I've run the entire gauntlet from self-publishing to major publisher, and I'm happy to share some things I've learned. (I self-published "Memoirs of a Papillon" in 2000, and it's been revised and repackaged by Simon & Schuster now as a hardcover titled "Small Dog, Big Life: Memoirs of a Furry Genius.")

Here are some random thoughts and lessons I've learned.

Most self-published books are pure crap. But so are most books published by the biggies.

As a self-publisher, one thinks the holy grail is to get your book into lots of books stores. It's not. Unless people are coming into the stores already looking for your book, very few will get sold by accident and the costs of getting your book into lots of stores will be way more than you'll earn.

Any sort of advertising that you pay for will not be cost-effective, unless you have a niche topic and advertise in a publication aimed at that niche market.

If your book is good, the best form of advertising is to send complimentary copies to people who might be able to help you.

One of the least important factors in the commercial success of a book is how well it's written. Lots of bad books make lots of money, and lots of great books make none.

You need to be able to describe your book in one or two sentences in such a way that people smile or laugh, or say, "That sounds interesting" and mean it.

If you send query letters to agents, save yourself money and don't bother including the "required" self-addressed and stamped envelope. All that you'll ever get back in those are form rejections. When you query an agent, just assume that you'll never hear back. If they're interested, they will either email you, call you, or send you a letter on their own letterhead.

If you have questions I might be able to opine on, fire away.

Best,
Denny Fried

Yo Denny, I agree with just about everything you said there :)

Seconded. Very good advice. I've read some horrible books from some pretty accomplished authors and also read some great books from unknowns. Keep at it and take all criticism with a grain of salt.

What is your opinion on Publishing Companies that charge you to get your worked published? I hear you shouldn't have to pay to get "your" work published? Is it best to get a literary agent? Is it best to self publish? Do traditional publishing? I am asking these questions cuz I'm working on a couple of novels and will eventually get them published. I just want to go with a publishing company that won't screw me over somehow. Thanks.

Money should flow TO the author, not away.

That said, you can, indeed, pay to have your work published, but that's generally the kiss of death in this business if you want your work taken seriously by reviewers and book stores. The publishing companies that charge the author to publish are called subsidy or vanity presses. Some publishing companies, like CreateSpace and Lulu, don't charge anything up front, but they get their money on the back end, the price of the book, doubling the print charge before passing it on to the author. Now, they have their advocates, however, and some are better than others. Two of the better ones are Booklocker and Infinity. Booklocker's business model is built around selling books instead of "services" to the "author" and they're very upfront about what they can or cannot do for your book. They also do not take every book offered to them, and you had better have a marketing plan. www.booklocker.com

You can try for an agent, but being an unknown, you're in for a long wait and a lot of hoop jumping. Still, if you're young enough and reasonably photogenic and have some kind of backstory New York feels is marketable, you might have a shot. You will need patience and perseverance.

There are literally tens of thousands of small and independent presses who function more or less traditionally in that they don't take money from the author and pay a better percentage of royalty than the big guys in New York. My press is one of them.

Or you can truly self-publish--start your own company, buy your own block of ISBNs, learn editing, book layout and interior design, book cover design or outsource all of these services, contract with a printer such as Lightning Source, who prints for most of the independent presses as well as the big guys' backlists in New York. That's how I got my press started.

In all these cases though, all of them, you will have to market the book yourself. All these cases--subsidy, agent to publisher, independent press or true self-publishing--you will have to market your own book. There's no getting around it. No longer can a writer just sit and write and let the publisher do the marketing unless they're Stephen King or some other big name, most of whom made it before all these major changes in publishing took place.

No matter what route you choose to travel, you had better start marketing now--you'll need your own website at the very minimum--websites take time to get "found" by the online communities and, believe me, any prospective agent worth his or her salt, or any prospective independent publisher with the exception of the subsidies will Google your name to see what comes up. I am the executive editor of Jigsaw Press and I Google every writer I'm thinking of taking on.

I wish I could just be a writer, but those days are long gone. Now, I wear so many hats I sometimes forget I once was just a writer.

For what it's worth,

Mari

Mari... THANK YOU so much for taking the time to explain all that to me. It helps clear some things. It sounds like in the end it all about what works for me. All author have to start somewhere right. :) Thanks again.

I've learned so much reading these posts. As a new author, with a small publisher, I have gone back and forth about my decision to not hold out for the big guys.
I think the most important thing is that your book is ready. I think I've been somewhat successful so far, though I have done a lot of the marketing myself. But it always boils down to a combination of that-the marketing-and the actual writing. In other words, the book has to be damn good to compete with so many authors out there.

A lot of enlightening information here...
Jen
author of Musical Chairs