In a recent guest post at J.A. Konrath’s blog, Barry Eisler laid out numerous reasons why he no longer foresees pursuing traditional publication.
And in the comments section on this blog, I’ve noticed a definite uptick in the number of people who are questioning the wisdom of querying agents and trying for traditional publication at all, whether because of the length of time it takes, the fear of losing control, e-book royalties, and many other factors.
So. For all you writers out there: Do you plan to pursue traditional publication or are you going self-publishing all the way?
Poll below, please click through if you’re reading via e-mail or a feed reader.
Konrath has a solution that works for him. He is a well known author with a popular blog, and he is well positioned to do his own publicity. I have never published, do not have a blog (yet) and have no idea how to get the publicity thing moving forward. So at this point, self publishing does not look attractive. Then again, by the time I get the novel finished, the landscape may look quite a bit different.
Quite possibly both. I have confidence that the traditional industry will hang around in some form, and would love to see one of the old houses' logos stamped alongside my name on a novel's spine.
But I also have confidence in the 'long tail'–the power of self- and indie-publishing to match readers of less-popular genres/voices to plenty of good books that fit their tastes. As a writer of rather old-fashioned high fantasy for young people of every age, I suspect the long tail may prove friendly. 🙂
No firm decisions either way yet, but lots of thought.
I have every intention of doing it all, traditional print, digital direct and self(e & print). This is a career and I already have more than one book in the can.
If I was selling hats, why would I only get them on the shelves at Macy's when there's a wonderful hat store around the corner?
Some of my books are better suited to a more traditional distribution and marketing process, others will do better if I hand sell out of the trunk of my car. The author objective is to connect with an audience – wherever they read.
I think the future will hold a mixture of both traditional and self-publishing for many successful authors (and perhaps hybrids or new forms yet to be invented). I've done both, and they both have their advantages and drawbacks.
I've given a couple of talks on self-publishing, and most people who walk in thinking they'll try it walk out thinking they won't. When they hear the realities, they decide it's not such a great option after all. Both traditional and self-publishing are hard, both require a lot of skills, and with both you have a slim chance of major success.
I think self-publishing is a great option for previously published authors who want to continue a series the publisher dropped or bring back their out-of-print books, for people who have a niche market and know how to reach it, and for people who love marketing and are good at it. But it's not easy or a guarantee of success.
I will still try to find an agent.Right now I have to focus on the writing and making it the best it can be.It's tough no matter what way you go. You still have to promote yourself either way. I don't think I have what it takes to do self publishing. There is alot of work involved. I need a team behind me and even though some authors get fed up with their team I think I will take my chances for now with traditional publishing. The next step for me would probably be the small presses.
You know, I hate to be cynical, and I think it's wonderful that you're doing this poll, Nathan, because it's interesting. And I know that you'd be the last one to say that it's scientific research.
But I do want to point out that there is no way to prove that the people who are answering this poll are actually writers.
Of course, that's true with all of your polls, but this is an especially controversial topic, and where people try to influence each other.
Just a thought about what this poll might be measuring, since many people can be answering it.
I think we're standing on the precipice of a new world… it will be interesting to see where things go, as a lot of 'bad' writers will be self-publishing as well as the good.
I find it hard that so many agents 'aren't taking queries right now'. Self-publishing it suddenly looking a lot more enticing.
Although the stigma against self-publishing is lessening, my main reason for pursuing traditional publication first will be because I want the resources I could potentially get through a traditional route. Having an editor, art department, possibly publicity (I hope), etc., provided is worth the lost profits I might make by going the self-publishing route for me at this moment. I'd like to have that sort of support.
I'm trying for a bit of hybrid approach; I don't want to throw my work into the public-facing slush-pile that is Smashwords, Kindle Direct, etc, to bob around unregarded in an undifferentiated soup of under-edited amateur content. On the other hand, I don't want to be lumbered with legacy media's business models (I plan on distributing the digital edition under a Creative Commons license, and on generating revenue through artwork, mobile apps, etc, as well as physical editions) or with their marketing demographics (I'm going for readers aged 9 to adult, but have no intention of removing the explanations of evolutionary computation or nuclear fusion, or changing the fact that my semi-delinquent 11 year old protagonist sometimes says swears), so, with a friend, I am setting up a small press (https://robotsquid.net), with the intention of putting our work through some proper editing, typesetting and design, before publishing and marketing it – and if we're successful, we might just open up for submissions!
