I started writing seriously about 7 years ago now. My first novel took me six months. (after 30+ years of dabbling with writing and never finishing anything) There was a lot of process discovery for me in those pages, and while I was writing the two sequels, I started researching the whole publishing game. I knew I wanted to go traditional. I wanted the validation that my book was good enough to land an agent. I polished that first book up to the best of my ability, researched querying, and agents, and then revised that book. I cut the first sixty pages of back story, rewrote the beginning, and sent it out there.
I think I queried about twenty agents that time, all form rejections, or no response. I was very selective on who I sent that book to. In that time, I had completed books two and three in the trilogy. But I continued to research. I joined several writing forums and started following agents on Twitter. OK, maybe my first series wasn’t destined to be a best seller, but I understood I had queried too soon, and most people don’t land agents with their first book. I had lots of ideas and embarked on a new series. I had learned a lot about writing from the first. I still love the characters and story, but in retrospect, I made many mistakes. POV and tense are a little choppy, and the first book is a pretty standard hero’s journey. The second book suffers from ‘saggy middle syndrome’ and the really cool stuff doesn’t happen until book three, which is about where I started getting into a really good writing groove. The more you read, write, and research, the better you get.
I wrote the full Vale trilogy straight through. Well, I jumped around a lot, but all three books were drafted before I thought of querying again. I am a pantster so getting the whole saga on the page before anything is finalized, allows me to go back and rework earlier parts to my heart’s desire. Then I went through the beta reader process and all the self-editing for Within the Vale. Great feedback and more edits as a result. I hired an editor through Reedsy. Not for a full edit, but just for an assessment and an edit of my query package.
I got glowing praise and some things to work on from that editor. But I felt I was ready. I queried again. I think I sent about forty-five queries this time around, and had 5 requests, three for the full and 2 partials. So better than 10% which all the online advice says that means my query is working. One rejection and four with no response (going on two years now for the longest). One of the requests came after ten months, and I had already written him off as a no.
Publishing is a cutthroat game. Agents have a short list of what they are looking for and no matter how great your book is, if it doesn’t fit their list, they will pass. I understand why, they are banking on authors they can sell, and will make them a commission. And even if your book is great, if its not what they are looking for, or think they can sell, they will pass. “I didn’t connect strongly enough to the voice to offer representation.” Is a standard form rejection I saw repeatedly from the sample chapters that went with my query. I could wish they gave more personal feedback, but never expected it.
But I was growing disenchanted with the process. Is my book not good enough, despite all the great reviews from my beta readers? Or is it just that the fantasy genre is saturated and difficult to break into? Or I just hadn’t tried the right agent yet? Following my dream editors on Twitter was sobering. There were a few where I started to cringe every time I saw a new Tweet. The levels of negativity and arrogance of a few made me cross them right off my list, knowing I could never work with that person.
And the process of constantly revising the query, personalizing it for each submission, reviewing that agents author list and sales and books and sending the next batch out and waiting again started to feel like I was spending all my time running on a hamster wheel. The lack of response is sometimes worse than a form rejection.
Then if you get an agent, there is no guarantee they will be able to sell your book to a publisher. And if they do sell your book, you will still be expected to do much of your own marketing in many cases, with a great loss of control in the exchange.
I started to ask myself why I wanted to go the traditional route so badly. I had thought I needed the validation landing an agent and a book deal would bring. I knew it would be hard, but in retrospect, when I started, I didn’t understand the market, or the process, or really anything about doing it myself.
Curious about what was out there, I read a bunch of self-published books at this point in time. I had believed, naively, that the authors or stories MUST be sub-par if they couldn’t get a book deal. Boy, was I wrong! There are some really fantastic stories out there. Granted there is a lot of unedited crud in the bucket along with the gems, and I believe that is where much of the distaste for self-publishing comes from. If you are going to do it, do it right.
I read blogs and watched vlogs from self-published authors and followed some on social media. This was a MUCH better experience than following agents. Helpful tricks and advice are far better than “Here’s the top ten reasons I rejected people today.”
I really hadn’t been in the querying trenches all that long, at least compared to some. And I was sure that with enough books and querying I could eventually land an agent. But I wasn’t sure I wanted too anymore. I was never going to write the book that I thought could get published based on MSWL or what was trending at the time. I write the stories I want to tell, that make me fall into my own imagination, and I can’t wait to get to the keyboard. I write what I would want to read.
Wouldn’t my time be better served if I just did it myself? It took me a little longer to finally take the plunge. I hired another editor which I was nervous about at first, but it was a great experience. He was open to discussion when I didn’t like some of his suggestions, and at the end of the day, he made my book better. He also had a fantastically weird sense of humor, and taco and DeLorean fetish. If you are in the FB writing group ‘Fiction Writers’, you may recognize the traits. My editor is Brian Paone, the founder of that group. I am truly proud of the finished manuscript. Waiting for him to get started on book 2 right now.
Hiring a cover designer was fun. I dabble in art myself, and I learned GIMP (free program like photoshop) to mockup cover designs. I came across an artist in one of my writing groups whose style I really liked and showed her my design. She did a beautiful job, and then I hired her for books 2 & 3 coming out July and December, respectively. Sinsvalentine.com is her website. And since I had some experience with GIMP and digital layout, I was comfortable enough to do my own text layout and formatting.
Would I go traditional now, if given the chance? It would have to be one hell of an offer, and it wouldn’t come from querying. I’m not going back there again. I like the control I have with managing it all myself. The only part I have yet to figure out, is marketing. But like with everything else, research and persistence pay off.
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