To help you to decide I found some videos on youtube.com that I think might help you with your decision on what to choose. The first video comes from someone who thinks the Traditional Publishing route is the best way for a writer to go when trying to get their book published.
And here is another video from someone who decided to self-publish and why they decided to go this route.
As I stated in a previous blog entry, getting published in the traditional way is hard. Don't get me wrong, self-publishing can be just as hard if you don't know what you are doing. Luckily, we live in a time where we have the Internet, which is known as the information highway. So obtaining the information you need to know to self-publish and to even traditionally publish is at your fingertips. All of this is just a click away on your keyboard and mouse.
But, let's talk a little more about the Traditional Publishing route. If you decide you want to try this method you will need to create what is known as a Query Letter. You can learn more about how to create one here: "How to Write a Darn Good Query Letter". You also have to be prepared that you might have to do this more than once before you get lucky to have a literary agent even remotely interested in your work, if ever.
Throughout this journey, you might have to remind yourself that even J.K. Rowlings was rejected many times for her Harry Potter story. And it only got published because an editor gave it to their eight-year-old daughter and told them to read it because they didn't have time to do so. What happened after that was the child read it and came back to their parent wanting desperately to read the second chapter. This was how Harry Potter began its quest to fame.
Let's now talk about what's been happening with self-publishing. There have been several self-published authors offered publishing deals after their book was self-published. One person, in particular, E.L. James who originally self-published "Fifty Shades of Gray", went on to publish this work through Vintage Publishing. And this book has sold over 100 million copies to date. There is also the author, Amanda Hocking who had self-published many books before she was offered a Traditional Publishing deal from St. Martin's Griffin's Publishing.
Then I can't forget the great publishing deal that author, Meredith Wild received after self-publishing her Hacker Series. See video below for her great publishing deal:
So you see sometimes you don't have to chase after a publisher for a publisher to find you if your self-published story finds a large audience.
Now, I want to talk a little more about self-published authors or (Indie authors as they are referred to today). The Indie author today isn't looked down upon as it was in the beginning. Nowadays, self-publishing is being embraced more as the norm. In fact, many traditional published authors are trying their hands at self-publishing. One, in particular, is author, Stephen King. He retired from writing through a traditional publisher only to go on to self-publishing. I've heard of other traditional published writers doing the same thing. So you see when I stated at the beginning of this article that you might choose to do both, I'm sure you can see what I am talking about here.
So should you publish the traditional way, or should you self-publish? As I stated above, I can't tell you what to do here, I can tell you that you have to decide why you are a writer and why you are writing the book you are, and what is your motivation for doing this. For me, it was that I grew up in a time where self-publishing wasn't an option many years ago because it was too expensive back then. But, today with it being so less expensive to do I have found that I don't have to keep throwing my stories into a desk drawer. I now have self-published many stories, and I feel great that I now know that I am sharing my stories with the world instead of hiding them.
In my next blog entry, I'm going to talk about a book that took me (30) years to complete and finally publish.
So stay tuned.
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