Addendum: THE ALCHEMY THIEF is up for preorder and will be launched on July 16, 2021. I decided to self-publish after all. If you’re wondering why then keep reading.
I emailed a lot of agents. Most have never responded. A few busy agents were kind enough to respond, which I greatly appreciated, but they all said they were not interested. I was almost convinced I should self-publish when, near the end of the day, I noticed it was a PITMAD day on Twitter. On a whim, I tweeted my pitch. One very reputable agent based in New York City liked it, so I checked out his website and sent in the required documents. I’ve never heard back, but that’s okay because as the days went by, I found myself hoping that he wouldn’t ask for my manuscript.
Have you ever flipped a coin to try to make a decision and when the coin came up heads you instantly wanted to flip it again? At that point, you knew you really wanted to do whatever tails represented! Well that’s sort of what happened here. When I thought I had a real chance to obtain a good agent, I discovered I didn’t really want one, and I don’t believe it was a case of sweet lemons. I can explain.
Everyone’s circumstances are different. My situation is that I am retired from a successful career as a lawyer, and I receive a pension. I have 5 books already self-published and have written 3 more. I’m not getting any younger. The more I realized how slow traditional publishing works, the more I began to question why I would want to go that route. It was painful to have three completed manuscripts just sitting on my computer.
Next, I have several family members involved in self-publishing who are very successful. I’m not going to mention names here because I want you to buy my books because you love my writing not because I know someone whose writing you love. But I am very blessed to have access to their expertise. There’s that word again! I realized that these days, publishers don’t have the corner on expertise.
Lastly, I treasure the freedom to write whatever I want to write. I worked for the government for many years. In the beginning, my creativity was encouraged (within certain boundaries of course). By the time I left, I felt my voice was no longer heard. They purged anyone who expressed differing views. That was one of the reasons I left the law to write. I wanted freedom.
So why would I go with a publisher? Without one, I already had access to expertise, I could express myself freely, and I could launch my books quickly.
Prestige would be the only answer. But I’d rather just have people love my books.
So I did a 180 degree turn around, and so far I’m glad I did!
Do you think I made the best decision? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Have you chosen to self-publish or to publish traditionally? Why? What are your circumstances and how have they affected your decision?
HERE IS MY ORIGINAL POST when I was leaning towards traditional publishing:
Yay! I have finished writing my new historical fiction duology!! I finished the second book about six months ago. Thank you, thank you, to my excellent beta readers for their insightful comments and encouraging words. It’s so fulfilling to read their excited reactions! After multiple edits of the first book in the series, The Alchemy Thief, now I’m almost done with final edits on the second book.
What’s next? Do I self-publish or go the traditional route?
Self-publishing has the following advantages:
Keep 100% of the proceeds
Quick, easy publishing
Complete control over what you publish
Traditional Publishing has the following advantages:
Expertise in making sure the best product is published
Expertise in marketing
Expertise for print distribution in bookstores
Expertise in foreign rights sales
Expertise on film contracts
So you may have noticed a pattern here. Traditional publishing provides expertise, BUT IT’S SO SLOW!
I self-published my first series, Tales of Tzoladia. For me, the self-publishing process was a piece of cake. I’m so unbelievably fortunate that one of my sons is also an author and a whiz at the technical stuff like formatting and publishing on various sites including Amazon and Smashwords. So I had an advantage. After completing the hard work (and fun project) of writing and editing, my son took care of the technical aspects for me. But that was only the beginning. These days a self-publisher must work even harder after the writing is done.
So much tweaking had to be done. I changed titles, divided three books into six, and then recombined the first two again. I’m lucky here again because my son is an extremely talented book cover designer. He designed and then redesigned my covers each time I made changes.
Back in 2007 (hard to believe it was that long ago), Amazon still listed email addresses of reviewers, so I went through the painstaking process of finding books similar to mine and making a list of their five-star reviewers. I emailed several hundred potential reviewers asking if they would give me an honest review of my first book. Soon afterward, Amazon removed all email addresses, so that technique is no longer available for new authors. Next, I emailed book review bloggers to request an honest review.
