Tag: Publishing and Printing

Self Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: The Reader’s Perspective

Published on by Jaye2 Comments

I couldn’t agree with this more.

The major publishing houses are not great boon, but neither is self-publishing and vice versa. To the reader, the matter comes down to: a great book.

That said, there is the question of distribution. Unquestionably your book will be in more physical stores traditionally published than not. For those writing the applicable genres there’re things like the Scholastic Book Fairs to consider, where only select agents or select publishing houses are allowed entry — self-published is barred.

Still, self-published could compensate for that lack of visibility with a lower price … possibly.

It all comes down to luck and talent in proper alchemical proportions, I suppose.

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Jack Woe

The merits of self-publishing vs. traditional-publishing has been discussed at great length in various blogs from the point of view of authors.  Never, or very rarely has this been discussed from the point of view of readers; the people that ultimately buy the books.  This is my attempt to correct that.

This blog is inspired by The Trials of Self-Publishing: Why I Consider It a Last Resort and Eisler on Digital Denial.

Publication Snobbery

When I buy a book, I don’t consider the publisher at all.  Whoever published the book doesn’t matter.  This also means I don’t care if it’s been self-published.  Not one bit.  It does matter how well it’s written and edited — and that there aren’t so glaring grammatical errors I’m not sure what’s being said.

To dispel a myth, traditional publishers offer little protection from any of those points.  True, I can be reasonably sure…

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How depressing

Published on by Jaye1 Comment

Just checked up on my agent submissions:  so far half of them have either been rejected.

Well, sort of.

One agency doesn’t exist any more and two are the “if you haven’t heard from us by …” sorts.

Useful resource fro anyone looking for a literary agent:  http://www.querytracker.net

  1. you can keep track of who you sent things to and when (beats skimming through GMail looking for the sents and replies!)
  2. It’s got a bleeding agent search by things like genre

certainly worth a look.

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And it’s done

Published on by Jaye2 Comments

Love or Lust is edited.  I’m giving it another read through to make sure everything reads the way I meant it to, but it’s otherwise done.

I’ve submitted a query to the last agent I’d found and was interested in submitting the story to (would have done it days ago, but didn’t see that she wanted only 3 chapters, not the entire manuscript when I’d found her before).  So this is the way it’ll work:  if I’m accepted by an agent I will discuss details with them, I still might self-publish it’ll depend on various things. I’ll keep you posted on when the book is due based on the publisher, and will (of course) post links for pre-ordering if that becomes an option.

If I am not picked up by an agent, or decide not to go with one the book will go on sale 1 June 2012, and I may elect to set up a pre-order with Apple’s iBookstore before then.

It’s always a rush to not only finish a story, but to finish putting the polish on so that it really shines.  All the little typos (theoretically, never fails you’ll find more — I swear little gremlins or imps sneak into the books at night and rearrange the print or edit the files!) are gone, the sentences clear and orderly.  Beautiful.

Part of me does wish that I were just self-publishing this and had never thought about agents and publishers, but teen romance is not sci-fi/fantasy.  I feel that, given a sensible and competent agent and publisher that there is genuinely more benefit in the long run to a contract.  I hope I won’t be proven wrong, and I wish there were some way to know for certain … but I can’t exactly put the book out now and then go hunting for a publisher — it’s possible, but tends to go rather badly.

In the mean time, Ready or Not is on a quiet little hold for another week.  I have only a chapter or two left but I want time to consider how the school year wraps up.

So … this is it, wish me luck.  I may go mad with the waiting.  I just hope it’ll be worth it.

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Agents

Published on by Jaye2 Comments

Suddenly Google is being more helpful.  I’ve gone from two solid sounding agents and a few flaky looking ones none of whom looked like they were remotely relevant to my search except to be literary agents to several agencies.

I’m not querying them all, I’m still being selective by criterion I’m sure I couldn’t explain since I’m not fully aware — call it Vibes and move on — but I am querying several.  I shan’t bother naming them all, but I would like to list some of the more interesting and promising ones whether I’ve queried them or not just to (hopefully) help others.

By all means, if you’d like to suggest an agent or agency for me to query leave a comment or shoot me a message.

A small list, but there you are.  There actually was another agency I was trying to find, I stumbled on them once upon a time looking for a SF agent for something and now I can’t find them.  Pity.

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Exploring possibilities

Published on by JayeLeave a comment

So I’ve made a couple of agent inquiries this weekend.

Really not many. As I know how to do this on my own I was quite particular in who I elected to send inquiries to rather than sending to every agent I could find. I thought, Why not? There’s nothing to lose, and an advance to gain.

There goes money again. Well, frankly, I may write because I have stories I wish to tell, but we live in a crass capitalism and I like to eat and have a home, and wages don’t go far these days.

In the end I submitted to two agents only:

Ms Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency and Ms Diver of The Knight Agency.

I was promptly rejected by Ms Diver. I wasn’t very surprised. I’d actually changed my mind about submitting an inquiry to that agency, initially I hadn’t felt very interested.

This does not mean Now & Forever is not going to be self published, only that it might not. I should expect a reply from Ms Lakosil before editing will be done so no delays there, and I she expresses interest I’ll discuss detail regarding time frame expectations and so forth to decide if I wish to go a traditional route.

In truth my opinions of publishing came largely from my love of SF. The SF houses are, in my opinion, trying to commit suicide. As such I want nothing to do with them professionally. While it can be truly said that publishing houses are all suffering some malady of the mind and a terrible case of short sightedness it is to varying degrees dependent on the publisher and, most importantly, genre. Romance, it seems, is a touch less demented and as such I’m willing to test the waters a little and see how I feel.

Published on by Jaye1 Comment

The worst part: this isn’t even a remotely unique story. One can find people giving first hand accounts of their own publishers, or the publishers of friends, etc. pulling such ridiculous nonsense.

LB's BLOG

This is just too good to keep to myself.

An independent bookseller I know landed a major bestselling author for a rare in-store signing. He got the word out, took advance phone and internet orders for signed copies, and called his sales rep at the publisher to make sure the books would reach him in plenty of time.

“You’ve ordered 450 copies,” the rep told him. “I’m afraid we can only ship you 200.”

Why, for God’s sake? Hadn’t they printed enough?

“No, it’s policy,” he was told. “Two hundred books is our maximum order. We can’t take the chance of huge returns, or credit problems.”

“But the copies are sold,” the store owner said. “I’ve got prepaid orders for them, and I’ll pay in advance myself, and take them from you on a non-returnable basis. There’s no risk, and there won’t be any returns, and that’s 450 copies of…

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