To Pub or Not To Pub

I think this qualifies as an FAQ as I’ve had several people contact me about publishing. Specifically, my publishing choice. Those must have been good questions because I didn’t have an answer.
I think the common wisdom of those who are not writers is that, when the book is finished, the author calls a publishing company, such as Simon and Schuster, And tells the person on the other end of the line, “Okay, it’s ready.” Yeah. That’s not exactly how it works.
As I was getting toward the end of writing Dead by Monday (the 947th revision, so about half way through) I looked into the actual way it was done. And by ‘it’ I mean the traditional publishing process. The process followed by the ‘Big Five’ publishing houses. This is where writing changes from being an artistic endeavor to being strictly business. It no longer matters that you know twenty-seven different ways to write ‘He walked…’
The first step is generally to find an agent to represent you. An agent is a person with a vocabulary so vast they can say nice things about you when they barely even know you. More truthfully an agent 1) knows good writing when they see it, and 2) is willing to approach their contacts in the publishing industry about getting your work published. In essence, they are willing to risk any credibility they have forged with those contacts, to recommend your work. You can see why they might be somewhat guarded. The author approaches the potential agent through what’s known as a query letter. In that one-page letter, you need to present yourself and your book so well that it breaks through what’s known as the “Fortress of I Don’t Know You.” My investigations revealed that it can take anywhere from one to five years of constant query submission to finally get an agent.
Your agent must then try to convince one of their publishing contacts that your book could make them money. If the publisher turns you down, it doesn’t necessarily men you’re a bad writer. The publisher may turn the book down because yours is a slasher book and they will be releasing another slasher book in about six months and they don’t want the two books cannibalizing each other’s sales. They may turn it down because you’re not the writer you mother always said you are, or an almost infinite number of reasons in between. (“We like your story, Chainsaw Zombies, but could you rewrite it as a rom-com?”) My investigations further revealed that it can take anywhere from one to five years to find a traditional publisher willing to publish your book. Once that happens it might take a couple years to do final proofread, interior formatting, cover design and myriad other stuff before it hits the bookstores.
I was well into the sending-query-letters-to-potential-agents phase when I stopped to do the math. Let’s see. 4 years (est.) to find an agent, 4 years (est.) to land a publisher, 2 years to get it in their next catalog, that’s ten years. I wasn’t sure I had that many Christmases left.
This is when I discovered ‘Self-publishing.’ This may have sprung into being sometime around the advent of Amazon, or not. With self-publishing, you do all the editing and proofreading. You obtain and ISBN number. You compile all the information/disclaimers that go on the Colophon. You buy and learn to use a program to format the chapters, find a graphic design program you like and design front, back covers and spine. You need to sure you’re not using copyrighted images. How will you know? No sweat. The lawyer knocking on your door will be glad to explain it. Once your book is completely designed, you’ll need to convert it to epub so eBook readers can download it, and there’s just a bunch of other stuff you need to do. Of course, if you made a mistake (or more) along the way you may need to start all over.  How long will that take? Do you really want to invest the time and effort?
Of course, you can always find an editor and pay them to do the editing. You can find a cover designer and pay them to produce a killer cover, and so-on for every necessary task. Let’s assume for arguments sake that each person you hired excels at their specific task an is not a con-artist. That could never happen. Right? And, you also may not hire the right person on the second attempt. Third?
For many things, I’m a proponent of paying an expert rather than doing something myself. With each passing year more tasks get moved into that bucket. No matter how fun and easy that YouTube video makes it seem, I will still happily pay someone to clean and service my septic tank. How can an author minimize the risk?
Enter the world of hybrid publishing. Currently, there is a lot of debate about whether hybrid publishing is actually publishing or not. You position on this should whole-heartedly be, who cares. To avoid harsh words with a fellow author, possibly ending with a duel at dawn, I have had ‘success’ using the term ‘self-publishing services.’ Success being a euphemism for never having been shot at dawn. A hybrid publishing/self-publishing services company has experienced people with every skill you will need to get your book published. If you have done your job correctly (picking an honest company) these people will have a proven record of success. If you just want the cover design, I don’t think you need to buy the whole package. You may be a talented graphic artist and know how to do it cold, but you may need two or three of their other services, just ask. And because all of these artisans work for the same company, if something does go bad, you will have only one throat to choke. Easy-peasy.
This is exactly what I did and I could not have been happier with the results. Everyone who worked on it was a talented professional. They knew what to do. I was involved in almost every aspect so that the book is exactly what I wanted. I also got to see the book published in my lifetime. (Big plus) What I did not get was the promotion and marketing support authors get from traditional publishing. I can’t tell you how hard it’s going to be because nothing I’ve tried so far has worked.
I hope this explains why I took the path I did to get my book published. Does my logic sound reasonable? Possibly? Doesn’t matter because it’s a lie.
Here’s the truth. In more than forty years of working in industry, I found one thing in business was most important. It wasn’t cost, it wasn’t delivery, it wasn’t features. It was relationship. If the parties trust each other, they will continue working together in spite of occasional hiccups.
It took fours years (off and on) to finish my first novel. I couldn’t say with any certainty there would be a number two. When an agent considers a writer for representation, they are looking for writer that is serious and disciplined. They aren’t in it for fun. They are looking for a writer that is worth their while to form a relationship with. They are risking their credibility with their contacts that your second book will be equally well written, and your third. They will be delivered on schedule.  That you will be a good long-term client. They will enjoy some long-term cash flow by helping you out. I didn’t know if I could promise that.
In the same way, a publisher who takes you on is hoping he will at least break even with your first book, make even more because your second book will outsell the first and the same with the third and beyond. I didn’t know if I could promise that.
That’s when I quit sending query letters. Because my personal ethics wouldn’t allow me to continue.
And now you know…the rest of the story.