Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler
“Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight. Indecision is a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind.” Jan McKeithen
Life is filled with decisions. Shall I stay? Shall I go? What do I keep? What do I let go?
Now that I have reached this milestone of a memoir manuscript in its final editing stages, I am faced with another decision. . .
Which route to publication shall I take?
How many times have we all heard: “This is the best time to be a writer”?
We all have so many options. But which one is the best for my memoir?
Believe me, I am exploring all of them:
* Small publisher
* Self-publishing
* Traditional publishing with an agent
There are pros and cons to each one and plenty of opinions and anecdotals out there on which is the best route.
Probably the best visual of these options is this infographic from Jane Friedman: “Four Key Book Publishing Paths, Version 2”
{Click to enlarge}
As I write this, new predictions are coming out every day. Check out these 2014 predictions by Smashwords CEO Mark Coker. My favorite one is #14:
” Production takes on increased importance in 2014. Organize your time to spend more time writing and less time on everything else.”
At some point soon, I will have to make a decision.
My final decision will be based upon what is right for my story.
How do I best get my story into the hands of the readers who need it the most; the ones who will care about my story as much as I do?
It reminds me of the pains I took to check out the right day care for my children when I was a single parent and had no choice but to place them in that setting. I knew I needed to find a place where they would be well-cared for and I would have some peace of mind. As it turned out, some were fine and others…let’s just say I had to learn the hard way that things don’t always work out as planned.
There’s always a risk involved in any decision.
Like fine wine that should not be sold before it’s ready, I can’t rush my story.
On the other hand, if I wait until all is perfect, nothing will get done.
Somewhere between close enough to perfect and taking a risk, I will find the right path to get my story out there.
In the meantime, I’m in decision-making mode,
All dressed up for the party with so many places to go. . .
Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
* If I don’t believe in my story, no one else will. Connecting with my purpose for writing my story is my guide.
* Knowing my story well enough to discern which path to my readers is right for me will keep me focused on my readers.
* Finding the balance between knowing what still needs work and knowing when further editing will dilute my intent is both a challenge and an opportunity.
* Remaining open to ways to improve my story, a commitment to excellence, no matter which route to publication I decide upon, while also remaining clear on what is not negotiable will help me get my best work out there.
* Writing up a book proposal based on specific guidelines has been a valuable experience in helping me hone in on my intent, my message and my marketing plan. Even if I don’t end up using it.
* Remembering that , as a reader, I care more about the story than how it was published will also help me stay focused on my reader.
***
There are many resources available about each publishing option. This is by no means an all-inclusive list but here are a few select ones I found helpful:
Books:
You Really Should Write a Book: How to Write, Sell and Market Your Memoir by Regina Brooks and Brenda Lane Richardson
How Do I Decide? Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing by Rachelle Gardner
How to Sell Your Memoir: 12 Steps to a Perfect Book Proposal by Brooke Warner
Smashwords Book Marketing Guide: How to Market Your Book by Mark Coker (Kindle version is free)
APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur- How to Publish Your Book by Guy Kawasaki ad Shawn Welch
Blog Posts:
“Top 10 Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book” on Every Writer blog.
“Start Here- How Do You Get Your Book Published?” on Jane Friedman’s blog.
“Six Ways Micro-Publishing Strengthens Your Career” by Christina Katz on Jane Friedman’s blog:
“A Year of Opinions About Self-Publishing” from The Alliance of Independent Authors
“The Self-Published Book Marketing Plan” on Nick Thacker’s LifeHacked blog.
“The Questions to Ask BEFORE You Ask-How Do I Sell More Books?” on Dan Blank’s We Grow Media blog.
***
I’ll leave you with a quote from Chuck Wendig on Porter Anderson’s Writing on the Ether column, January 2, 2014:
“You will succeed by how you write, not by which route to publication you choose.”
How about you? For those who are already published, what made you decide the best route for your story? For those seeking publication, what has gone into your decision-making process?
I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~
Announcement: Congratulations, Sandra Smith! Your name was selected in a random drawing of commenters to receive Maureen Murdock’s Kindle short, The Emergence of Bipolar Disorder: A Mother’s Perspective.
Next week, Monday, 1/20/14: UK Author Bridget Whelan will discuss “Back to Creative Writing School: Traveling with a Pen.” Her eBook, Back to Creative Writing School” is now on Amazon.
This is such exciting news to know that you are so close to publishing. What a steep learning curve you have followed and how fortunate for all of us following your journey to be able to learn right along with you from all the invaluable tips and links you generously share with your readers.
