Our first Q&A in the New Era

And not much else this week, sorry!

Hi all! Sorry for the delay for this one - I’m field-testing different days to figure out which is the best day to send this out, and have circled back to Friday.

QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERING

Thank you to the folks who have submitted questions so far! This one is from Geneva:

Since you have been on both sides of trad/self publishing now, I would love to hear your insights about the pros and cons of the two tracks, particularly the aspects surrounding launch and publishing- the one area where I feel like trad pub still has an edge, even as I hear growing complaints that publishers are pushing more and more onus onto the authors.

I had an MS that got lot of initial interest from agents when I queried but didn't get picked up- query materials were spot on, MS needed more work. Given this interest, I was fairly confident I could have landed an agent and contract after a major overhaul, but for reasons of age, impatience, and stubbornly DIY tendencies, I self-published late last year. For some of those same reasons, as well as some ignorance and a lot of financial concerns, I forewent the ARC and other pre-launch exercises. I think I regret this because it is CRAZY hard to get noticed after launch. SM is capricious and building an email list is slow, arduous work. Many opportunities for marketing are only available pre-launch, and/or are wildly expensive or intimidating (how exactly does one get a sweet editorial blurb without an intro from agent or editor?). I wonder what isn't really available either financially or logistically as an indie that a trad publisher would have provided (and for how many authors the publishers do the marketing).

As both a writer and artist, producing my own book from cover to completion was a learning curve but well within my skillsets, but the marketing aspect has me wondering if I don't want to try the trad route for my WIP. I know other authors are weighing the same issues.

Great question, which I think boils down to “What’s better: trad pub or indie?” And the answer, unfortunately, is always “it depends.” I self-published my romance novel and did absolutely zero marketing. Zero. I didn’t buy ads, I didn’t heavily promote it on social media. If you look at my anemic instagram page for my pseudonym, you’d be very surprised to hear that I promoted it at all! Most of my sales came from friends, family, and the kind readers of this newsletter.

I’m sure it will not surprise any one that this was not a surefire path to bestsellerdom. I have made a whopping $313.16 to date, which means I’ve recouped the expenses of purchasing Vellum and paying my cover designer.

But back to your question: I would venture to say that the pros and cons of both paths are about the same. Both sides reward initiative, persistence, and effort, but to different extents in different areas. In both it’s crucial to be writing what the market wants to read; it’s just that in indie publishing, that cycle moves faster, as what’s hot one day may be out the next, and you don’t have to wait two years to figure that out. For both trad and indie it’s good to be active on social media, but (in my opinion) a social media presence moves the needle more in indie, because the barrier to buy in is lower. (i.e. “This person I follow is on KU or their book is cheap” vs. “This person I follow’s book is 25.99 and doesn’t come out for another six months.”)

Lest you think I’m leaning too heavily pro-indie, that fast-paced, market-driven madness has its drawbacks, too: writing to the market becomes virtually the only way to be successful. It doesn’t matter how well written a book is; if it’s not fitting into the niche of the moment, the likelihood it gets noticed and gets widespread success is much lower. (To toot my own horn, I think Marrying In was very well-written! But it doesn’t nearly fit any niches, and I knew that when I was working on it.) The pros of the trad pub route is that if you manage to secure an agent and a book deal, you can be reasonably assured that the people involved are doing so because they love your work, and see a vision for it, even if it isn’t what the market “wants.” I can’t tell you how many editors I sent A Certain Hunger to—but in the end, it only took one. (Well, two—at Audible and at Unnamed Press.)

If I could go back and do everything all over again, I would have given myself more time to publish. I would have paid a copyeditor. I would have had book 2 drafted before I published book 1. I might have gone in a different cover direction. (I love the cover, though, so probably not!) I would have maybe paid for a few ads, and I definitely would have done outreach in the various self-publishing communities that are robust and active.

Publishers will do a lot of this leg work for you, though not all of it. They have access to platforms and channels that are not available to indie authors—for example, up until recently, most major news outlets and review venues wouldn’t consider indie works for review, and even now, only romance is getting that kind of consideration. Access to forthcoming “we’re excited about” lists, advertising buys, co-op placement at bookstores—those are things that indie authors can’t access.

OTHER STUFF

Have you heard the good word about our lord & savior 3 Body Problem on Netflix? My sister and I finished watching it and were absolutely floored. I think it did a great job adapting a big, complicated book dealing with big, messy questions. Did I wish it had one to two more episodes to flesh out some of the characters? Absolutely? Am I also excited about season 2? You betcha. There have been lots of interesting articles about it—I’d like to highlight this one from Nan Da, who talks about the differences in the way the historical scenes handle the difficulties of making decisions in the face of shifting ideologies, loyalties, and dangers.

WHAT I’M READING

Almost done with Tomorrow Perhaps The Future, which is absolutely fascinating. Also about to start Death’s End, the next 3 Body book!

HOUSEKEEPING

Do you have any questions about the publishing industry? Requests for advice? Thoughts on your recent reads? You can leave them as comments, replies to this email, or fill out this Google form to ask anonymously!

I am open to queries via QueryManager only, which can be found here. Here is my submissions page on the LDLA website, and here is a more detailed MSWL.

My first novel, Marrying In, is available for purchase on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo, and is coming soon to iBooks. If you’ve read it, consider leaving a review—that helps me and the book in the long run!

You can find me on social media on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, the A Faster No Discord, and now TikTok. If you buy any of the books linked in this newsletter I receive a small commission at no cost to you.

This newsletter is a personal project, and the sentiments and opinions expressed here are my own and not those of my employer.