Self-pubbing short stories

I’m the kind of guy who’s always been of the mindset that traditional publishing is the way to go. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had opportunities to speak with several indie authors and I love that they’re earning a living (far more of a living than I am with my day job) doing something they love. If I were any other kind of person I’d be jealous and rushing to join their ranks. Thankfully, patience is my middle name.

I’ve written and “trunked” three novels over the past four years for various reasons. I’ve had some short stories published, but nothing professional (i.e., no payment for the publishing). I’m currently working on (what I plan and hope to be) a series of novels I believe will not find themselves in the trunk. (In other words, I feel like I’m on the brink of some kind of success).

With this series, and more importantly the first book, I’m on the fence about whether to pursue self-publishing. For reasons stated here and here, I feel I want to continue with my die-hard pursuit of a traditional publishing contract. However, given all the buzz from the indie world (and some buzz from folks I’ve spoken with in the traditional world) I fully understand the need for an author to have an ability to promote and market his or her work, despite publishing options. With that in mind, I’ve been developing a website and working toward building an email list specifically to help with this promotion and marketing.

I realize this seems more a self-publishing tradition, but I assume (perhaps wrongly) that it wouldn’t hurt a traditionally published author to have a bit of a following. To help generate that following, I intend to offer short stories as a lead magnet to entice people to join my mailing list, etc. I’m also toying with the notion of self-publishing several other short stories and novellas to continue generating interest until (not if – fingers crossed) the first book is published.

Here's my question: given all the talk we’ve had about how bad self-publishing gives you baggage (and realizing that I would treat these short stories as professionally as I would a novel) would self-publishing shorts in this way be detrimental to a future traditionally published career? (i.e., I’m concerned about all the talk we have about sales figures from a previously self-published author with a second book being the “baggage” agents and publishers won’t want to touch.) I want to be proactive, but I’m also afraid (woodland creature)

My instinct tells me to be cautious, but it also says that shorts are a different animal than novels so I might be okay.

You're just not phrasing this correctly. Here's what you mean to say: I'm building my mailing list by publishing work that will appeal to people who will want to read my novel.

Once you phrase this correctly, you understand this is a very good thing, and huzzah to you for taking the promotion bull by the horns and giving him a waltz around the dance floor.

Far from being a detriment, this is something that would make me sit up and take notice in a query. You don't need platform to sell a novel, but if you include "I have a robust mailing list of 500+ readers" in your bio, well, yes, that makes my fin wriggle.

And if you need an example of a guy who's doing this, you need look no further than Jeff Somers.  Follow his Twitter feed to see how he promotes his self-pubbed stories, and builds his mailing list.  Jeff is a lot of things (likely drunk, likely pantsless, likely to be eaten by zombie cats after the apocalypse) but not proactive isn't one of them. He calls himself lazy; I roar with laughter when he does. Watch what he does, not what he says.

Should I buy a Kirkus ad?

Earlier this year my debut novel was published by an independent publisher. I recently received a pretty sweet review from Kirkus Reviews for my book.

I'm on the verge of purchasing a half-page ad in Kirkus' trade mag that will hopefully be seen by many agents/execs.

Here's my question(s)

1. Do you think buying this ad is worth the money? It's $1,100 for the first two weeks in August.

2. Is there an optimum time for placing an ad like this that will have the best chance of being seen by the most people?

3. Are these ads a good idea?

4. The contract with my publisher expires in December 2018. Will this prove to be detrimental in attracting an agent now?

(1) No

(2) No

(3) No

(4) Yes, but not for the reason you think

First, congrats on a good review from Kirkus. Those aren't easy to come by. I love reading Kirkus' reviews cause they are blunt to the point of being eligible to swim with the sharks.

Buying an ad in the Kirkus magazine is a terrible idea. Kirkus is a TRADE publication. Bookstore buyers and librarians are their target audience. NOT agents. Certainly not editors. We do read it but mostly to see what's been published and the reviews for books we sold or recognize. We do NOT read it to find projects to work on. (That is what the incoming queries are for)

Given Kirkus is for bookstores and librarians, I went to your publisher's website. It's clear they don't work in the wholesale market at all. There's no information for bookstores or libraries on how to place an order; there's no mention of discounts or terms. In other words, if you did place an ad, and a librarian wanted your book, there's no information on the publisher's website about how to get it.


