Quote:
Originally Posted by cfFairy
Is self publishing just not a good way to go or is it a good way to get started? Any opinions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
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I've had almost two dozen non-fiction, highly technical books published by some of the smaller houses and one of the biggest in the tech field, Addison-Wesley. I didn't become associated with A-W until hooking up with an agent, in 1990.
However the agent came to me rather than vice versa, based on an earlier contact before she established her agency. Once we finished the original project, we worked together on quite a few more -- and I still get a royalty check from her once a year, for about $10 each time. That's pretty good for a computer book first printed in 1995; most go out of print within just a couple of years! All my others had that fate.
Before getting the agent, I wrote as "works for hire" for a flat fee upon delivery. The agent negotiated royalty and found new ideas, leaving me free to "just write."
However now that I've finally, after more than 60 years trying, learned how to write (possibly) salable fiction, I've chosen the self-publishing route. The only piece I've put on the market, to date, has sold just one copy, and I suspect that was to some friend or relative. However I've done no marketing of it, and the sample size is too small to reach any conclusions. I do, though, plan to continue direct marketing on line and to submit, without an agent, to some of the smaller "micro-press" houses.
The odds of getting read by any of the major houses are far too small to justify submission without an agent -- but that isn't the only way of getting into print. My recommendation is to use every method open to you!