11/02/2022
๐๐ฒ๐'๐ ๐ง๐ฎ๐น๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐น๐ณ-๐ฃ๐๐ฏ๐น๐ถ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด
I have noticed of late a disturbing trend: authors giving up. Sure, after twenty or thirty rejections over a year, it may feel impossible, but there are many best-selling authors who would tell you to hold on. But more than giving up, they are moving on, ending their relationship with an agent because they want to self-publish. And I wish they would not.
1. Most authors spend weeks, months, or years trying to find an agent. If you think your agent isn't getting the job done, then moving on makes sense. But if you are just frustrated your book hasn't sold, even after many submissions, maybe the message is, write another book. Not leave your agent and self-publish. Every agent I know signs ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ณ, not the project. They put in a ton of work on that first book, hoping it will pay off down the road. An old boss once told me he sold a best-selling author's first novel for $3,500. He sold the tenth for well into six figures. When I was working at a small hardcover publisher, we begged paperback publishers to buy rights to a book by an author for $5,000. He ultimately became a best-selling author making seven figures per book. That's the goal for any agent. Not that first deal, but the ones that come later, after growth and success. If you give up on having an agent and self-publish after one book, that can't happen for either of you or the agent.
2. Self-publishing is just a form of self-satisfaction. Unless you have a plan and know there's a market for your book, just tossing your book out there via Amazon KDP, Barnes & Noble Press, Ingram Spark, or Smashwords, isn't going to get you readers. If your book has such an obvious market, why did 20-30 editors turn it down?
3. Self-publishing ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐บ is very expensive. A developmental editor with a background working for major publishers to help you get the book in the best shape in terms of plot and characters is going to cost you thousands. A copy editor to deal with style, grammar, and provide a fresh eye, is probably another thousand. A designer/compositor to typeset your book will charge hundreds, if not over a thousand. Yes, you can find programs to convert your book for free, but will they look good? Will the book look like a book published by a major publisher? I doubt it. And that's just the production costs.
4. If you print your book yourself, you will be looking at thousands in printing and warehousing costs. If you go the POD route, your per-copy print cost will be so high, you will have to price your book well above the average price for books similar to yours coming from major publishers.
5. Then there's the marketing and advertising. Can you get reviews? Yes, you can ๐ฑ๐ข๐บ for reviews, but it's the reviews you didn't pay for that count. Can you reach readers? Are you prepared to spend money with NetGalley and Bookbub and other sites that charge you to make your book available ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ, in hopes that you'll generate enough reader reviews to make a difference on Amazon? Can you pay for direct mail to libraries and bookstores? Can you afford to run ads in ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ถ๐ด or ๐๐บ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ to attract readers or booksellers to carry your work? Can you get distribution that will both let bookstores order it at a discount that makes it profitable for them, as well as return it for credit?
To get your book into the Barnes & Noble Small Press Program requires your book to be available via Ingram, so you really have to use Ingram Spark or Lightning Source for POD. Then you ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ to offer a 55% discount. So let's say your book is $16.99. That means B&N will only pay $7.64 per copy. Your printing cost on a 300+ page book could easily be $6. So you will make less than $2/book sold. Then let's assume that B&N ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ด 50% of the units it bought to Ingram. How much does that cost you? $1.64, which is what you made? No, because B&N gets a full credit of $7.64 and you ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ the $6/copy you spent on POD. If they take 50 copies, you make $82. If they return 25 of those copies, you lose $150 in printing costs, plus the $41 you made in "profit." More than twice what you made on the original sale of the 50 copies.
These are but a few realities of self-publishing a professional-looking edition of your own book. Can you do it cheaper? Yes. Will it look good? Probably not. Will you sell a ton of copies? Probably not. Is it financially worth it? Probably not.
Remember, John Grisham's first book was ๐ ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ญ. It wasn't a hit. It wasn't until ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ฎ sold to Paramount before a publisher took it on, which led to a pretty big deal at Doubleday, that he became a hit. Similarly, the ๐๐ข ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ช ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ wasn't Dan Brown's first book. But those first books became valuable and big sellers after their second or third books became a hit. Given all this, why wouldn't you stick with your agent and work with him or her on another book?
Patience is a virtue, particularly in .
