I stopped querying my novels once I realized that literary agents don't like my type of stories 😂😂😂 I self-published my first novel "Ruined" and never looked back. The book has done well in sales and has won an award. However, now, a publisher wants to buy the rights to my novel and I was told that I should get an agent but this bothers me because why should I go beg a group of people (Literary Agents) to represent me now that there's money on the table? I got this far without them. If I get an agent now I'll never know if the agent is representing me because they loved my work or because I was a guaranteed check.
Find an attorney with experience in publishing. They can review any contract you might get offered and will charge a flat hourly rate for the service (not a permanent percentage). An agent is for helping you GET a deal. Don't do all the upfront work yourself, then give away your hard-earned reward.
The question is- why would you want to give away your rights to a publisher? I did that with my first book and I regret it greatly. Why? 1. I had no rights to my own book! 2. I still had to do all my marketing- I got me into a tv and radio to give interviews about my book, did a few workshops, created a FB page etc it was all back in 2009. My book sold out overnight, got two more reprints. My publisher didn’t do anything to boost the sales. 3. The publisher changed the owners who then decided that no more reprints and there’s nothing I could’ve done to change that 4. To get back my rights so that I can self-publish is a very complicated process and I just gave up 5. Even though it was a bestselling book I didn’t earn much because the publisher took all the money, all I got was fame which doesn’t feed you, is it? My new book is with an illustrator right now and I will self-publish. Yes it costs me money to get it printed etc but I’m sure it’ll be worth it at the end because I’ll get to keep all the money, and rights to my book.
i was investigating self publishing, and i found that it appeals a lot to women over 50. as a woman over 50, I can relate. by the time i get through query process. get an agent, get submissions and an editor i may not be around to enjoy it.
I love writing, but I loathe self-marketing. I would love if my work was read, but I couldn't care less if I made any money from it. Seriously, I'm not doing it for the dough. I'm considering self-pubbing just to get the book out there, then move on. If I still have to spend time marketing myself, what's the benefit of having an agent?
When you talk about not being able to generate more business for a self-published book...I thought the point of being represented by an agent was, they would help sell your book to a publisher. And then that publisher would put some money behind marketing it: ads, author blurbs, getting reviews in well-known periodicals, etc. All the things the author of a self-published book may have trouble achieving. Isn't that the whole point of an agent?
00:01 Intro 04:10 Can I query my self-published book? Better to write a new book 09:35 Hybrid publishing - what can an agent do for the traditional publishing side? 12:40 Can self-publishing negatively impact my career? 14:10 Whichever you choose is fine, depends on your vision
Fascinating video. I did self-publish my novel, Distorted Perceptions, because I didn't feel that it fit into traditional genre definitions, and yet, would not describe it as "literary" in style. The process was extremely challenging and overwhelming, and I can certainly appreciate why many authors prefer traditional publishing.
This was a very valuable video for anyone interested in either (or both) routes. As a writer aiming to be a hybrid/use both routes, it was especially valuable to hear your thoughts on why an agent might not want to rep a previously self-published book. What you've shared makes a lot of sense from a business viewpoint.
I"m just starting to watch, so I don't know where this video will go. I've been represented and published in traditional (non-fiction) - and have 5 novels self-published. My observations are: 1) I'm sooooo happy folks are reading my books over several years while I find traction with an agent - still coming up nil. If I hadn't indie'd, those stories would still be languishing on my hard drive. 2) I have great feedback through which I have improved as an author 3) I have learned how incredibly hard it is to get traction - and thereby grown MASSIVE respect or agents/publishers/authors who break through (just or that exercise in humility and gratitude, this exercise has been worth it). My question is - I have a novella that has twice been #1 Amazon Best Seller. Re-reading it I saw that I can do it much better - something I have done... and it grew to a complete 80k word novel. Can I re-name, re-brand and submit it to the trade as new?
Thanks for the insight on how Agents view self-published books. And I understand that publishing a book for a publisher is all about money! To a publisher, a book means business, with a team of writers at his beckon and call. However, there are some writers out there like myself, who do not care about contacting an agent or a publisher, and who have never contacted one period. Like me, they Write and Publish themselves, because they love to write and share their stories. I have 18 books to date that I hope my Descendants will one day read. To let them know that their Grandmother, or Great-Great- Grandmother, has left something of herself behind for posterity. Something for them, besides leaving money. TB Riggs.
Your statements are somewhat inconsistent. You wouldn't let my previous self-published career influence your opinion about my current book, provided my sales of those self-pubbed books were good. If they aren't you will very much take that into account.
Thank you!! I learned a lot. You were so honest and informative. Understanding how self pub could impact traditional pub's attempt to sell books to bookstores based on prior sales gave me pause lol. I.e. barnes and noble example of looking at prior sales.
It is financially far better for the author if they can self-publish and market for themselves, and the only thing an agent can really offer is this kind of "marketing help." A lot of romance authors who are wildly successful are ditching their agents altogether and using an employee or sometimes their spouse to handle the marketing side for them while they write. Agents better start sweetening their deals or more people might be tempted to do this.
Now I feel sheepish for having emailed and asked about this. 🤭 I think I will finish catching up on all your videos before I try asking more questions!
Self-published books may *technically* be in the same market, but self-pub books don't have the market penetration that trad does. Your local B&N isn't going to order and stock a self-pub 99.9% of the time. Their shelves are for trad pub.
Should you even mention that you self published in your query if you don't even plan on using that pen name? Also I've heard that many publishers are not spending much on marketing any more, and the benefit of going traditional isn't as much as it used to be. Thoughts?
My book is self-pubbed but still has no Internet sales (I can't propmote for crap). All of my sales are to people I directly interact with. Assuming a book is available to everyone just because it's online is a mistake.
What kind of past sales as a self published book is good enough to help with a trad pub debut? I get it's a weird question but I keep hearing people only mention self published books if they sold well but I'm not really sure what agents consider selling well? Like if I've self published a few avente garde books that got several thousand sales each is that worth mentioning?
If the publisher is counting on the author bringing the marketing reach (as per Jessica's comment, 7:33) to the publisher, this seems to negate the need for a publisher in the first place. If a publisher can't get an author's work to a large market, what's the purpose? If the author has to create the product and then find the customers it seems like the publisher is a third wheel. If this question doesn't make sense please reference the movie "Office Space" for clarification - "What would you say, you do here? 🙍♂
Your comment reminds me of something I heard from a man who (at that time) had been a publisher for 40 years. He said, "I am looking for three things when looking at a new book: (1) A great concept, (2) Amazing writing, and (3) a Famous author. Okay, so if Stephen King and J.K. Rowling walk through the door with a fresh, new manuscript, he is ready to go! Makes sense - just eliminate 99% of the risk.