Orders for your book are MUCH more likely to be generated by readers asking for the book, either at the bookstore or from their local library.

Thus, any outreach should be to READERS not retailers. If you're hellbent on spending $1000 research Facebook ads or google ads, or other places that a reader will see.

As to question (4): Your chances of attracting an agent for this book are close to zero. The book has already been published, and Bookscan shows you sold three copies. Yes, I know you sold more, probably a lot more, but you sold them one on one, on consignment, or in other ways that don't register on Bookscan. Bookscan is not even close to accurate for these kinds of books, which is why I also look up sales stats on Amazon. Amazon doesn't measure volume, it measures velocity, but we still look to see what's happening. And not surprising, since this is a small press, it's not speeding along the sales highway. It's kind of dawdling.


Agents (and editors) are looking for books that are sprinting, not dawdling, for taking on a book with a publishing history.

Here's a deal announcement for a book like that:

POMODORO TECHNIQUE, a time management system that breaks work into 25-minute segments, based on a self-published book that has been downloaded more than 2 million times, to Roger Scholl at Crown Business, at auction, by Howard Yoon of Ross Yoon Agency (World English). Translation: Dara Kaye of the Ross Yoon Agency

If you want to snag an agent's attention, your focus now is finding readers for this book. You'll find those people on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. You will not find them via advertising. You'll find them via conversation.

Use your Amazon author page; use GoodReads. I've said it before, I'll say it again now: books are most often sold by word of mouth. The best thing you can do for book is make friends.

Bookscan for the indie writer

Last week, you mentioned BookScan numbers when publishers are looking at self-published titles. So I naturally went to look up mine and was dismayed to find that it only reflected a little over two dozen copies sold online. (retail) I understand why, of course. But in reality, I've sold a couple hundred copies (directly)through my own website and at conferences, which is also more lucrative for me because I make more money that way.

Does this hurt me in the eyes of the industry? I'm thinking of querying my next novel because while I really do love indie publishing, my ambition is calling again and I'd like that greater reach. And I think, now, that maybe I'm capable of it. But if an agent looks at my sales record through BookScan, it'll look petty dismal in comparison to the reality of my offline sales (which I know aren't great comparatively, but I'm mostly happy with the snowball effect that's happening).

No.
Everyone understands that self-pubbed books rarely sell well, even good ones.

And everyone REALLY understands that Bookscan is not an accurate snapshot of sales.  The normal proviso one hears is "Bookscan captures about 70% of the market." That's sort of true. I've seen titles that showed only 30% of the total sales. And not just isolated examples either.

Your case is one clear example of why: the sales Bookscan sees are from reporting stores. Not all stores report. And it misses all DIRECT sales like yours: at speeches and conferences (these are called back of the room sales.)

The real question you're asking though is how to address this (or not) when you query for that new novel.  You don't have to mention it if you don't want, and for someone without the good reviews you've gotten that's probably the best choice.

But, if you've got good reviews, and if you've sold a couple hundred copies, you might say "I self published Novel X to good reviews (with a link to said review) and sold better than what Bookscan would have you believe."

The reason previous sales numbers are such a big deal is because bookstores look at them to determine how much to order of the next book.  Knowing you sold 1000 copies of your debut, they will expect to sell somewhat fewer of Book #2. If you sold 10 copies of your debut, don't be surprised if not a lot of stores are interested in stocking your book.

BUT, bookstore buyers do not audit publisher catalogs for previous sales numbers. If they don't know your work they're liable to treat you as a new commodity, even if the catalog copy doesn't say debut.

Your agent will work with you on this kind of positioning.  How to finesse your misspent youth is a whole seminar, complete with final exam, at Agent School.

For proof that I will overlook a misspent youth in publishing for the right project I offer up Jeff Somers, who queried me with the cheerful news that he was a publisher killer. And yet, here we are, eight novels and three replacement bars later,

A novel from spare parts

When I first started writing with intent, I completed my first “real” novel. Being youthful in my journey toward publication and filled with flattering accolades from my writers’ group regarding my writing skills, when a subset of that group formed around the idea of self-publishing our rejected books with a commitment to hawk them at local fairs and events, I did publish the book.

