Questions about Self-publishing...

Hi Ken. I think you might want to pose this question in the Publishing Forum. Maybe a kind moderator can move it over there for you. Good luck on the publishing.

Here's the place to put that question... you might want to poke around in that forum first. I bet the answer is already there.

Publishing and self-publishing serve somewhat different purposes. You tend to do one or the other, depending on which is most appropriate.

I was at a Writer's Conf in DC this weekend and attended a session with a number of well-known non-fiction agents. They did acknowledge a "certain self-publicatoin stigma" that is declining in recent years, and also cited that it's a good way to build a platform and then pursue book spinoffs with agents/publishers after your first self-pub book.

rubarbb said:

I am trying to find an agent and publisher for my manuscript. In the mean time I am thinking of self-publishing. I am wondering if publishers (and/or agents) frown upon this practice? Does anyone have any experience in this area? Thanks rubarbb

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There seems to be a lot of "it depends." I met a writer last year who had self-published a book on gambling. A major publisher saw it and signed him to a contract for a much larger (and flossier, as the publisher has the resources) book. I do not recall his name.

Stephanie Chandler has self-published and subsidy published. After she had a business book subsidy published by Avantine Press, she pitched a book to Wiley, and that was published late last year.

One agent advised a meeting I attended that a self-published book that sells 5,000 copies catches the interest of commercial publishers.

My own recommendation would be that if your real interest for that manuscript is commercial publication, then relentlessly and professionally pursue commercial publication. Master the art of the query and the book proposal. Anything else would only interfere.

IMHO

--Ken

I totally agree with ResearchGuy. Unless you sell thousands of copies, self-publishing isn't going to help you get published. In fact, having it out there is going to deter some agents and editors. If you really want to be commercially published, put the self-publishing off until you've queried at least 40 agents and have been rejected by all of them.