http://www.lisaregan.com/blog.php.
She has graciously sent me this piece about publishing. There's some great advice here for us all.
Enjoy!
I often have the pleasure of meeting new and aspiring writers. I
get this question so much that I figured it was worth a blog post. It goes a
little something like this:
I just finished my first book! How do I
get it published?
Before you can even think about publication, you should make
sure you've done a few things:
1. Had your book critiqued or beta read by at least 2-4 people. I
prefer something closer to 8-10, especially for a first book, but I know how
hard it is to find people to critique or beta read your book, especially people
who are going to be honest with you about whether it stinks or not. If you really can't find anyone who is willing
to take an honest look at your work, there are now a ton of freelance editors
out there who will do it for a fee. Many people cannot afford this, but it is
an option.
2. Gone over it dozens of times to check for trouble spots, tense
shifts, bad grammar, errors, typos, etc.
3. Made sure the word document you're about to send out into the
world is formatted correctly. This might seem like a no-brainer, but not every
new writer is spit out into the creative world knowing how to format a
manuscript.
You can find critique partners/beta readers online or at a local
writer's group. Freelance editors can also be found online. Do not ask your
favorite NYT bestselling author if he or she can read it. They don't have time
and they're usually prohibited from doing so by their publishers for legal
reasons.
Okay, so now let's say you've got a solid first book with few to no
typos in it and you want to know what do you have to do to get published?
Fifteen, twenty years ago, even ten years ago when I started
querying, there was really only one answer to this question: get a literary
agent who will sell your book to a publisher.
Today, the landscape of the publishing world is so vastly
different. There are a couple of different paths you can take and the answer to
your question, "How do I get it published?" is really a personal
question that only you can answer. It really depends on what is a good fit for
you.
Traditional
You have to write an awesome query letter, send it to a bunch of
literary agents and hope one of them will offer you a contract. If you can get
an agent, said agent will then pitch your book to various publishers (this is
the dreaded "being on submissions") until, hopefully, a publisher
will offer a contract to publish your book.
The Pros: I always hear that a pro of having a
publisher is "the legitimacy" of it. This is still very important to
many writers although I have actually never come across a reader discussion
about whether or not a particular author self-published or had a publisher. I
think one of the main pros of going traditional is that an agent is going to
get you access to larger publishers. That doesn't mean that the big houses will
take your book but having an agent will at least get your book in front of
editors at big houses. Large publishers don't typically take unagented
submissions. Some small publishers will take unagented submissions though and
if you wanted to, you could take your awesome query letter and send it directly
to them.
Another potential pro is the marketing reach that large publishers
have to offer. Larger publishers usually have their own in-house publicists
and/or marketing departments that will work to make sure your book is seen by a
large number of readers. Large publishers will have access to certain things
that some small publishers or a self-published author may find it difficult to
obtain. For example, if you self-publish, you're not going to find your book
reviewed in People Magazine--not unless you have E.L. James-type success. Other
reviewers, like Kirkus, won't review your book if it's published by you or a
small press unless you pay them a great deal of money. Even your local
newspaper may not review your book if you're published by a small press or if
you are self-published.
A publisher pays for everything. Nothing comes out of your pocket.
Cover art, editing, the whole nine yards. These things can be extremely costly
if you’re going it alone. Also your book will absolutely be edited. No
publisher is going to send a book out into the world without it having been
edited.
Finally, a big pro is the print distribution. If you self-publish,
it is extremely unlikely that you'll find your book on the shelves of any
bookstore unless you go to that store and specifically request that it be
stocked. Even then, you may run into resistance. With a large publishing house,
you're much more likely to find your book on bookstore shelves. Even some small
presses will get their books on bookstore shelves.
The one caveat I would add has to do with small publishers: all
small presses are different. They do not all necessarily offer the same things.
Some small presses are imprints of larger publishers and thus, they may have
more marketing or more print distribution. Some small presses only publish
e-books. Many small presses will offer your book in print but not in stores. A
copy will only be printed if someone orders one either online or from a store.
