When the stream becomes a river….

Your manuscript is finished. You DID IT!

GO you!
And you’ll have to edit it of course, but after that?
What, exactly do you DO now?

Well, the first thing you need to do is decide what you’re going to do.
Should you query agents? Publishers? Go it ‘yourself’?

This can be a difficult decision for authors - because they can’t make up thier mind whether to risk possible rejection, or take a chance on the big contract.
I’ve got a different view on it all to be honest. I have a lot of books that are self published, and some that are tradtionally published, and though I’ve aimed high, my decision is based on how I’d perform ‘midlist’.

Midlist work is an important consideration in everything - there’s no way that the majority of us will place with Harper Collins, or Tor or other huge writer and publishing companies, but at the same time - none of us want to place ourselves in the position of never being able to sell our books - so my idea was to look at how I’d perform, if I published and it were ‘average’. A midlist publishing house, or a small one, with acceptable sales, and nothing more. I compare that with what I could hope to achieve self publishing.

What I’ve generally worked out is that being published through an accepted ‘publisher’ is important because it will normally result in higher sales. Only just, and it is based on the efforts of the authors, in many ways, but it can make a difference. So self publishing gives returns that are generally higher, per book - but might be lower in terms of sales, due to reach and other factors.

Whatever you choose, writing and publishing your manuscript is an adventure. Enjoy it!

Visit D Kai Wilson's book site at Books By Kai

Tagged as authors, Books, manuscript, Publishing, self publishing, writing + Categorized as All, Books, Books/Publishing