I've just sent out a handful of submissions for my first novel, Delve and until this point they've been agent submissions only. If this round proves unproductive, I think I might try alternative ways of getting published.

What other ways have people tried? Going direct to publishers, self-publishing (e-book or otherwise)? And would you be happy to share how you went about it and how successful it proved to be.

Thanks,
Lorraine

I am currently going direct to publishers with very positive results and getting responses much faster than from agents. I am careful who I approach and only go straight to editors, but it's working - I am getting a much higher rate of requests for the entire novel.

Ben Yezir

Ben did you try all the agents first?

There are several authors on here, Lorraine, who, after exhausting agents, sent straight to indie publishers and got deals. Of course, there are often no advances this way (unlike with big publishers) but getting published is even harder than ever at the mo, imo, and going with indie publishers is a real alternative.

I'm subbing to agents (please join my rejection therad in the lounge, if you dare!) and then i will try indie publishers. And then there are e-publishers.

Whilst it's harder than ever to get published (i feel), in a way there are more avenues than ever to get some sort of deal, so it's certainly not all doom and gloom!


Good luck!

Don't forget Macmillan New Writers for first-time authors.

There are several authors on here, Lorraine, who, after exhausting agents, sent straight to indie publishers and got deals.

There are also several who went to publishers first.

We've discussed this before on WW but I think it's something of a myth that you have to go through an agent to get published. I can't recall his name now but someone did research into loads of (mainly SF/Fantasy) authors and found that while the majority did get agents first, it was something like 42% sold their first novels direct to publishers.

Yes, publishers these days mostly say 'Feck off' on their websites to any author wanting to submit to them. But there are ways to submit direct, usually in the form of a query. Remember, publishers want to find authors, and it only takes a few seconds to read a query. Finding out how to, where to and who to is another way of showing professionalism. Oh, and I know a senior editor who, if she likes a submission, will ask the author to send it in via an agent - because some of her editorial team won't take anything seriously that doesn't come through an agent. How nuts is that?

Hi Lorraine,
I'm one of the ones who subbed direct to an indie publisher after about 17 or so rejections from agents, including three requests for fulls. The publisher (Linen Press Books) is TINY. I got a very, very small advance. But boy, have I benefitted from personal attention, involvement in the process and good editing which is teaching me a lot. I've also been given a lot of input into the cover design. The marketing will be down to me, although Linen Press will do all they can. I don't expect to sell shedloads, which I guess some may say is the 'point' of getting published, but for me the process has been very worthwhile so far.
Good luck, whatever you decide.
Susiex

Thanks for posting up your experiences and ideas.

Terry, I think you touched on this in the past in a previous thread which I can't seem to find now.

And I suppose this is a question to those who have subbed to publishers (indie or larger publishers) in the recent past. I have no idea where to start - i.e what a query letter looks like, how to find out who the editors for a publishing house are and how to contact them. I'm just looking for some practical advice. I don't want to come across as unprofessional, particularly as this is my first novel.

Petal - Macmillan new writers does look like another option should all else fail.

Lorraine

The fact that you can find out just about everything on the internet these days is mostly seen as a good thing. And it probably is better overall than what pertained before it came along, which was basically a vast lack of knowledge in writers, especially new ones, about how things work in publishing. Which of course suited the publishers quite nicely. As writers progressed in their careers, they found out how the system operated, met other writers who knew other things and so on. The good thing about that system was that on the whole writers found out what they needed to know when they were ready to know it, if that makes sense. Now, however, someone can write their first short story and immediately discover how to market/promote/submit/sell it anywhere in the world.

This is just my view, but I think the reason editors don't make it obvious what they want to see - why they don't give guidelines or even email addresses - is they know that if they do, thousands of writers who still have a lot to learn will inundate them. Worse still, many of those submissions will probably have well-crafted query letters attached, because the writer has found out how to do one on the internet.

By keeping a bit of a distance, maybe they create a little trepidation in a writer about approaching them. Okay, you got their email address from here or there, but you hesitate: it's a bit like going into someone's house when you haven't been invited. Are you really sure your book is publishable? Not just that you personally think it's great, and most of your e-friends, too.

I heard one of the instructors at Viable Paradise say the other day that they take students who are just about to break through; that way, they can take the credit. He said it only half-jokingly, and you can see why. In other words, they've set up filter systems to ensure they aren't going to be teaching people who for one reason or another aren't ready yet.

Terry

Lorraine, there's no reason not to go to direct to publishers in the first place. Agents are useful in that they can target the submissions perhaps more effectively, because they know who's looking for what, and your m/s might get looked at more quickly if it's come through an agent.

But if you get offered a deal from a publisher, agents will be very keen to talk with you!

But isn't there the chance that you'll blow the sub to the pubisher, and an agent potentially interested in you might have been able to do a better job and will be niggled you've already put your novel 'out there'?

Of course, if you're not bothered about having an agent, then nothing to lose...

But if you get offered a deal from a publisher, agents will be very keen to talk with you!

Depends, of course, on the deal. Mine was so tiny that I can't imagine any agent would be interested in me...
Susiex

But isn't there the chance that you'll blow the sub to the pubisher, and an agent potentially interested in you might have been able to do a better job and will be niggled you've already put your novel 'out there'?

I don't really understand this. It's your career; you may or may not employ an agent to help you with it. Just tell the agent which publishers you've tried, if you feel they need to know. Chances are they'll try some of the same publishers anyway, since everyone knows editors don't always pay close attention to submissions, and they change around anyway. And I don't believe there's a 'better job' an agent can do that you can't learn to do for yourself. They might - might - know an editor well enough to persuade them to read your submission earlier than normal. But that's about it. Submission packages are the writer's job, surely.

Terry

I wouldn't know where to start, Terry, subbing to the big publishers. Indies, yes, it's pretty straightforward and usually explained very clearly on their sites. But Harpers? Penguin? Macmillan? I've tried in the past to find out the right name for my genre, and it's very very hard. I managed once and never heard back.

So, personally, for me, it's agents every time for the Big Boys.

I'm not saying other writers are capable of finding the right contacts and getting their work onto the right editor's desk - i just know my own limits.

<Added>

or rather areN'T capable.

Short story subs to womags are so much more straightforward and the editors are lovely.

For novels? I find it's a big big world out there and am more than happy to pay an agent to navigate it for me.

I know you feel strongly about this Terry And good for you - but not all of us are as experienced/ connected within their genre.

Petal, you've kind of hit the nail on the head for me. I really wouldn't know where to start. How does an agent's query letter differ to a publisher's one? And how do I find the right contact for my targeted genre in the right publishing house? I can search the internet and writer's forums till the cows come home, but what I need is some well targeted advice. And whether that is to go and talk to so and so, or go to that network event, or read this blog... I don't know where to start without leading myself into dark dead ends.

So basically all advice is most welcome, but some practical and targeted suggestions would really help.

I'm with you there Lorraine - it seems such a big old myriad of do's and don'ts where some know the magic formula and some don't - can feel at times like we are the poor from the middle-ages crawling at the feet of the landed gentry for the chance to plough our own field and grow our own crops!!

Stu
http://tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.com/