So Now What? Do I Submit to Publishers or Not?

I wrote my first draft then I had someone read it over.  This person made suggestions concerning transitions, spellings, contractions and so on.  She was the perfect person for the job because at this point, if someone had told me it stunk, I likely would have stopped!

​Now I have made changes and gone into my second edit with someone else.  After that more changes and then final read through.  This is normal.

Since then I have been doing a good deal of reading about traditional publishing and print on demand publishing...selling on line after you upload and self publish.

There are pros and cons to both methods.  I guess it depends on why you are writing a book and what you want out of it.  Certainly this is going to effect just how polished your book shall be or whether it makes it to the public or not.

For instance, to submit anything to a publisher, most publishing places these days do NOT accept unsolicited manuscripts.  In other words, you would need it it go through an agent before the publish will even look at it.  Not to be discouraging, however everyone and their dog wants to publish a book!  And with the online publishing drawing more and more of the public market and the development of the Kobo and other E-Reader, folks just don't care if they get a printed book or not.  This means publishers are scrambling to keep up with the times.  As the founder of the sporting goods chain Cleve's once pointed out: if you think you have the recipe of success your in big trouble!

These days you either keep up with the changes or go under...or worse.  So at this point I will tell you of a few nightmares other writers have run into with publishing companies.  The first is a person who put her manuscript in with a small company, signed the contract and thought, yes, it is happening.  She did not know the business was going through a major change and splitting...some members of the company were staying with traditional publishing and the others were going into e-publishing.  And unfortunately for her, her manuscript went with the e-publisher who didn't want to publish her book!  She spent YEARS and a lawyer getting her manuscript back.  And it was no easy thing!

The other publisher was a small one that still exists and survives mainly by using grants to publish.  Another published a book with these small publishing house here in NovaScotia (but they are all over!).  It isn't that it is a new company however it is one that struggles.  After the first publication the book sold well however, when the author asked for a re-print, the publisher said no, the grant money for that job was used up!  The author could no NOTHING.  The rights were with the publisher and that was that.

There used to be a stigma concerning Vanity presses who published your book for a fee.  Times have changed a good deal since then and in Canada, authors have more options.  For instance, I was chatting the other week with someone who took a course in on-line publishing.  As it stands, if you get enough hits with your ebook since the population in Canada is so much smaller, there is a very good chance a publisher may pick it up, or take you seriously if your doing a series especially.  In the US, this is not the case.  You need so many, many more hits of your ebook to even get noticed!  

Amazon is the largest on-line bookstore in the world.  If you publish on line, then you can avoid the middle man.  Your book, when it is wanted goes out to a publisher who prints as needed.  They are a variation of a few other sites who may upload to Amazon but may also upload to other places.  I have not checked all the fine print yet, however it seems you can put your manuscript in more than one place.  And, here in Nova Scotia, according to another writer who had just come back from a few bookstores, these stores will carry your book.  But be forewarned, they take 50% of your sales and there is no insurance on it!  If it gets stolen or damaged, it is your loss COMPLETELY!  Which really is insane however I suspect it is because it is the only agreement they can make with the publishing houses who have contracts to sell in these stores.  It is the main thing going for the publishing houses right now, that they have larger markets. to put your book into.  Keep in mind however, not all publishers are created equal and some just have terrible marketing strategies or no budget for it.

I think part of the decision in this process has to be how dedicated and involved in the writing process are you?  How invested?  How educated?  How interested?  And just how good do you think you are?

Some folks just want to say they wrote and published a book.  Unlike my friend I spoke of in another blog who hounded the Canada Council Judges so much, they may have given her a grant just because she showed such determination.  I think, you have to know yourself.  Are you one of those people who never give up and who have a thick skin?  Can you take rejection after rejection and still believe in yourself? To have faith in yourself when others don't can be like carrying a mountain on your back.  It is a great deal harder than if your really good, have contacts and a really strong ego as well as tons of support.  If you don't, do you want to put the time and energy into submitting to a publisher?  To putting out there the first and last chapter as well as a well crafted query letter/outline that grabs the attention of various individuals?  The process is a long one and the larger the book publisher, the better it is but also the more hoops you must get through to just get noticed.  I made it to the last stage once with a company but as they pointed out, they only publish a few books of that genre per year and they were interested but had met their quota and were on to another topic!  So in the end, you wait months to have it go through the entire process and depending on the way the wind is blowing, it still may not make it to print!  That is just how it works. 

Having said that, after working in a really good art gallery, I know that the person selling your book, if they are good at their job, will make your career.

This art gallery owner presented it this way.  You can sell for yourself.  You have the entire pie.  You don't have to give any part of what you make to anyone however your market is also much smaller so even though you may be getting the entire pie, if someone can take your work and put it out there, even though they are taking a fee, you are getting a slice that is even bigger than your who pie!  

The thing is though, I have learned you have to be really promoted and believed in.  A wishy washy fly by night publisher who publishes you once, and then doesn't give you a second thought is like a really bad art gallery who has a zillion artist's paintings on their walls and knows none of the artists.  Their work is just a product to be sold.  Without that personal touch and real interest in their authors like with artists, you work will just hang on a wall or sit on a shelf and be no different than if your selling on your own.

It used to be if you were published, it gave you a certain credibility.  Now this is changing, when you self publish, people can still buy a book and have it delivered and they can hold it also.  The industry is changing which also means the role of the editor is also changing which will be my next blog topic.

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