Having self-published once I plan to consider both as viable options. My self-published book was for a niche market and found an appreciative audience. My current book is aimed at a much wider audience and I plan to try the traditional route. Part of it is curiosity, so I can compare the two, and part is still a confidence thing of having a publishing house standing behind my work.
I would definitely self-publish again. I think there are a lot of benefits, such as speed, flexibility, and control, that you give up with going there traditional route.
I spent two fruitless, frustrating years trying to get published at a brick and mortar publishing house before I decided to self-publish on Kindle and Nook.
While I haven't had great success yet, I can control more of the aspects of publishing and I get to keep a larger percentages of the profits.
I'm on the fence.
On the one hand, I'm not experienced at publishing and am certain I could learn a lot from everyone involved with going the traditional route. And, I want anything I have published to be the best it could possibly be.
On the other hand, getting picked out of the slush pile seems like more of a picking the winning lottery number thing than being about the quality of the writing and story.
Either way, it sounds like you have to do your own marketing anyway.
Given that most writers would willingly throw themselves off a cliff in order to be heard, the presence of a world wide absence of cliff adds to the scenario a hint of potential freedom.
For now, it's a free-for-all, and the question of self-pubbing vs 'trad' invites legitimate options.
Come 2016 (or whenevah), I suspect we'll see the usual rules of shaftitude enacted, with writers in thrall to the New Pub rather than the Old Pub.
"for all regurgitated spew cometh the rag"
I didn't read all the comments, but as others said, your poll doesn't cover all the answers…I have 3 pen names, and I am going forward with self-pub on one while still pursuing traditional pub for the others…it's partly about what traditional pub houses are willing to take a risk on, partly because I want to try my hand at what fellow SFA-RWA member Bella Andre calls "the grand experiment." But I'd never self-pub if I didn't have the help of some of my friends, who are writers, freelance editors, and designers, as well as the knowledge gained from RWA and researching the market on my own. And still it feels risky. But there's always the next book. 🙂
I re-issued my children's picture books in 2010 and had wanted to use them to get a publisher interested in my writing. It's a no-go with publishers now and I'm getting my books into ebook format for e-readers, tablets, etc.
If a publisher or agent popped into my life, I might reconsider using them. At present I don't see the value in a publisher except for their credibility and exposure for some sales.
Granted it is work to up my credibility and exposure for sales, but eventually, it will happen. I have time, an author platform and other marketing tricks under my tiara!
I didn't answer the poll, because I'm currently doing both. And I know a lot of other authors, young in their careers, doing the same.
For my own book, I do want a traditional publisher again–for the expertise, distribution and cache they provide. While I may make less per book,it's worth the trade off.
As a book writing coach, at times I do recommend self-publishing– when an author wants the book fast, wants control or doesn't necessarily want/need to sell many but is using it mainly as a way to promote their business to potential clients/customers.
For those who want a bestseller or more cache/credibility, I often recommend traditional publishing. It's also easier to get national publicity coverage with a traditionally published book.
These writers mentioned have sold tons of books and have at some point taken advantage of the marketing muscles of traditional publishing to get there. They don't often mention that.
I've self published my first three books after about twenty, thirty submissions and rejections. I have a new novel finished and I'll keep trying for a agent, or an editior at a reputable small press, but my list has been reduced to only those that have responded in an interested, respectful, professional, manner the past. I've learned a lot, and my time is important too.
But landing a book with a major publisher is still a goal, I'll keep trying till that last rejection comes in, and then I'll publish it myself and move on to the next.
At least I know I have a few readers waiting and that's a pretty good thing too.
Self-publishing is a double-edged sword. My first novel comes out January 17, and my decision to self-publish had to do with all the things Nathan mentioned but also with the fact that I wanted to do a career experiment. I have yet to see the result, but the learning process has been extreme, to an extremely extreme degree.
I have vowed not to release my book until it is indistinguishable from anything coming out of New York, and having that mindset has made the process both incredibly difficult and incredibly rewarding. If you choose to self-publish "properly," you absolutely must hire a professional editor and line editor. That is AFTER you get as much feedback as you can from as many different people as possible. Even then, the work involved in making sure the book is as perfect as it can be makes traditional publishing look positively easy, at least from an outside perspective. When you pay editors by the hour or page, you must learn to be even more meticulous and self-critical than you already should be, because if you're not handing your work over for editing when it is 100% the best you can make it, it will cost you to backtrack. There is no safety net of quality control that a traditional publisher would offer. This has become the #1 most difficult aspect of the process, and it will be the #1 factor in my future decision to self-publish again or pursue the traditional route.