I’ve chosen to study a Bachelor degree in creative writing rather than just self teach in order to self- publish, because as a reader for three decades, I trust and respect the traditionally publish path more than the ease of self publish. Don’t get me wrong, in the last decade, I have read a good mix of both Trad and Indie published books - and I have many favourites from both. One thing I will say, is that traditional publishers have been slow to embrace diverse voices, sexualities, experiences and ideas, and that is where Indie publishing has filled a void, and those who do it well, succeed. And I follow traditionally published authors, who have been inspired to write something different, shop for that book to be published in traditional channels only to be told “it won’t have a market,” self publish it and for it to hit best sellers lists - but they have their name to promote it. But, I think the difference between both platforms, is that Independent authors get the brunt of public critique straight up from the press of “publish,” and it takes time to build repeat customers and word of mouth, and promotion (and they will be critiqued by how well they have written, how well the book has been edited, copy edited, promoted, right down to choice of book cover); whereas authors that publish traditionally, benefit from being critiqued from day one while trying to securing an agent, right through the process to publish, plus promotion by the publishing brand, libraries and book stores, before publish. Both still have to entice customers to buy their products though, to be paid royalties...
In Australia at least up to about a decade ago, you could self-publish simply by finding a good quality book printing company in your city. I did this myself by asking an illustrator friend who lived here in Adelaide S. Aust, for her recommendations. I chose a local printer from a shortlist of three, and away we went. I did a 500 copy print run, and sold over half of them (and could have sold the rest quite easily by self marketing) but I discovered the printer had ''cutting corners'' with production the binding was not consistently high quality. So I chose not to sell the remaining copies, I gave most of them away....not the best outcome in the end. But only because the printer I chose turned out to be on a downhill slide and a few years later went out of business (no surprise there). I did learn a lot from the process. At that time, it would have been great if the genre I was writing in was as well developed as it is now! In that case, I think my chances of finding a publisher would have been far higher (thus avoiding finding my own printer and doing the whole thing myself). The book was placed in a couple of high quality bookshops in my city, where it sold quite well but most of the sales were generated by me - at $20 a copy - by taking them to cultural events where I sold them out of a picnic basket! It's called Artful Living in Celtic Homes (illustrated).
5:00 I wonder whether it's *really* accurate to say, "Now, when you self-publish, you are instantly reaching that mass audience." Given how algorithms treat authors -- how they treat everyone -- is that premise true? Look at how deeply commercialized the Internet is, now. Aren't we still beholden in great measure to virality -- which is to say, people talking about the book, critics reviewing it, media covering it, et cetera? The Internet, glorified as it may be, still comes down to people. Algorithms game us all for maximum profit. How large a "mass audience" you really reach online isn't some kind of egalitarian, meritocratic lottery. Only a utopist would think it is.
I am not interested in self-publishing, but I am interested in every element of design that is involved in creating my books. How would you react to receiving an actual finished physical book as a query? Again, not self-published, as it would not be available for sale in any way other than traditional publishers.
Most agents no longer accept queries via snail mail, so we would not recommend sending a finished product to an agent! Please query them via their requested means (typically QueryManager or email, depending on the agent).
I'm assuming that at least some of my work will wind up not selling through traditional publishing. If I self-publish those works (so I can at least some return), would I be better off just using my name (or pseudonym), or at that point should I come with a separate pseudonym to avoid running into problems with publishers/book buyers? Or does it just make more sense to hold onto older projects in case I wind up establishing myself where those previously-rejected works may get a second chance through traditional publishing? How often do authors get a re-roll on older submissions that didn't get picked up?
After 3 years or writing and 300 rejections before getting a publishing contract, it's going to take another YEAR before my book is published. And this publisher will only take on 1 book a year from me. In the meantime I have another completed manuscript and 2 more WIPs. Trad pub can't keep up with me. As practice in learning how to use KDP, I published 2 connections of short romances. They started selling immediately even though I did minimal marketing. That does it. Self pub for me. I am 70 years old. I don't have time to spend years trying to get trad published.
I am interested in publishing traditionally, but my social media following is not high in numbers. Will this effect a literary agent decision to take the book on if they like the book?
I have a question, a agent contacted me from a publishing house, that I never applied too. I do not trust, unknown agents, that have all my I formation, that I never gave them. Should I ignore the email, or answer the agent?
Being someone who's nearly done with the first book in a series I've been working on for two decades, I wouldn't self publish. First reason is, my ultimate goal with writing was not to be published, but rather to learn the craft (which I've been doing for the past 20 years) and finish something I'm proud of. My theory has always been, I don't want to publish something that I might someday be embarrassed about. And if I can't get someone else to publish it, then it's probably just not very good. A lot of people have a hard time accepting that, and as a result, a lot of poor writing gets self published (some good stuff, too, of course). I don't want to be one of those people who have to shoehorn my work into the market, because my goal from the beginning was to be published no matter what. I'd rather not be published at all then to publish something sub-par.
Bruh, you should read some of Stephen King's books... a lot of his shit is sub-par. The goal is to be read. Nothing more. I love knowing someone has read what I wrote. I love seeing the different reactions to the same part of the story. Harry Potter was turned down 33 times. Imagine if she had quit. No matter how perfect your novel is, you'll never get everyone to love it. The bible is the ultimate bestseller but I bet I can find a few mugphuckas who hates that story. 😂😂😂
@@DEEliot-ky9cl if your sole goal is to be read, that's fine, but not everyone shares that goal to the same degree. There are authors that publish loads of books, some good, some not great and there are other authors that may only publish a handful, but make each one spectacular. The goal here really depends on the person. I have to agree with blackhawk, I'd take 3 fantastic books over 50 okay books.
@@DEEliot-ky9cl JK Rowling eventually got someone to publish it. I'm not suggesting quitting. Persistence is not the question here. Anyway, back to my point.... obviously one goal of writing is to be read by others. But again, if I'm throwing a bunch of crap out into the market, do I really want people reading it? And the fact that nobody else would publish it is a good indicator it's not very good. Suppose I write something great, a decade from now. Then those readers search for my earlier work that I self published because it either wasn't ready for traditional publishing, or my skill just wasn't up to standard yet. I don't want that. Maybe not everyone sees it the same way, which is fine.
I have a book that was pubbed by a small press a long time ago, which I'm planning to self publish soon. I went back and revised it heavily, not that it needed it, but I saw some possibilities that I didn't way back when. Those revisions are done long since, and I'm working on the next book in my fantasy series. Always have a few stories ready to jump on me.
