INDIE JOURNEY : Andrea Beaman

The Road To Self Publishing

My journey into the world of book publishing, and escaping to become a highly successful self-published author began after naturally curing my "incurable" thyroid disease. I decided to write a book about the experience. After typing the final sentence onto the last page, I sought a publisher. I grabbed the first book off my shelf, opened to find Putnam publishing company, and did what any excited author who just finished writing a book would do, I called.

I said, Hi I'm Andrea Beaman. I just finished writing my book and want to send it to someone at Putnam to get it published." There was long silence on the other end of the phone.

I said, "hello? Is anyone there?"

A woman replied, "I'm sorry, but we don't take unsolicited material."

"Unsolicited? What does that mean?"

"It means you need to have your book agent send us the book so we can review it and decide whether or not we want to publish it."

"I don't have a book agent. Can I just plop it in the mail and send it to you myself."

Another long silence.

"Hello?"

She said, "I'm sorry, but that's not the way it works. Publishing companies do NOT accept unsolicited work. Your work needs to be sent by an agent."

I took on the task of finding an agent. I wrote a query letter and book proposal, and sent it out to one-hundred and sixty-seven book agents. I received four responses. One was from one was from a big shot at CAA. His assistant called and asked for my manuscript. Two weeks later I received a letter, "Thank you for sending us you're manuscript. After reviewing you're manuscript, we do not believe this is the right material for us. Good luck with you're book. Please keep us in mind for other projects (no period)

I thought to myself, "what a horrible injustice! I was rejected by an agent with four grammatical errors in one paragraph!"

The second agent wanted the first three chapters of the manuscript. She called a few days later and said she loved the book, couldn't put it down, and wanted to see the rest of it ASAP! I sent off the remaining chapters and waited to hear back. After three weeks, and no response, I called and asked if she enjoyed the book.

She said, "Well... I couldn't put down the first few chapters. Your story is compelling. The experience with your mother and breast cancer, and then changing your own diet when you got sick with Thyroid Disease, and how you took animal foods out of your diet out to help you heal was great. And then, in chapter five, you added animal food back into your diet and it didn't work for me. If you could rewrite chapter five and talk about the benefits of eating more vegetables, and not add the meat back in to the book, I would take this project on."

I said, "Well... that's a nice thought but, the name of my book is The Whole Truth, so not adding meat back into my diet wouldn't be the Whole Truth. I eat meat."

The third agent asked for the manuscript and I received a call from her two weeks later. She said she wanted to contact me directly to tell me how much she enjoyed my work and my story. It was a page turner that inspired her to take action on her own health. But, she said, "you do not have a platform, and without a platform, no publisher will pick this book up."

I said, "What the heck is a platform? Is it made out of wood? Can I get one at Home Depot?"

She explained that a platform is a place from which you can sell your work. For example, movie actors have fame to stand on, a doctor affiliated with a hospital has a large practice, or a chef working at a famous restaurant; all of these are considered valid platforms. And, I had none. It was just me, my modest teaching/counseling business, and my book.

I said, "I believe in my work and I am passionate about it. I think my book can help many people in the world - just as it helped you. And, if you like my work, and I believe in my work then the platform will surely grow as I continue to grow."

She said, "I'm sorry. That's not the way it works in the publishing world. You need an established platform before a publisher will take you on."

I finally got a book agent and signed with her for a year, but heard the same negative feedback from major publishing companies. They said, "The market is saturated with books on health, and who is she anyway? She's not a doctor, she can't say those things about the pharmaceutical industry, she's doesn't have a television show, she doesn't have a restaurant, she doesn't have a platform, etc."

They focused on the things I wasn't instead of the major thing I am: passionate about my work and teaching people how to eat better, feel better, and raise their level of consciousness around their diet and lifestyle choices.

Two years had passed since I finished writing my book and I was frustrated with the publishing industry. I continued teaching, cooking and counseling, and my business and platform kept growing.

One day, while standing in line at the post office, a man walked in and stood behind me. He was carrying a pile of large envelopes. I recognized from the same health food store.

I said, "Hi. We shop at the same health food store on third avenue." He said, "Yes, the health food store... I've seen you there, too."

I pointed at his stack of envelopes and said, "What are you doing? A mass mailing?"

He said, "I'm sending these manuscripts out to get published."

"Published? How?"

He said, "It's EASY."

"Easy? I just spent two years of my life trying to publish a book. How the heck is it easy?"

"Very easy," he reassured me. "You can either download your manuscript directly to the Lightning Source website or send it in like this and they will scan it for you. Then, they will bind it, create a book, and print it for you. It's print on demand. You can purchase one copy or one-million copies."

I was dumbfounded and thought, "It can't be that easy?" But, it was. Within three weeks of that conversation I had published my first book. It was the most amazing experience. I felt like I had given birth to a baby that I had been carrying for over two years.

When, I wrote my second book I didn't even bother with the standard publishing route, I went direct to print on demand and published it as soon as it was ready.

Since self-publishing my books, my health counseling business has grown. I teach over two thousand students per year at the Institute For Integrative Nutrition and The Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health. I've been featured on Bravo's TOP CHEF, The VIEW on ABC, The Fine Living Network, CBS News, and I host two shows, WISE UP and FED UP, on a health and wellness channel called Veria. Needless to say, book sales are good and I get to keep ALL the profit. Self-publishing has been an amazing experience for me and who knows what it can lead to:

Some great examples of self-published books (that may or may not have gone on to be picked up by major publishing companies) include:

Amanda Brown, self published her first novel, Legally Blonde, as a Print on Demand (we all know what happened to that book). Before selling the rights to Putnam, Julia Cameron, self-published the Artist's Way. Arlene Eisenbery self-published What To Do When You're Expecting - it was picked up by Workman and sold over eight million copies. Lynn Grabhorn sold eighteen thousand copies in six months out of her garage of her self published book, Excuse Me Your Life is Waiting. Louise Hay self published her classic You Can Heal Your Life, then formed her own publishing company, and is now one of the top 100 publishers in the world. Hugh Hefner self-published the first issue of Playboy. That was all he needed - one issue to create an empire. Robert Kiyosaki self-published and sold more than a million copies of his Rich Dad, Poor Dad. James Redfield sold over eighty-thousand copies of his self-published book The Celestine Prophecy, out of the trunk of his car, before it was bought by Warner and went on to sell over five million copies. Tim and Nina Zagat self published their first Zagat Survey in 1979. By 1998 the New York Zagat alone sold more than six-hundred thousand copies. Mark Twain paid for the publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when he tired of the foolishness of his publishers. He then invested the money earned from the sale of that book to help develop one of the first working typewriters. Henry David Thoreau (one of my favorite authors) self published Walden on August 9th 1854. He had to self-publish. He rebelliously took off into the woods to live an "anti-society" life and no one wanted to take a risk and publish what he had to say about society when he returned. Beatrix Potter self-published The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1901. Publisher Frederick Warne who originally rejected the book, later bought it in 1902 when he saw the monetary potential for it. It has since sold over forty-million copies and just like the energizer bunny is still going and going and going...

There are thousands of self-published authors who had an idea living in their head and wanted to share it with the world, regardless of being rejected by mainstream publishing companies. No matter how many times you get rejected it does not mean that your work is not worthy, or needed in the world.

Trust me. Believe in yourself, have passion about your work, put your energy behind it, and get it out into the world. We need more revolutionary voices that refuse to be quieted. Get out there, share your work, and make some noise!