Then there is all the other stuff, from typesetting, Epub design, cover design, marketing, and all that jazz. The work load can be utterly overwhelming, and it can repeatedly be a punch to the gut when you realize that few "official" people will ever take you seriously, even if your book is good. (I'm talking about reviewers, particularly, even though I've managed to have some success in that realm so far.)
All that said, this foray into self-publishing (something I never thought I would do) has been one of the most rewarding, expanding, and intellectually stimulating experiences of my life. By treating this as a business, thinking like a publisher instead of a writer, and making my book as "real" as anything professionally published, I have gained a set of skills that most traditional authors would never have. I wouldn't trade it for a five-book deal. If I do seek the traditional route in the future (a huge possibility), I will be prepared for it in a way I otherwise wouldn't have been.
@Peter D. It definitely feels like high school all over again. The more conferences I go to, the more it feels that way. Still, I don't think I have it in me to deal with self-pubbing. At the same time, I'm not jazzed about an agent or editor getting on me about what I should be writing. I want to work on what I want to work on.
Self-publishing all the way – at the moment.
I'll freely admit I'm a control freak, and a hyper-creative – I enjoy the whole process of creating books. But I also think that when the industry is going to change so dramatically, it's most prudent to self-publish. I keep control of my rights and my IP, and if/when traditional publishing is revamped and reborn into their new business model, I don't have any existing contracts or obligations tying me to my previous business model, should I choose to switch.
Having self-published four novels and four short stories and selling those publications each and every day now, I plan to stay with self-publishing. Except for traditionally published authors in one or two genres, the happiest writers I know are self-published. I've also noticed a lot more typos in the expensive traditionally-published eBooks I've recently purchased than in recently self-published books by authors who have won awards or consistently received good reviews. There's a lot of excitement and creativity in the self-published author community right now. It's a good place to be.
I'm on the fence.
On the one hand, I'm not experienced at publishing and am certain I could learn a lot from everyone involved with going the traditional route. And, I want anything I have published to be the best it could possibly be.
On the other hand, getting picked out of the slush pile seems like more of a picking the winning lottery number thing than being about the quality of the writing and story.
Either way, it sounds like you have to do your own marketing anyway.
This is exactly the question I've been wrestling with the past few months. I'm new to the book world and I'm still in school, so I've been planning (and hoping) on traditional publishing. I am very much okay with the idea of letting professionals handle all of the publishing details. They definitely know a lot more about it than I do, and after all, they are adults 🙂
However, the thought of finding an agent as a teenager fresh outta high school with no prior experience is really intimidating. Persevere, persevere, persevere.
I selected the first option, but I'm actually thinking about going both ways. I really want my novels published traditionally, but I'm strongly considering self-publishing some short stories, novellas, and poem collections through e-book markets.
I feel the latter three would be a much harder sell, but I still want them out there at some point, and perhaps generating some sales and readers.
I attended ThrillerFest/CraftFest/AgentFest last summer in NYC and pitched my fiction to 11 agents of the 65 who were in attendance. Ten wanted me to send pages from 10 to 100 pages each. I am currently working with a UCLA Writer's Certificate program author/instructor/editor in completing my final revisions. Soon, I'll be sending out to the agents who requested pages. I think you have to know when to "hold them and know when to send them out."
I believe that going with a small epress should be considered a viable third option. You can get the help and support of a print publisher and the higher control and royalties of a self-pubber at once.
-Anna
I was querying publishers with my first middle-grade novel when I unexpectedly got the rights to my adult series back.
I decided to set up my own imprint, re-release my adult books and also … while I was at it … release my new MG novel under the same imprint.
Since September this year I've tidied up and released a dozen short stories which were cluttering up my hard drive, I've finished one new adult and one new mg novel, and I'm halfway through finishing another adult novel.
All my works are scoring mostly 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, so I'm doing something right.
In summary, I'd say self-pub/indie is definitely the way forward for me.
Apart from anything else, it seems to be the only way to keep a moderately popular open-ended series going. Bookstores ordering to net will kill most series stone dead after 2 or 3 books.
I'm hoping for a traditional contract for one novel I'm finishing up now. Another novel is soon to be subbed to small presses (with epic fantasy in the place it's in, no surprise to me that there were very few nibbles). Self-publishing would be a last resort.
