Just curious - have you tried to submit your manuscript to agents or publishers, or is there a reason why you're going with self-publishing? My understanding is that of all the genres, literary fiction is one of the hardest to do well in with SP.
(And I have been meaning to check out one of your books - I'm just trying to thin out my existing TBR list first!)
The problem is that I've been working on this particular project for so long as this point that once I get a final manuscript together, I don't want to have to deal with it for one moment longer. I don't want to put together synopses or query letters for it, and I don't want to send out a dozen manuscripts in the hopes that one publisher might take a bite, and I don't want to wait a year or more for the book to be released. I know that comes off as impatient, but I really do just want to move to the next project, and I feel like the best way to do that is to self-pub the book and be done with it
( ... )
Oy. Have you been reading Konrath and Dean Wesley Smith?
So, regarding getting a print deal: once you self-publish (and that includes putting it online for free), you've lost your first publishing rights. No agent or publisher will touch it. Yes, there are some rare exceptions, like Amanda Hocking or the recent 50 Shades of Grey, but that only happens when the self-published book has already been proven to have a massive readership.
It is true that, unlike in the past, self-publishing is no longer such a stigma that it will be hard for you to get a publishing deal in the future, but not with anything you have already published yourself.
As for agents: a good agent negotiates a better deal than you'd get on your own. That's why most authors keep them, even once they are successful enough that they don't need an agent just to get published. IP attorneys aren't negotiators and they don't have the industry contacts.
I read DWS's "Think Like a Publisher" series back when I was in the final stages of my first draft. I haven't read any of Konrath's writing, but I'm given to understand that he's even more militantly anti-traditional than Smith. If I'm honest, I sipped the Kool-Aid, and I confess that it was tasty
( ... )
Comments 4
(And I have been meaning to check out one of your books - I'm just trying to thin out my existing TBR list first!)
Reply
Reply
So, regarding getting a print deal: once you self-publish (and that includes putting it online for free), you've lost your first publishing rights. No agent or publisher will touch it. Yes, there are some rare exceptions, like Amanda Hocking or the recent 50 Shades of Grey, but that only happens when the self-published book has already been proven to have a massive readership.
It is true that, unlike in the past, self-publishing is no longer such a stigma that it will be hard for you to get a publishing deal in the future, but not with anything you have already published yourself.
As for agents: a good agent negotiates a better deal than you'd get on your own. That's why most authors keep them, even once they are successful enough that they don't need an agent just to get published. IP attorneys aren't negotiators and they don't have the industry contacts.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment