Status Update: Today the sun is shining and the skies are clear with only a hint of wind, which is how I feel; warm, fuzzy and willing to embrace the writing journey with only a hint of doubt.
So, it seems that the BIG never-ending debate is self-publishing versus traditional publishing and I thought I’d share my preference. For me, at this very moment, I want to go the traditional route with an agent and a publisher. There are many reasons, but the most important one being that I want to focus on writing. As a mom of three children, I have a limited amount of time. I only write when the wee ones are in bed which means nap time and at night. However, I have to balance the night hours with writing and spending time with my husband. We’ve been married for almost fourteen years and I feel blessed that I found someone who I still love to spend time with, but that causes a tug of war between my desire to write and my longing to be with him. It’s a tricky game and one that I don’t always handle correctly. So for me to focus on writing, I don’t want to spend my time on:
Finding/hiring an editor
Book Cover Illustrations
Marketing-speaking to bookstores for book placement, mass advertisements, finding book bloggers, etc.
E-formatting
Contract negotiations
Learning Curve-learning all of the aforementioned, plus anything I haven’t heard discussed
In a traditional path, all of those aspects and more are handled by a team of people, meaning that with my limited time and knowledge that I would probably never get to write. However, this doesn’t mean that my mind won’t change. I’m keeping it open along with one eye on the industry, but for now I’m happy with the path I’ve chosen.
What about you? Self-publish or Traditional publishing?
I’m with you. I think Traditional Publishing is something you need to try to do before thinking about self-publishing. Traditional Publishing is not easy, but it is easier now than it was in the dark ages, before the internet, twitter, and everything else. We know what publishing house/agent houses want in a query, and that makes the process infinitely more easy.
Of course, just because we have that knowledge, and use it, doesn’t mean getting a book deal will ever be easy for anyone. Agents have to absolutely plot/concept of your novel, and they have to adore you’re ability to tell it. If they don’t, they will pass. So finding the right agent, means you have to steel yourself for rejection.
I keep telling myself I’ll be good at that part. After all, I audition and get rejected all the time, and basically for the same reason. It’s not that I’m not talented, I’m just not a right fit at this moment for what they want. Still, my book is personal, and although I trained to act for years, I also knew rejection was a big part of the territory.
I know NOW that rejection is very common in publishing, but I assumed it was because most of what people write today is terrible. I am still convinced, based on tweets from agents, that many people who query agents are terrible writers, as well as crappy queryers, but I also know, there are tons of authors out there, who are immensely talented, with credentials for surpassing my own, that are struggling.
Sometimes you can be a good writer and a good querier and like you said it just isn’t a good time or fit.