What if you self publish a picture book without marketing it or selling it. Then, query the book and send the agents the hard copy of what the book looks like as a finished copy. If I’m trying to launch a new career I would want to send out my very best published resume. I’m not trying to get a book deal, I’m trying to launch a career.
something I've been wondering is: if you're querying for an agent (for a traditionally published manuscript) but you're hoping/planning to also go the hybrid route eventually, is it fair to assume that you will be able to negotiate a lower agent commission for just the future self-published projects you want to do? Given that as you said agents have little to do with the self-published side of things, presumably they would then get a much lower cut of the profits of just those particular books while keeping the regular commission percentage for the traditionally published items of the author?
as i understand it, an agent will not get ANY profits from your self pub book at all. After all, why should they, they are not even involved in that process. They only will get a cut of your self pub profits if you have them handle certain deals for you, for instance as jessica mentioned in the video, they can handle your foreign sales deals etc, and then they will get the percentage of the foreign sales. But if you are self pubbing a book outside of your agent then they do not get ANY Cut of that at all. An agent doesn't simply get a blanket % cut of your entire earnings as a human being, they get a cut on a book by book basis. So if you wrote book #1 and they (the agent) sold it for you to a publisher, they get a cut of that book. But if you also wrote book #2 and self pubbed it yourself, then the agent has nothing to do with that and will receive 0% from that book
thanks Arcturus! I hope that is the case :) I had heard from a few agents that many are including self-published books in their contracts (meaning, they get the same cut of the self-pub'ed books as the traditionally published ones) and thereby refusing to take a smaller cut on the self-pub'ed ones. But I completely I agree with your reasoning - seems logical that that would be the case! I have a feeling it might be something authors need to be aware of to negotiate in their contracts though, at least until it becomes more commonly expected. Like you said, why should they have a cut of something that they're not contributing to?
@@1212RogueLight like I said that 'cut' on the selfpub will ONLY happen if you allow your agent to be the dealmaker for your seflpub book for certain rights like audio/foreign rights etc etc. but by no means will they get any cut of your selfpub if you don't want to include them, if you simply selfpub. But one thing that needs saying is, self pubbing a book while traditionally pubbed is not as easy as you think, in fact most tradpubs have a clause in the contract that prohibits you from publishing anything under your name for a given period such as 1 year around the time of your tradpub release. And since most tradpub is done on a yearly basis i.e. if you are signed typically it will be to a series that will have a 1 per year staggered release, that means you will have NO contractual room to self pub anything under your name at all. Only in between series perhaps in a space of time where you are not releasing anything but obviously your agent/publisher will push you to minimize these dead zones as they for obvious reasons want you publishing all the time to make them $$. So in short, don't think selfpubbing is that simple, you will be contractually hindered from doing so which is why not many authors do it, typically bigger named ones who have the negotiating clout due to their name to negotiate better deals for themselves
I went the self-pub route and it was a nightmare, and all because I was too lazy and impatient to write a query and synopsis and wait for replies and I didn't want to worry about word count. I thought I did everything right, expensive book cover and an editor I could afford. Big Mistake! I ended up hating my first book and even now can't look at it (It has since been removed). I spent so much on the cover and should have focused on the title; it was not right for attracting readers (help you get with traditional publishing). The market is so saturated with indies who want to sell their books for .99 cents that you have to lower your price to stay competitive. I had no hope of making my investment back and no funds left over for advertising. It was frustrating and such a let-down to my ego and not only that, the book wasn't ready, but I was so impatient to get it out there, I didn't listen to advice. That was a learning experience I will never do again. I spent a year on my second book and I actually like it, and did the work with the query and synopsis, so we'll see.
Love your channel, but I have some issues with your logic in parts of this video. Just because you have a book on Amazon does not mean you have the same visibility of the newest Penguin book. Your Amazon author page is basically the trunk of your car. Traditional publishers have resources and outlets to market your book and make it visible. Unless you have thousands and thousands of dollars, a self publisher does not have these same resources. With the millions and millions of self-published books out there, it's very easy to be completely invisible without a traditional publisher's resources and reputation. So I think a self published book's publication journey has little to no relation as to how successful it would be if people actually knew about it.
I would say if you have atrocious self-pub sales, you can traditional publish using a pen name. Correct? Or if your self-pub is already through a pen name, you can either use your real name or choose another pen name. Correct?
Thank you for the information! I do have a question. Five years ago, I self published a non-fiction (biography) book and sold it on Amazon. I removed it three years later since I had to renew photo rights, etc, and at that time I didn't feel I had time to do that. I did make over $1,000 on it. I am currently querying, but not for non-fiction, I am querying a middle-grade fantasy manuscript and I am not sure what to say if an agents were to ask if I have published. In my head I view the traditional publishing route as the only legitimate route to publishing. What should I say? I definitely want to be honest in everything I do.
@@MatiasBaldanza - Thank you. There are many forms of English within England. Four distinct accents/dilects in the city in which I grew-up. I learned to speak, think and in this context spell, in RP English. However, I have lived most of my life in Australia. As a result, there is inevitably an inflection in my writing. Unfortunately, the market in Australia is very small so I must look outside my adopted country.
Question which I'm surprised wasn't answered... If your self published book does decent on market, at say the lower end in which a traditionally published author would be greenlit for a sequel; what are the chances of a traditional publisher taking the author's sequel(s) on?
no traditional publisher would want to take on a SEQUEL to a book that's published by someone else (whether that be another publisher, or selfpub). that almost never happens. only perhaps in 1 or 2 historically rare circumstances if your 'sequel' massively blows up with unprecedented sales then they may work out a deal where they take down the original and buy the rights to it and publish them both under their pub house
Can you clear up, did you say, you expect writer to bring all the marketing of book to the table? (7:27) You don't do that as agent? what can I expect agent to do for me? sorry (10:18) new writer, unsure what agents are or if they are like reporters and telephone operators
dude, an agent wants nothing to do with self-pub books. they owe you nothing in regards to a self pub book. an agent only makes money selling your book to a publisher and taking a cut of that deal. if you are giving them a self pub book they have no interest in helping you market it or do anything with it as they will not make any money from that at all. if you're talking about a traditional book then same answer, an agent has nothing to do with marketing that. the publisher handles that and expects you to handle it as well depending at what level you're at
@@etluxaeterna you make a great point, "They owe you nothing" in regards to a self publish book. So my question is, what do they owe me, at all? If I must do the writing and marketing, the publisher does publishing, what does agent do for my money? not angry, just want honest answer.
