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I keep seeing an ad on Google, paid for by a purported literary agency. It screams out: “Do NOT Self-Publish!” In fact, here it is, sans link:
DO NOT Self-Publish
Literary Agency Submits Writers to Publishers. They Pay You. No Fees.
Hmm. What are they saying?
Here’s what I think: Nobody, not even the most illegitimate literary agency, not even the most desperate, is going to pay good money to beg authors not to self-publish unless they feel threatened.
Are they feeling threatened? Well, I would be were I they. Authors — and I mean good authors who know how to spin a tale, who know how to write excellent fiction — are fed up. Dianne Salerni of http://www.HighSpiritsBook.com, author of High Spirits, self-published after who knows how many years of rejections, and now she’s sold the film options to her very excellent book. That’s money no agent can claim.
That’s one example, and I could cite more…but won’t bother because that’s not the point of my post today.
I’ve watched author upon author spend years, sometimes decades, trying to find an agent, trying to get a big or even a small house’s attention. Regardless of how good their novels, though, they fail…unless they just happen to get a break in timing, nicking with present industry desires. I’ve also watched how very bad books get published during this same time period, novels written by either celebrities who couldn’t sign their name, or crap written by pap sucking hacks whose only virtue is an ability to catch the right fad or rave. …Like vampire books for soggy-pantied, panting teen girls, books that reek of the same rank stench that rises from the comic book pages of teen boy fantasies where those skinny, 4D-cupped scant-clad, drooling, sword-dueling wenches spread legs to scream like a cheap whore as the hero penetrates their slit. I’m sorry, but that’s not good fiction. That’s called “pulp,” and “pulp” was printed on “pulp” because it wasn’t good, but simply designed to satisfy a market — a cheap thrill of the moment market.
Fiction that deserves publication — fiction for readers, not stuff for horny teens or sicko thirty-something never-beens who hide in their rooms sucking sodas and eating junk food, devouring cheap thrills — mostly isn’t getting there unless an author just happens to hit the right editor of a small press, has some clout, or is a lettered celebrity. So it’s being self-published because authors are TIRED.
And authors deserve to be tired — tired of the run-around, tired of the hard-ball games literary agents and publishing houses play, agents and houses that never really read what’s sent in because they’re too calouse and too jaded to give a damn unless it smacks them in the nose with a barn-sized banner that screams, “This is going to make you a lot of fast money.”
So, yes, I think authors should self-publish. If they’ve given agents their time and queries, and agents snub them, screw it. Get that book out and get on with the next one and the next one. Follow your dream; screw the obstacles. Do an end-run, instead. And watch literary agents and publishing begin to sit up and whine because, suddenly, they ain’t making the money, honey. The authors are!
Just my take.
This is a reprint of an op-ed piece I just published on http://blog.thedeepening.com/
UK independent authors have another promotional opportunity with UK Independent Authors. The objective of this authors’ group is to promote quality writing to a wider readership. They are a loose affiliation of fiction writers who work together to promote books and reading. The group is open to any writer with a published book they wish to promote.
The group runs book fairs featuring work by authors published by the small and independent press, including POD (Print-on-Demand) and self-published works. Details of participating authors and their books can be found on the site’s author pages.
For more information about UK Independent Authors, visit them on the World Wide Web at http://www.ukindependentauthors.co.uk/
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