Why (And How) I'm Self-Publishing My Novel

The First HUSK Update!

When I started writing Crypto Confidential in 2022, I knew I wanted to traditionally publish it.

I suspected (correctly) that publishing with one of the big five was better than it was made out to be, and I ended up being very happy I went that route.

But when I started working on my sci-fi novel, Husk, I was faced with the same question as two years ago: do I want to try to traditionally publish it? Or do I want to self-publish it?

In my last author update I said I was planning on shopping it around to publishers once the draft was in a good place. But since then, I’ve changed my mind and have decided to self-publish it, targeting the end of May 2025 for its release.

This is quite a big change in my thinking from a few months ago. I’m not certain this is the best decision for everyone, but I feel quite confident it’s the best decision for me.

So if you’re curious, here’s how I got there, and how I plan on self-publishing it to create the best book possible, one that doesn’t seem like it was self-published, without having to work with a big publisher.

The Benefits and Downsides of Traditional Publishing

I want to be clear that there is a strong case for traditional publishing. I’m not going to pretend self-publishing is some incredible hack and traditional publishing is an awful choice. It’s quite a bit better than many of the self-publishing influencers want to make you think it is.

The benefits of traditionally publishing the novel would be similar to the ones I experienced for Crypto Confidential. I’d get an advance. I’d have a team of editors helping me out. They’d handle the cover design and layout. It would be pushed out to book stores. International deals would be easier. There would be a marketing and PR team. I wouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket.

But there would be one big difference related to getting the deal:

My Audience Wouldn’t Matter as Much

When you pitch a novel, the editors acquiring it care much less about your audience (newsletter, social media, etc.) than they do when you’re pitching a nonfiction book.

Obviously that’s idiotic. An author with even a 1,000 person email list could move significantly more books than an author with no email list. But novels are purchased by publishers more for the story, whereas nonfiction books are often purchased more for the author’s ability to sell them.

So while your audience effectively determines whether or not you get a deal in nonfiction, your story is the main decider in fiction.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, the story is good! But I have a much lower chance of getting a big advance, and as I talked about in the trad publishing article, I don’t think it’s worth working with a big publisher if you can’t get a sizable advance.

Now that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. But even if I did get a large advance…

The Order for Pitching a Novel is Very Different

When you pitch a nonfiction book, you only need the table of contents and one sample chapter to show you’re not an entirely awful writer.

When we signed the deal for Crypto Confidential and I got my first check, I was a ways into the first draft but I was far from being done writing.

But when you pitch a novel, you need to have the entire finished book. You aren’t getting an advance to go write the book, you’re getting an advance for the work you already did.

Getting a deal de-risks a nonfiction book considerably because you know you’re getting paid for it before you even start writing. You don’t get that same kind of security from pursuing a deal in fiction. And on top of that…

I’d Be On Their Timeline

This didn’t bother me when working on Crypto Confidential but the idea of being on a big publisher timeline again is demotivating. More demotivating than I anticipated.

I can work very quickly when I’m motivated. I wrote the first draft of this novel in just under four weeks. But publishers are slooooow. If I sent the draft to my agent in January he probably wouldn’t start pitching it until February, and then it might take until March or April to get a deal, and then the book might publish a year after that.

I don’t have the patience for that anymore. I know the best way to improve at this is to get as many (high-quality) reps in as possible, and shaving a year off the timeline means getting better faster and building my anthology faster.

Staring down the barrel of this book not being out until 2026 was draining my energy. The other thing that was draining my energy was…

Lack of Control has been Demotivating

Something changed in me about my relationship to work two years ago. Since deciding to pursue entrepreneurship in college a little over a decade ago, I’d been in the driver’s seat, whether I was working on my site, my marketing agency, crypto, hell even my kegels app, I was in control.

For better or worse, this is the only way I do my best work and feel excited about it. Whenever I need someone to give me permission to do something, I lose most of my excitement and drive.

Character flaw? Maybe. But I’ve felt a little lethargic and lower-energy the last couple years and I think this is a significant part of it. Needing a publisher to say “yes we want to publish this,” needing them to approve of the cover, needing them to help manage parts of the process, it’s led to a lot of frustration that I tried to get myself comfortable with but haven’t gotten there.

This should be a benefit of working with a publisher. Having someone else handle these things is definitely a benefit but I think the problem has been feeling like I don’t have that final say. At the end of the day, if they don’t want to do something or want to do something a certain way, they’re in control.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

In favor of working with a major publisher, I have the benefit of someone who’s done this thousands of times, handles all the cost and production, can push the book into stores if they want to, can make something that looks really professional, and no risk of financial loss.

But on the side of self-publishing, I have regaining creative and timeline control, higher potential financial upside, speed, and the fun of trying something new.

Like I said it’s not a clear cut winner either way, but the more I thought about trying to do this on my own instead of going the trad pub route again the more excited I got about the idea.

And at the end of the day, excitement is the most important part. If working with a publisher was draining my energy but trying to figure this out on my own was giving me energy, doing it on my own was clearly the way to go.

There are also a few benefits to self publishing in fiction vs. non-fiction. Readers care much less about whether something was self-published in fiction, and self-published novels get picked up to be republished more often. Hell Hugh Howey’s self-published series WOOL just got made into an Apple TV series. So I don’t think it hurts the potential success of the book very much.

How I’m Self-Publishing It

But then there was the big question: how do I self-publish it? My highest priority (after writing a damn good book) is making Husk look as close to a traditionally published book as possible.

And unfortunately, most self-published books look self-published. The cover is mediocre, weird font choices, there are formatting issues, the audiobook doesn’t sound right. If I’m going to do this, I want it to look as good as something the big five put out. I don’t care if most readers won’t notice. I will.

So doing it entirely on my own was out. I’m not a designer, not a copyeditor, I can edit my work but obviously I want other eyes on it.

I looked into hiring independent contractors for the different parts of the process but ultimately decided that would create a significant set of headaches around finding and vetting talent, and managing timelines across different contractors.

Ultimately I decided to hire Scribe. Scribe primarily works with nonfiction authors, but I talked to their CEO Eric and we figured out a plan for adapting their process for Husk. They aren’t doing any of the writing, as they do for some of their nonfiction authors, but they have fiction editors to help me edit the book, found a cover designer for me to work with, and basically adapted their process to help me turn this into the best book possible.

To be honest I was a little hesitant given their expertise is in non-ficiton, but so far, the process has been exceptional and exactly what I was looking for. The cover for Husk is awesome, and designing it was honestly a much more seamless process than when I was working with PRH. I’ll share it soon.

The next step will be to send them my manuscript in January, do a final round of edits through February, and then work on finishing the package.

I’ll keep updating as I go, but I want to end by mentioning how excited this new process has me. Working on Husk has been more fun than I expected, and I can’t wait to share it with you.