Literary agents once ruled the world and the publishers were their Gods.
Now, it’s not the case. They’re all in a panic.
Make no mistake, they, as well as writers chasing after that
brass ring, prefer to think of self-published books as vanity publishing.
Too bad, so sad. Whether they like it or not, that is no longer the truth. I heard someone say recently that it’s a classic
example of The Emperor Has No Clothes.
Wake up, Mahogany Row. Sit up and take notice, Bestselling
Wannabes. The old dream is just about gone. Unless you’re one of the few
debut writers who break out every year, gone are the days of six-figure
advances and publishers who care about a new writer’s career. Writers pursuing
a traditional publishing contract with one of the Big 6 are like office workers
playing the lottery every week. Not good odds.
And I’ll say something here that everybody thinks and nobody says. At least
not out loud. If you are one of the chosen few of the Big 6, it doesn’t mean
you write better than the thousands who self-publish. Not anymore. Not by a
long shot. Break-out writers are no longer just those with traditional publishing contracts! Can I hear an amen?
Every year, fewer writers are sending query letters to a long list of
literary agents, only to wait up to a year or more for a response, of any kind.
Yes, no, maybe, kiss my butt … something. Writers no longer kowtow to literary agents and editors who snub, ignore, and reject quality
work because their ace in the hole has come out with a fifth or fifteenth book
in a series.
I’ve been writing professionally, full time, since 2003. I’m not a newbie.
Not to this business. I studied creative writing at Kent State, graduated from
the Breakout Novel Intensive with Donald Maass in 2005, and attended and/or
taught at over 25 writing conferences from New York to Florida. I’ve traveled
on my own dime since 2006, speaking and selling my books at bookstores, book clubs, women’s
groups, churches, civic groups, country clubs, and out of the trunk of my car. Over 200 venues. I've done the PR parade from TV to radio to sitting for hours at bookstores and book fairs.
Prior to signing a traditional contract with an independent small publisher
in December 2011, I chased the dream of a contract with a major publisher. It
was October 2010 and I decided to snail mail and email query letters to
approximately 106 literary agents. I wasn’t stupid about it. I researched those
who represented my genre, studied every one of their websites, and sent a
beautifully written query letter I had spent months preparing.
Sixty-one agents never acknowledged my existence. 61! The remaining asked for
partials, fulls, or rejected me entirely. I made notes of who rejected me with their
horrible form letters and rude remarks, those who were cold or took more than two years to
contact me at all! We writers have been told over and over about the stacks of manuscripts, the overwhelming amount of work a literary agent faces every day, but there's no excuse for bad manners. None. (Funny how writers must follow formatting and etiquette rules, but those same
rules don’t apply to agents and publishers).
I made notes of the agents who were kind, rejecting
me nicely, and those who were not kind, making me feel like poop. If you’re a
writer, I’d be happy to send you the full list. It's quite interesting.
Eventually, I signed a year contract with a New York agent, a good one.
Sadly, nothing happened. He couldn’t sell the novel. The publisher's rejections simply blew me and my agent away. Oh yes, I kept all 20 rejections from every
New York publishing house who responded. My agent sent me their emails. They
were over the top with wonderful compliments, but the reasons for rejection
were so unsound, so ridiculous … well, at the risk of sounding like a
“typically rejected author,” I’ll stop.
I suppose there comes a time when every writer draws a line. Reaches their
limit. Sadly, in the past the only option a writer had was to collect those
years of rejection letters, or simply give up. And a lot of them did.
Somehow, it all made me feel so subhuman. After a while, we decided there had to be a better way. And guess what? There is!
Thankfully, self-publishing and self promotion has become a viable option.
A respected one. But like the sheep and the goats, writers will continue to be separated between
those who will pay for quality editing, professional book covers, and
publicity, and those who won’t. Writers, you can’t publish a lot of crap,
stories full of errors, because you’re in a hurry to make a million bucks. Otherwise,
we will look like those old vanity writers who never honed or polished their
writing skills in the first place. And lately it appears as though some
writers are turning out mistake-filled prose covered up by great
marketing efforts, tons of social media promotion, and a local following making them
radio stars, Toastmaster speakers, and highly promotable authors of bad books.
Book buyer beware!
Some in this business have gone so far as to say that publishers and
literary agents are a dying breed, they just haven’t laid down yet. They say we
are in a new world groping our way forward, but that life is too short to make a
deal with a dinosaur industry where retailers can return unsold books to publishers.
Many believe that antiquated process has got to stop. Everything has to
evolve, or die out and the publishing industry is no exception.
Plenty of hurdles remain for the writer, and not every writer will clear
them. But finally, we have more than one respected publishing option. A way to get paid
every month instead of once or twice a year. Don’t plan on getting rich, but
thank God, we’re no longer in Egypt. We crossed the Red Sea, and made it
through 40 years in the desert. There’s more to be done, but the ball is now in
our court.
In the end, it becomes simple. Readers just want to read great books. They don't care how it happens. I feel the industry will survive but will look very different to how it did
before Nooks and Kindles took over the earth. Prepare for a wild ride, writers. This adventure has just
begun. Some of us will stop wasting time, burn our bridges, and never look back. No matter how much we love our old-fasioned hardbacks, it's time to adjust to the current reality. Like Goodreads and Amazon. They don't
care if you've written one book or fifty. They simply push, publish, or sell books in all shapes and sizes. What a novel concept!
