A turn in strategy
I’ve always considered self-publishing as an option, but didn’t think I would resort to it quite so soon. Over the last few months, while working, some agent submissions have been doing the rounds in the background with no positive result from any of them.
I used to think that I would consider self-publication after 50 rejections. I am now resorting to it after just a dozen. Why? Put simply: time and cost.
I could spend years waiting for the illusive pick-up from an agent. I’ve calculated how much the submissions and rejections have cost me so far and have concluded that any further money would be better spent on the self-publication process. It would also give me control of the timeframe, so I don’t have to wait an indefinite amount of time for an indeterminable result. At least in the end, I have a gaurantee of my novel in publication. Even if the orders are low, at the given margin the process should pay for itself over time.
There is also a second advantage. Once a book is published, it attracts the attention of far more people in the publishing world and far faster than I can reach on a one-to-one submission basis. It is a way past the gatekeepers of the publishing world; it has happened that other self-published authors have been picked-up this way.
It is, in modern slang, a ‘no-brainer’.
Quite apart from all that, the story matters to me a very great deal. Time and money are secondary to the need to share it and have people read it –people other than agents’ readers, that is.
I’m also getting quite a kick out of designing the jacket for my first book! I look forward, once again, to holding the completed article in my hands.
Thanks to Rats in the Slushpile and the folks at Booksurge, I feel I am taking control of this project again … and can shortly bring it to you too.
Add comment September 19th, 2007