I soon discovered several things:
· Unless I was autographing and shoving the book into the public’s hand, sales were pathetic

· I knew next to nothing about marketing globally (or even nationally) through social media or Amazon (did I already admit to pathetic sales?)

· My writing skills were not as mature as my ego testified they were (thus all the agent rejections)


I do believe in the story (it’s loosely based on an unsolved true crime). The heroin in the original novel is a young woman who is abducted and the trail of terror that follows. I know from more than one agent not to query a self-published work. So my question is, what if I did a complete rewrite, changing the primary POV to an FBI Special Agent who pursues the abductee? Once completed, would this be considered pitching a self-published work? 

This is a very interesting question.

At what point during a rewrite does a book cease to be a revision, and become a new book?
A POV change is probably a good benchmark.

Your question though is really more along the lines of "are you cheating if you re-purpose a previous book?"

Obviously you won't call yourself a debut author, and you'll make sure the previous book is no longer for sale from you or any one else (that means you buy up any used copies floating around on Amazon.)

And, what's the worst that could happen? Rejection? Well, you're going to get that no matter what book you write, it's part of the game.

Is someone going to come out of the woodwork, waving the self-published book, clamoring for a refund on this new book? Very very doubtful.


The key of course is to write a much better book this time. And given you've gotten more experience, the chances of that are pretty good!


Your question reminded me of the recent news story about Karen Hall revising her first novel Dark Debts.

what does a publisher pay for?

I currently have four full requests out with agents for the manuscript I'm querying, but I've decided that if those fall though, I'd like to move forward and self-publish it (for personal reasons, I'm eager to have it in the hands of readers--I don't feel the same about any of my other work, to be certain).

I wanted to try querying this book first because I do want a traditional publishing career--or, more accurately, I'd like to be a hybrid author, as I plan on self-publishing the next in a series of interconnecting novellas in the fall. However, traditional publishing to me would mean increased readership, greater credibility, and financial support for publishing, the latter of which is unfortunately necessary at the moment.

Which brings me to my question. I was also under the impression that traditional publishers would offer various support to their authors like marketing, publicity, etc (though I know not to the extent of the heavy-hitters like Stephen King and Suzanne Collins).

Financially-speaking, what does this mean for the authors?

When I was self-publishing my first book, I knew those expenses would fall to me, including website design, professional photos, and marketing campaign materials (plus cover design, editing, formatting which I know publishers handle in-house). Am I right to assume from your post(s) that publishers won't pay for the above and that they expect authors to finance these things out of their advance or own pocket?

Financially-speaking, I feel a little like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place no matter which method of publishing I end up choosing for this book.

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated, as always.

Generally speaking, trade publishers pay for expenses related to the book; you'll pay for expenses related to the author.  In self-publishing, you pay for everything.

A trade publisher will also be paying for things that you as a self-publisher won't be including:

1. Materials for their sales force to talk about your books to their accounts: B&N, Amazon, other chain or big box stores, indie stores.

2. Material to be used in the sales catalog that will be distributed to libraries and other institutional sales outlets.

3. Sending review copies to places that won't consider self-published books

4. Printing and warehousing your book and shipping it to stores in bulk quantities.


If you work with a trade publisher they will pay all the book production costs: design, layout, printing.

They will not pay for author photos or website design.

Think of it this way: if you elect to self-publish, you're starting a company, and you'll pay for everything.

If you elect to publish with a trade publisher, you're starting a job, and you'll pay for things you need that the company doesn't provide.

In both instances you'll have to cough up some cash; if you go with a trade house, hopefully that advance money will cover it.

Why don't big name authors just self-pub and make more money?

I don't believe this has been addressed on your blog and perhaps that's because the answer is too long, but, I was wondering why it is that big brand name authors (JK Rowling, Dan Brown, Stephen King, Lee Child etc) don't self-publish their books instead of going with a traditional publisher that will keep 90% of the revenue from sales?

I understand that traditional publishers will get the book into the stores through distributors and handle marketing etc, but it seems to me that by self-publishing these authors would still make more money. Let's say Stephen King can sell 1-million copies through a traditional publisher, taking a 10% royalty. He could surely easily sell more than 100,000 copies on his own, through his website and Amazon, and therefore make more money because he's keeping most of the revenue?

