I had decided I was going to become an independent publisher, but I was going to do it properly. I was going to get a copy-editor, a designer and typesetter, the works. When I added it up and worked out my margins, they were skinny to say the least. When I mentioned it to a friend she said 'Run by me again why you're not going to a publisher.' I mumbled something about creative control but my argument crumbled very quickly. The irony being, I'm not writing literary fiction or anything else that can be a hard sell. It's mainstream, summer reading, commercial fiction. So should I give up my dream of being my own publisher? Should I trust that someone out there will get what I'm trying to do with this series and start looking for them?
Hi Victoria.
The way to find out if your work is considered good enough to be published is via the traditional route.
You will still need a professional literary editor to do a constructive critique on the strengths and weakness of your novel if you set up as a publisher.
You can try the self-publishing route. There are enough services out there, but its not for me.
To be a small independent publisher, you to find a niche in the market and publish quality work.
Good luck in whatever decision you reach.
One thing that struck me in your question is that you describe your series as commercial fiction for the summer market.
Given this, one huge benefit I see from going with a publisher is their marketing expertise. They may take some editorial control, but that would surely be because they know the market and know what sells and how to sell it?
Obviously your series would have to have its own unique selling point, that you alone can produce, but a publisher would understand what needs to be done in terms of fine tuning and getting apiece up to a marketable standard.
It all depends how precious you are when it comes to handing over some of this control. By the sounds of it though, your own description of the series as commercial seems to suggest that you understand the limits the market imposes and are willing to hand some aspects of your work over to those curious marketing gurus ......no?
A very interesting question Victoria, but the way I see it is that, you need to decide what you want.
Do you believe that no one will be able to publish your work the way you want to publish it?
I can understand your concern about it not being published exactly as you would want it, but from what I have seen from your other posts you are well aware of that.
What I am wondering is, did you decide to go the self publishing route because the usual agent route failed to work for you? Or perhaps you decided the self publishing route would be better without even trying to contact an agent? What came first and what made you change your mind later on (if anything did)?
I believe the expression is, don't knock it until you try it.
I am pretty sure the comments that will follow will be filled with evidence to support either the agent or the self publishing route, however, seeing other posts from you Victoria, I am 100% sure you won't see anything you don't already know. You seem to be a person that has done all the research required for both routes.
The end game here is what you want, and why. Is it just fear and assumption that the agents/publishers will demand to change your work beyond recognition and not see it the way you do? Or did you have a good reason to decide to go the self publishing route? Or perhaps it was the other way around, you wanted to go the self publishing way and something made you consider the agent way?
If you didn't know what each route promised then I would say the comments here would help you get a clearer picture so you can better decide, but I get the feeling that you already know how both ways work very well, (in theory anyway) and you are just caught in the middle.
If your work is main-stream then you won't really mind if the agent/publisher says, "Hey, let's change this bit here because it will sell more." (Isn’t that what mainstream is?) On the other hand, if you feel that they will end up changing your work so much it will lose its "character", then follow the self publishing way as you originally decided (Despite its disadvantages, which I am sure you have seen, and that is why you here, asking this question.)
I am sure you can clearly tell that I am an advocate of the agent/publisher route, but I have not actually experienced the route, nor have I sufficiently researched the alternative. In any case, I still believe that the problem is here is not that you don’t know what each route offers, but that you are having cold feet, second thoughts and you need a little push, a push that once again I believe it can only come from you.
You need to decide :)
Just go with what you really want, and since I realized I have not offered my opinion yet, here it is.
Try the agent way (If you haven’t already) and aim to get them to see the vision you have for your work. They can't all be heartless monsters that are ONLY interested in money. I choose to believe that there must be some of them out there that can see our work as we do. If it fails, then by all means, go the self publishing route.
I just feel it will be easier the agent way once you get your foot through the door, but the self publishing way is easy to get into (hypothetically) but hard afterwards as you have to pretty much take care of everything by yourself (advertising, editing, etc), which I find very frightening to tackle without a team of experts.
Sorry for the LONG post, but I hope it helps :)
Good luck with whatever you decide,
Christopher