Self-publishing and Traditional publishing

[Cianz]

I'd be interested to know what fellow Litopians thoughts/experiences, are about first self-publishing and concurrently looking for agents/ publishers to publish traditionally. Is this seen as a a complete no-no?

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Some agents and publishers are still snooty about self-publishing, but many use a writer's sales and online author platform as a quick way of assessing their commercial appeal. They do the same thing with shortlisted authors in writing competitions. It beats wading through the slush pile.

You could adopt a damned if you do, damned if you don't attitude towards whether to self-publish while querying literary agents, but, I prefer to look at it as blessed if you do, blessed if you don't. It's all good. With writing, you're in control for much of the process, meaning you have to generate self-belief. The worst thing to do, and many writers do it, is to fall into the trap of waiting around for the opinion of a literary agent about their manuscript. That wait could be short, just a few days, but months often drag by; my record wait was two years for a two-person agency to reply with a rejection.

Do things in the meantime. Write the next story, write outside of your comfort zone, maybe tackling poetry. Keep yourself interested in being a writer, when it feels like those of influence don't give a damn that you exist. They don't, unless they think they can make money from your words.

One thing that will help your career, whether you self-publish or secure a publishing contract, is to build an author platform. Most writers are averse to this notion—I was, hoping I'd get an agent—six years and 650 rejections later, I finally pulled my finger out and started blogging and designed a website dedicated to my crime novel series and made social media posts. This all feels very abstract, a million miles away from writing, but you have no way of knowing what will catch someone's eye. These days, it's crucial to interact with readers. That's true if you're an Indie self-publisher or in thrall to a book publisher. The feedback is helpful and shares of posts you make spreads your influence.

I'm not pretending things are easy. Self-publishing a book is as easy as making a few mouse clicks, but selling it is another thing, requiring much self-promotion and marketing—which will wear you down. It's the main reason that writers chase a publishing deal, hoping that their book company will make them into a best-selling superstar. The way that advertising budgets are these days, debut authors are expected to hype themselves. My attitude is, if I'm going to be coerced into shooting my mouth off by my publisher for a minimal cut of the profits from sales in two years, then I may as well do so for myself for all of the profit right now!

 

[Cianz]

Great info Paul and sage advice. Thanks.

 

[Jackson Banks]

I'd be interested to know what fellow Litopians thoughts/experiences, are about first self-publishing and concurrently looking for agents/ publishers to publish traditionally. Is this seen as a a complete no-no?

It depends. If you mean self publishing a book we will call" X" and then trying to get an agent to represent that book, they are going to say no unless you have massive sales. At minimum, I have heard at least 30k copies and that is not discounted or freebies given away.
If you mean to publish X and then later write another book,"Z" and query that one, there is no harm.

Jane Reid, an agent in the USA had quite a few post about this very subject. Why wouldn't an agent/publisher want to give a self published title a chance without loads of sales? The answer was simple. You tried it, it failed and now you want them to risk their time/money. Its a fair point.


I think this quote from Jane Friedman is good as well.
"One of the most frequent questions in my inbox is: “I’ve self-published, but now I want an agent. How do I get one?” Usually the writer wants an agent because they’ve been disappointed by their sales or have experienced frustration in getting readers. Other times, the author’s plan was to self-publish first and magically attract attention that would lead to a traditional book deal—something that is even more of a rare occurrence than landing a book deal through the slush pile. "

How to Land an Agent for a Self-Published Book | Jane Friedman

If you've given up on the self-publishing route and want to try traditional publishing, then there are several approaches you can take to interest agents.

www.janefriedman.com

 

[RK Wallis]

I just posted a video by a best selling author who, amongst other things, talks about both here https://colony.litopia.com/threads/the-future-of-reading.6085/.

Personally, I've done both to some extent. I queried my first novel (a memoir) and a top Aussie agent responded within a week. Fantastic, hey? But, no. Then I was introduced to the time it takes to shop around publishers. The end result? Editors loved it, but financial teams didn't. It's too niche a market. I wasted a whole year. My agent recommended I self-publish, and within 2 weeks, I had. So trad is slow, self-publishing is fast.

As a side, did you know the actress who plays Daenrys from GoTs had an aneurysm? I'm thinking of reaching out to her about my memoir, probably come to nothing, but I wrote for stroke awareness and she may be sympathetic to that.

But have a watch of that video, some books are better served by trad and some are better served by self-publishing - know your target audience. Now I've done the self-publishing, I know the marketing is damn hard, and as I'm not able, it's physically too hard (and I'd rather be writing). I'll try trad-publishing going forward despite the long waits.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I know a fair few authors who've done both. I've self-published five novels, and have two more in revision at the moment that are also destined for self-publishing. However, I'm working on a manuscript that strikes me as potentially "commercial" (i.e. I think it might have a broad audience, and seems to fit in well with stuff I see coming out from the major publishers at the moment). If I still feel the same when I finish it, I'll most likely shop it around to agents and publishers before I consider self-publishing.

The worst that can happen is they say no, so why not?