@@michaelneff2507 2 answers to this question. 1. firstly on one hand you are required to have an agent to even submit your query and thus have your book purchased by MOST publishers (read: not ALL, but most. there are several big ones like TOR for fantasy I believe that allow you to query the publisher directly). So just from the standpoint of even having your book picked up, you have to first have an agent PERIOD because agents act as a form of 'whittling down' or a 'funneling/narrowing' mechanism for the publisher. If the publisher allowed anyone to query them they'd be inundated with thousands of queries per day and would not be able to handle that workload. Agents are basically gatekeepers that narrow down the competition for the publisher and send them only the best 0.1%. So this sort of negates your question to the extent that, whether you feel agents have value or not, they are required just to get published for the most part. 2. However for the few publishers that do allow you to query without an agent, you are fully entitled to actually go completely agent-less and if the publisher picks up your book, you may even negotiate your own contract. The typical caveat is that an agent will negotiate it better due to their skill/experience and personal relationship (thus ability to mooch) with the publisher, whereas you yourself will probably get a worse off deal than the agent is capable of getting you. Plus you will be incapable of navigating all the fine points of all the different types of rights (foreign, audio, various 'clauses' in the contract, of which there are MANY in a typical publishing contract, such as clauses as to who you may send your next book to, when/if you can publish any other books with your name outside of a certain timeline, etc, etc -- an agent can navigate and negotiate these clauses on your behalf that you probably know very little of)
and then to answer more broadly what does an agent do you for, well the most important part that they do for you is making the initial deal, i.e. initially selling your book to the actual publisher. Remember if an agent decides to pick your book up, you are still a loooooong way off from being published and the chances of it are still very low relatively speaking. The agent now works their magic to SELL your book to a publisher. That is by far the most important job. However AFTER the book is sold, you could argue that an agent's job becomes secondary, yet they will still be collecting their 15% commission fee of ALL your royalties from that book. So you could argue, what are they NOW doing for me while collecting a huge chunk of my royalties? Well, there are a number of things they are doing in the background such as possibly selling/negotiating your book to various other markets from foreign markets, translation versions, audio and digital versions, hollywood and negotiating possible buyouts of your book for the movie/tv show market. Also they will be liaising between you and the publisher, interpreting the publisher's comments/demands for you and acting as your 'guidance counselor'. For instance if you have questions and complaints/problems with the editor from the publishing house, it is the agent to whom you turn and they attempt to work out those problems on your behalf if you are too uncomfortable to confront your 'boss' the editor yourself. However if you feel all of these things are irrelevant you are free to dump your agent at this point if you feel you can make it on your own. However keep in mind, that means when you write your next book, you will now have to start the querying process all over again from scratch which will be a major nightmare/headache. If you had kept your agent, you could have just sent the next book to them and they will have already begun trying to sell it to a publisher. (with that said, many agents will reject your next book if they don't like it, EVEN if you are signed to said agent. They will simply say sorry I can't sell this, you'll have to give me something else or query this to a different agent)
If Agents were more open to taking on new authors, people wouldn't feel the need to go the self-publishing route. What I'm hearing is that authors are damned if they do self-publish, because agents or publishers won't touch their "previously published" work, but they are also damned if they don't self-publish, because they cannot otherwise get their work published. There are so many bad or mediocre authors who get representation and are then published, that people wonder why there are no agents interested in their book.
Why self publishing is more attractive is because an author has more control over their story and final product. *Biggest plus is earning more money as a self published author* They can choose their own cover, work with BETA readers and an editor to create their best story. Some publishers edit the story so that it becomes a different story, they almost edit out the authors voice. That self published author can choose their price (not these high prices publishers set). Then they can promote the book as they want to. They do not have this pressure hanging over their heads to sell out of the gate or their book is doomed. They can rewrite their blurb, create a new cover, take the ebook down and re-edit it, cross promote it with other authors, work with book bloggers to get reviews and then promote it on a weekly or monthly basis. Add it to an anthology or create a box set of related books. An immediate flop can be turned around. Some huge trad pubbed authors have now gone indie because they wanted that control back over their careers and to earn more money.
Your industry is dying. In 25-59 years, there won't be a newspaper, movie studio, TV station or publishing houses left Create and control your own art. Power to the people. Decentralization is freedom.
The bottom line is, if you self publish, they don't make any money. However, if you submit your work, they probably will reject it for whatever reason. So, if you really believe in your story and the agents don't, self publish and prove everyone wrong. Agents always pass on great books that later find their way to the mainstream. Remember the process goes like this: Go the Agents, no response or rejected, go to large press. Still rejected, go to medium press, still rejected, then small press. Lastly, do vanity press and Self-publishing is the final step. Hope this helps.
So I'm 70,000 words into my first novel which is a sci-fi. I've decided if I can't get traditionally published I'm just gonna pop that sucker on Wattpad
In today's culture popularity determines value, seemingly for most people. Whether it is a so-called "expert," media, a movie, the president of the US, or a book. As a consequence the volume of marketing you can push defines whether your product will sell. Take the astoundingly stupid regurgitated movie Avatar. The highest grossing film of all time. It was all marketing and it just goes to show how marketing drive people's perceptions and value in spite of objective value. Consider Harry Porter, astoundingly poorly written regurgitated cheap gibberish. Marketing control.
Self-publishing is cute though.... Depending how serious the writer is.... It's like anyone can play in the NFL just create yourself in a video game.... Yay I'm a football star, horray I'm a huge author with a published book
I didn't take that away from the video at all... I gathered that as long as your self pub does decent that it won't hinder you. However, once ANYTHING is published (self or traditional), that the sales of the published book(s) become deciding factors in whether or not an agent will take you on.
I stopped querying my novels once I realized that literary agents don't like my type of stories 😂😂😂 I self-published my first novel "Ruined" and never looked back. The book has done well in sales and has won an award. However, now, a publisher wants to buy the rights to my novel and I was told that I should get an agent but this bothers me because why should I go beg a group of people (Literary Agents) to represent me now that there's money on the table? I got this far without them. If I get an agent now I'll never know if the agent is representing me because they loved my work or because I was a guaranteed check.
Neil Gaiman traditionally published about 5 novels before he got an agent. So you need need one. But you can later if you like.
But read any contract a few times over. A lot actually.
@@ClintLoweTube my friend is a lawyer and he said he'll look over it but even he said I need an agent but it still sucks
Find an attorney with experience in publishing. They can review any contract you might get offered and will charge a flat hourly rate for the service (not a permanent percentage). An agent is for helping you GET a deal. Don't do all the upfront work yourself, then give away your hard-earned reward.