I'm sure I'm missing something here, so your expert insight would be most appreciated.

What you're missing is a concept economists call opportunity cost. That's the cost of what you don't choose. If I do not choose to hire an assistant, the opportunity cost is what I would have earned if I'd spent my time making sales calls instead of filing, copying and tracking royalty statements.

When you earn a lot of money with work you do, it's smart to hire people who cost LESS than you and invest your time in things only you can do (ie the things you cannot hire out.)

The opportunity cost for self-publishing is writing time.

Particularly with big name (ie successful) authors, writing time is VERY expensive: the money they earn from the book divided by the number of hours it took to write.

If they use some of that writing time to do things like accounting, production, sales and marketing, they forgo writing time.

Doing the work of self-publishing instead of writing is expensive for them. MUCH more expensive than it is for a writer making less money.

If a writer makes ten million dollars a year, that's a nice paycheck.

If it takes 25 weeks of 8 hour days to write and revise the book the hourly "wage" is:

$10,000,000/(8 x 5x 25)
Ten million dollars divided by the number of hours it takes to write the book
(figure 8 hours a day, five days a week, 25 weeks)

$10,000.00/hour is your opportunity cost for every hour you forgo writing to do something you could have someone else do.

Now, you don't have to be a math genius to see that it makes a lot of sense to hire people who cost a whole lot less than $10,000 an hour to do all the things that aren't writing.

Essentially big name authors "hire" publishers to do this work. They "pay" by letting the publisher take a chunk of  the ensuing royalties.

So why do they "hire" publishers instead of hiring a team to run a company that publishes only their own books?

First, they do it because self-publishing still requires hands on supervision of the work even if someone else is doing it. Reviewing 500 drafts of a cover, tracking down an errant shipment of books (because it's not just electronic books you'd need to deal with)....ALL of that costs you $10,000 an hour.

Second, if you hire your own team, you pay all the cost. By "hiring" a publisher, these big name authors only pay a piece of the cost. Other big name authors at the publisher are availing themselves of the warehouse space, the marketing department, the accounting department.

They've also realized there are certain aspects of being published by an reputable trade publisher, rather than self publishing that can't be quantified on a balance sheet: availability of reviews, access to the marketplace, retail relationships, editorial expertise.

The more successful you are, the more you focus on doing the one thing only you can do, and you hire people to do things someone else can.

Only JK Rowling can write Harry Potter. Only Stephen King can write his novels.

I think too that most of these very successful writers have figured out something pretty important: writing well and publishing well are two very different skill sets. It's hard to do two things really well.


On the other hand, this is EXACTLY why many writers have turned to self-publishing. They can earn more than what it costs them to publish their books.

Each writer has to decide what's important, where they want to spend their time, and their money. One answer is not right for everyone.

You have to give me LOTS of money

I have been working on a book series for almost a decade now, and the idea of handing it off to someone else worries me for two reasons:

1.) A publisher could acquire the rights, and skimp on the support they put behind it or never get around to publishing it. (Which would kill me. I've worked too hard on this project to let this happen.)

2.) I've done the research and the math, and I'm convinced that I could make more as a midlist indie than a midlist traditionally published author.

There are two ways to assuage both of these concerns:

1.) To indie publish, which I know will be a tough row to hoe, but at least I'll retain my rights and make sure the books get out there, though I won't have quite the reach of the traditional publisher.

2.) To hold out for a big offer from a big-name publisher, big enough to show how serious they are about getting the books in front of as many people as possible.

The odds of #2 happening are slim but only unachievable if I don't query anyone at all. Which is where my problem lies. I want to at least try for that big paycheck, but if I don't get it--if I'm only offered midlist offers--I plan to self-publish, which would leave the agent who shops it around with nothing to show for her time and effort. (Unless I get a post-self-pubbing rights deal.) On a scale of newborn baby to Bernie Madoff how shady is this plan? If I do decide to query, at what point should I discuss this with an agent?

It's not shady at all. In fact it's quite clear. Show you the money or you show me the door. I think you should be VERY upfront about this in your query. It will save us both lots of time. I won't read your manuscript and you won't need to wait around to self publish.