Thanks, Pat. I love how we are all on this journey together and how we continue to learn so much from one another. 🙂
Kathy, I am so proud of you, and I can’t wait to own your PUBLISHED book. You have worked so hard and done so well, and kept with it to the very end. Wow, there are so many options to choose from now that you are ready for publication; I know you will make the right decision. Thank you for sharing all this information and knowledge that you have gained along the way. When I (finally) dust mine off and get back to it, I plan to take you up on your offer to help me edit and finish mine.
Thanks, Marjorie. We certainly have traveled many miles together. It really does “take a village”, doesn’t it? Good luck on dusting off your memoir and getting it out there. Keep us posted!
Kathy, Congrats on reaching this milestone in your writing journey! I, too, am in yet another “final edit,” and so I empathize. When is the right time to drop the nit-picking and send my baby out into the world?? Yet, every time I do a deep edit, I find things I’d overlooked, things that need touching up so my story rings true.
Thanks for laying out every writer’s dilemma, the route to publication. I’m sure you’ll research the options and choose what’s best for your story! And I’ll be only too happy to reap the fruits of your education, ha!
Debbie, I can relate to the dilemma of finding new edits every time you revisit your manuscript. At some point, I decided I had taken mine as far as I could and while it may still need further edits, I’m ready to start making some clear-cut decisions about “birthing this baby”. Yes, I am researching the options-ad nauseaum- but I need to feel I’m giving my book the best possible chance. I look forward to the day , I can say.”This is it!” Thanks so much for accompanying me on my journey and supporting as well as teaching me along the way. I look forward to the day I can hold your novel in my hands.:-)
Kathy, I’m also close to needing to make a decision about what is next for my book. I so appreciate this post and all of the great info you have provided here. You are very much appreciated and look forward to seeing what you will do.
Thanks, Joan. It’s so nice to have company on the journey! I’m glad you found the information useful. Best wishes on publishing your memoir. I hope you keep us all posted.
Kathy –
You know I’m excited to see your book in print! You also know how I made the decisions I made about production.
I think the most important thing in this post is that the readers don’t care how it was published – they only care about the story. That should guide all of us.
More than the production route, I believe the ability to find your audience is paramount. If you know where they live (figuratively, not literally), that will also guide you re production.
As you know, for the first time in at least two years, I recently wrote a little query, a pitch for an upcoming conference. It reads like the back-cover blurb, which is how all of my pitches should’ve read.. I think it has a very specific audience that may require either an agent or a traditional/small press publisher. Don’t know yet.
But isn’t it exciting that we have all these options?
‘
Viki
Yes, Viki, it is exciting to have so many options. You have shown us here how you base your decision on the unique characteristics of each book in your Friend Griefseries. You have done so well self-publishing your series. I find it interesting that you have identified the need for either an agent or traditional publisher with your latest in the series. That shows flexibility and insight. I’ll be following how it all works out for you and will enjoy continuing to learn from you. Thanks for sharing and for all your support. 🙂
Congratulations at reaching this milestone! Hope you find the right path which will lead you down the road to success as smoothly as possible. Keep us posted!
Mirel, I love that image: “as smoothly as possible”. 🙂 It’s a lot of hard work but I look forward to the smoothing-out phase. I appreciate you stopping by and offering your encouragement.Thanks!
EXCELLENT post, Kathy, full of wisdom and guidance. I will be sure others see it. You are amazing!
Linda
Thank you so much dear Linda for your ongoing words of support and your generosity. You inspire me to keep driving toward my dreams. 🙂
Kathy,
This is an excellent overview of the options, with lots of great resources. Wishing you the best possible outcome.
Thanks so much Eleanor. I know the most important thing is to write a good book and you certainly have been a great role model for doing that. I appreciate your support and encouragement.
Congrats Kathy! This is a challenging decision to make. For me, I decided on self-publishing because I wanted to get my story into the hands of readers as quickly as possible. I also wanted to be in charge of pricing, marketing etc. Admittedly, my plan didn’t go the way I anticipated, but I’ve learned that patience is key!
Interesting, Andrea. I’d love to hear more about what you learned and how that has affected your decision making process for future works.I agree, patience is a virtue. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Congratulations on this milestone. Whichever decision you make, I’m sure it’ll be the right one!
Thanks, Nancy. I appreciate your vote of confidence!
What a joy that you are completing the journey of finalizing your book and now about to publish. I’m sure your research and patience will bring the best route to get your book out to the public. I’m still writing my novel but find it is a slow process as I re-write so much and keep learning how to make my writing something that will
engage readers. Hard to see as far ahead as obtaining a publisher or just self-publish. Good insights that may stand me in good stead when I get to the point where you are now. Congratulations on completing your “masterpiece.”
Kathy, thank you for your generous and kind words of encouragement. It truly is an ever-evolving journey with new challenges and insights around every bend. I wish you the best with your writing and appreciate you stopping by.
