INDIE JOURNEY : Denny Fried

My Indie Journey

My little dog, Genevieve, started barktating her memoirs to me in 1999, and all I had to do was translate them from Doggerel into English (she also made me type them, since she was afraid of getting carpal paw syndrome). I decided to self-publish the book, since I knew the odds against anyone else doing it, and I also liked the challenge of seeing what I could do in an industry whose entire structure is designed for the Bigs (Big Authors, Big Publishers, and Big Stores).

The book, Memoirs of a Papillon: The Canine Guide to Living with Humans without Going Mad, was published in 2000 by my own Eiffel Press. By dint of a quirky hook ("adorable little dog with a low opinion of human intelligence and a biting wit"), a lot of work and touring, and Genevieve's way with the media, we sold 20,000 copies over the ensuing years. In 2008 Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, bought the book and it's been revised and repackaged as a small hardcover that came out in May of 2009. The new title is Small Dog, Big Life: Memoirs of a Furry Genius. (Genevieve is always quick to point out that she's the furry genius, not me.) You can check it out at www.dogtellsall.com.

Here are some things I've learned in this journey.

You need a one- or two-sentence "elevator speech" that describes your book, and it must strike most people as truly interesting or smile-worthy funny.

Very rarely is any kind of advertising or promotion that you have to pay for cost-effective.

When you query an agent by snail mail, don't bother including the "required" stamped and self-addressed envelope. The only thing you'll ever get back in it is a form rejection-why waste a stamp for that? Just assume you'll never hear back from the agent and go about your business. If she is interested, she'll email or call you, or write you on her own stationery.

If you're a small publisher, trying to do business with Ingram, Baker & Taylor, or a distributor is akin to self-mutilation. Believe me, you don't need them.

As an author, the best way to be in the right place at the right time is to be in a lot of wrong ones. Ninety-nine percent of your promotional efforts will be a waste of time. But it's all necessary in order to score that golden one percent that helps. It's not true that you make your own luck, but the more lottery tickets you play the better your chances are of getting lucky.

You need to be courteously aggressive in making people aware of your book. Most people will be fine with it, but there will always be some who will take offense. You have to make up your mind that the people you offend are part of your cost of doing business. If you'd rather not offend anybody, that's fine, too, but nobody will know about your book.

Don't get too excited about what seems like a positive development, nor get too down about what seems like a disaster. In time, neither will be as momentous as it first seemed. Whatever the commercial outcome, you're engaged in a very worthwhile and interesting endeavor, and it's unlikely that you'll come to regret it.