AN AUTHOR HAS ONLY TWO HARD CHOICES

A NEW AUTHOR HAS ONLY TWO HARD CHOICES

Writing is relatively easy. An author has to simply switch on his brains, and let the hands do the scribbling. Soon in a matter of weeks, or months one can have a thick manuscript ready to board its literary flight. Now comes the tough part; getting it published. Who will publish your manuscript, and get the books into bookstores and other places ? Any layman will tell you that it has to be a good publisher. Which good publisher ? The big ones, of course, right ?

WRONG !!!

Big publishers and even medium sized publishers DO NOT look at new authors. An author has to approach them only through agencies called Literary Agents. A literary agent is a qualified person who will evaluate your manuscript to see if it can be published. They have contacts with many reputed publishers and can do the selling for you. Now comes the second tough part. Which agent ? There are hundreds and each one of them accept only certain types of manuscripts besides having strict submission guidelines and long turnaround times. However, reputed agents and publishers do not charge the author any reading and other fees for publishing.

Ideally, an author should not pay any publisher to get his or her manuscript published. A publisher has to foot the entire publishing costs, and pay advances & royalties to the author. Paying to get published is frowned upon in the traditional publishing industry. It is also called vanity or subsidy publishing and is usually shunned by reputed agents.

Now comes the hard choices

Choice-1- Send queries and wait endlessly.

You have already spent months (or years) writing your book. Would you again want to wait months and years for someone to accept or reject it? Since agents and publishers take months and years to accept (mostly reject) your manuscript would you be willing to wait that long with no guarantee of it getting published ? If the subject matter is of a time sensitive nature (examples: computer guides, new business trends, software guides) the author will lose the opportunity and the manuscript will become useless if it does not get published fast. An aspiring author can spend months, or maybe years just to get a fancy rejection letter from a reputed publishing house or agent. Most of the time, one does not even get a rejection letter. Therefore, one does not know whether to wait or contact someone else.

Choice-2: Spend a nominal amount to get self published fast, and start selling your book within weeks or months.

Is it not better and wise to spend some money to get your manuscript printed & published fast rather than wait endlessly for an agent to find a great publisher. The sooner you have the book, the faster you can start selling and making money. Self-publishing need not be expensive as some people portray it to be. For less than $500/- one can get a sizeable number of trade quality copies printed and self promoted. Secondly, just by selling a hundred copies to friends, relatives and colleagues the author can recover his investment within weeks. Alternatively, if you choose a print on demand publishing one can have the book listed and available on book giants like Amazon, Ingram, Baker and Taylor, etc., to order by practically anyone. Any number of books can be printed and shipped. The book will never go out of print, and the author can promote his or her book forever using the unlimited possibilities of the Internet. After all if your book is really destined to be rejected, let the rejection come from the readers & audience that you intended the book for and get killed midway, or delayed endlessly by agents & editors.

Remember an author is supposed to be a wise person. And wise persons decide fast.

Bottom Line: You want to get published. Take control of your manuscript and your destiny.