bpmwriter said:
EG,
I know it goes against the grain of popular opinion, but you don't need a publisher or an agent. The Do It Yourself cause has become a bit of a personal mission for me because I hate to see us, the artists, running in circles trying to please the middle man ...we already see agents as a middle man (or woman!), but the publishers fall into this category too. They're standing there between you and your reader like the 300 pound gorilla. At the end of the day, you don't really need them. To me, self-publishing is not just an option, it's the preferred way to fly!
I see you've already begun marketing your novel yourself with the new web site. It's really only a short jump from where you're at to publish. I would suggest you have all the resources you need at your disposal right now, this very minute.
Before self-publishing my first novel, I spent a year under contract to an established lit agent in New York City. He sent my novel to exactly one publisher during that time before copping to being too busy pursuing his new calling as a film producer to effectively represent me. Hypothetically speaking, if he had placed the novel with a publisher, I would've spent another 12-18 months waiting to get published and even then, all the marketing would've been my responsibility, which is a lot of sweat for a tiny royalty. The only thing a publisher can offer you is distribution (many of them don't even staff editors anymore!) and maybe some attention from the pre-publication rags (don't even get me started on that relationship) But the Internet has made distribution a viable option for anyone, and believe me, the big houses are scared, because they're fated for extinction. There's even one company opening a franchise where you can stop in right on any street corner downtown and have your novel self-published in a couple days!
Don't buy into the mentality that you need the validation of a big house.
Artist Empowerment!!!!!
ok, vaulting off my soapbox now
Eddie B.
Yeah, right. I don;t think there's a single fact anywhere in your post. You obviously don't know anything at all about commercial publishers, be it teh way they market, the way they pay, or anything else. If you want to self-publish, go ahead, but you really ought to learn at least a few basic facts about commercial publishers before talking so much about them.
I mean, it's just plain weird how far off base, how totally not based in the real world, your post is.
And what's the silliness about many of them not even staffing editors anymore? Name a few, will you?
Yeah, the inetrnet makes distribution ever so easy. That's why so many self-published writers who use it are so rich. That's the silliest thing of all in your post.
You'll just have to trust me on this, but not only are big publishers NOT fated for extinction, in a few years the big publishers will also be the big internet distributers and the big e-publishers.
And, obviously, you've never actually had a novel published by a commercial ppublisher, or you'd know you don't have to do all teh marketing yourself, and that teh kind of distribution commercial publishers can give you IS highly effective marketing. The best marketing there is, in fact.
And the sad truth is also that 99.9999% of all teh self-published novels out there are absolute, complete, utter crap that no one alive should have to read, or would ever want to read. The few, the extremely few, good self-published novels are almost always buried under a mountain range of novels that should only be approached by someone wearing a bio suit and carrying a large can of powerful disinfectant.
Much has been said about how horrible the writing in a slush pile is. It's true. The vast majority of everything that comes in is horribly written. But anyone who wants to see just hos truly horrible it is doesn't have to read thrugh a slush pile, they just have to read a few self-published novels.
"Empower the artists" is a nonsense phrase. The power should always be in the hands of the consumer, and this is exactly where commercial publishers place it.
