The Odds Are Ever In Your Favor

[whipchick]

To self-publish or go the traditional route? In the past five years, self-publishing has become a much more viable and less-expensive option; traditional publishing, meanwhile, is more accessible than ever. How to choose

Comments

[mzrowan]

I love this post (as evidenced by my own encouraging people to read it), but I think to make a truly fair comparison you have to calculate the odds of a manuscript getting selected by an agent AND then a publisher.

[whipchick]

You know, I'd have to do more research to say for sure

[xo_kizzy_xo]

My impression from that is that agents generally don't take books they don't think they can sell, and they tend to make authors do another draft, so the odds are actually quite a bit better on getting published once you land an agent.

That's exactly what happened to us. No agent thought our book would sell because of the subject matter (read niche audience), so we turned to self-publishing. Which reminds me...I never did post the second part of our experience with it (whoops!)

[mzrowan]

The math is done by multiplying the probabilities together. So if your chance of getting picked up by an agent is 0.01, and your chance of then getting published is 0.80, then your overall probability of getting a book out by the traditional route is 0.008 (or 0.8%), or 1 in 125.

Self-publishing or traditional publishing?

[livejournal]

User mzrowan referenced to your post from Self-publishing or traditional publishing? saying: [...] Great post from on the pros and cons of self-publishing vs. going the traditional route [...]

[tigrkittn]

I am more than a little in love with you right now.

[whipchick]

Aw, thanks :) I'm always ridiculously pleased when someone likes one of these, so thanks for making my night!

[comedychick]

I resent the implication that people you're sleeping with can't provide good feedback. Some of my best critiques and suggestions came from my husband and boyfriend, which were edited, before I passed drafts on to anyone else. My boyfriend is also a writer and an editor. My husband doesn't have a problem with telling me when something I've written sucks. I'm not really inclined to use only them for feedback, but that doesn't mean their feedback isn't valuable.

Creative control is my main reason for choosing what is essentially self-publishing. I'm still aware how important it is to solicit feedback from multiple sources to help me edit the thing and make it into something more people will enjoy reading. It's why my book isn't ready yet. And I'm more interested in this than producing a bestseller.

[whipchick]

It certainly wasn't a personal attack :)

"plus feedback from trusted friends and critiques from people you aren’t fucking" - it sounds like you place your husband in the first category, "feedback from trusted friends."

I'm not saying that's not good feedback, I'm saying it's not enough. And it sounds like you're saying you don't think it's enough, either--it's one of the steps in your process but not the only one.

[comedychick]

I didn't think you were necessarily attacking me (I don't know how much of my personal process you're aware of to even have any reason to do so), I just think you might want to more carefully choose how you word something like that next time. Sometimes also speaking with definitive authority can come across as condescending to people who might be making different but also valid choices.

[kathrynrose]

I resent the implication that people you're sleeping with can't provide good feedback.

That's not how I read what Allison said. Obviously most people who are qualified to give good feedback are sleeping with somebody, so if you're lucky enough to be one of them, and it sounds like you are, then that's awesome for you. But a lot of people aren't, and they give their work to their friends and family and say, "Look what I wrote!" and they only get feedback from people who a)don't know what they're talking about, b) are looking at their stuff through love goggles, or c) are too concerned with potential hurt feelings and/or worried about living with someone who is cranky-pants over constructive criticism.

I read this as, ALSO get feedback from competent people who you aren't in another kind of relationship/partnership with.

[blythe025]

Look at you and all your awesome posts. :)

In general I'm drawn to traditional publishing. I want the careful time and energy that goes into it to help make it great.

But I would consider publishing some things via self publishing and even have a kickstarter idea rolling around in my head. It all depends on what's best for the author and for the book.

[whipchick]

Thanks :) I'm having a rare week where I'm trying to remember to ration out posts instead of overwhelming people!!

Agreed - some books, self is totally the way to go. And it's not like authors end up working less hard to personally publicize the book with traditional publishing these days!

snerk

[drwex]

I'm trying to remember to ration out posts instead of overwhelming people!!

Do let me know if you figure that trick out.

What I really need is a reliable time-release system that I can put written material into and it will publish for me at the right time. Most systems require me to pick the publication time at article creation time and since I don't at that point know what else I"m going to put into the pipeline in the future it's difficult.