March 14 Publishing Panel Recap with Bill Baldwin
Our March panel, moderated by vice president Shari Clare , showcased local published authors sharing their experiences with the publishing industry.
Vanessa MacLauren-Wray has worked with small traditional has been self-publishing since 2015.
Robyn (R. L.) King has been self-publishing since 2015.
Alfred Jan has been publishing collections of 1930s and 1940s detective stories, using hybrid publishing, as well as print-on demand and reprint publishers.
Carmela Dutra works with an agent, and her books have been traditionally published.
David Bartell , unfortunately, was unable to attend due to illness.
The discussion focused on the three main types of publishing.
Traditional publishing: You submit your book to an agent who then represents you and tries to sell it to an established publisher. You may have to query many agents before one accepts you. Once the book is sold, the publisher will then provide editing services, formatting, cover design, and publication, and promotion. Traditional publishers are notoriously slow, often taking years between accepting a book and getting it on the shelf. They are trying to move faster and wrap things up in a few months. Submissions once could be done only by mail; now they can often be done online.
Self-publishing: You use a service such as Amazon Kindle Direct. You are completely responsible for all the aspects of the publication: editing, formatting, cover design, publication, distribution, and publicity. This method is good for authors who want total control over their work. Before you self-publish, learn what it involves. Self-publishing takes work! You need to understand formatting, text editing, cover design, publicity, and so on.
Hybrid publishing: Authors pay for publishing costs—often thousands of dollars— in exchange for professional editorial, design, and distribution services. Reputable hybrid publishers vet submissions and, unlike vanity presses, make significant revenue from book sales. When deciding on a publication method, it’s good to keep several precautions in mind:
With a vanity press, the author pays for someone to publish their book. This can be expensive, and though they may charge you for editing and cover design, that does not guarantee the results will be of professional quality.
Some publishing contracts may be ill-advised because some publishers will exploit you. Some agents are dishonest. A good resource is Writers Beware (writerbeware.blog).
Even large publishers might not do much publicity for you. You may need to do your own outreach to bookstores. ●
You can get published without spending any money. However, be careful when signing a contract.
Though an agent may offer to represent you, there are no standards as to their actual obligations. You should always check out their services on social media to make sure you are working with someone reputable. In deciding whether to pursue traditional publishing, hybrid publishing, or self publishing, consider the advantages and disadvantages of each.. Assess yourself as well as the manuscript, and decide how much you reasonably ask yourself to do. Also think about what your readers are looking for and how much you can provide for them. Then make your manuscript as good as you can before sending it to an agent or a smaller publication house.