Yesterday, Galleycat published an article about sf/fantasy imprint, Pyr, accepting unagented manuscripts. You can see the article here.
First of all, YAY!!!!!!! Yay, obviously, because I don’t have an agent, yet. I’m not alone in that boat. Lots of us don’t have agents, for various reasons, so this is a unique opportunity to strike out there and get published without the help of an agent.
Secondly, this brings up an interesting thought. Why would a publisher do that? At conventions, don’t we get pounded into our heads that we need an agent? Don’t publishers always say they’d RATHER work with an agent?
I’m wondering if part of this is a reaction to the current state of the publishing industry. We’re seeing a huge upsurge in e-books. More and more people are going the self-publishing route and having legitimate success. In my mind, we’re seeing what the music industry saw with iPods and mp3s. Suddenly musicians realized, hey, I can do this on my own. I don’t need a major record label to release my stuff. And some of these musicians are wildly successful.
So, is this direction publishing is going too? As a reader, do you see a stigma against self-published or independent writers or is it just becoming more mainstream to do it that way?
As a writer, have you considered going independent or are you holding out for an agent and publisher? What are your thoughts?
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4 users responded in this post
For myself, I had the dream of the big NY agent and big NY publisher and all the glory that I thought went along with it. Then, after doing some studying, I found the dream isn’t much like the reality.
So, I signed with a not so small press. No agent, but she gets queried by agents ever so often for their clients.
I’m much rather be with a smaller press who believes in me, my writing and wants to build a career than be just another small fish in the big NY pond.
Ultimitely, I’d love to be published with *some* publishing house, like Jean, preferably small, but even that these days is getting harder and harder. I have given immense thought to self-publishing because if my picture book doesn’t get picked up, and let’s face it, there is that possibility, I’m not waiting around my whole life to make my dream a reality. I’m very good at self-promotion and networking and I’m willing to do that to be successful. I think the ‘stigma’ attached to sp is slowly waning, just like the music industry as you say – thank goodness!
ps – there are also a lot of authors out there who did sp before getting picked up by major houses, one of the most famous being Mark Twain and more recently, Christopher Paolini, the young writer who penned the unbelieveably successful Eragon series.
Having reviewed a lot of books over the past three and a half years, I can see why the stigma follows self-published books, but not so much the independent guys. Self-publishing is great, and makes this industry even more exciting. On the other hand, writers don’t always hire editors to go through their manuscripts and polish them before self-publishing, which leads to an inferior product.
My first children’s book is coming out from a small press that is primarily electronic, but offers a print on demand option that I am going to take full advantage of. The challenge, however, is that bookstores don’t want to stock them because they consider them POD. In this type of economy, I don’t know that this is the wisest decision, but so be it.
Do I dream of making it big and being published by HarperCollins or Random House? Sure. Until then, I’ll probably stick with the little guys. And even if it doesn’t happen for me, I’ll still be happy with what I’ve done.
I don’t see me going the self-publishing route, but I never say never.
Cheryl
…you know how I feel about this Vr…, self-pubbing. I’m doing it; I decided a couple years ago after several mailings to agents and publishers. In fact, I’m a self-proclaimed advocate for self-pubbing. Yesterday, my book files went to the digital POD printer and by the end of the week I should have a proof to examine. I’m geeked! My ebook has been up with Smashwords since last week, the 16th. No sales yet, but the word has not reached Amazon or others yet either, that’ll take a week or more. The current publishing industry is changing and will self-destruct within 4-5 years. Writers are too smart to wait for there approval … besides the publishing industry is stodgy, aloof, and in-bred, which will result in their demise. Good, I say. I’ve set up my own publishing company and will help others (teach them), how to self-publish. They can get my address from you, if they like.
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