It's very clear from this that you have minimal understanding of the value of a publisher (large or small.)  You should not undertake a business relationship with anyone unless you value what they bring to the table. And value is not the amount of cash they are prepared to pour over you.

"Retain my rights" and "never get around to publishing" demonstrates a lack of knowledge about how the publishing contract works, and what it does.

"Handing it off to someone else" demonstrates a mind set that is almost impossible to deal with in publishing. (See above about value of publisher)

Traditional publishing isn't perfect. Far from it. I spend a goodly portion of my days with a Taser trying to whip those fuckers into doing what they're supposed to.  I have NO illusions about the state of publishing.

Which is not to say I don't value what they do, and the benefit they provide to my clients. I do. Very much.


What you're asking here is what are your chances of being a big splashy debut novelist. I can tell you they are minuscule even if you're a brilliant writer with a brilliant book that lots of people want to read.

You're an ideal candidate to self-publish and since you're sure you'll be a success there, I can't imagine why you would consider anything else.

How to talk about a self-published novel in a query

You've said that a self-published novel is not considered a valid credit when approaching a publisher or agent, but then I was wondering what you'd write at all if you happened to have one? Say I have one book I can't sell and have to give up on, my plan is that I'd self-publish to at least do something with it while I work on improving my writing for my next book which hopefully I can sell. So what then should I say about the first book while querying for the second? Is admitting I self-published a previous book bad because I'm admitting my last attempt was too poor to sell? Should I not mention it at all as a relevant credit? Or should I just avoid self-publishing as long as I'm trying for commercial publishing?

The reason self-published books aren't a writing credit is there was no independent selection process. You wrote the book, then you, yourself and ewe edited, copy edited, fact checked, sent it off to the typesetting elves, and presto, one ISBN later, it's a book.

There's nothing inherently wrong with self publishing. It's not something you have to speak of in hushed tones after hastily shepherding the children out of the room.

Very good writers have self published very good books. 

A query letter however should focus on where your work has been selected from a wider pool than your own repertoire and published. Thus, a literary magazine with an editorial winnowing process, a contest (as we discussed yesterday), are both publishing credits.

If you elect to self publish your novel you say simply that: I self-published my first novel Fifty Shades of Felix Buttonweezer.

You can leave out the rest: and I learned that it was a whole lot harder than I thought, and boy oh boy did I find out  I'm writer not a marketer etcetera;

or as we like to say in Siam



 




Now, as to whether you SHOULD self publish your novel, I will simply say this: the most common thing I hear from writers who query me again after a period of a year or more, and query for a new book is they now realize they queried too soon with that first novel.

I well understand your impatience with the glacial pace of publishing and the idea that getting the book out there is better than not, but that's impatience and inexperience talking. And lo! I have heard their siren song myself and always to my detriment I must confess.

Self publishing your first novel is a whole different kettle of fish than publishing a novel AFTER you've had several published already.

"At least do something with it" reveals a mind set that equates novels with fish. That is not the case. Your novel will not lose value in staying home from the big dance.You can always publish this novel at a later time, after you've gotten some experience, and practiced patience.


If I can persuade you to query your second and third novel, and make sure you've taken writing workshops before you send this defenseless novel out in the cold cruel world, I'll have done you a favor.

Query question: republishing short stories

In several posts you comment on the negative impact that self-publishing may have on securing a traditional publishing contract for a novel. Things like poor sales record online, can’t be pitched as a “debut novel”, etc.

In your opinion is there any downside to republishing a previously published short story from a professional print anthology, if rights have reverted to the author? There seems to be a demand for short fiction on Amazon and I wondered if having previously published short fiction online might potentially have the same negative impact when pitching a debut novel? What if it is a novel based on the short story? I have not gone that route, but if I was to do so, would there be an expectation to mention that in a query?

Republishing short stories is fine. Stories are very different from novels in that respect. For starters, you aren't really responsible if it only sells one copy. Editors expect stories to sell in low numbers.

If the novel is based on the story, you're still ok.

If you've had a short story selected for publicaiton,  whether or not the novel is based on it, you mention that in the publication credits paragraph of your query.