The question is- why would you want to give away your rights to a publisher? I did that with my first book and I regret it greatly. Why? 1. I had no rights to my own book! 2. I still had to do all my marketing- I got me into a tv and radio to give interviews about my book, did a few workshops, created a FB page etc it was all back in 2009. My book sold out overnight, got two more reprints. My publisher didn’t do anything to boost the sales. 3. The publisher changed the owners who then decided that no more reprints and there’s nothing I could’ve done to change that 4. To get back my rights so that I can self-publish is a very complicated process and I just gave up 5. Even though it was a bestselling book I didn’t earn much because the publisher took all the money, all I got was fame which doesn’t feed you, is it? My new book is with an illustrator right now and I will self-publish. Yes it costs me money to get it printed etc but I’m sure it’ll be worth it at the end because I’ll get to keep all the money, and rights to my book.
i was investigating self publishing, and i found that it appeals a lot to women over 50. as a woman over 50, I can relate. by the time i get through query process. get an agent, get submissions and an editor i may not be around to enjoy it.
I love writing, but I loathe self-marketing. I would love if my work was read, but I couldn't care less if I made any money from it. Seriously, I'm not doing it for the dough. I'm considering self-pubbing just to get the book out there, then move on. If I still have to spend time marketing myself, what's the benefit of having an agent?
When you talk about not being able to generate more business for a self-published book...I thought the point of being represented by an agent was, they would help sell your book to a publisher. And then that publisher would put some money behind marketing it: ads, author blurbs, getting reviews in well-known periodicals, etc. All the things the author of a self-published book may have trouble achieving. Isn't that the whole point of an agent?
00:01 Intro
04:10 Can I query my self-published book?
Better to write a new book
09:35 Hybrid publishing - what can an agent do for the traditional publishing side?
12:40 Can self-publishing negatively impact my career?
14:10 Whichever you choose is fine, depends on your vision
Fascinating video. I did self-publish my novel, Distorted Perceptions, because I didn't feel that it fit into traditional genre definitions, and yet, would not describe it as "literary" in style. The process was extremely challenging and overwhelming, and I can certainly appreciate why many authors prefer traditional publishing.
This was a very valuable video for anyone interested in either (or both) routes. As a writer aiming to be a hybrid/use both routes, it was especially valuable to hear your thoughts on why an agent might not want to rep a previously self-published book. What you've shared makes a lot of sense from a business viewpoint.
I"m just starting to watch, so I don't know where this video will go.
I've been represented and published in traditional (non-fiction) - and have 5 novels self-published.
My observations are:
1) I'm sooooo happy folks are reading my books over several years while I find traction with an agent - still coming up nil. If I hadn't indie'd, those stories would still be languishing on my hard drive.
2) I have great feedback through which I have improved as an author
3) I have learned how incredibly hard it is to get traction - and thereby grown MASSIVE respect or agents/publishers/authors who break through (just or that exercise in humility and gratitude, this exercise has been worth it).
My question is - I have a novella that has twice been #1 Amazon Best Seller. Re-reading it I saw that I can do it much better - something I have done... and it grew to a complete 80k word novel. Can I re-name, re-brand and submit it to the trade as new?
Rewatch at 7:46 for Jessica's answer.
Thanks for the insight on how Agents view self-published books. And I understand that publishing a book for a publisher is all about money! To a publisher, a book means business, with a team of writers at his beckon and call. However, there are some writers out there like myself, who do not care about contacting an agent or a publisher, and who have never contacted one period. Like me, they Write and Publish themselves, because they love to write and share their stories. I have 18 books to date that I hope my Descendants will one day read. To let them know that their Grandmother, or Great-Great- Grandmother, has left something of herself behind for posterity. Something for them, besides leaving money. TB Riggs.
Thank you guys for your honesty and clarity. I at least know I no longer need to search for an agent.
Thanks, I'd always wondered how agents viewed self-publishing.
Thank you for saying you can pivot. I always thought if you self-publish, no one will have you in the traditional publishing world.
Your statements are somewhat inconsistent. You wouldn't let my previous self-published career influence your opinion about my current book, provided my sales of those self-pubbed books were good. If they aren't you will very much take that into account.
it will always influence it, the question is whether it will be positive or negative influence
Thank you!! I learned a lot. You were so honest and informative. Understanding how self pub could impact traditional pub's attempt to sell books to bookstores based on prior sales gave me pause lol. I.e. barnes and noble example of looking at prior sales.
It is financially far better for the author if they can self-publish and market for themselves, and the only thing an agent can really offer is this kind of "marketing help." A lot of romance authors who are wildly successful are ditching their agents altogether and using an employee or sometimes their spouse to handle the marketing side for them while they write. Agents better start sweetening their deals or more people might be tempted to do this.
Now I feel sheepish for having emailed and asked about this. 🤭 I think I will finish catching up on all your videos before I try asking more questions!
As far as marketing goes, what is the benefit to traditional publishing if the publisher is counting on the author to bring their marketing reach?
Thank you so much for clearing this up.
Self-published books may *technically* be in the same market, but self-pub books don't have the market penetration that trad does. Your local B&N isn't going to order and stock a self-pub 99.9% of the time. Their shelves are for trad pub.
Should you even mention that you self published in your query if you don't even plan on using that pen name? Also I've heard that many publishers are not spending much on marketing any more, and the benefit of going traditional isn't as much as it used to be. Thoughts?
My book is self-pubbed but still has no Internet sales (I can't propmote for crap). All of my sales are to people I directly interact with. Assuming a book is available to everyone just because it's online is a mistake.
I'm in the same boat!! What do you do? I'm querying again. Good luck to you.
Amazing content... and cake again haha love it. Thank you to you both, answer a few of my questions. Have a good weekend!
What kind of past sales as a self published book is good enough to help with a trad pub debut? I get it's a weird question but I keep hearing people only mention self published books if they sold well but I'm not really sure what agents consider selling well? Like if I've self published a few avente garde books that got several thousand sales each is that worth mentioning?
If the publisher is counting on the author bringing the marketing reach (as per Jessica's comment, 7:33) to the publisher, this seems to negate the need for a publisher in the first place. If a publisher can't get an author's work to a large market, what's the purpose? If the author has to create the product and then find the customers it seems like the publisher is a third wheel. If this question doesn't make sense please reference the movie "Office Space" for clarification - "What would you say, you do here? 🙍♂
Your comment reminds me of something I heard from a man who (at that time) had been a publisher for 40 years. He said, "I am looking for three things when looking at a new book: (1) A great concept, (2) Amazing writing, and (3) a Famous author. Okay, so if Stephen King and J.K. Rowling walk through the door with a fresh, new manuscript, he is ready to go! Makes sense - just eliminate 99% of the risk.
