Do You Need an Agent?

Do you really need an agent?

You’ve spent years putting together your written work and now you are ready to brave the publishing world. You’ve heard stories about how difficult it is to get published, how many new books are submitted each year and how few are chosen to be published.

Do I really need an agent, you wonder? You will probably draw your own conclusions on the subject, but here’s some food for thought.

Are you in a position to represent yourself thoroughly?

By that, I mean, do you have sufficient income that you can cease to work at anything other than representing your writing? Learning the ins and outs of dealing with publishers is time consuming, like any other business relationship. There are protocols and established ways of doing things that are time honored. You will need to know and understand them if you want to represent yourself to best advantage.

Then again, you will have to develop relationships with book distributors and stores. Your publisher may send out the product, but you have to encourage sales yourself.

Do you have business contacts or personal friendships that can make publishers pay more attention to you?

This could be very important. Publishers are inundated with submissions. They are in the business to make money. They are searching for new work that will capture the imagination of millions of readers, resulting in the income they require. It stands to reason they would be more likely to consider submittals by folks who understand their preferences and goals.

Are you skilled at negotiating contracts?

There are many aspects to publishing that authors never think of – such as distribution costs, artwork design, agents fees, publishing fees, taxes etc. If your book is a hit, are you covered to get your part of worldwide distribution? Do you even know what a publishing contract should look like?

Will you be able to monitor the progress of your book from editing to bookstores?

If not, your book may not move as quickly as you would like. It takes from one to two years for a book to make it into the public eye from the time it is accepted by the publisher. Are you going to have time to make sure that process moves forward?

Will you know where to tell the book store to locate your book on their shelves?

You need to research your local book stores to see where books similar to yours should be stocked, regardless of whether you have an agent or not. You will be called on to know your genre.

Are you prepared to design and implement a strong marketing campaign?

Books don’t fly off the shelves on their own. Do you have a plan to market yours once published? Do you have the financial resources to fly to book readings and other publicity events on behalf of your book? Do you have time to visit your local book stores and talk up your book?

Are you prepared for the cost of self-publishing?

Like anything else, printing is cheaper in bulk. If you are doing print-on-demand (your book is printed only when a copy is sold), it will raise the cost of producing the book. Will you be competitive?

On the other hand, there will be less people getting a chunk of your sale, so you may profit more, if you have a strong marketing campaign.

There are many more questions you may want to ask yourself. There is no question that the world of publishing is undergoing a sea change. Some of the change offers us more opportunity. Some of the change means books that have not been properly edited or vetted for content will be published, creating a market of “buyer beware!” for readers.

What’s the payday if you self publish?

We have a terrific writers’ club in Atlanta where I live. I recently attended a seminar where a panel of three self-published authors answered questions from a moderator, and then took more questions from the audience.

In a nutshell, here is what each had to say.

Panelist #1 was a female author who self-published her fantasy novels initially and recently has been picked up by a small press. She pointed out that whether or not you publish yourself or through a publishing house, you must be prepared to market, market, market your book. Only the really big ‘star’ authors get promoted. If your book sells in the six figures of copies, it will be a lot easier to swallow the .89 you get on each hard copy, after everyone else has a piece of the pie. But after all, isn’t that what business is all about? People don’t work for nothing.

Panelist #2 was an older gentleman who has a very specific niche for his books and who is very satisfied with self-publishing. He explained exactly what it cost for each book and uses iUniverse, one of the largest vanity presses on the Internet. He prints about twenty books at a time for around $500 total cost per project. Re-prints are $8 a book. This allows him to price his work very competitively. However, he is retired and admits that he has made very little from his books. He is an ex-journalist and writes non-fiction, which I was amazed to discover is easier to promote than fiction!

Panelist #3 was a man in his late fifties, who has written an excellent novel. He self-published and printed two thousand copies, almost all of which he has sold for $24.95. He has not kept records of his expenses, but my guess is that he has just about broken even, when you consider the expense of creating the books – about $2000-$3000 – and traveling in the South to market them. When he began to outline all the things he had to master to actually publish himself – cover art, type setting, obtaining an isbn number, etc etc, I thought to myself – when does he have time to write?

Only you can decide

In the final analysis, only you can decide which is “write” for you! At my age, I might never live to see my book published through the normal publishing channels, but on the other hand, I didn’t write it to be a vanity piece, I wrote it to be read. So, I know which way I plan to go. How about you?