I got asked this question by my husband - "What are your goals for publishing your work? What are you going to do with all that work you're doing?"
My first response was, of course, to get it published. But he asked me what my goals were. Where am I going with these stories? Am I going to e-pub on my own? Go small press? Try for a shot with the Big Six?
The answer to those questions is simple: I don't know. Well, I do know that I'm going to attempt to e-pub my faerie tale retellings once I get them finished. But for ONLY A NAME and the others? I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with them yet. OAN is nowhere near ready for publication anyway, so I've got time to work out what I want from it.
I do want to take a shot at publishing with one of the Big Six. I mean, it's always been a dream of mine since I started writing to see my name on a book with Tor, Baen, Del Rey, etc. You know, all of those big name publishing companies whose logos were blazoned on the books we've all read and loved. I know my chances are very slim in the current market. But I want to try anyway.
I want an agent. I need someone to help me through the pitfalls and problems with getting my book out there. I'd like to know someone else is passionate enough about my work to go to bat for me. With the heavy competition for agents, and how subjective their opinions are (which is as it should be), I don't know if I'll ever get one. But I want to try. So I'm constantly researching agents, practicing query letters, etc. so when I'm ready to actually dive into the pool I'm prepared.
I also want to give the whole self-pub/e-pub thing a shot too. But not if it's going to cost me a lot of money, seeing how I'm a poor starving artist these days. It'll take a lot of work but I'm not scared of hard work. I wouldn't be a writer if I was. So I'm going to start with my novella length faerie tale retellings and see how well that goes. I might e-pub a few other things too before I try to get the novels published.
What about you? What are your publishing goals? What do you want to do with your stories? How are you working on those goals?
I'd always meant to go to traditional publishing when I had something that would fit there, but I'm having rather more fun than I expected self-publishing. So I don't know what my goal is. It'd be lovely to follow in the footsteps of Amanda Hocking, but I won't hold my breath.
ReplyDeleteI've done two books now and I only paid for the cover art--the editing was done in trade, and I haven't advertised. I'm doing all right. I'd be happy to answer questions.
I think every writer dreams of being published by one of the Big Six, but as I get closer to having my manuscript ready to go, I'm leaning more to self-publication. I'm fortunate that I'm an editor and I can trade my services with both a cover artist and a formatter so we all come out with professional work at a price we can afford (gotta love the barter system!)
ReplyDeleteThe best things about self-publishing is it puts your books out there right away, and most of the profits end up in your pocket, not someone else's.