I’ve chosen to study a Bachelor degree in creative writing rather than just self teach in order to self- publish, because as a reader for three decades, I trust and respect the traditionally publish path more than the ease of self publish. Don’t get me wrong, in the last decade, I have read a good mix of both Trad and Indie published books - and I have many favourites from both. One thing I will say, is that traditional publishers have been slow to embrace diverse voices, sexualities, experiences and ideas, and that is where Indie publishing has filled a void, and those who do it well, succeed. And I follow traditionally published authors, who have been inspired to write something different, shop for that book to be published in traditional channels only to be told “it won’t have a market,” self publish it and for it to hit best sellers lists - but they have their name to promote it. But, I think the difference between both platforms, is that Independent authors get the brunt of public critique straight up from the press of “publish,” and it takes time to build repeat customers and word of mouth, and promotion (and they will be critiqued by how well they have written, how well the book has been edited, copy edited, promoted, right down to choice of book cover); whereas authors that publish traditionally, benefit from being critiqued from day one while trying to securing an agent, right through the process to publish, plus promotion by the publishing brand, libraries and book stores, before publish. Both still have to entice customers to buy their products though, to be paid royalties...
In Australia at least up to about a decade ago, you could self-publish simply by finding a good quality book printing company in your city. I did this myself by asking an illustrator friend who lived here in Adelaide S. Aust, for her recommendations. I chose a local printer from a shortlist of three, and away we went. I did a 500 copy print run, and sold over half of them (and could have sold the rest quite easily by self marketing) but I discovered the printer had ''cutting corners'' with production the binding was not consistently high quality. So I chose not to sell the remaining copies, I gave most of them away....not the best outcome in the end. But only because the printer I chose turned out to be on a downhill slide and a few years later went out of business (no surprise there). I did learn a lot from the process. At that time, it would have been great if the genre I was writing in was as well developed as it is now! In that case, I think my chances of finding a publisher would have been far higher (thus avoiding finding my own printer and doing the whole thing myself). The book was placed in a couple of high quality bookshops in my city, where it sold quite well but most of the sales were generated by me - at $20 a copy - by taking them to cultural events where I sold them out of a picnic basket! It's called Artful Living in Celtic Homes (illustrated).
5:00 I wonder whether it's *really* accurate to say, "Now, when you self-publish, you are instantly reaching that mass audience." Given how algorithms treat authors -- how they treat everyone -- is that premise true? Look at how deeply commercialized the Internet is, now. Aren't we still beholden in great measure to virality -- which is to say, people talking about the book, critics reviewing it, media covering it, et cetera? The Internet, glorified as it may be, still comes down to people. Algorithms game us all for maximum profit. How large a "mass audience" you really reach online isn't some kind of egalitarian, meritocratic lottery. Only a utopist would think it is.
Can I self publish a few books to build up my portfolio and then approach traditional publishers after I've learned some stuff?
I am not interested in self-publishing, but I am interested in every element of design that is involved in creating my books. How would you react to receiving an actual finished physical book as a query? Again, not self-published, as it would not be available for sale in any way other than traditional publishers.
Most agents no longer accept queries via snail mail, so we would not recommend sending a finished product to an agent! Please query them via their requested means (typically QueryManager or email, depending on the agent).
I have that shirt, Jessica! Love it and love your videos.
I'm assuming that at least some of my work will wind up not selling through traditional publishing. If I self-publish those works (so I can at least some return), would I be better off just using my name (or pseudonym), or at that point should I come with a separate pseudonym to avoid running into problems with publishers/book buyers? Or does it just make more sense to hold onto older projects in case I wind up establishing myself where those previously-rejected works may get a second chance through traditional publishing? How often do authors get a re-roll on older submissions that didn't get picked up?
After 3 years or writing and 300 rejections before getting a publishing contract, it's going to take another YEAR before my book is published. And this publisher will only take on 1 book a year from me. In the meantime I have another completed manuscript and 2 more WIPs. Trad pub can't keep up with me. As practice in learning how to use KDP, I published 2 connections of short romances. They started selling immediately even though I did minimal marketing. That does it. Self pub for me. I am 70 years old. I don't have time to spend years trying to get trad published.
Collections of short stories, not connections.
Good on you, Jeanne! Wishing you continued success.
I am interested in publishing traditionally, but my social media following is not high in numbers. Will this effect a literary agent decision to take the book on if they like the book?
For non-fiction, yes. Not if you're writing fiction. There are videos on the channel about "Platform." Those will be helpful!
Thank you so very much for your response!😊👍
I have a question, a agent contacted me from a publishing house, that I never applied too. I do not trust, unknown agents, that have all my I formation, that I never gave them. Should I ignore the email, or answer the agent?
Being someone who's nearly done with the first book in a series I've been working on for two decades, I wouldn't self publish. First reason is, my ultimate goal with writing was not to be published, but rather to learn the craft (which I've been doing for the past 20 years) and finish something I'm proud of. My theory has always been, I don't want to publish something that I might someday be embarrassed about. And if I can't get someone else to publish it, then it's probably just not very good. A lot of people have a hard time accepting that, and as a result, a lot of poor writing gets self published (some good stuff, too, of course). I don't want to be one of those people who have to shoehorn my work into the market, because my goal from the beginning was to be published no matter what. I'd rather not be published at all then to publish something sub-par.
Bruh, you should read some of Stephen King's books... a lot of his shit is sub-par. The goal is to be read. Nothing more. I love knowing someone has read what I wrote. I love seeing the different reactions to the same part of the story. Harry Potter was turned down 33 times. Imagine if she had quit. No matter how perfect your novel is, you'll never get everyone to love it. The bible is the ultimate bestseller but I bet I can find a few mugphuckas who hates that story. 😂😂😂
@@DEEliot-ky9cl if your sole goal is to be read, that's fine, but not everyone shares that goal to the same degree.
There are authors that publish loads of books, some good, some not great and there are other authors that may only publish a handful, but make each one spectacular.
The goal here really depends on the person. I have to agree with blackhawk, I'd take 3 fantastic books over 50 okay books.
@@DEEliot-ky9cl JK Rowling eventually got someone to publish it. I'm not suggesting quitting. Persistence is not the question here. Anyway, back to my point.... obviously one goal of writing is to be read by others. But again, if I'm throwing a bunch of crap out into the market, do I really want people reading it? And the fact that nobody else would publish it is a good indicator it's not very good. Suppose I write something great, a decade from now. Then those readers search for my earlier work that I self published because it either wasn't ready for traditional publishing, or my skill just wasn't up to standard yet. I don't want that. Maybe not everyone sees it the same way, which is fine.
I have a book that was pubbed by a small press a long time ago, which I'm planning to self publish soon. I went back and revised it heavily, not that it needed it, but I saw some possibilities that I didn't way back when. Those revisions are done long since, and I'm working on the next book in my fantasy series. Always have a few stories ready to jump on me.
