I went to a comicon, that is geek speak for comics convention in Seattle also known as Emerald City Comicon and hit every writing seminar I could find. All of the writers were super interesting, amazingly creative and fearless. Among them, were advocates for self publishing and a few traditional publishers and a few agents. I had no idea what to expect, it was me with a half finished novel listening to the experts. So I listened. this is what I found out.

What is Traditional Publishing? In traditional publishing, a publisher like TOR, Koehler books, buys your manuscript from the writer. They will give you feed back to make it more marketable, and if they like it a lot they will publish it. They will pay you for your work, I think it is around 5 to 12 cents a word, depending on genre, length, publishing company prices . What a publishing company has over an individual author is an audience base. The company already has a fanbase of thousands of readers in your genre looking for a series to read. A large fan base is important.

Independent aka Indy author is someone who has written a book and bypassed the traditional publication route. Instead, they have chosen to self publishing through Kindle, Amazon, barns and Noble, and audible. The author wrote a book, edited it up, picked a cover, hired or self edited their work, fixed plot holes and finally formatted it into the various forms and sent the book out! That is a bold move, and a perfect choice for those writing cowboys who want to keep control over every aspect of their book. There is a little bit of mystic surrounding a self published Author. Did it all on their own, bam! Well done. Indy Authors get paid by how many books are sold. The average book has about a 7 year life span on the market. Depending on your book price minus book printing costs is your cash.

So, an Indy Author publishes his/her book. What does that look like? The Author does it all of the writing, edits, choosing a cover, title, then sell it in these various avenues, Amazon, Barns and Noble, then Marketing. This is where the Indy struggles a little bit. They use their social media to connect to potential Audience members. To get a book to sell, you need to find readers to read it. The writer will receive about five to ten dollars per paper book sold. You sell 500 books, and bam five thousand dollars. Sounds easy right?

Remember a reader expects a book to pay off with a good story. The set the bar high on expectation. Readers expect no typos, no misspelled words, no strange grammar sentences. They expect to escape into your book, a story that will change them, alter existance for 18.95

Indy authors struggle with hidden costs. If you use a beta reader to find holes in your plot will cost a few hundred dollars. An editor there are several types that can be used, line editing, content editing are two that comes to mind, but there are many different types. Each of these steps cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. So you spend a couple thousand to get your manuscript buffed and polished, ready for the reader, or you can do it yourself. That is a doable option. The Indy Author has spent 2 years writing thier novel, and 2K in editing and proof reading, So they are invested in this book, ready to go to market, and marketing. They build, facebook accounts, instagrams, youtube video, sell the book at the local market or venue. and takes a while to make that 5k back. Bam an indy writers life in a nutshell.

Where do Agents fall into this mix? Agents are in the middle of the book market, they see trends, know publishers and accept manuscripts. They accept manuscripts that they think they can sell. Yes they charge 15% on domestic handling, and 25% on foreign deals. They are looking for writers that want to make a career of writing. Once accepted by an agent, they will give you honest feedback on your manuscript on how to make the manuscript more marketable to publishers. Agents are good at picking books and matching them to the correct publisher, because that is how they make their living. Agents help broker publishing contracts and film deals and push your book into all marketable avenues.

How to get an Agent. Agents have their own rules to acquire one. They read 150 queries a day looking for someone that follows the rules. Deep down, Agents want to see a writer writing, books, blogs, submitting stories to magazines, and then the infamous query letter. Agents are busy, hustling, they want to partner with writers who produce books. They want a long term commitment built into trust and honesty in a buisness relationship.

A buisness relationship, let that sink in a moment. Agents are there to make money, support their family, support themselves. Yes they care about the writing and the story. If they accept your manuscript, they are putting their name as a stamp of approval when they submit it to a publisher. Their credibility in on the line every time they submit a manuscript to a publisher, in a sence are saying this book is great, and I believe this book will fit into your publishing house.

How do I know Agents? I took this webinar, called ‘How To Get An Agent by Carly Watters, Literary Agent Writers Digest shop. You can purchase it for 80.00 on amazon, she will gives honest advice on how to pick up an agent and great advice for writers and how to write a query letter, where to find agents, and how many Agents should you query. I think the webinar is about 90 minutes and is packed with information on how to be marketable for agents and publishers. Oh for your information, Agents will google you. They will be guaging how marketable you are, what you are working on, and how large is your digitial footprint.

Are Agents Important?

Yes they are important. Do you have to have one? No, but they help. I have a subscription to the online ‘Masterclass’ that showcase many amazing writers and artists, actors, directors and gives a behind the scene of how they work, and what they do. I listened carefully what the Authors say and don’t say. Almost every writer during their presentation says, I want to give a big thank you to my Agent and lists a dozen things they have done for them in their career or their last book. If nothing else, the writers that I look up to, have agents and are important to them.

If you have a manuscript or two and have decided writing is fun, but I am not going to make a living writing, then self publishing is for you. There is a huge sense of accomplishment knowing that you did it all from idea of a story through a paperback book to pricing. You have written a book and have become a better person because of it. You will get the satisfaction of being a self-published author. A person of indomitable spirit and persistence of an oak tree!

If you want to be a career writer for the next several years and focus on writing stories, and making a living at writing, Traditional publishing is for you. You do not have to pick an Agent. You can certainly cold query a publisher to pitch your book. It can be done. Do a little research on which publisher might be accepting, and follow their submission guidelines. Take heed, publishers are huge sticklers for following directions.

If you want a shot at writing full time as a career choice, then an Agent will give you honest feed back to make your books marketable to publishers. They have worked with dozens of publishers and they can gauge if your book will work for them. An Agents will broker deals on your behalf and foster all avenues to get your book to the public. Agents are good at doing this, because that is how they make their living. Long term writers take the time to build the Agent relationship to forge a better future. Agents want writers to write, and the agent to broker deals, and the publisher will publish your books and the public will read your work.

If you decide to have an agent, remember to check them out, look at their work, what authors have they brokered a deal with? What publishers are they working with? “It is better to have no agent, than have a bad agent. “-Carly Watters

I have written one book, and self-published it. The book was fine, readable and sold about 500 copies. It took a lot of time on marketing, and pushing my book to potential readers. What I did realize after about a year of sales, I found I am not a sales person, and took away time from writing. My long term goal is that I want to write more books, and hope to one day write full time. I am working on the next two manuscripts, keeping my fingers busy, while looking for a good agent writer relationship.

What are your plans? Have you self published? Have you forged the Agent Writer relationship? Now time for feedback!! Did I get it right or did I miss the mark, Drop me a line and tell me all about it.

I look forward to hearing from you

Dennis

A little advice from an expert.

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”

— Stephen King