Category Archives: Self-Publishing

With the latest news coming out over young adult novels and the movement away from the paranormal storylines, it’s tempting for an author who’s working on a fantasy novel (like me) to wonder if self-publishing might be the way to go.

eBook now make the avenue for self-publishing authors easier than ever before. Even Barnes & Noble has released a way to publish your book and market it for the Nook starting this summer. All you have to do is sign-up for an account and download and–voila, you’re a published author. (PubIt)

Nathan Bransford blogged about this new world of self-publishing and ebooks today on his site. He has an optimistic look on the ebook world. No longer will those novel jems be left in the bottom drawer. Now authors will have the ability to put their work out there and let the masses decide if it’s good or not. Silence will be the new kind of rejection letter.

But before jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon, and I have to admit that the new PubIt site is very tempting, there are a couple of things to consider first.

As Kristin Nelson discusses on an earlier post (ISBN–They can hurt), self-publishing can destroy later chances of getting a more traditional contract, especially if an ISBN is attached to a book.

Also Nathan Bransford, while optimistic that ebooks and self-publishing won’t destroy the world of great literature, doesn’t say that self-publishing is the way to go for everyone, and he’s right. Among his ten things to consider before self-publishing, is number 3– “If you tried first to find an agent and/or publisher and didn’t find one, are you sure you don’t want to write another book and try again?”  The bit of advice that spoke to me directly was, “On the other hand, there are so many books that fail to find an agent and/or publisher because the author just isn’t ready.”

Yes, I wrote a novel. Yes, I edited it. And yes, I had other writers read and give suggestions before I edited again and again (thanks my fellow TNBWs). Through all that I learned more than I could imagine both about writing and publishing. Feeling like my book was as good as I could make it, I sent it out into the world of agents. I did get some partial requests and even some suggestions. All of this led me to realize that it’s not quite as ready as I thought it was.

For now I’m content to believe that I have a great novel. I’ll continue to work on it (in between other novels) until I find an agent. Because I may be wrong, but I believe that agents have a vast more experience with getting a book published, marketing and legal matters than I could figure out on my own. And the last thing I want is for some substandard novel popping up in my future, something I could regret more than a bad tattoo because I published before I was the best novelist I could be.