👍
What if you self publish a picture book without marketing it or selling it. Then, query the book and send the agents the hard copy of what the book looks like as a finished copy. If I’m trying to launch a new career I would want to send out my very best published resume. I’m not trying to get a book deal, I’m trying to launch a career.
something I've been wondering is: if you're querying for an agent (for a traditionally published manuscript) but you're hoping/planning to also go the hybrid route eventually, is it fair to assume that you will be able to negotiate a lower agent commission for just the future self-published projects you want to do? Given that as you said agents have little to do with the self-published side of things, presumably they would then get a much lower cut of the profits of just those particular books while keeping the regular commission percentage for the traditionally published items of the author?
as i understand it, an agent will not get ANY profits from your self pub book at all. After all, why should they, they are not even involved in that process. They only will get a cut of your self pub profits if you have them handle certain deals for you, for instance as jessica mentioned in the video, they can handle your foreign sales deals etc, and then they will get the percentage of the foreign sales. But if you are self pubbing a book outside of your agent then they do not get ANY Cut of that at all. An agent doesn't simply get a blanket % cut of your entire earnings as a human being, they get a cut on a book by book basis. So if you wrote book #1 and they (the agent) sold it for you to a publisher, they get a cut of that book. But if you also wrote book #2 and self pubbed it yourself, then the agent has nothing to do with that and will receive 0% from that book
thanks Arcturus! I hope that is the case :) I had heard from a few agents that many are including self-published books in their contracts (meaning, they get the same cut of the self-pub'ed books as the traditionally published ones) and thereby refusing to take a smaller cut on the self-pub'ed ones. But I completely I agree with your reasoning - seems logical that that would be the case! I have a feeling it might be something authors need to be aware of to negotiate in their contracts though, at least until it becomes more commonly expected. Like you said, why should they have a cut of something that they're not contributing to?
@@1212RogueLight like I said that 'cut' on the selfpub will ONLY happen if you allow your agent to be the dealmaker for your seflpub book for certain rights like audio/foreign rights etc etc. but by no means will they get any cut of your selfpub if you don't want to include them, if you simply selfpub. But one thing that needs saying is, self pubbing a book while traditionally pubbed is not as easy as you think, in fact most tradpubs have a clause in the contract that prohibits you from publishing anything under your name for a given period such as 1 year around the time of your tradpub release. And since most tradpub is done on a yearly basis i.e. if you are signed typically it will be to a series that will have a 1 per year staggered release, that means you will have NO contractual room to self pub anything under your name at all. Only in between series perhaps in a space of time where you are not releasing anything but obviously your agent/publisher will push you to minimize these dead zones as they for obvious reasons want you publishing all the time to make them $$. So in short, don't think selfpubbing is that simple, you will be contractually hindered from doing so which is why not many authors do it, typically bigger named ones who have the negotiating clout due to their name to negotiate better deals for themselves
Great video! Many thanks... How do you feel about authors who have first been published directly with pub houses? (sans agent)
Very informative and clear. I need an agent brain class!
I went the self-pub route and it was a nightmare, and all because I was too lazy and impatient to write a query and synopsis and wait for replies and I didn't want to worry about word count. I thought I did everything right, expensive book cover and an editor I could afford. Big Mistake! I ended up hating my first book and even now can't look at it (It has since been removed). I spent so much on the cover and should have focused on the title; it was not right for attracting readers (help you get with traditional publishing).
The market is so saturated with indies who want to sell their books for .99 cents that you have to lower your price to stay competitive. I had no hope of making my investment back and no funds left over for advertising. It was frustrating and such a let-down to my ego and not only that, the book wasn't ready, but I was so impatient to get it out there, I didn't listen to advice. That was a learning experience I will never do again. I spent a year on my second book and I actually like it, and did the work with the query and synopsis, so we'll see.
Sorry to hear that. But heaps have a similar experience, so you're not alone. It can take a lot of planning and setup to make self-publishing work.
Love your channel, but I have some issues with your logic in parts of this video. Just because you have a book on Amazon does not mean you have the same visibility of the newest Penguin book. Your Amazon author page is basically the trunk of your car. Traditional publishers have resources and outlets to market your book and make it visible. Unless you have thousands and thousands of dollars, a self publisher does not have these same resources. With the millions and millions of self-published books out there, it's very easy to be completely invisible without a traditional publisher's resources and reputation. So I think a self published book's publication journey has little to no relation as to how successful it would be if people actually knew about it.
I would say if you have atrocious self-pub sales, you can traditional publish using a pen name. Correct? Or if your self-pub is already through a pen name, you can either use your real name or choose another pen name. Correct?
yep
Thank you for the information! I do have a question. Five years ago, I self published a non-fiction (biography) book and sold it on Amazon. I removed it three years later since I had to renew photo rights, etc, and at that time I didn't feel I had time to do that. I did make over $1,000 on it. I am currently querying, but not for non-fiction, I am querying a middle-grade fantasy manuscript and I am not sure what to say if an agents were to ask if I have published. In my head I view the traditional publishing route as the only legitimate route to publishing. What should I say? I definitely want to be honest in everything I do.
I live in Australia and write in RP English. Does that preclude me from approaching American agents?
You write in received pronunciation?
@@silvasilvasilva I believe he meant British English 🤣
@@MatiasBaldanza - Thank you. There are many forms of English within England. Four distinct accents/dilects in the city in which I grew-up. I learned to speak, think and in this context spell, in RP English. However, I have lived most of my life in Australia. As a result, there is inevitably an inflection in my writing.
Unfortunately, the market in Australia is very small so I must look outside my adopted country.
@@silvasilvasilva- Yes, the RP English of my childhood shapes my vocabulary and the dialogue I write.
Would you pass on a query book if it's in a series that the author had already self-published a book or two in
of course. no publishing house would EVER pick up a sequel to a book that's already self published
Question which I'm surprised wasn't answered... If your self published book does decent on market, at say the lower end in which a traditionally published author would be greenlit for a sequel; what are the chances of a traditional publisher taking the author's sequel(s) on?
Unlikely
It's still pretty tough, unfortunately.
no traditional publisher would want to take on a SEQUEL to a book that's published by someone else (whether that be another publisher, or selfpub). that almost never happens. only perhaps in 1 or 2 historically rare circumstances if your 'sequel' massively blows up with unprecedented sales then they may work out a deal where they take down the original and buy the rights to it and publish them both under their pub house
Good video. Thanks.
