So what’s been happening lately? Well, I’ve been busy with the last revisions on the WIP, but I believe it’s finally polished enough to move on to the next step: querying an agent. That’s right, I said one agent, not agents. I’m only submitting to this agent because they seemed interested. I’ll wait and see what happens from here, though I’m not getting my hopes up. This is the third project I’ve queried and most of the time this is what happens– Click on the pic below.
I’ve gotten rejected. A Lot! It hurts to take that leap of faith and land on any other body part besides your feet. It isn’t fun. The best thing to do is stand up and dust off because the reality is that the business is subjective. Each agent is looking for something different and it more than likely won’t be my work. And that’s one of the major reasons I self-published my debut Caly’s Piece.
But during the process, I learned that it’s not the biggest reason to do so. Other things come into play.
Ups and downs.
I’ll list a summed up version of both.
The Upside: having complete control–cover, format, release date, larger royalties, etc.
The Downside: marketing myself (which I am not so good at), making said cover (or paying someone), learning how to format (or paying someone), and paying for someone other than a friend to edit (because this one is a must! believe me!).
There is a lot more involved in self-publishing and it takes a fair amount of time, especially the first “clueless” time around.
I enjoyed the process though, and I will most definitely do it again even if I get an agent one day. It’s nice that there are choices now. A fair amount of traditionally published authors are self-publishing for the Upsides. That in itself shouts that the indie community isn’t as bad as how some view it. Sure there are some writers out there who want to make a quick buck and don’t spend a dime on quality, but more and more indies are doing their research and paying the money needed to put the best product out there for the world to see.
Another plus is that a good deal of indie authors are being found by agents and traditional publishers, granted it’s when they sell a crap ton of books, but it means there are options.
Since I have self-published before, I’m an advocate of being an indie author. If I end up landing an agent one day *crossing fingers*, I’m sure I will be a hybrid, like other authors, choosing to traditionally publish some projects (this would be a amazing) and self-publish others.
~Jen
Are you an indie author?
Do you like cat gifs?
jmmillerwrites 