When I
first got my Kindle, one of the first books that I really got into on it was
one of the freebies. A book about a woman who has been through failed
relationship after failed relationship and finally has had enough. She steps
back from her life, quits her job, and sets out to follow a lifelong dream.
Anyone want to guess what that dream was? Being that it is me talking about
this, it might be a little obvious. She wanted to be a writer.
For a work
of fiction, I feel like I learned a lot from it. A lot about the process of
getting published. The actual hunt for an agent to represent you, the process
of the agent hunting down a publisher for you, etc, etc. The main character
went through it all. And I came to the end of the book dreaming. Dreaming about
publishing, putting my work out there for agents and publishers alike. That was
when I kind of decided I wanted an agent to represent me.
Bear, being
the practical mind that he occasional is, did not see the value in an agent. He
still doesn’t. And he encouraged me to only seek out an agent if I struck out
on my own for a while with no results. I tentatively agreed, though in the back
of my mind I still wanted that vision created by the book I read. Even though
it’s slowly being ripped to pieces.
There’s
another book that I got as a freebie on the Kindle, a lovely novel by Denise
Grover Swank. I randomly started it one night on a long drive home and
absolutely adored it. Come to find out later, its writer was a member of one of
my Facebook groups, a writing group created by Pagans with Pagans in mind. This
is the same group that, every time you turn around, seems to be discussing the
pros of self-publishing versus going through the traditional channels. As much
as it pains me to say it, they have valid points. Denise Grover Swank, a
fantastic writer, has done better on her own than with a publisher.
I want to
be published through the traditional means but the fact is that the industry is
changing, and I would be an idiot to not realize it. With the continuing growth
of e-readers and the digital format, publishers are feeling the pressure to
keep up with it. Not only that, but it’s a risk for them every time they pick a
manuscript out of the pile to publish, because no one can guess what will do
well on the market and what will not. It has nothing to do with the writing
quality; it could be the best book ever written but if no one buys it, it’s a
failure. So when a publisher chooses a book to publish, to market, to show to
the world with their label on it, it’s a monetary risk and an extremely large
one, with so many other writers clamoring to be let on the ride.
I’ve heard
tell that publishers will take to a writer more, will be more willing to look
at a writer, if they’ve had success on their own already, with independent publications.
It’s a slightly safer investment for them. And in this day of digital formats
and social media, some writers do just as well without a traditional publisher.
Some think that the traditional publisher is becoming a thing of the past.
So the
question not just for myself but for all writers of my generation is which
venue would be better. Independent publication or the traditional route with an
agent and editor sitting in some big office in New York City? I still want the
traditional route but here’s the thing about it.
Let me
finish the book first, and then I’ll worry about how to put it in print, how to
put clothes on it and take it out in the world for a spin. No one knows what
could happen so it’s always best to keep your options open.
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