Query Question: I'm trying to help a friend

I have a question, not a complex question, but I have hit a brick wall in the industry. No one replies. I found your site and was hoping that maybe you would have insight into this and hopefully the time to reply.

As short as I can make it - I create marketing and branding campaigns for actors, artists, and corporations. As a favor to a talented young author, I am going to create some publicity, some articles, to help introduce her name and book in the U.S.. She is in Poland but writes in English. Her book is in the professional editing stage but for this one, she has chosen to self-publish, and she hopes that in the future she will be picked up by a publisher. And so my question:

Is it detrimental for a foreign author writing in English (who is self-publishing her first book) to reveal her foreign location & first language if she wishes to get published in the U.S. sometime in the future? I thought it was mainly translation/language barrier issues that were a problem. I’m helping to market this young foreign author and don’t want to create problems for her later on. Should I conceal this info for now or use it as part of her personal “story” and marketing campaign?<

It doesn't matter at all.
The only thing that matters is the book.
And if she's self-publishing, the only thing that matters is how much she sells.


I have no idea why this author has chosen not to query the old-fashioned way. If her novel is good enough to self-publish, it should be good enough to query.

I'm sure if you've created marketing and branding campaigns for people you'll understand that you have to appeal to readers here. And readers, while they might peruse the ad copy if you've got a good hook, the only thing that is going to persuade them to buy the book is that they want to read it. That means the STORY must be enticing.

Query Question: the hybrid author

With the growing popularity of hybrid and self-publishing options, I have a number of published authors in my writing chapter who are not represented and now wish to find agents.

Publishers like Tule, Booktrope, and Entangled are accepting authors without agents. In addition, several of these authors have pending deals that are based on proposals -- the books aren't written.

How would these authors find an agent now? What would a query letter from a published author seeking representation after-the-fact need to say? 

If you're querying for a novel that hasn't been sold, you query as normal. In your pub credits you mention the books you've sold previously and the publisher to whom you've sold them. If the books are sold but not yet published, you say "forthcoming from X Press."

If you're querying for a novel for which you have an offer in hand (book written or not), you put that information in the subject line:

RE: Query for Title (publication offer received)


One of the HUGE drawbacks of taking on clients who have not had an agent negotiate their previous publishing deal/s, is that the author is now tied up by the terms of that contract.

Sometimes that's not the best news you can bring to the table:

Query Question: what constitutes self-publishing?

 At this point in my life, I have no job and little income, and am falling behind on utility bills and mortgage. In order to keep my house and electricity, I'm thinking of using MS Word to print out a booklet of my lit-mag-published short stories and selling that to shore up my finances for a few months until I turn 62, and can start drawing Social Security. I don't intend to do a national marketing campaign or anything -- just offer the booklet to several friends and family members for a modest fee. Will the Business consider that self-published? Will it come back to bite me when I show my novel to an agent?

Yes, that's self-published. Anything you print up and offer to sell on the open market is considered published. Generally to sell on Amazon, you'll need an ISBN and having an ISBN means the book is published.

It probably won't hurt you, given that it's a collection of short stories, not a novel.

The real problem here is that you're undertaking something that requires real investment to do well, and it sounds like you're not planning on investing at all. 

A quick MS Word document will look brutally ugly unless you really know what you're doing in terms of book production. Making a book look professional, or even attractive generally requires knowledge of book design, or hiring a book designer.

And I'm absolutely certain you've not run the numbers here if you think you're going to "shore up your finances" by selling books, any books.

If you list your book at $7.99, you retain about 70% of the proceeds or $5.59 for an electronic copy. For print books it's far less.  You'll need to sell at least 100 ebooks to make a little more than $500. You'll need to sell 100 print books at somewhere north of $10 to earn $500.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but most self-published books sell far fewer than 100 copies. The average number of copies for ALL self-pubbed books  appears to be somewhere around 250, although I'm not sure that's still accurate. That means at least half of those published books sell fewer copies.

I say this not to discourage you, but if your house is at stake, you might want to spend your time doing something that has a more reasonable chance of earning income than self-publishing. 