You may be able to walk into a bookstore and ask for your book to be
special-ordered but basically, for a reader to get a print copy of your book,
it's going to have to be ordered and delivered at a later date. There won't be
any walking into a store and picking it up. Something to consider. Some small
presses offer a small amount of marketing, some offer none at all. Depending on
what a small press can offer you, you might be better off self-publishing. So
if you find yourself in a position where you need to decide whether to sign
with a small press or not, you want to research them very carefully. How many
titles do they put out a year? Do they have any print distribution at all? What
do they offer in terms of marketing/advertising? Do they have an in-house
publicist? How well have their other titles performed?
The cons: You may lose a lot of creative control
when you have a publisher. There is always a chance that you can end up with a
final product that wasn't what you had envisioned at all. During the editing
process, many things can change. Then when it comes time for cover design, you
could end up with something you do not like at all. I'm not saying this will
happen, only that it is a possibility. Perhaps an even bigger con is that your
book could fall through the cracks. It might not get the level of marketing
that other books on the publisher's list get. Then it might not sell as many
copies and when it doesn't sell well, the publisher may refuse to put anymore
marketing money behind it. So you can't get any advertising because it's not
selling but you can't sell because it's not getting any advertising. It's a
tough spot to be in. Again, not saying this will happen but it could. Finally,
if you've only got a one-book contract and you're writing a series: if your
first book doesn't sell as many copies as the publisher would like, they might
not take on the next book in the series. Then you're in a tough spot because
not many publishers will take a sequel to a book that another publisher turned
down because the first one didn't do well.
I'm sure there are many more pros and cons to going traditional
but this is just to give you a few ideas as to what types of things to consider
when you're deciding which route to go. Consider this an extremely broad
overview.
Indie
If you don't go traditional or legacy as it's now called, you can
go indie, or self-publish. This means that you put the book out all by your
lonesome. There's not as much of a stigma attached to this anymore. In fact,
many long-time, extremely successful legacy authors are self-pubbing some of
their titles now. The cool thing is that there are so many freelance services
out there today that if you're willing to put out some money up-front, you can
get a great cover, find an excellent editor and copy-editor and find someone to
format your book for digital and print editions.
The pros: You're in control of everything. You will
end up with a product you're happy with because you will be the person making
every decision. Your book will never fall through the cracks because you'll be
in charge of marketing it. You'll never be at the mercy of some marketing
department with 50 other titles in their queue. You won't have to wait to plan
a sale or promotion, you can do it any time you'd like. You set your own price
and you make your own production schedule. No one is going to turn down your
next title.
You make all the money! You're not giving a percentage of your
writing income to an agent or publisher. If you manage to sell a lot of books,
this becomes a huge advantage.
The cons: You're in control of everything. It can be
very stressful being responsible for every single thing that goes into
publishing a book. It's not an easy or inexpensive process. It will be your job
to hire a cover artist, editor, copy-editor, formatter and it will be your job
to line up marketing. It can become very costly. Marketing opportunities are
more limited for a self-published author. Also, the indie market is extremely
competitive. It can be hard to stand-out among so many other indie books.
It can be very tempting to either skip the editorial process
altogether or skimp on it when you’re self-publishing. No one is going to force
you to have your book edited. Freelance editors are not cheap and you’ll want
an editor who will address both content (i.e. How well does the book hold
together? Are there gaping plot holes? Are the characters well-developed? How
is the pacing?) and things like grammar, punctuation, et cetera. You should not
have your friend with an English degree read your book and tell you it looks
fine. You should hire someone who is experienced in the industry and has edited
a lot of other books, preferably books in your genre. But as I said, it will be
very costly if you want it done right.
Again, this is a broad overview. The publishing industry is
extremely complex and it is constantly changing. Whether you go traditional or
indie, I would recommend doing a helluva lot of research before beginning your
publishing journey. As you can see, the answer to the question: how do I get my
book published? is not one I can answer for you--it depends very much on which
option appeals to you the most.
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