Friday, March 7, 2014

Making the Important Decisions - Update

In the course of writing a book, I've come across many important decisions that need to be made.  Which places do I publish it?  Do I look for an agent or an editor?

There are a ton of choices that I must make before I finally publish.  Over the months that I've been writing and re-writing my first book, I've made nearly all the decisions that I've had to.  Here are some and an explanation why.

Where will I publish?   

Amazon (duh), and through Smashwords.  Smashwords gets me to almost all the ebook sites other than Amazon and at a really good commission (royalty) rate.

Do I look for an agent or an editor?  

At this point, I've not thought about an agent for a couple of reasons.  One, it would probably be hard for me to find one.  Since the ebook craze took over in earnest, there are tons of authors out there looking for representation.  I feel my time is better spent writing my book than searching for an agent.  At least at this time.  Once my book is published, then I can think more about an agent.  Remember an agent can open opportunities for you that you could never do yourself, but they will also take a decent percentage of your royalties.  For a first time author, it's too early for me to try to find a good agent.  It's a decision that shouldn't be taken lightly, however, and your experiences may be different than mine.

As for an editor, I think that all books would benefit from them.  The reality is, however, a good editor is fairly expensive.  For a first time book with no expectations of income, it's more than I'm willing to pay.  I did check into it, and the price of nearly $900-$1300 for a book of my size is way more than I can afford.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I chose to self edit at first, and then have a grammar expert (who happens to by my wife) edit it some more.  Is it ideal?  No.  But at this point, it's what I can do.  In the future I hope to be able to hire an editor for my works.  It will only help.  Be sure to look other options as well.  Writer's groups are a good way to get started.

There are many other decisions as well that must be made.  We'll talk about them in future posts.

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