and eventually those types of writers will be weeded out.

I don’t think they affect my credibility, as such, but it probably does still affect the perception of self-publishing in a lot of minds. It’s still very early days for this type of publishing. Once people realise it’s not the way to make a quick buck that they first thought, they’ll move on and, hopefully, only those of us who are serious about putting out quality products and building a career will remain.

Marilyn: How about a teaser for your latest book, Dark Past.

Catherine: It’s the story of Beth Fisher, a corporate lawyer who struggles to cope with the murder of her sister. She tries to keep her sister’s memory alive by finishing the family history research Jill started, but the project quickly becomes an all-encompassing quest to uncover the secret past someone is willing to kill to protect.

Marilyn: Sounds intriguing! I really enjoyed Dark Heart. Dark Past is on my Kindle and I can’t wait to read it.

Have you self-published? Did you find it a worthwhile experience? Do you believe the perception of self-publishing is changing?

Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk

To finish, let’s find out a little more about the main character from 'Dark Past', Beth Fisher...

Beth loves to love working as a lawyer for Fisher & Co., her family’s shipping business.

She loves to laugh at the antics of her two young children, Emily and Jacob.
She’d love to learn the truth about her family’s history, their business dealings and why people are being killed to keep these under wraps.

Self-Publishing - Is It For You? (Part One)

Catherine Lee

This week we interview Catherine Lee, self-published author of Dark Heart, a race-against-time thriller, and an exploration of cellular memory - can transplanted organs bring with them the memories of the donor?

Marilyn: Thanks for joining us, Catherine. Why did you decide to take the self-publishing route with your debut novel?

Catherine: I sent Dark Heart to an agent because I wanted to try traditional publishing. A rejection letter is a rite of passage and I wanted mine. It took five months before I finally got my rejection letter. The way I saw it, I could stick with that process and wait years to see my book in print, or I could do it myself in days. I wanted this book out in the world so I could move onto the next one. For me it was no contest.

Marilyn: How long did it take you to get Dark Heart to market?


Catherine: Self-publishing means you control everything yourself, so once you’ve had your manuscript professionally edited, you need to have your file in a format Amazon (or wherever you’re uploading it) will accept. It’s not hard: there are plenty who’ve done it and posted instructions on their blog. There are also programs that do it for you e.g. Scrivener (highly recommended). Next, get your cover design. To maintain a professional look, find a graphic artist and go through the design process.

Once you have those two things ready, the actual process of putting your finished product up for sale only takes a day or so.

source: dpaperwall

Marilyn: What about cost?

Catherine: By far the biggest investment is editing. For Dark Heart, I had a professional manuscript assessment done. This, together with feedback from fellow writers, suggested my manuscript was in good shape structurally. I finished with a copy edit by a professional. The other upfront cost is cover design. Mine uses a stock photo, which the designer changed slightly using blurring and angles, with text over the top. It’s simple, but effective, and was cheap. Depending on the design, you can pay from $25 up into the hundreds. Apparently romance covers are the easiest and cheapest to produce.


Here’s the breakdown of costs for Dark Heart:

• Manuscript assessment $500 
• Copy edit $550 
• Cover design $45 
• Print version cover design $45 
• Proof copy $30 

I’ll be using the same editor for both structural and copy edits for my next book, Dark Past, and expect editing costs to be around $1500. From what I’ve read, anywhere between $1000 and $2000 is what you should expect to pay for good, professional editing services.



Marilyn: Thanks, Catherine. But before you go, can you finish off these sentences?

I love to love...Getting caught up in the world I’ve imagined for my characters.


I love to laugh...With friends. They’re essential to well-being, and I’m glad I have a great bunch of friends.

I love to learn...Things I never thought I needed to know. For instance, from Ninety Percent of Everything by Rose George, I’ve just learned that more than 2 ships are lost at sea every week, yet we don’t hear about it. I find that amazing.



Do you have any questions for Catherine? Ask away!



In Part Two of this interview, Catherine talks about marketing your self-published novel. Stay tuned.


Dark Heart is available via Amazon.

Could you live with the heart of a killer?

Fraser Grant was a kidnapper, a vile, murdering sociopath. Now he’s dead. Murdered in his own home, the women of Sydney can breathe easy again. All but one. His final victim is still missing — chained up, running out of time, and awaiting a captor who will never return.

Detective Sergeant Charlie Cooper is desperate to find the missing woman alive. On the verge of quitting Homicide after a decade chasing the brutal killer, this is his last chance to atone for all the victims he failed.

After a life-saving heart transplant, Eva Matthews just wants things to get back to normal. But when she learns she has the heart of the serial killer, will nothing stop the nightmares that plague her?

Dark Heart is a detective story, a race against time to save a life. But it’s also an exploration of cellular memory, the intriguing medical phenomenon of patients receiving more than just an organ from their donor. The terrifying serial killer may be dead, but that is just the beginning…