Should I Use A Literary Agency or Self-Publish my writing? What are the pros and cons?

Question

Should I submit my writing to a literary agency or self-publish my writing? What are the pros and cons of it? What should I consider that pays top dollar for writing? Any writers who successfully submitted their writing?

Answer 1

You should try to publish your writing first, then seek representation.

Literary agents are professional salepeople, better able to market and sell your work than you will be ... but they don't work for free, and they are seldom interested in unpublished writers. It will be hard for you to get a literary agent without any publications at all. And you don’t need to self-publish if you don’t want to – there are lots of good markets for all sorts of writing.

It will be difficult for you to get "top dollar" for your work if you are entirely unpublished. If you believe you've written a best-seller, try selling some shorter work or other things first, then get an agent who will negotiate for you once you are established as a writer.

Where to publish? Try searching Duotrope’s Digest: http://www.duotrope.com/

Most writers who are publishing a lot of short fiction buy the Writer’s Market annual and/or subscribe to their online service (http://www.writersmarket.com/). I suspect, however, that Writer’s Market just isn’t as necessary as it was before and in the early days of the Internet.

If you don't feel ready to try this, maybe you need support from other writers. Join a writers' group or a class.

If you want to be a writer, there are only a few things you really need to know:

1) Writers write. Writing – writing a lot – is the job. A lot of the writing, especially at first, is part of the learning process: important, but not necessarily satisfying or rewarding. There are no prerequisites other than basic language skills. Reading is useful here, in my opinion, to build up a frame of reference, and many writers are big readers. Listening to people can be valuable, as can living a little and building an experience base. But it any of that stops you from writing, it’s counterproductive.

2) Writing requires a big ego. It’s important to feel you “know” how to write whether you do or not. It is okay if you don’t have a big ego all of the time – it is normal to go back and forth, to have a love/hate relationship with your work, to be insecure, etc. You only need to believe in your ability to make the choices that writing involves some of the time (what word comes next, what should happen, things like that). It is useful to be able to believe in your own artistic integrity and vision, but not every writer manages it. It’s useful to believe things that keep you writing.

3) Anything finished can be published. A lot of publishing, especially at first, is not very satisfying or rewarding, and may involve unhappy compromises. Finding the right venue and getting them to say yes can be tough. It takes a long time, months and years, to hear back from publishers. When you get a “no” it feels personal, but it very, very rarely is – “no” just means that something didn’t quite fit. Rather than trying to guess exactly what a particular publisher wants, it’s easier to write was is satisfying to you, take stock when you have something to sell, and decide which venues might be most receptive. If you have a good story and you don’t find a publisher, there are lots of options. It’s important to keep writing, not to hang your hopes on any single project (famous works by famous authors … Harry Potter … have been rejected by one venue only to find success later in another one). Self-publishing is an option – but don’t spend a lot of money on it, self publishing scams are common, and there are high quality, economical ways to do it. If you decide to self publish, check out Lulu.com.

4) Writing is cheap, and should be. Just write. Type it into a computer file, if you can, for ease of copying, editing, and so on – but be very wary of expensive gimmicks. There is an industry that feeds on would-be writers, the way the diet industry feeds on people who want to lose weight. There aren’t any magic solutions. Some programs (classes, coaches, etc.) might be okay if they get you excited about writing and help maintain your morale. In general, you don’t need anything except to be writing. If you can sell something you write occasionally, that’s nice too.

Answer 2

There are pros and cons to both. The pros are that it is done, out of your hands and someone else is taking care of the footwork for you while you go on to do your next novel. The cons are that unless you have been published before, it is hard to get an agent to represent a never before published author...that's not to say they don't exist. And, if you do, you ARE losing a portion of what you would make to an agent. I'm dealing with the same set of problems myself right now and I wish you luck in trying to do this on your own. If you publish on your own, and I've seen this, and you sell enough copies to impress a publishing house (maybe say, 1/2 million copies), then they might be more willing to take it over for you. I wish you luck and when you figure this all out, write me and let me know how it all came out. [e-mail] (that is an small L, not a 1). Best wishes!

Answer 3

Economical? I do not feel so, given you ought to pay all of the construction bills your self. If you could be fortunate ample to get a publishing organization to put up you, I doubt you could care approximately the "small" royalties. You'd get an boost, and the royalties are headquartered on what number of copies you promote. The expertise to self publishing is that, you probably have the have to see your paintings in print, here is your threat. The dangers are many: It is luxurious. You will want somenoe to edit the manuscript and in addition layout it (font, margins, what number of pages, and many others.) You will don't have any distribution or advertising and marketing community. You have to acquire an ISBN from the Library of Congress. Nobody goes to shop for a booklet with out that, and I do not know the way tough or luxurious it's for an character to try this. Copyright, no quandary. You can regularly do this your self. And, it does not fairly "rely" as being released. They used to name this "vainness press," and I feel that is a well identify for it. Master is correct: even a small writer is bigger than self-publishing. My husband has labored in publishing for a long time. He did construction paintings for a small writer in Brooklyn. One of the books that man did ended up being a Caldecott Honor Book. These books had been performed professionally, and he might marketplace and distribute them--he might get them in bookstores. That's the complete sport correct there.

Answer 4

1. Literary agents are hard to get, as they receive thousands of submissions a year and accept 1%. If they sell your book to a publisher, you get paid based on sales
2. Self-publishing is easy. You pay for the printing and if you have the skills or desire, you try to sell your book to your family and friends for a few bucks.

What pays top dollar for writing is quality writing or a big name like Tom Clancy or Stephen King.

Answer 5

Hey Aaron,

On the PROS (for Literary Agency):
Marketing, Experience, Recognition of Talent

On the CONS:
Expense
Possible Goose Chase

If you know your stuff is good, It might be worth it. Get some reviews, from friends (real critical friends). Hear the truth.

Answer 6

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