Puff the Magic Publisher
by John Wolf
Here we face the new and tingling issue that makes the skin crawl of author-oriented publishing in its many forms or traditional publishing. To pass by the gatekeeper of traditional publishing, one usually requires an agent.
This is like finding the right matchmaker for you daughters. The commercial writer must concern themselves with all this managerial rattletrap just like a small business owner has to learn the tax codes, but to many authors, it’s their love affair with their story that occupies their attention to the exclusion of how big the advance will be for the manuscript. The idea of an agent is still valid, because they are the gateway for the biggest bang-for-the-buck for an author with dollar signs in their eyes. So, I would strongly recommend that you attempt to find a good agent. By the way, they can also tell you if your stuff is crap. Something you might not notice among your accolades from family members.
But, times they are a changing. Before, you really had no choice, now you do. The electronic age hasn’t just brought us desktop publishing, it has blessed us with digital printing and graphic wonders that can be accessed affordably— hooray! So, here we are arguing which way to go. Wake up. If you want to win a war, you use all the weapons available.
By all means hunt for an agent, but at the same time author-originated publishing is a boost. You can get a book in hand quickly and easily then start marketing same to see if it floats, along with eBooks and audio books. The struggle is you have to come up with an effective marketing strategy, something most authors are dumb as dirt about, but these books won’t sell themselves. Assuming you have a winner and are brave enough to go on the campaign trail to promote the book, sales should follow, if it’s priced right and you didn’t do something stupid like gold gilt page edges on leather bindings. The beauty of a self-published book is that it can fly under the radar screen of the major publishers without getting shot down.
The double whammy is a good book is hard to keep down. If sales abound, all the big houses will want to publish it under one of their imprints. That’s a good thing for the author. They can sell worldwide in a bunch of different languages almost overnight (well, with the one year lag to set all this up in the queue.), but you have arrived at this point. You will probably get a second book option and then it’s up to you. OR, you can be a smug independent starving artist, a bohemian book peddler, and defy fame by selling on street corners, because you cherish your copyright above all things. The point is, you have choices now, so go for it.
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One additional thought might be given to the vast opportunities of being able to peddle your book's content in various ways, if you keep your copyright. If you have the skills and the connections to convert your material into a screenplay or if your work is non-fiction, break it down into a booklet and sell tips on your subject. You can add a series of follow-ons if your material is a basis for projects. You can discover through research from the reaction to your book sales new markets or from feedback, a sequel to enhance your career recognition and sales.
If you publish traditionally, you will just be the tail on the dog, not the tail that wags the dog. Your sales will be a fraction of what the large conglomerate will get. It's like a casino. He may win occasionally, but they win big every night. Of course, we can't discount those that hit jackpots. Yes, they do win big, and after all, that's the carrot that keeps us going.
So, where do you begin? How do you prepare to become the independent hero action figure. Or do you play the odds and send in letters hoping for a hit like so many quarters in a slot machine. One way, is make a better you like the athlete, starting working out. Join Toastmasters. Learn sales and marketing from a local college. Analyze the independent self-publishing companies that are available and pick a winner. But for goodness sake, don't give up trying all avenues towards success that are now available.
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John is an eRagSheet journalist, author, and musician.
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