Can you clear up, did you say, you expect writer to bring all the marketing of book to the table? (7:27) You don't do that as agent? what can I expect agent to do for me? sorry (10:18) new writer, unsure what agents are or if they are like reporters and telephone operators
dude, an agent wants nothing to do with self-pub books. they owe you nothing in regards to a self pub book. an agent only makes money selling your book to a publisher and taking a cut of that deal. if you are giving them a self pub book they have no interest in helping you market it or do anything with it as they will not make any money from that at all. if you're talking about a traditional book then same answer, an agent has nothing to do with marketing that. the publisher handles that and expects you to handle it as well depending at what level you're at
@@etluxaeterna you make a great point, "They owe you nothing" in regards to a self publish book. So my question is, what do they owe me, at all? If I must do the writing and marketing, the publisher does publishing, what does agent do for my money? not angry, just want honest answer.
@@michaelneff2507 2 answers to this question. 1. firstly on one hand you are required to have an agent to even submit your query and thus have your book purchased by MOST publishers (read: not ALL, but most. there are several big ones like TOR for fantasy I believe that allow you to query the publisher directly). So just from the standpoint of even having your book picked up, you have to first have an agent PERIOD because agents act as a form of 'whittling down' or a 'funneling/narrowing' mechanism for the publisher. If the publisher allowed anyone to query them they'd be inundated with thousands of queries per day and would not be able to handle that workload. Agents are basically gatekeepers that narrow down the competition for the publisher and send them only the best 0.1%. So this sort of negates your question to the extent that, whether you feel agents have value or not, they are required just to get published for the most part.
2. However for the few publishers that do allow you to query without an agent, you are fully entitled to actually go completely agent-less and if the publisher picks up your book, you may even negotiate your own contract. The typical caveat is that an agent will negotiate it better due to their skill/experience and personal relationship (thus ability to mooch) with the publisher, whereas you yourself will probably get a worse off deal than the agent is capable of getting you. Plus you will be incapable of navigating all the fine points of all the different types of rights (foreign, audio, various 'clauses' in the contract, of which there are MANY in a typical publishing contract, such as clauses as to who you may send your next book to, when/if you can publish any other books with your name outside of a certain timeline, etc, etc -- an agent can navigate and negotiate these clauses on your behalf that you probably know very little of)
and then to answer more broadly what does an agent do you for, well the most important part that they do for you is making the initial deal, i.e. initially selling your book to the actual publisher. Remember if an agent decides to pick your book up, you are still a loooooong way off from being published and the chances of it are still very low relatively speaking. The agent now works their magic to SELL your book to a publisher. That is by far the most important job. However AFTER the book is sold, you could argue that an agent's job becomes secondary, yet they will still be collecting their 15% commission fee of ALL your royalties from that book. So you could argue, what are they NOW doing for me while collecting a huge chunk of my royalties? Well, there are a number of things they are doing in the background such as possibly selling/negotiating your book to various other markets from foreign markets, translation versions, audio and digital versions, hollywood and negotiating possible buyouts of your book for the movie/tv show market. Also they will be liaising between you and the publisher, interpreting the publisher's comments/demands for you and acting as your 'guidance counselor'. For instance if you have questions and complaints/problems with the editor from the publishing house, it is the agent to whom you turn and they attempt to work out those problems on your behalf if you are too uncomfortable to confront your 'boss' the editor yourself. However if you feel all of these things are irrelevant you are free to dump your agent at this point if you feel you can make it on your own. However keep in mind, that means when you write your next book, you will now have to start the querying process all over again from scratch which will be a major nightmare/headache. If you had kept your agent, you could have just sent the next book to them and they will have already begun trying to sell it to a publisher. (with that said, many agents will reject your next book if they don't like it, EVEN if you are signed to said agent. They will simply say sorry I can't sell this, you'll have to give me something else or query this to a different agent)
That's very interesting
If Agents were more open to taking on new authors, people wouldn't feel the need to go the self-publishing route. What I'm hearing is that authors are damned if they do self-publish, because agents or publishers won't touch their "previously published" work, but they are also damned if they don't self-publish, because they cannot otherwise get their work published. There are so many bad or mediocre authors who get representation and are then published, that people wonder why there are no agents interested in their book.
agents pick up books they can sell, it's as simple as that. no one owes you anything
Why self publishing is more attractive is because an author has more control over their story and final product.
*Biggest plus is earning more money as a self published author*
They can choose their own cover, work with BETA readers and an editor to create their best story. Some publishers edit the story so that it becomes a different story, they almost edit out the authors voice.
That self published author can choose their price (not these high prices publishers set).
Then they can promote the book as they want to.
They do not have this pressure hanging over their heads to sell out of the gate or their book is doomed. They can rewrite their blurb, create a new cover, take the ebook down and re-edit it, cross promote it with other authors, work with book bloggers to get reviews and then promote it on a weekly or monthly basis. Add it to an anthology or create a box set of related books.
An immediate flop can be turned around.
Some huge trad pubbed authors have now gone indie because they wanted that control back over their careers and to earn more money.
John Grisham self-published his first book, A Time to Kill. He sold it out of the trunk of his car.
This is a persistent myth, but a myth nonetheless. Grisham sold his first book to a small press, he didn’t self-publish.
Your industry is dying. In 25-59 years, there won't be a newspaper, movie studio, TV station or publishing houses left
Create and control your own art. Power to the people. Decentralization is freedom.
The bottom line is, if you self publish, they don't make any money. However, if you submit your work, they probably will reject it for whatever reason. So, if you really believe in your story and the agents don't, self publish and prove everyone wrong. Agents always pass on great books that later find their way to the mainstream. Remember the process goes like this: Go the Agents, no response or rejected, go to large press. Still rejected, go to medium press, still rejected, then small press. Lastly, do vanity press and Self-publishing is the final step. Hope this helps.
So I'm 70,000 words into my first novel which is a sci-fi. I've decided if I can't get traditionally published I'm just gonna pop that sucker on Wattpad
In today's culture popularity determines value, seemingly for most people. Whether it is a so-called "expert," media, a movie, the president of the US, or a book. As a consequence the volume of marketing you can push defines whether your product will sell. Take the astoundingly stupid regurgitated movie Avatar. The highest grossing film of all time. It was all marketing and it just goes to show how marketing drive people's perceptions and value in spite of objective value. Consider Harry Porter, astoundingly poorly written regurgitated cheap gibberish. Marketing control.
Self-publishing is cute though.... Depending how serious the writer is.... It's like anyone can play in the NFL just create yourself in a video game.... Yay I'm a football star, horray I'm a huge author with a published book
That’s incorrect on about four counts, but...
Correction: B & N does not accept self-published books.
So in other words, in an author is successful alone, that’s bad? I don’t think so.
I didn't take that away from the video at all... I gathered that as long as your self pub does decent that it won't hinder you. However, once ANYTHING is published (self or traditional), that the sales of the published book(s) become deciding factors in whether or not an agent will take you on.