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They're complaining about getting published over at the Chron - more bad news that seems to suggest when you're a first-time novelist that the sanest thing you can do with your project is burn it and bury the ashes because no one - NO ONE - is accepting submissions from new comers.This is actually a good thing.Most of the bad news I've heard from other published authors falls under the category of "It's so hard - you gotta do X, Y and Z and there's still no guarantee that it'll work." I'm fine with that, although the feedback seems to suggest that, rather than spending the time and energy working with a system that is failing (the standard publishing biz) that I should be looking to figure out what works within whatever system is coming together. As the above article points out, people are getting creative with ways to market their own projects and manuscripts. Some are even going the self-publishing route but I'll be skipping that for reasons I've already discussed. Some people are trying to manufacture a viral marketing campaign and it'll be interesting to see how that works (or if I can do the same). But the point is - nothing is a wrong answer. You cannot afford to be snooty about the book world and getting published anymore, not when Harper Collins and Random House are losing cash and laying off people.
Like other projects in my life, I found that I need to start organizing the work and then committing myself to doing some of it every day. So to that end - here's what I'm doing every day to get this novel published:- Updating the 'universe blog' - Pac-fish-D with deleted scenes that help tell the story a little better. Some of it contains snippets of the novel but I don't want to blow the story for you or anyone else. I'd rather use up some of the stuff that never made it into the first draft.
- Locating and putting together a list of agents to contact - working on some information from a writer here in the area, I'm skipping agents located in places besides New York. Sorry folks, nothing personal.
- Contacting said agents - I can't just blitz the same cover letter every time - every publisher and agent has their own rules for submittal and nothing gets you ignored faster than spamming people with a form letter.
All that being said - it's a process and I'm not looking for a quick fix. As President Obama said yesterday regarding A-Rod and the steroid thing, "There are no shortcuts." Well, that's fine. I still have a day job, a family and friends. This other thing will come together soon enough.
So I asked a couple of people the same question I asked the audience yesterday: Should I plan on publishing this novel myself? One of my advisors is a marketing exec down in LA and another is a successful SF writer with 15 titles of his own. What was their answer?NO.That's the short version. Here's the longer one, in the author's own words:"Self-publishing is a bad idea. It's received a lot of hype lately because so many people are doing it, but what the various news stories -- like the one that was in *Time* a couple of weeks ago -- don't tell you is that the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits.
First, because few people buy self-published books, most bookstores refuse to carry them. I know a bookstore owner who put up a separate shelf and displaying self-published novels and collections (including some SF) by local authors. No copies were sold ... none ... and the owner took a bath on those copies he bought. Said it was one of the worst mistakes he ever made.
Second, once your book has been self-published (or put online) it pretty much takes it out of consideration so far as mainstream publishers are concerned. Their editors want to know that the books they buy haven't already been seen elsewhere, and the knowledge that your book has already seen print will give them reason to reject it outright. Yes, I know there have been exceptions -- John Scalzi's *Old Man's War*, for example -- but those are one-in-a-million.
Third, because so many people are doing this, the market for self-published books is glutted. Which leads us back to my first point.
The process of submitting a book to a publisher (or finding an agent first) is long and require patience. It's been made worse lately by the economic downturn; publishers are cutting down on new acquisitions. But you'll be wasting your time and money -- and your book -- if you go the self-publishing route. So I strongly advise against it."
I can't argue with people who know what they're doing. So, I won't be self-publishing "Flotilla". Continuing down the path of sending query letters and folding my feedback from the first draft into the second. Next phase of the project starts tomorrow!
Greetings - You'll be interested to know that I'm carrying the world of Flotilla forward into this space which may help grow the story in the future. Please feel free to check it out:
http://pac-fish-d.blogspot.com/This is Jim's blog - the protag of my story - and this is his space to talk about what's been happening both before, during and after the events recorded in my novel. As developments occur, he'll talk about them. He will also interact with you through the comments section and email. I can't speak for what he'll say so don't bug at me if you get upset...as you'll find out, Jim is his own guy.
"Saw this contest and wanted to enter "Flotilla"...is this just another Tate Publishing dodge? Tate's got a weird rep, if you don't know. They get all these weird books together and want you to spend the money to publish which they assure you 'you'll make so much more!' Buncha crap...anyhoo - about getting this published - Createspace is an option and I wanted to know what you thought about it.
Here's some info:
https://www.createspace.com/Products/BooksPrices.jsp
https://www.createspace.com/Index.jsp
Ultimately, I want the REAL experience of publishing this thing and if it means I need to wait for it to happen - I'm okay with it. Conversely, would this help that process by being entered - would it help my chances to publish say, 20 of these, and then take it to a local bookstore and see how long it takes to sell them?"
Thoughts?