Decisions, decisions, decisions! I love your opening quote, Kathy. I’m deciding on a cover design for my novel and my own indecision is driving me nuts as it “hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges.” I’m excited for you as you make the decisions to bring your memoir to fruition. Looking forward to reading!
Thanks, Carol! And I agree, there’s nothing more freeing and empowering than making a clear-cut decision. I appreciate you stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Best wishes with all your novel-related decisions. I love historical fiction and I’m looking forward to reading it!
Good luck Kathy. Here’s wishing your memoir smooth sailing on a good wind.
Something that isn’t mentioned is simply to pray in whatever way you are accustomed to … and then to “open” yourself to the connections that come.
It is almost miractulous how small things lead to bigger opportunities.
What I’ve found works for me is to find a smallish publisher (in my case Singapore) and then get the book talked up in the larger mpre competitive markets.once iit’s out. It’s important not to sell away all your rights even if you’re going the traditional route.
Thanks, Audrey. I’ll take “smooth sailing on a good wind” and run with it! What a lovely reminder to pray and remain open to the connections.I appreciate your “pearls” of wisdom from your own publishing experience with your stunning new novel, As the Heart Bones Break. I hope everyone checks it out on Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Bones-Break-Audrey-Chin/dp/9814484075.
Kathy, well said! This is a great post: particularly your point on believing in your own work. I hope you come to the right decision.
The very best of luck, you deserve it.
Cate, I appreciate your ongoing support and encouragement very much. It’s so nice to “see” you here. Thanks for stopping by.:-)
I love your quotes–and the bread crumbs to follow!
Thanks, Marian. And I do hope those “bread crumbs” lead to the right decision! 🙂
I’m en route to Florida, so haven’t had time to read this carefully, but at first glance, it makes me want to come back for a thoughtful read. But I did want to tell you how excited I am for you … you’ve been so helpful and encouraging to many of us, and I look forward to your great success!
Lucky you, Mary. Florida sounds wonderful right about now from my northeast perspective.:-) Thank you so much for your words of encouragement and support. It’s so nice to part of such a caring community. Enjoy your time in Florida!
In my experience, if you really want an agent, you must be prepared to 1. work hard and follow the pre-assigned hoops to the letter, 2. force discouragement to fuel you forward and 3. be okay with waiting months for a response. In hindsight I can honestly say the 2 years I spent going this route were not worth it.
Finding a small publisher is also very nerve-wracking and time consuming. If my publisher hadn’t signed me when it did, I would have self-published.
You can save yourself a lot of time by doing it yourself, especially if you’ve already paid good money to have a skilled editor polish your ms.
Good luck my friend. I can’t wait to read your book.
Wow, Grace. I appreciate you sharing your lived-experience and lessons learned from your own publishing experience with your memoir,Reaching. Interesting , when I read it, I didn’t give a thought to how you published it. It is a great story and the experience of reading it is still with me. It seems to me everyone has their own unique story about their road to publication. These are all the factors I am keeping in mind as I ponder which route to take. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your insights and support.
Kathy, I wish you the best of luck. I was a professional writer for 35 years before I published my memoirs. Unfortunately, many people out there publishing their stories are “hobbyists.” It is important for readers to realize the value and quality of a book. How to do this? This is why I am interested in a review process that helps readers buy quality material.
Thanks, Susan. I really appreciate your perspective as a seasoned journalist and agree that a commitment to learning the craft of writing is essential when the drive to get your story out there prevails. Your sage advice about being clear on your “takeaway for the reader” has guided me through this journey. And a commitment to excellence to produce a quality product resonates. You show us how that’s done through your own poignant memoirs, Again in a Heartbeat and Morning at Wellington Square. Thank you for showing us the way. 🙂
Kathy, your milestone sits before you. You’ve worked hard and diligently on this child you’ve birthed. As you said, don’t rush it … making the right decision is worth waiting for what feels right.
Thank you for this insightful and well thought out post with a wealth of information tucked into every nook and cranny. It will be saved to Evernote for when my milestone sits before me!
Blessings on everything you aspire to,
Sherrey
Sherrey, your kind words of support and encouragement are always so motivating and they feel so good! Thank you for sharing. I’m happy you enjoyed the post and wish you much success with your own writing journey. I love that we’re in it together.:-)
Blessings, Kathy
That quote from the CEO of Smashwords is awesome advice, and definitely my goal for the new year as well: focus on the writing. I think I focused too much on the blog, or Facebook *blushes* and lost a lot of production time.
This was a wonderful post! Thank you for sharing.