That part was actually fun because so many of the reviewers were so nice and said yes. I jumped with joy every time I received a good review. The anticipation was half the fun. I loved the whole process. When I read a review from a stranger who read my book, understood it, and liked it, it was like Christmas morning, and my heart was as full as the stockings!
With my background as a lawyer, I just could not believe how nice fellow authors were. One author emailed me with an error she caught which my beta readers and I had missed. I promptly fixed it. How nice of her!
I also braced myself for the bad reviews. I knew they were coming. My son said authors should be thankful for bad reviews because they add authenticity. Sometimes I take things personally, so I was a little worried. When the first bad one finally came, it wasn’t mean and nasty, but just said that my book was not their cup of tea. Okay, I could accept that. A couple of others were worded stronger, but with all the good reviews coming in, I didn’t let it bother me. This is a soft business compared to my past life practicing criminal law.
I amassed a 4.1 rating on Amazon and 86 reviews! Not bad for a beginner.
Here are some examples of other steps that I took:
Posted my first book in the series on LibraryThing in their Giveaway program.
Signed up for Bookbub, posted my books, and applied multiple times to be selected for promotion
Started a blog on WordPress, and then switched to Squarespace (here!) My blog post about 10 Novels with Biblical Illusions is my most popular post to date!
Began tweeting @RADennyAuthor
Created a separate author’s Facebook account.
Opened a MailChimp account
Paid for ads on Facebook, tweaked them and ran them again
Built-up an email list using various methods
Obtained an honest review from Kirkus Reviews
Wrote and rewrote blurbs and ad copy.
Attended Writer’s Conferences
But best of all, I kept writing. I switched to historical fiction because of my passion for history. And that is my best advice: keep writing! Every novel I write, I feel is even better than the last one.
So this time, will I self-publish or go the traditional route?
To date, I’ve emailed numerous agents, and I’m watching the No’s trickle in. I did my research and read about each agent. I followed their submission rules carefully and tweaked my query letter to fit the agent specifications each time. But it’s a lot harder than waiting for reviews, especially since many of the agents don’t have time to reply. It feels like some of my emails have floated out to nowhere land.
All the quick gratification of self-publishing is gone. Instead of good reviews pouring in, my finished books are just sitting there. Beta readers rave reactions help to keep me going. But it may be years before my new novels see the light of day. That’s tough.
So why don’t I just self-publish? Even if I obtain an amazing agent and a prestigious publisher, I will need to work hard to market my books. I understand that. It’s the expertise I’m looking for. With my first series, I did the work of marketing. I would have loved to have taken it a step further and given speeches and held book signings. I’m an extrovert and an experienced public speaker. But the calls didn’t come in.
I’m not authoring novels for the money. Admittedly, money would be nice, but that’s not why I write. I write because of my need to create. But that isn’t enough. I want my books published because in the end stories are meant to be a shared experience. My son reminds me often that if my books don’t sell, that means nobody is reading them. So if I want that wonderful shared experience with lots of people, I have to sell a lot of books. It is, after all, a business.
Marketing Tales of Tzoladia, I kept tweaking my efforts. The biggest puzzle for me was why, when I received so many good reviews on the first book, many of those people never went on to the second book. Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe agents and publishers have the expertise to pinpoint optimal changes I need to make and the best actions I need to take to be truly successful in this highly competitive and fickle industry.
I believe The Alchemy Thief has all the makings of a best seller. I’ve done my research. I’ve honed my skills. I have lots of passion and energy. All I need is someone with expertise. Okay, and some good fortune.
So if you’re excited to read The Alchemy Thief, you’ll have to wait for now. But who knows? The next email I open might be an agent saying “Yes!” It’s a long road, but in the end, I believe it is worth it.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!