We're Off To See The Wizard

I had drafted a different post for this week, but other things just seem more timely right now. Like: I sent the first 50 pages of The Orphan's Daughter to a literary agent yesterday. Around 2pm.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

She asked for a first look, so I'm sitting on my heels waiting to hear from her before I contact any other agents. And because business school has infected my brain, I have an Excel sheet with the names of hundreds of agents, sorted, waiting for me to begin the querying juggernaut. The horses are pawing at the dirt and snorting.

Querying my work to literary agents, who will then shop it to publishers, was not a path I came to without thinking a lot about the other option. Namely, self-publishing. This was a big week for author news, in both directions. In one corner, you have author Amanda Hocking. Hocking is a self-published writer who has sold over a million books on Amazon alone, and just yesterday signed a 4-book deal with St. Martin's Press. The news blew the doors off the publishing world, and you could hear the Old Guard heaving a collective see-we-do-add-value! sigh all the way across the Hudson River. Apparently there was a feisty Midtown bidding war for Miss Hocking. Stuff of writer dreams, isn't it? She writes with unbelievable business savvy (gulp, she's 26!) about the decision on her blog post last night: The Blog.

In the other corner, you have author Barry Eisler. Eisler is a thriller writer who has published eight books (that I could find on his website) through traditional publishers. The big news Eisler made recently was to turn down a $500,000 advance from a big publisher for a 2-book deal. He decided he's going to self-publish instead. Here's how he explained it to author Joe Konrath: Ebooks and Self-Publishing: A Conversation...

So what does a new writer do in the midst of all this Me-Versus-The Man turmoil? Being at the beginning of my writing career, I have inhaled the debate over traditional versus self-publishing like a person running out of air in a seeled capsule. I have been sucking hard at the crack of light.

Which way to go is not an easy question, and I also think it is a very personal one. I have a tremendous amount of respect for writers who do choose self-publishing. What I've seen from reading their pages and visiting their websites is that it takes a herculean energy and faith to present a product to the market by oneself. Even Hocking said that was one reason she signed on with a publisher. It's just so much damn work by yourself.

I am also grateful for the fact that self-publishing and ebooks exist at all. Because if I go through hundreds of agent queries and still find myself at a hot dog stand on Sixth Avenue without two editor business cards to rub together, all is not entirely lost. I think today's post on Konrath's blog illustrates the point: Depression and Writers. As he eloquently writes, "there are few worse feelings than trying your best and it not being enough."


Here's what I know: I am the rough draft of a truly fine writer. I believe that. But I think the odds are high that I will stay a rough draft if I am the only person tied to my own fortune. Nobody will carry enough risk to care. Having a publisher "choose" a writer is not about a popularity contest. It's about the assumption of risk. The agent and publisher who choose a writer are really saying: we want to risk a dollar on you. When a business says that, they're in it to win it.

And that's what I want. Because I am, too.


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