Welcome, Katie! I’m happy you enjoyed the post. Mark Coker’s words jumped out at me,too. It seems to me the focus in the industry, is changing to the writing. First and foremost, write a good book. Reaching our audience via our platform is important too but not at the expense of the writing. We have to have something of substance and value to give to our readers and then we have to find the best way to reach them. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. Best wishes on your writing!
Kathy, this is the kind of post that will help thousands of people as they, too, face the same choices and try to understand the pros and cons of each. I wrote an article for Jane Friedman’s blog on my own choice of a small publisher. One thing I didn’t say as bluntly then as I will say now. I was willing to spend 4-5 years on manuscript, publishing, and marketing, but I wasn’t willing to spend 5-10 years on one book. First-time authors who try for the Big Five publishers need to write a great book (not just good) and then find a way to get it to a good agent, then get lucky in landing a contract, and then market. At my age, that’s a huge time commitment. Even worse, the odds are not good on getting to the end of that line successfully. Writers therefore can end up going back to what’s behind Door #1 or Door #2 anyway. That is a gamble worth taking if you are young and passionate about being a writer. As you say, not one size fits all.
Shirley, thank you for sharing your publication story and insights from getting Blush launched. You are singing my song when it comes to the age factor.:-) It is nice to have so many options and I think they’re all worth exploring. I guess we all have to factor in our own circumstances and make the best decision that matches our needs. Indeed, one size does not fit all. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on this.
Hi Kathy–it’s so exciting to see you have reached this stage and I look forward to finding out the next stage of your journey. It’s so generous of you to list so many resources for other writers here on your blog. I’m sharing it around so others can have these resources handy. Keeping us posted on your journey encourages other writers to stay on the path! Thank you for your enthusiastic sharing and learning resources. You are the queen blogger in my book!
Oh my, Linda, “queen blogger” is quite a hefty title to uphold! 🙂 I appreciate you stopping by and sharing your generous thoughts. I’m happy you found this useful and appreciate your offer to share it.Thanks!
Hi, Shirley, Congrats on making it to the finish line! You hold the torch for me as I muddle my way through my story. I agree with Linda — you are so generous and thoughtful in sharing these resources. Memoir writing is a serious undertaking and I’m lucky to discovered such a great “tribe” of writers like yourself early on in my journey. I’m sure the right decision will come — whatever that may be.
Dorit Sasson
Dorit, I know you meant me because Shirley has made it way past the finish line and ,in fact, has shown us the way! It’s so nice to see you here. Welcome. I’m glad you found the post useful and appreciate your supportive comments.BTW, I am thoroughly enjoying your anthology Pebbles in the Pond and I look forward to your guest post. I’ll email you soon. Thanks!
Oops – I meant to write, “Hi, Kathy!” – Sorry about that.
No problem,Dorit, as explained in my previous response. 🙂
Like Dorrit I am lucky to have found you early on in my process of writing my memoir. Your blog every week has been a treasure drove of information and I have looked forward to reading it with pleasure. Your journey has become mine as I now am so serious about finishing my rough draft and finally can envision it done in six months time.
I will bookmark this post for future reference for the resources you shared. thanks so much.
Clar
Dear Clar, My pleasure! Your comments are greatly appreciated. We all have to start somewhere and I am happy you have found some inspiration for your own memoir writing journey here. That’s exactly what I have intended to do all along, reach out to writers, share the valuable lessons I have learned and learn from one another. Best wishes on writing the first draft of your memoir. I hope you keep us posted on your progress along the way.
Kathy
Wonderful post! I’m going to bookmark for future reference, just in case I decide to look towards publication. There is so much to consider, but without a finished manuscript, there’s no point wasting time there. Looking forward to finally being able to take your lessons into REAL consideration. Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned…invaluable.
All good wishes for the success of your memoir!
Welcome, Ann! I’m glad you found the post helpful. I checked out your inspirational blog: http://lifeandotherturbulence.com and enjoyed the information you shared “from your heart.” Thank you very much for stopping by and I hope you’ll come back.
Kathy, from your reader support and your comment today on Dan Blank’s blog about building your audience and relationships first, it is clear you have chosen the wise path already. Regardless of how you publish, you’ve laid a strong foundation.
Have you checked out Booktrope? They have an interesting model, although they’re officially closed to unsolicited submissions.
I’d be interested to see your proposal and connect.
Dear Paul,
Welcome! I appreciate your generous feedback as well as your interest in my story. I will check out Booktrope at http://booktrope.com. I can’t help but smile at the “serendipity” of meeting via my comment on Dan’s post today at:http://writerunboxed.com/2014/01/24/your-audience-is-unorganized/ Thank you very much for stopping by. I am looking forward to connecting with you and will respond to you further via email.