The Word on Self-Publishing and Querying Agents

A friend asked my opinion about the large number of writers who seem to self-publishing while looking for an agent. I've seen many agents mention this trend, and not in a good way. My advice is to think long and hard about what you want from publishing and don't jump into it. But I think, the word needs to come from the voice of someone more experienced. I asked my agent, Sarah Negovetich, to give the agent side of this topic.

Thanks for having me, Michelle.

I want to talk for a minute about self-publishing. And while we’re getting started, I want to put it out there on the table that I happen to love self-publishing. It’s great that authors have so many options for how to get their work to readers. It’s great that people who want to have control over the process have a way to do it. It’s perfect that niche topics and genres that aren’t a great match for the traditional publishing model can still be read by the people who love them. And, I myself self-published my debut novel. So let there not be any confusion as to how I feel about self-publishing.

There, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the huge self-publishing conundrum that this opportunity has created. If you follow the news in the literary world it’s hard not to see the amazing stories of authors who first decided to self-publish and then found themselves on the fast track to super stardom with a traditional deal in their pocket. Hugh Howey, Amanda Hocking, Cora Carmack. All authors who self-published and are now hitting best sellers lists left and right.

It’s tempting for authors who may be striking out in the query trenches (or just terrified of jumping in) to self-publish first and then hope the big deal shows up. But the people listed above are the exception. An anomaly in the vast world of publishing. For the vast majority of self-published authors that never happens. And that’s when I end up with their query in my inbox telling me about this amazing book they put on Amazon that they think could be huge if only a big publisher was willing to get behind them.

Sadly, now it’s too late. You see, what isn’t spoken about is that in order for those big names to become a blip on the radar, they were already selling massive amounts of books on their own. And they didn’t pitch to the big publishers; the big publishers came to them.

If you are only selling a handful of books a month, you’ve already created a case study for a big publisher that says your book isn’t what readers want. And that may or may not be true, but why would an editor risk sinking money into a project that has already shown a low reader interest? And even if your book is doing fairly well, most editors aren’t going to be interested. They have to believe that they can help your book reach an audience it isn’t already finding. Decent book sales alone are not enough to land you that deal.

In fact, as a general rule I would say that if you haven’t sold at least six thousand books in the past year, you’re chances of getting the attention of a publisher or agent are slim to none. Yep, that’s a lot of books. Nope, very few people sell that many. Again, self-publishers landing traditional deals is the exception.

Here is my plea to all the authors out there considering self-publishing. Understand that you can’t plan to be the exception. Self-publishing is not a short cut to getting an editor or agent’s attention. If you make your book available for sale on a retailer’s website, it is published, and there is no undoing that. So think very carefully before you self-publish that manuscript. Decide if that’s what you really want to do and if you can be satisfied with that route. Self-publishing is not a means to an end with a big fat traditional deal sitting at the bottom of the rainbow. It’s a publishing decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. 

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Sarah Negovetich knows you don't know how to pronounce her name and she's okay with that.

Her first love is Young Adult novels, because at seventeen the world is your oyster. Only oysters are slimy and more than a little salty; it's accurate if not exactly motivational. We should come up with a better cliché.

Sarah divides her time between writing YA books that her husband won’t read and working with amazing authors as an agent at Corvisiero Literary Agency. Her life’s goal is to be only a mildly embarrassing mom when her kids hit their teens.

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RITE OF REJECTION

Before You Stands the Future

Straight-laced, sixteen-year-old Rebecca can’t wait for her Acceptance. A fancy ball, eligible bachelors, and her debut as an official member of society. Instead, the Machine rejects Rebecca. Labeled as a future criminal, she’s shipped off to a life sentence in a lawless penal colony.

A life behind barbed wire fences with the world’s most dangerous people terrifies Rebecca. She reluctantly joins a band of misfit teens in a risky escape plan, complete with an accidental fiancé she’s almost certain she can learn to love. 

But freedom comes with a price. To escape a doomed future and prove her innocence, Rebecca must embrace the criminal within. Amazon

Getting the Call: Kendra DiAngelo

Deciding to self publish can be a really big deal. More and more often, I'm hearing of authors having great success taking this route, especially in romance and sci-fy/fantasy genres. Kendra DiAngelo is one of those brave people, forging their way with the new technology. Thanks, for sharing your story, Kendra.

I had dreamed of being an author since I was in high school. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I’d been blogging and writing stories for as long as I could remember. English and Literature were my favorite classes in school. I was probably about 19 when I started writing my first real novel. I could picture it on the shelves at Barnes and Noble, see it eventually made into a movie.

I never finished it.

Honestly, that was probably a good thing. My writing has come a long way since then, and I keep doing what I can to make it better. 2008 was the Great Year of Suck for me. My grandfather passed away, I was laid off from my job (that I LOVED) and my mother fell and broke several ribs, all within the span of about 5 months. Not exactly the best time. Now I won’t lie, the first month or so of being unemployed was pretty nice. I’d started working straight out of high school at the local library and didn’t know what it was like to not have to go somewhere every day.

