Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m taking a break from talking about teen issues and discussing something a little more personal today. I’m in such an energized mood because I’m working on my Coming of Age novel and I’m really enjoying it. I love my main character! I’m sure every writer has a manuscript that she’s just so in tune with that she can’t put it down.
I’m worried about myself when I get it completed. Will I feel a sense of loss? I hope not. To avoid that feeling, the idea for the sequel’s already brewing in my little brain. 🙂
My beta readers are enjoying this story too. That’s always a good sign when they’re asking for more chapters. As I write, I wonder if I should go the agent route or small press route.
If I choose the agent path, it will take longer and there’s no guarantee they’ll sell the manuscript. If I go the small press route the manuscript will be published faster, but I will be responsible for most of the marketing of the book. Which isn’t a problem for me, but having a major publisher help with the marketing is always a plus.
As I feverishly work on my story, this question bounces around in my brain. One day I’m leaning one way and the other day the next. Sigh. Then of course, there’s self-publishing.
I considered this option for a long time, and I haven’t ruled it out. However, I feel that I need a large following to make this option successful and since I’m writing for an older age group than my previous novels. I don’t feel that I have enough of a following to choose self-publishing yet.
What I like about self-publishing is that I get to see where most of my sales are coming from. That type of information is invaluable when you’re trying to market your books. That’s one of the major advantages of this choice.
You also get to see how you’re doing on a daily basis. I’m one that likes to check my numbers so I can tweak my marketing plan as I go. That’s hard to do when you have to wait three months for your results. 🙂
I would love some input from fellow authors out there. Have any of you gone the self-publishing route and built a following that way, or is there a stigma still attached to self-publishing?
Thanks for stopping by and reading my post. If you could share your opinion, I’d love to hear from you! 🙂
Ahh… the questions an author must face when deciding whether this is a career or just a hobby. I am an indie author who wants to be traditionally published. My reason for this is that I write middle-grade and traditional publishers hold all the cards when it comes to targeting my audience. Scholastic owns the marketing world when it comes to schools and libraries. But in order to get with scholastic you have to have an agent, in order to have an agent you have to spend the time researching, querying, and waiting…then the rejections come and you feel like its all for not. However, if you want to be successful you need to go through the “crap” before you get the results. This is what I do. I will write a book, have it professionally edited and then start querying. I will shop it to all the agents on my list (I am very picky–I don’t want just anyone) if I don’t get a positive response I then target all the publishers that accept unagented submissions ( I have a list of those too–most small presses are not worth my time) If I still have a no go, I move onto self publishing. This is my last resort with every book because it is a heck of a lot of WORK. It doesn’t mean you can’t be successful at self publishing (indie publishing) but you have to know what you’re getting into before hand. I research indie publishing for about 2 years before I decided to go through with it. I even had a contract from a small publisher but because they were small I knew I could do better on my own. In the end it comes down to how much behind the scene work you want to do with your book. Either way, traditional or self-publishing, they both take time and lots of work. I always trust my gut and go with what I feel is the best choice for me. 🙂 Good luck Lisa! I look forward to hearing about your successes!
Thanks for stopping by Mikey. I appreciate your opinion and your thoughts are helping me with my decision.
So interesting, I’m facing this same dilemma! The idea of spending so much time researching and querying agents exhausts me. I have no grand aspirations to be traditionally published, but with a couple of small press books under my belt, and contract offers from a mid-size publisher, it seems like finding an agent is the next ‘logical’ step.
Thanks for stopping by Lynn. I agree the prospect of finding an agent seems daunting, but again it could be the next logical step. 🙂 I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the subject. 🙂
I highly recommend exhausting the agent thing first. If you really want to be around for the long run, that’s the way to go. However, that said, I’ve had no luck with agents. All of my books have been with small presses and the one I have coming out is with an indie. Self-publishing should be a very last resort, as it is really hard to get people to buy or review self-pubbed books.
Thanks so much for your words of wisdom, Donna. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. 🙂