Query Question: I reached a small part of the audience, now I want more

My memoir was published in 2012, both as an ebook and in print (POD), by a small independent publisher. It's done quite well on Amazon, and also through my independent sales (via book signings, speaking appearances, etc.) I have many reviews on Amazon, most at 4-5 stars, in addition to very favorable editorial reviews.

Most of my readers have come from a niche market, which I have worked hard to cultivate and have a sizable following, but I believe that there are more readers in the general public who would appreciate and learn from my memoir. I've been unable to break into major bookstores because the book is POD.

My publisher is leaving the business and I retain all rights. Do you think it would make sense to pitch it to agents or larger publishers? As a second edition, for foreign, audio book or even movie rights? And how should I present it?

I think it makes a lot of sense to pitch it to agents or a larger press.


What they'll  want to know is who you have NOT been able to reach. The first thing you can mention is the library market. You've also missed most bookstores that won't order books on a one at a time basis from small presses.  

Bookstores like to order their inventory from reliable suppliers and a small press they've never heard of us doesn't really qualify as that.  I don't know what sales terms your old publisher offered but just the fact bookstores could only order that one book from them made it a less desirable item to stock.



When you query, you need to give your sales stats, and talk about the target audience you haven't reached. (I did a previous blog post on that topic)  Your Amazon reviews aren't going to be as helpful here as you think. Sales numbers are what will get you in the door. (That's the subject of a previous blog post)


It's also not going to be helpful to say "my book was POD" because print on demand is a technology not a method of sale.  The information that the editor/agent will need is whether the publisher sold on a returns allowed basis; what the discount was; what the catalog or retail price was; whether there was distribution of any kind. You may not know this information. If you can, find out. The bookstores where you sold books will know if you can't get the information from your publisher.

Lots of large publishers use print on demand technology to fulfill small orders so they don't have to carry inventory.  You'd never know it from just buying the book.

Don't mention foreign rights, audio or film rights in the query. You need a book deal before you get subsidiary rights (and for all you clever exceptionistas out there, yes there are exceptions to this, but you don't plan to be the exception in your query letter, now do you?)

Query Question: so, I did this small, really TINY novel. Am I published?

 I'm getting ready to send out query letters and I want to be as transparent as possible with potential agents. When I was 17 I wrote a ridiculous teen fiction book, and e-published it on Amazon for my friends. Only 15 people in total bought it, and then I took it off of Amazon. My current manuscript is not related at all to my past manuscript, they're not even in the same genre, but I'm worried about being technically previously published.

Does my silly teenage fanfiction mean I'm previously published, and do I have to mention that in my query letters? I feel like this is probably a stupid question, but I want to make sure I'm not doing something inadvertently wrong. Thanks for your help!

Yes.
No.
It's not.
You're welcome.


Now, let's elaborate.

First, yes, you've been published. Putting something on Amazon, and letting friends buy it is indeed "published."  

However.

You really don't need to mention that youthful peccadillo at this stage.  When you are published, and your novel is being considered for awards however, you are going to have to come clean.  That's when you mention to your AGENT (and no one else) that you had this teen novel, and together you can decide what to do from there.

This is NOT a silly or stupid question. This is a question that gets asked a lot these days cause all those folks at Amazon want your money and don't think they need to advise you of any pitfalls.

And sadly, this is the day and age of forever.  Back in my youth (when The Divine Comedy was taught as Contemporary Literature) a wordslinger could move to the next city-state, change her nom de plume and have no one the wiser. Now, not so much.

This won't kill you. It probably won't hurt you.  Just don't do it again if you get frustrated with querying and figure "oh hell, I'll just self-publish and see what happens."

 

Query question: print books only

 I’ve seen a lot of authors talk about how they self-published their novel digitally, then sold their print rights to a publisher while retaining the rights to the digital version. However, virtually all of the query advice I’ve read says don’t bother querying an agent if you’ve already self-published, and I haven’t yet found an agent that will accept a query for the same.

So, I’m curious: What’s the best way to go about selling print-only rights to a self-published novel if most agents auto-reject this kind of query?

Make sure you open emails from editors at publishing companies.

Whereas most agents won't sign something that is a print rights only project, editors at publishing companies might have some sort of special circumstance that would allow them to acquire print only. They'll go looking for it. 