After those first few weeks, however, time started to drag. Just as I was getting desperate for some sort of project, a flash of inspiration hit, and I started visualizing scenes from “Prince of Light.” I started writing everything down as fast as I could. I had all day every day, after all. The story just poured out, one scene after another. When the final sentence was complete, I sat back and felt a great sense of pride. I’d never actually finished writing a book before. I was elated.

So I let one of the teens that I had known at the library read it, just to test the waters. She was an avid fantasy buff and checked books out constantly. Low and behold, she loved it! Next step was letting the teen librarian read it, since she did a regular “Book Talk” at the high school and middle school every month and would know whether or not it would appeal to teens. She loved it, too! Several edits and a couple of other readers later, I thought it was ready to start sending out.

Here’s where I show my lack of experience. I thought I didn’t really want an agent. (Go ahead and laugh. It’s okay.) That’s right, I discovered pretty quickly that the majority of publishers out there won’t even acknowledge you WITHOUT an agent. Go figure. Well, I still thought I knew better and researched every small press and publisher that took unsolicited manuscripts/queries. None of them accepted my work.

Looking back now, I can see that my query letter…well, sucked. Big time. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know how to sell my book. I didn't have a hook or a dynamic description to make an agent want to read my story. I stumbled across the site agentquery.com and consequently found its sister site, agentqueryconnect.com. There I found a plethora of fellow writers, several that just so happened to be in the same boat I was. I started lurking at first. Then I got brave and started interacting. Now I love it and visit there every day, if I can. I posted my query for them to rip to shreds and got excellent feedback, then started querying every agent that represented YA and fantasy that I could find. All of this was over the space of about a year and a half.

Not. One. Single. Request.

Does it end there? Nope! I was discouraged, but I still believed in my story. The more I continued to research self-publishing, the more I realized that it was no long a "dirty word." Big name authors were turning to self-publishing so they could have more control over their work. Unknown authors were being discovered. I finally made the decision that I could be one of them. By now I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I was more prepared than I had ever been before. I got a professional opinion from my cousin-in-law, who is also a young adult author, and finalized the last aspects of the plot/edits. I asked a photographer friend of mine to snap a few photos for a cover (using my brother’s girlfriend as a model) and put those rusty graphic design skills that I’d been hiding to good use. Cover complete, edited to the best of my ability, and blurb as exciting as it could be, I let my work speak for itself, out in the vast interwebs of Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Do I still want to be traditionally published? Oh yeah. I have a stand-alone novel that’s not a part of the “Prince of Light” series, and I would love to see it get represented by an agent. Am I happy that I chose self-publishing for this particular project? I really am. I had the final say in my story. The cover got to be exactly what I envisioned. I’ll get a higher royalty.

Self-publishing means more work on your end, but I believe that the rewards can still be the same as traditionally published. Ultimately, don’t let rejections or bad circumstances get you down. I probably could have worked at that library for the rest of my life, but if I hadn’t been laid off I would never have written “Prince of Light.” There wouldn't have been enough time. So keep your spirits high, fellow writers! Don’t be afraid to explore what fit is right for you, whatever venue that may be, and never give up. J

Links:
Prince of Light on Amazon
Prince of Light on Barnes and Noble
Blog/Web Site:http://kcrivers.com

Getting the Call: E. B. Black

We are switching gears this week to hear from a writer that decided to go the self-publish route. It sounds like E. B. Black knows a thing or two about marketing and promoting. I'm sure her new book will go far.

Some authors publish their book after getting a call from an agent, other authors publish after getting a call inside themselves. The second kind of call was the one I received.

Most people don't know this about me, but years ago, I ran a general talk forum that was somewhat popular. My friends all tried to do the same and their forums died quickly. I expected that to be the case with me as well.

Instead, my forum lasted for two years, until I deleted it. It had hundreds of thousands of posts and hundreds of members. How did this happen? Because I advertised for my forum every day. I added content to it regularly and held contests on it. I was obsessed with it and got lucky finding the target audience for it.

When I decided that I wanted to be a writer, I began by writing every day. I dreamed that someday I'd be published and in every Barnes and Noble store, until I met several members on AQConnect. I was trying to write my first query letter and needed advice.

I heard about how many of them had self-published. I read their books and was impressed by the quality of them. I realized that although it's very unlikely that a self-published book will sell a lot of copies, it's no less unlikely than me getting a publishing contract and becoming a bestseller.

It reminded me a lot of running that forum and I was thankful for that experience. Advertising is very similar. People get just as annoyed with spamming links to your forum as they do with spamming links to your Amazon Buy page. I learned basic HTML and graphic design in order to keep the lay-out of my forum nice. Now, I use those things to create cover images and format my e-books.

Self-publishing is not for people who don't like doing everything themselves. It's a lot of hard work that doesn't always involve typing out stories. I find it relaxing, but not all writers will feel the same. Because everyone's path in life isn't identical.

Your heart and experiences will call you in the right direction. Follow it.

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E.B. Black lives in SoCal with her family and two rottweilers. She daydreams about dressing up like a necromancer for Halloween and fantasy worlds she can throw her characters into.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/writerblack
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003033921752
Blog: http://deathauthor.blogspot.com/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Medusas-Desire-Death-Series-ebook/dp/B00ABMAW5K/