Hi,
I've a finished MS (thriller/horror) which the firm that published my non-fiction book has rejected. Six agents have rejected, there are four to go in my current list.
A good friend, who's wealthy-ish, is pressing me to go straight to the e-book route, which I understand Amazon/Kindle will offer.
My gut feeling is that I don't want to 'shoot my bolt' until I can paper the wall with rejections. Any thoughts, or even experiences, concerning this approach?
Thanks, David
Hi David,
With my MS, i am planning to exhaust all of the traditional routes first (attempting to get an agent; aquiring a publisher) before considering the eBook route. Publishing houses know more about the business than I do; I am an author and I want to write. If I am spending time doing all of the marketing/publishing/financing myself, then I am not at my desk writing.
But you may enjoy this aspect of the process; some authors find it easy to let go, whilst others like to have a say for as long as possible. Certainly with e-publishing no one is going to argue with your title or cover design.
If I exhaust all the traditional ways and still do not have a publisher, I would consider eBooks. But I would have to ask myself some serious questions about the quality of my work. Firstly, is my MS as good as it can be. True, all of the publishers could be wrong but I need to make sure that I am honest with myself. Would I really pay £7.99 for it? Secondly, publishing is a business and they look at the bottom line. If they can't make a profit from it, how will I?
I don't think it is a risk to go down the eBooks route but you should treat it like a small business idea. For your outlay, how are you going to at least break even? How long will this take and is it sustainable? On the flip side, the rewards will be all yours.
If you want to have your MS published, then eBooks is the guaranteed way to distribute it.
Personally, I never envisaged writing a novel for digital consumption. I've always seen it as a completed physical entity in my hand and that's what i'm striving for. If not this novel,the next.
You say that you have already published a non-fiction piece of work (congratulations), so I would be interested to know how you feel, if you publish your fiction digitally.
Please keep me updated and best of luck.
Hi David,
I have agonised over this as well, and have come to the conclusion that opportunities to self-publish an e-book is probably a good way to gauge what people think of your writing. I write a novella and published it on Obooko as a free download, to gauge interest. I received over 500 downloads in a reasonably short time, so now I plan to publish a novel on Smashwords. Following this route is relatively easy, and seeing your book online is a going to be great, I am sure.
This is my opinion on this issue, go digital to establish a name and published presence.
Good luck to you!
Have you tried Strategic Books or Elequent Books? I am at www.sbpra.com/ebfscanlon and southaucklandwriters.org.nz My Blog is http://scotthistle.blogspot.com
You could also try a local printer who advise you how to selfpublish.
I too am hesitant to go digital. I like to have a book (paper) in my hand when I sit down to read. But then the young go for all this digital stuff. Good luck.