kowaiyoukai (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kowaiyoukai) wrote2010-10-15 04:10 pm
kowaiyoukai) wrote2010-10-15 04:10 pm
Entry tags:
Self-Publishing vs. Getting an Agent
IDK. It all seems so ridiculous to me. I mean, pay hundreds-thousands of dollars for editors, ISBN, cover art, blah, blah blah, etc and then you get a small percentage of royalties. How can you even guarantee that what you earn back is going to be anywhere near what you put into it in the first place? And how can soemone who is poor, like me, get any kind of money to even begin to try self-publushing?
On the flip side, I've been told so many opposing things about agents. Some want money upfront, some only get paid if the book sells. Some are willing to work around your schedule, some want you to work around theirs. And so on. I just think I'm too annoyed with it all.
I would just love to finish my original, make it a PDF file, and sell it to people for $5 a pop. That's it. Is that too much to ask for, really?
What do you guys think? What's better? Or, would you actually buy a PDF file of a book for $5? Or does anyone have any really genius ideas? Because that would be AWESOME.
AS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE: Yes, I'm still writing Apogee and other fic. No, I'm not posting any today. Yes, I'm still watching shows and playing catch-up with video games, TV, movies, books, and comics. No, I'm not up to date in anything yet. I did just start Felicity, and I checked wikipedia to see who she ends up with, and I'll probably stop watching because I LOVE Noel and Ben's an asshole with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. OK. That's all. :D
On the flip side, I've been told so many opposing things about agents. Some want money upfront, some only get paid if the book sells. Some are willing to work around your schedule, some want you to work around theirs. And so on. I just think I'm too annoyed with it all.
I would just love to finish my original, make it a PDF file, and sell it to people for $5 a pop. That's it. Is that too much to ask for, really?
What do you guys think? What's better? Or, would you actually buy a PDF file of a book for $5? Or does anyone have any really genius ideas? Because that would be AWESOME.
AS FOR EVERYTHING ELSE: Yes, I'm still writing Apogee and other fic. No, I'm not posting any today. Yes, I'm still watching shows and playing catch-up with video games, TV, movies, books, and comics. No, I'm not up to date in anything yet. I did just start Felicity, and I checked wikipedia to see who she ends up with, and I'll probably stop watching because I LOVE Noel and Ben's an asshole with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. OK. That's all. :D
no subject
$5 PDFs are a BAD IDEA. Maybe some friends would buy it to support you, but if it ever got popular people would just share it amongst themselves and you wouldn't see a penny. Also, if the entire novel is available online and someone could potentially read it for free, no publisher will make it into a book. It wouldn't be profitable for them and is too much of a risk. That's not even to mention that someone else could submit your story to a publisher under their own name and you wouldn't have enough proof of plagiarism.
So in short: finish the novel and start showing it to agents/publishers in your genre. That's the cheapest and, it seems, most effective method by far. It takes the most effort, though -- but you're just going to have to suck it up! ;)
no subject