I've been looking into the viability of bypassing agents and publishers altogether and am now wondering why the publishing industry is so worried. If your self-published work becomes successful, you either have to sprout three extra pairs of hands and develop several hind brains or delegate to professionals. It is not remotely possible to run a successful publishing company for your book and continue writing, so you would have to cease to be an author and become those you have striven to avoid.
What might be coming to an end is the discovery of talent by agents. I fear they are about to become the ambulance chasers of the literary world, chasing every new thing in self-publishing to strike it lucky saleswise. That would mean they no longer asked themselves if it was well-written and simply asked if they felt they could continue the sales momentum. That's an horrendous thought and I find myself actually wanting to support the agents and publishers' right to select the very best work instead of what just sells, even though I have the connections to easily self-publish real books and my own book lends itself quite nicely to self-publishing. (When I say that, I'm referring to the content. I don't mean that it's total s**t that couldn't possibly hook a publisher!)
The only possible advantage is that as a new writer I might secure a better deal if I were able to rack up my own sales first. I'm not usually the sort of person to think about what is financially better, but the odds are against so the question must be asked: Is self-publishing the more lucrative option for new authors, both in terms of an initial return and with the possible offer from a later agent and/or publisher, and if it is is it the right thing to do, or in our quest for a reasonable return are we creating the monster agents and publishers fear - an industry driven entirely by sales with no consideration of talent?
Take your time - it's a knotty one!
Oh, I agree Phil, self-promotion is for life, not just for book launch day, whichever route you take, but having people to guide you through that has to be so much easier than it being completely on your shoulders. I just wonder if it's worth taking it on until you've proven you and your work will be in Waterstones for some time.
Jonathan, the rockier path is always far more interesting. At least that's what I'll be telling myself while I'm trying to sell my romance novel. Thankfully it is a series.
A family member who is willing to help, Victoria? I keep meaning to check down the back of the sofa for one of those! Actually, my brother will help me if I get to something he can help with, but he's just taken on a new project so he's going to be run off his feet for a while. For the time being, it's me alone and I'm already a bit busy with two kids and two part-time jobs for the same employer. Time, I don't have.
This is a very interesting dilemma. I got a Kindle for Christmas and I have downloaded a few books, mainly in the crime and thriller genre which is what I am writing. In my opinion most of them have been utter garbage and there is no way that any of them would have ever been published the traditional route but there has been one that possibly could have been. This guy, Ben Cheetham, has managed to keep his book in the Kindle best seller list for over six months. I expect he will end up with a traditional publisher before too long as sooner or later.
I understand that the industry is under pressure but you also have to ask yourself, when you go into a bookshop how many of the books in there are being actively marketed once they have been given space on the shelves. For a new author who is published traditionally there must be just as much pressure to self-market as there is for a self publisher.
It seems to me that the volume Self-pub sellers out there are Crime and Horror genres, which mirrors Trad-pub. So if you write those you're more likely to be successful with less self-marketing (because you'll get more reviews, hence more exposure without direct effort). Anything else and you're always going to struggling, SP or TP, without constant promotion. And you'll be better off writing a series than one-off novels.
Regrettably, luck (or fate, if you like) plays a huge role, as witnessed by the amount of rubbish out there posing as literature. And from both SP and TP authors.
There's no easy answer, IMO. I wish there were, because if there are two roads I'll always take the rockiest.