What can ‘Family Guy’ teach you about self-publishing?

Yes, I watch ‘Family Guy.’ Call it a guilty pleasure, but I’m not apologizing. It’s one of those shows you can sit back and watch without having to do a lot of thinking and get a few cheap laughs.

Believe or not, however, a recent episode I watched dealt with (in the beginning) self-publishing. To give you a brief synopsis: Peter Griffin is disappointed by the quality of the erotica at his local adult bookstore. So he writes a letter to the publisher expressing his views and also writes an example of how he would write an erotic novel.

Peter shows the letter to his friends and they are very impressed with his writing. He writes a little bit more and again, shares it with his friends and with his wife Lois. Everyone loves his work. Then, Lois suggests he self-publish his writing and tells him to ask her father, Carter Pewterschmidt (a billionaire industrialist), for some seed money. Carter gives Peter five bucks.

To make a long story short, Peter uses the $5 to make copies of his first erotic novel at Kinkos, then sells them to his friends for $10 a pop. Before long, he’s doing book signings at the local bookstore.

So what can this episode teach you about self-publishing? There are a few things I picked up that show self-publishing really is a viable alternative to going the traditional route. Here are some important points to remember:

Giving it Away for Free Now = More Sales Later!

Before Peter got his loan from Carter, he let his friends read his work for free. He passed his writing around and they immediately like what he wrote. So once Peter had his first book published (even if it was from Kinkos and stapled together), he was able to immediately start selling copies of his book for $10 each. With one sale, he doubled his initial investment.

I know this isn’t how the world of self-publishing really works. But the basic theory is still the same. Giving your work away for free in the beginning is not “cheapening” your novel. A lot of people are very adamant that no writer should give anything away for free.

To a certain point, I agree. However, giving some stuff away for free is a good idea, especially in the beginning. Think of it more as the cost of marketing yourself and your work. Large corporations give stuff away for free all the time in the name of marketing. Why should writers be any different?

If Peter hadn’t let his friends sample his writing for free, they probably would have been much more hesitant about forking over $10 for his book.

Self-Publishing Doesn’t Have to be Expensive

Okay, $5 to self-publish a book is pretty unrealistic. At the same time, you don’t have to fork over thousands of dollars either. One can self-publish an ebook on a very limited budget, making sales much more profitable.

The one caveat here is that quality should still matter when you publish your own book. Making a few dozen copies and stapling together just won’t pass muster in this day and age. This means some investment will be required, but if you really believe in your novel, it’ll be a small price to pay.

Find a niche

There is some disagreement about whether writers should stay within a specific niche or play around with different genres. While I think it’s valuable for a writer to write across all genres, when starting out in publishing, it’s probably a good idea to stick within the niche you feel most comfortable with. Once you’ve become established with a loyal fan base, then you can spread your wings and fly.

Peter found his niche in erotica. For him, it was a good place to start because of two reasons: 1) It was something he was interested in and liked and, 2) there was a large market for it, his friends included. These two factors helped Peter gain an instant readership which kicked off his sales – leading to a book signing at the local store.

Mistakes to Avoid

The one big mistake Peter made was having Betty White read the audio version of one of his books, causing an over-eager listener in his car to have an accident. Of course, why anybody would listen to an erotica audiobook in their car is beyond me.

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