I Don't Even Know

[image error] I probably shouldn't be writing a blog post when I'm pissed off, but often those are the most entertaining posts, so what the hell.



Writers, have you read THIS ? Yeah. Let me gather my thoughts here...never mind, I'll just let it fly.



For several years I've bashed my head against many hard surfaces in my efforts to find an agent and/or a traditional publisher. This is the route I want to go for several reasons. I've thought long and hard, resisted the temptation to just publish my novels myself and sucked up a buttload of rejection in order to do this. I've cursed, cried, lost sleep, and generally lost my fucking mind to achieve my goal, which is to be published the good old fashioned way.



Now, along that winding road with the ruts and the bumps and the nasty trolls, I was told (as were many, many writers) that self publishing anything is a dodgy choice if you EVER hope to attract an agent's attention.



Rrrreeeeaaallly?



Seems the agents (and no I'm not lumping every single agency into this, but there are a frightening amount turning to this model) have changed the fucking rules again. Why do we even bother? Why query for years and endure what can sometimes be brutal rejection? Why waste all of the time and effort and money on conferences and workshops when the damn people who are supposed to get your work to the right publisher might just offer to help you self publish anyway?



When I started this insanity, I was told this was not "ethical" for an agent to offer publishing services. Agents serve a purpose, as Victoria points out in her blog, and this purpose is compromised by acting as a publisher. This is why agencies that do that are supposed to be the ones that we avoid.



I will be damned if I'm going to pay someone to help me self publish my work.



I call shenanigans.



That is all.