How to Publish a Book

How do you publish a book? It's a good question. The ideal way would be to secure a literary agent who in turn secures you a deal with a publishing house. While it takes an additional 2-3 years to see your book in print even after securing these two things, and you'll get a very small percentage of your book sales, it stands to reason that you'll sell way more books with a major publishing house behind you. Not to mention you'll have people taking care of things like distribution, and, to a certain extent, marketing. And let's not forget the street cred associated with getting a book published.

Then there is self-publishing, which is becoming much more popular for two reasons. First, the book market is down--way, way down--and when it comes to non-fiction especially, publishers in general aren't taking chances on anyone unless they already have a significant following (like a blog with 25,000+ hits per day) and can consequently guarantee sales. Second, self-publishing has become very affordable, whereas printing small book runs used to be cost-prohibitive. Self-publishing can be done right away (although word to the wise...it's still pretty complicated), and you can pocket almost all of the money made from copies sold. But you have to market it yourself, and, depending how much time you have, means you might not sell very many copies. And you don't really get any street cred. I mean, anyone can self-publish something. And I'd hate to be thought of as having "failed."

The reason my manuscript is particularly tricky to publish in the ideal way is that it's a memoir. And I'm a nobody who's had a pretty much textbook normal life. What agent in their right mind would agree to represent such a thing? Don't worry, this isn't a "I was born in California on a warm, sunny day" kind of memoir. This has a theme, and it's a very relate-able one that, according to my editor (who loved the book, by the way), would be very easy to market should I choose to self-publish. And I probably will, because I'm not sure I'll have another option. So the question is do I just DO it? Do I go for it? Right now? Do I wait a few more years and see if an agent/publisher picks it up? Do I finish my second book (which is in the works) and see it it gets picked up, which would then make it easier to get this first one picked up? Would it be totally lame to publish my own book? These are important questions, people. As the happy few who follow my blog, if you have any thoughts, let me know!! And while you're here, check out the survey question.

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