Self-publishing would be too much of a slog for someone in my position, I think. I'm not known so no name recognition to help sales. I'll be helping my husband with his restaurant, so sinking as much time in self-promotion as would be required (and somehow finding the balance between promotion and spam) would be difficult, not to mention the money that would be involved. While I realize some marketing and promotion would be necessary, I don't want them to be my primary jobs. Plus, even though I'm an editor, I know having someone else go through it would make my work better and less mistake prone. Can't pay for it so wouldn't get it if I self-pubbed.
Do you plan to pursue traditional publication or are you going self-publishing all the way?
I will do what desperation forces me to—which I wrote about in more detail here.
Thanks, Nathan – that's fair. The results are interesting, too. I honestly expected more folk to answer on the self-pub side!
I have gone the self-publish route because I have a good editor (my wife) who tells me when I've exceeded the bounds of sanity as quickly as she will tell me things look okay. I am also comfortable with cover design. The marketing is the hard part and the only reason I would consider anything from the traditional route. I have ebook sales and will have paperback as an option soon. Right now I am trying to get my second novel out before Christmas.
I am really, really enjoying this conversation. Everyone seems to have thought long and hard about their reasons for or against a certain type of publishing, and that's very refreshing. Personally, I'm 100% traditional all the way, for no other reason than the fact that it has been my lifelong dream since I was six. I don't care about the money (though I would eventually love to switch careers from professional copywriter to professional novelist if at all possible) or the control, or even whether or not it was successful or a flop.
Is this an odd mentality?
There's nothing "self" about self publishing because if you want to do it right, you need help. Editors, designers, web designers, etc.
A lot of people say they don't have the resources to self publish but you'd be surprised what can be done with a few thousand dollars. Eat Mac and Cheese for a month. No drinks with friends. Hire an editor.
People spend tens of thousands taking out loans to go get a degree in "What the hell am I going to do with this?" Then they put their heart and soul into a book and they won't spend money to make it better. Take out your 401K. The country is going into the crapper anyways. Live on the streets when you're old. Publish a book now.
Publishers are wising up. They will slap their name on your book, upload to all the same places you can upload to YOURSELF, and then they will take your royalties. But at least you'll have a Bird or a House on your book.
Agents are becoming publishers. Big publishers are forming self publishing-vanity rip-off services (Penguin=Book Country) and some agents are quitting all together to go work for CNET!
Give self pub a try and get your book into readers' hands instead of spending years typing a silly letter to strangers trying to convince them your work is "worth" something.
End Rant and Wahbah!
(Spinning back kick at Big Publishers)
Self-pub all the way. I tried traditional for years, and got the "It's really good, but it's not for me." response to partials and fulls. I finally got a contract with a small press, and it was a disaster. I was lucky to escape with my rights a few months later.
Now I self publish, and in 6 months, I've already made more money than I would have expected to get as an advance for a debut author. I have complete control, I set the schedule, and the people who work on my book work for *me*. I'm basically running my own business, and I love it. Seeing my book pop up on those Amazon fantasy bestseller lists shows me that I made the right choice!
Why should one deal with print publishers? They are an unnecessary middleman in today's evolving industry. There really only needs to be authors, readers, and in most cases, stores. However, the future may offer more venues where work can go direct from authors to readers, with no one skimming profits off the top.
I like what S. F. Roney said. More power to the people. What do tradtitional publishers know anyway? They knocked back some of the greatest works in literature, and the biggest successes. They are just a hindrance.
It's unfortunate that bookstores don't have self-published sections so that readers can get access to material of their choice, rather than being dictated to by (generally conservative) business people. I think this will change though.
I self-published, sold a decent number, landed a publisher and from here on out will do both. I see no reason to stick with one way or the other. I will publish my work in whatever way I think will make me the most money.
I have self-published a children's novel and it has done okay. It is on the shelves in 30 Chapters retail outlets, which is a huge deal in Canada (as Chapters is the bookstore monopoly). I've written the sequel and would give anything to not have to self-publish again (I'm querying my butt off). While the journey has been a lot of fun, it has also been agonizing. A lot of time marketing, PR, and to be honest, the worst part of self-publishing is that the industry itself shuts me out of everything – literary festivals, associations (I'm not a real author), book reviews. Thankfully Chapters is more forward-thinking. I'm working on a YA novel now and fingers crossed – will find an agent to represent it.
He no longer 'foresees' pursuing traditional publishing methods?
Foresee?