This week's tips are on Getting Published – things I wish I'd known back when I was starting out, and that I'm happy to pass along to you now.
1) Know your goals and what success is to you.
Is it financial?
Is it awards?
Is it impact on a single reader?
Is it the most readers?
Is it seeing your book on a bookstore or library shelf?
Is it even about you, or is it more about the stories and/or ideas you want to share?
Being clear on your goals can help you determine the path you want to take with getting published.
I author-published (a.k.a. self-published) my first YA novel, and while I liked having control (like selecting and hiring the team of professionals who helped me make it awesome) I ultimately wanted that book (Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill) to reach more readers, to empower more young people.
That influenced my decision to not publish myself again, but instead to be published by traditional publishing houses that have full sales team distribution. Accordingly, I've been published by a bunch of independent publishers: Lerner/Zest Books (No Way, They Were Gay? and The Gender Binary is a Big Lie), Levine Querido (Red and Green and Blue and White), Chicago Review Press/Interlude/Duet (A Different Kind of Brave), Reycraft (Love of the Half-Eaten Peach), and now Cardinal Rule Press (Like That Eleanor).
If you want to explore the many different paths to getting published, check out this free resource from IBPA, the Publishing MAP (Models and Author Pathways).
2) Don't "submit" your work. "Offer" it.
Author and poet Lesléa Newman gets the credit for this shift in mental models. I also don't want to "submit" and give up my power. I would much rather "offer" the work to a publisher to see if they want to partner with me on getting that book published and out in the world and into the hands of readers.
For me having a book out on "offer" has been a very healthy switch in how I think about getting my work out into the world.
3) The Big Five are not the only path. There are Indie Presses. And Self-Publishing (or Author-Publishing).
At this point, the general public does not care who published a book. If it is beautifully done and the quality is there and it is professional published, it doesn't matter to them who published it. They are not studying the copyright page.
This is an amazing opportunity.
Librarians and bookstores do care still who published something, so if you're going the smaller indie publisher or author-publisher path, there's a lot more vetting you'll need to do so your book is considered.
4) Publishing yourself is not a short-cut.
Impatience is not a good reason to author-publish (self-publish.)
Being a publisher is a completely different role from being a writer, and even being a published author. A publisher has so much else to consider and deal with, and while there's a lot of control, you have to control it all...
Be sure it's what you really want to do. And if you do it, do it in the most professional way.
5) Publishing is subjective. Incredibly subjective.
...Meaning it's not a 'failure' if a project hasn't found its publishing home yet.
Case in point: recently, a book project of mine went on offer to an editor at an imprint of a publishing house. They asked for revisions. I revised, and they loved the new proposal/sample chapters. "We're going to acquisitions!"
Then the musical chairs of publishing stopped the music—as often happens in this industry—and there was a different person who was the new editor of that imprint.
Same book project. Same imprint. But now my book didn't fit their vision of what they wanted to publish. So that book didn't go to acquisitions after all.
And now my agent and I need to figure out what would be the right publishing home for that project, and put it out on offer again.
It is all subjective. Don't beat yourself up if the answer is 'no.' Sometimes, it takes a lot of 'no's to get to the right 'yes.'
6) Email etiquette and compassion.
Email sucks.
A few years ago, when agents started saying that they would only respond to pitches when they were interested, there was quite an uproar. It felt unfair, that we were being told to careful craft our pitches and tailor them specifically for a specific agent, and then we might not even hear back!
Many of us wondered, How was that professional?
I view that with a LOT more compassion now. In my day job (as Chief Content Officer for the Independent Book Publishers Association) I get between 150-200 emails a day. That is so much to respond to! I do my best, but sometimes it's a few weeks before I respond, rather than a few days. And there are emails that get by me!
I'm doing my best, but email is an incredibly inefficient means of communication (I also dislike how tone doesn't come through) and it's a lot -- especially when juggling all the other parts of my job.
So I've come to view agents (who get many, many more emails than I) with more compassion about the email situation. They have to prioritize their current clients, the things that are most pressing, and they're squeezing in reviewing offers for representation...
We could all use a bit more compassion when it comes to emails. And if you want some email etiquette tips from a publisher I admire, Brooke Warner rounds some up here.
7) Publishing has two speeds: Glacial and Panic.
You only control what you control, so try to focus on that.
And while your work is out on offer, or you're waiting for notes back from your editor, or otherwise publishing is making you wait, work on something else. Don't just sit around waiting.
Put your energies into what you control.
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I hope these tips have been helpful!
Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee
