Sometimes righting brakes all the rools.

Self Publish or Agent / Indie Publisher

By Fyodor Dostoyevsky [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By Fyodor Dostoyevsky [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

LOOKING FOR AN AGENT OR INDIE PUBLISHER?

Don’t know how to go about it? We can help. The first thing we’ll do is advise you if it requires a professional edit.

Basically, we’ll read your book and advise you on how to proceed. If your Manuscript (MS) has already had that final polish and is a humdinger of a read, we’ll tell you so, for free. If it hasn’t quite reached such giddy heights, we’ll offer feedback.

Broadly speaking, once your MS is ready your choices are threefold:

  • Go Mainstream. To do this you’ll need an agent to represent you as the big Publishing Houses don’t accept submissions from members of the public.
  • Go Independent. The Indie Publishing route is popular. You can often contact them direct.
  • It might be that the Self Publishing path suits you best and if so, that is another area upon which we can advise.

The combination of great writing, professional editing and a persuasive synopsis will increase your chances of success. It can persuade literary agents to take a punt and submit to Mainstream Publishers and then persuade the Publishers to take you on.
Should this not happen, and these days publishers are very risk averse, a professionally honed manuscript is still essential for self-publishing. It is not true to say that if the book is good enough it will get published mainstream. It is true to say you owe it to yourself and your readers to do your best.

More and more authors who would have been published mainstream ten years ago are opting to go it alone and profiting from the experience. Others are blushing.

It is easy to upload on Amazon and join a plethora of authors who have done the same. The ‘Look Inside’ feature can be a valuable tool, one that separates the wheat from the chaff, the professionally edited from the amateur. You can also run the whole digital sales process online, just select an option that guarantees the best distribution network for your needs. If you’re unsure, we can do this for you.

Whatever decision you make, we can help you produce a professional Manuscript (MS) and after spending all that time writing you owe it to yourself to create something that frames your achievement, not one that makes you squirm.

When you hone, edit and re-edit you can often gloss over words, reading what you expect to be there, not what is there. Especially when it is your own writing that you are editing. Get it edited professionally. The royalties for digital publishing are higher than you could get with a print run, thus, it is a saving in the long term. Plus, if you believe in your book and think it will sell, you could end up being approached by a Mainstream Publisher when your book starts to rise up the charts. And who knows? After you have already self published, you may reject their overtures because sales are so good.

Join us online or in person. It's free. We meet 6.30 - 8.30 pm the second Thursday of the month either in Jimena de la Frontera at different venues or at Las Camelias Hotel, Torreguadiaro, 11310 From September to June.