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Edit: Now that I have recovered from my crisis of faith/panic attack, I shall continue onward. Oh happy day!
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You can't erase the fact you've published, but you can remove your book from the market. You'd still have to divulge that you did self-publish to any perspective agents/publishers.
My thought is that if you want a trade deal with a particular title, you shouldn't self publish that title. It's not a short cut to a trade deal. But it's not likely going to hurt you getting a trade deal on future manuscripts (though unless you sell a boat load, it probably won't help you either).
I'm not familiar with agents who take newly self-published works and try to sell them to trade publishers. Mostly it's SP authors who are selling gang-buster style who get the attention of publishers looking to take a successful book to a larger market (i.e. bookstores).
I also, however, wouldn't let your first few weeks (or months for that matter) of sales bother you too much. The sales curve for SP authors isn't like trade published authors. You'll rely on Word of mouth, and getting the word out takes time. The more titles you have, the better your return on investment for your marketing will be.
The title you have self published might not interest a trade press until it's selling many many thousand copies, but you certainly haven't forfeited a chance at a trade deal in the future with another manuscript.
that's my 2cents.
Good luck.
To be pedantic, once a book is published it cannot be unpublished. You can stop selling it: but that won't erase its history, and you have to be scrupulously honest about its publication history with any agents or publishers you might approach.
More and more agents and publishers are willing to consider books which have been previously self-published: but I'm hearing on the grapevine that many who have taken on previously self-published books are now reconsidering their feelings here.
They saw several previously self-published books do really well for trade publishers, and so took a few on themselves; but many of the books so published have failed to take off, and there's a new wariness creeping in.
By all means have a go if you want to: you might well find someone who is interested in your work, especially as you've not done well with it and its market is still relatively unexploited. But don't be surprised if you have to query widely to find any interest.
Oh--and also, if you're serious about finding an agent, take the book off the market as soon as you can. If it's still available for sale that will almost certainly be a strike against it.
So....Cassandra Clare, E.L. James and Amanda Hocking are very much the exception to the rule?
So....Cassandra Clare, E.L. James and Amanda Hocking are very much the exception to the rule? You don't say.
I guess I'm mostly curious because the ebook I published is intended to be a series. I think I will have even less opportunities if the first one is self published.
To my knowledge, Cassandra Clare didn't self publish so much as she was a fan-fiction star who wrote some original stuff that found a publisher. Amanda Hocking sold hundreds of thousands of copies of her books before they were picked up, but again, you're talking some examples that aren't recent.
I've heard of lots of people leveraging their SP success into trade deals, but none who have done so without first having SP "success" i.e. they sold a LOT of copies.
Romance does sell really well, but it's by no means the only way to have success in the SP market (nor is it a sure thing that it'll be successful). I can point out examples of people doing well in most genres. What most of the successful SP authors have in common, however, is that they're pretty prolific. Then again, the most successful trade authors are also pretty prolific.
Was this book your first? Did you try to get an agent with it already before you went the self-publishing route? Was this your first attempt at self-publishing?
Well (and I don't mean to mine your brain here, but you are really being so helpful), it's more like I'm realizing that this particular book is NOT a romance, like I previously published. Romance novels sell well in the ebook market.
I have no problem admitting that it was self published. I have nothing to hide in that respect. Do you think I might benefit in dropping by QLH? Having queried non self published books before, I really have no idea how to say "I self published this for less than 7 days, realized I needed more support. It's okay, no one read it except for ARC."
I guess I'm feeling a little torn now.