Thank you Sage for these insights; those are great!
I don't know about other parts of the world, but here, if you self-publish, you aren't allowed to attend book fairs and are barred from some events that trad publishing has a hold on, which obviously has an impact on marketing.
I'm not there yet - still working on my debut novel - but it puts pressure on the idea of trad/hybrid publishing.
Wow, I hadn’t heard that before. It’s such a catch 22 as I’ve always dreamed of being a New York Times bestselling author, which I think is quite the challenge if self publishing, no matter how popular you get. But to go the Trad publishing route is such a crapshoot. But as my debut is only halfway finished I still have a bit of time to choose. Good luck working on your debut! What stage are you at? I’m editing my extremely messy second draft.
It is - both options are challenging. Either way, the marketing will be a challenge and a big part of the marketing are in the cover, title of the book, which are covered with Trad, so anyway, self-publishing is a lot.
As for the idea of New York Times bestseller, I hear you and it's great, but I've recently heard someone had the reflexion : if you had to choose between sell a lot in one week and then never again or sell a little bit all the time for a long time, which would you choose? I understand those Best selling list are made of sales made in a very short span of time, so it depends on the marketing strategy chosen and does not necessarily mean the book gets longevity.
Congrats on being on the editing of your second draft!
I wouldn't be able to know which draft I'm on, because I've been cycling editing, which is not necessarily something I'd recommend for a first novel. But I joined a writers' group from the get go and go comments right away for my first chapters. So anyway, my first chapters have been re-written way too many times while my last are on a second draft. I'm in the process of re-editing it as whole, ensuring the voice is constant because I wrote it over a too long period, before I send the whole project to beta readers.
I have a similar story with my debut. I wrote a rough draft in 2019, started revising and then the pandemic hit and I put it away until a couple years ago. I drastically changed the middle, worked with a revision group and learned a lot about what not to do and am now pulling together the various versions into something that I can actually get beta readers to take a look at.
In the mean time I wrote another draft for a different novel, but am sitting on that while I get this one to a better place. I have a couple other novels in the works and seem to need to have many projects going on at the same time, even though it means I’m not moving one forward as quickly as I’d like.
But, I’m still in love with my story and I think that’s huge. Hopefully everything I learn will help with future projects.
WIP was awesome and is always such a great reminder of the importance of community to us all. You're so right- we may work alone when it comes to putting the pen on paper (or keyboard) but finding and leaning in to that supportive community (or communities) is so amazing for our well being. Not only to keep from being to isolated, but when we have questions about something, it's the people in our community we can turn to and see if they've had similar experiences and can share their experiences and resources to help us out.
Once again, my thanks for sharing these excellent points with us all!
The only thing that gives me pause, and, this is not that the experts are wrong (they certainly know more than I do), but some Editors/Agents caution against the free offers...
My workaround *plan*, as always, is to shoot down the middle and carefully plan it out time-wise - like only offering the work for free for 24 hours, letting folks know that it will go up at the end of that time.
Some people even leverage that window for reviews, though IDK how I feel about the ethics of that (they tack on an offer to get it at $0.99 or so for the week following IF the buyer commits to a review)...
Lots of things to consider - NGL I'm glad I'm not at that stage, yet!
Thank you Sage for these insights; those are great!
I don't know about other parts of the world, but here, if you self-publish, you aren't allowed to attend book fairs and are barred from some events that trad publishing has a hold on, which obviously has an impact on marketing.
I'm not there yet - still working on my debut novel - but it puts pressure on the idea of trad/hybrid publishing.
Wow, I hadn’t heard that before. It’s such a catch 22 as I’ve always dreamed of being a New York Times bestselling author, which I think is quite the challenge if self publishing, no matter how popular you get. But to go the Trad publishing route is such a crapshoot. But as my debut is only halfway finished I still have a bit of time to choose. Good luck working on your debut! What stage are you at? I’m editing my extremely messy second draft.
It is - both options are challenging. Either way, the marketing will be a challenge and a big part of the marketing are in the cover, title of the book, which are covered with Trad, so anyway, self-publishing is a lot.
As for the idea of New York Times bestseller, I hear you and it's great, but I've recently heard someone had the reflexion : if you had to choose between sell a lot in one week and then never again or sell a little bit all the time for a long time, which would you choose? I understand those Best selling list are made of sales made in a very short span of time, so it depends on the marketing strategy chosen and does not necessarily mean the book gets longevity.
Congrats on being on the editing of your second draft!
I wouldn't be able to know which draft I'm on, because I've been cycling editing, which is not necessarily something I'd recommend for a first novel. But I joined a writers' group from the get go and go comments right away for my first chapters. So anyway, my first chapters have been re-written way too many times while my last are on a second draft. I'm in the process of re-editing it as whole, ensuring the voice is constant because I wrote it over a too long period, before I send the whole project to beta readers.
Interesting point about NYT! Much to consider.
I have a similar story with my debut. I wrote a rough draft in 2019, started revising and then the pandemic hit and I put it away until a couple years ago. I drastically changed the middle, worked with a revision group and learned a lot about what not to do and am now pulling together the various versions into something that I can actually get beta readers to take a look at.
In the mean time I wrote another draft for a different novel, but am sitting on that while I get this one to a better place. I have a couple other novels in the works and seem to need to have many projects going on at the same time, even though it means I’m not moving one forward as quickly as I’d like.
But, I’m still in love with my story and I think that’s huge. Hopefully everything I learn will help with future projects.
Yes, it is huge! Congrats on sticking with it. I hope it will lead to something great!
But, in my case at least, I'm convinced seeing it through will lead to tons of learning, so it will be worth it.
WIP was awesome and is always such a great reminder of the importance of community to us all. You're so right- we may work alone when it comes to putting the pen on paper (or keyboard) but finding and leaning in to that supportive community (or communities) is so amazing for our well being. Not only to keep from being to isolated, but when we have questions about something, it's the people in our community we can turn to and see if they've had similar experiences and can share their experiences and resources to help us out.
Loved these takeaways!
Thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it. And it’s true, the presentations were great, but meeting other writers was the highlight in so many ways!
Once again, my thanks for sharing these excellent points with us all!
The only thing that gives me pause, and, this is not that the experts are wrong (they certainly know more than I do), but some Editors/Agents caution against the free offers...
My workaround *plan*, as always, is to shoot down the middle and carefully plan it out time-wise - like only offering the work for free for 24 hours, letting folks know that it will go up at the end of that time.
Some people even leverage that window for reviews, though IDK how I feel about the ethics of that (they tack on an offer to get it at $0.99 or so for the week following IF the buyer commits to a review)...
Lots of things to consider - NGL I'm glad I'm not at that stage, yet!