I had an email this morning from a woman at Xlibris Book Publishing, a self-publishing book company based in Philadelphia. Here's her email:Dear Tanya,Have I ever thought about publishing? Umm... yes!!!!!!! :)You have great writing style. This is what I have seen upon reading your works in FictionPress.com. How you weave your thoughts into words shows how prolific a writer you are and says so much about the person that I think you are – freethinking, imaginative and with depth. Have you given a thought about publishing your works in a book?
Sincerely,
XXXX
So I responded that I think about publishing daily, but hadn't really put a lot of thought into self publishing. I see it as paying a chunk of money to have my own novels published, which is fine, if I had the extra cash laying around to do so. I'm about to be a poor graduate student though, I may not have the cash to self-publish in a while. I really need to continue trying the traditional publishing route. But I'll admit... the idea of being in complete control of my novels is very appealing. We'll see what happens. I'm approaching this with a careful eye. After all, isn't it all just retail? Someone trying to get me to buy something? We'll see.
I'm very excited to be approached by anyone in publishing though. I've been day dreaming about being discovered through fictionpress for a while now.
Pretty cool email to get first thing in the morning.
Update: I found this interesting article ("Why People Hate Self-Published Authors") on line from Slushpile.net. Happy reading.
2 comments:
That's really nice! I'd be weary about self publishing, especially self publishing early. I think that if you want to make money writing, traditional publishing (with an agent and publisher and people who are working to get your book out there) is the way to go. That said, someone showing interest is always great, especially someone in (any kind) of publishing capacity. It means they think you're a money-maker! :) Very encouraging. Good work!
Beware! If you're just looking to get a few copies bound nicely for friends and family then self-publish. But if you hope to sell to more than those people it likely won't happen with self-publishing. For one, all us readers know that self-published authors don't have editors or copy writers looking for type-os, errors and plot holes ... so we look elsewhere.
Still, it's a fun email to receive :)
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