You have your email address on your website, right? It's easy to get in touch, right?

And one thing to REALLY be careful of here: anecdotes and stories from self-pubbed writers that are too old to apply to the current state of the market.

I know of several editors who did interesting kinds of deals with previously self-pubbed writers and are now looking at the resultant sales figures. Most of those are Not Good, which means deals that happened one or two years ago are not being done now.

Query Question: wait, that first one didn't count

I self published a book of short stories a few years back. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.) It got a few good reviews, everyone I knew bought it and a few strangers took a risk and bought it as well. Hooray me.

Fast forward and I would like to submit some of these stories for consideration in contests or to lit presses / online magazines etc. (Not all of them, some of them were very bad... I can see that now... but a few of them are things I am proud of.)

My problem is that they fall under the "already published" label since my little self published book has an ISBN and is available for purchase on Amazon etc.

I guess my question goes beyond a bit of "What can I do/"... to "Do I have to leave these little gems behind me for good? Can I rework them so that they are just new and different enough to count as "not previously published"? How much rework would that be?"

I'm frustrated and feeling very foolish. Any help you could provide would be wonderful.

Don't feel frustrated, and don't feel foolish. You haven't done anything stupid or wrong. You've written and published stories that people liked. Hint: that is A Very Good Thing.

However, if you want to give these stories a second shot at finding readers, well, that's a bit more troublesome.

The rules for contests and lit mags are pretty specific. Not previously published means just that.  You'd be hard-pressed to rework a short story enough to make it something other than what it is now.
And you don't want to enter, get published and then find out you're on the wrong side of previously published.  You very much do NOT want your name associated with that brouhaha.

Thankfully book publishing is not quite so rigid. Collections of previously published stories are common. Some of your stories (the good ones) could be the basis for an anthology.

And some anthologies don't require new material.  Look for those to send your stories to.
This is more common in genre fiction than lit fic, but you didn't say what kind of stories you published.

The best idea though is to write more stories.  

Query Question: "petite novels"

Are there agents who are willing to represent 100-ish page women’s fiction manuscripts these days? And if so, what is the market? I see the petite novels in self-publish eBook formats but I am uncertain of the global mainstream market.

Generally agents are looking for books that publishers want to print. That means 80-100K words, not 25K. (100 pages =25K approximately)

I'm sure there's a market for shorter novels in ebook format where the writer/publisher can offer it for sale at a low price.  Publishers have overhead that generally preclude offering books at that price unless it's a special, time-limited, discount.

Query Question: I'd like to avoid fame, please

I have a question for you (I have only read so far back on your blog posts, so I apologize if you have addressed this farther back) regarding anonymity. My first novel that I am working on right now is a bit like Grisham, Crichton, and King having an orgy produced love child with Veronica Mars, including Big Themes about free will, power structures, Biblical metaphors, neuropsychogy, feminism and the nature of creative vs destructive genius all wrapped up in the palatable presentation of a suspense novel from a female perspective (with a tiny bit of sarcastic comic relief interspersed throughout to play with the tension - I have been writing/performing stand-up comedy for 2 years).


I would love to write across genres as I have always been a fan of horror, scifi, fantasy, and suspense. I also would like to avoid fame as long as possible so that I may continue to interact with real humans in order to continue widening my reality tunnel so I can understand as many diverse perspectives as possible.

Would a literary agent take on a writer who has the desire to avoid fame under one name, instead preferring to write under a variety of names, or is the publishing industry as such that they rely on the Cult of Personality to sell books?

I have found that people only pay attention to the message for so long before they begin deifying the messenger instead. I would rather people understand the complex scientific and philosophical concepts I am translatong into more common language through metaphor while enjoying the entertainment aspects instead of just blindly worshipping a favorite author. I am aware that it may sound like hubris to imagine myself as a literary rock star, but I have confidence in my wisdom and understanding of humanity and my ability to convey that in various metaphorical languages for wide audiences.

Given that I would like to remain relatively unknown for as long as possible, should I go the literary agent/publishing house or the self publishing route?

Thanks in advance and I hope that wasn't a duplicate question.

I think you're the perfect candidate for self-publishing. Make sure you hire an excellent book designer, a good copy editor and leave your author photo off the dust jacket.