My novel is getting published. This year.
Wait . . . what? Yes, I signed a contract with an independent publishing consultant who will guide me through every step of the process, from securing ISBN numbers to setting up my own imprint to distribution via Amazon and Ingram Spark to marketing and publicity. And a lot of steps in between.
To the reader, it will look polished and professional on the inside and out. It won’t matter that I did not have an agent or a Big 5 publisher. They will be able to order it from Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or their neighborhood bookstore. They will be able to check it out at the library and order it for their book club. They will be able to read it on their Kindle or other e-reader and listen to it.
“The Salt and Light Express,” which spent a year in revision after the first draft was completed, is a manuscript in very good shape. My Drexel MFA packet-exchange mentor, Aimie K. Runyan, provided the equivalent of both developmental and line-level edits. A mix of beta readers and a sensitivity reader improved it even more.
But it is not romantasy, or horror, or a mystery. It is a quiet, inspirational little book that I believe in.
How did this happen? I only sent out 22 queries. Some sent form rejections; most never responded. I was ghosted by agents I had met and talked to via the MFA program. Through QueryTracker, I was seeing the volume of queries that these agents receive. The chart below is a day in the life of one agent who rejected me. I am the “book club” query five from the bottom.
It became clear to me what a needle-in-the-haystack crap shoot this was . . . starting with the query letter catching someone’s attention from deep in the slush pile, that someone asking for a full manuscript, that someone offering representation, and that representation resulting in a book deal. Even if all these steps occurred, it could take years. I am 68. (I won’t even go into the consolidations and layoffs in the publishing world, and their increasing reliance on sure things.)
The longshot nature of this quest was driven home in a Substack by new agent Jenna Satterthwaite, providing a report on her first year. She received 3,675 queries and requested 138 full manuscripts. She signed 20 people, which she admits is a high number. So 0.57% of queries led to representation, and she does not mention how many book deals she has achieved. She rejected me, by the way.
It was this Substack that convinced me I needed to try another avenue to publication. I stumbled onto this blog by Jeniffer Thompson of MonkeyC Media. After a Zoom chat, more research and speaking with her clients, I decided to go this route and signed a contract with her company. In that first Zoom, she calculated how many copies I would have to sell (Print on Demand) to break even with her. Seems doable to me. I don’t need to get rich; I just want people to read my book.
So yes, it is a chunk of money up front. If you have savings or an IRA that is sailing along, you can swing it. But it is not a vanity press, or a small press, or a hybrid press. I am my own publisher with all the control over all aspects of designing, publishing, distributing and promoting my book.
I can now say, my novel is coming out this year and I will be reporting along the way on this somewhat unexpected fork in the road — this alternate route I took. Not a detour. It might work for you, too.
My book is on the road to publication.
I think this is a great idea, and I look forward to reading about this publication pathway you're taking. I may be right there with you at some point in the not-so-distant future.
Lee Ann, I am honored to be taking this journey with you and so glad you stumbled onto my blog article. :) Here's to taking control and getting "The Salt and Light Express" out of the drawer and onto the shelf!