In which I ask internet weirdos for advice

[Elok]

After all, I can always ignore it.

I've spent the past couple of years working on a novel, which I completed a few weeks ago. I submitted it to Inkwater ( www.inkwaterpress.com ), which is a rather unconventional press that my sis-in-law's sister had some luck with. The manuscript was accepted for publication. They're sort of halfway between a vanity press and an ordinary publishing house; I'd pay a thousand bucks, but they'd handle sales/marketing/whatever and pass on thirty percent of the gross.

Naturally, I'm a bit ambivalent about accepting the offer. I don't think they're a scam or anything, but I know they don't have a lot of reach and a thousand dollars isn't pocket change. OTOH, I'm not sure how long it'd take to break in with a more selective publisher. I know some people here are successful authors (Vel, I think? Rufus's wife?). Do you, or anybody else, have advice?

[SlowwHand]

Galnemer is a published author. Ask Guynemer.

[Kuciwalker]

Wouldn't it make more sense to apply to the more selective but 'better' publishers first?

[Jon Miller]

Shoot hard for real press. Only do independent press if you get shot down hard everywhere else.

Especially if you aren't doing SF.

Some of this is that the main sellers of independents are independent booksellers which are sort of rare. Also because it doesn't seem to help selling future books to the major publishers (from what I have seen).

Despite the fact that BAEN is sort of independent, it might have enough strength now to be considered differently (but it does SF).

JM

[Ben Kenobi]

I know some people here are successful authors

Well I don't know if I count but I've had articles published.

Go with the big presses first. If they like your fare, take it and run with it.

The other thing you might want to consider, especially if you can't get in with the big boys, is to publish and market the book yourself. This way you get 100 percent of the proceeds rather than going with a small publisher who really won't have much in the way to offer in terms of promotion. Only do this if you have the time.

[Elok]

Wouldn't it make more sense to apply to the more selective but 'better' publishers first?

Well, yes, but large presses have a name for their collection of manuscripts from hopeful authors: "The Slush Pile." They get such a vast number of submissions, and the signal-to-noise ratio is so low, that one's odds of even getting a submission read are roughly equal to those of winning the lottery. The odds are somewhat improved if one uses an agent...but the honest ones are highly selective too. It's a question of sure, small payoff or unlikely huge payoff, or so it seems to me.

[Elok]

In case it makes a difference, the book is theological fantasy in roughly the same spirit as C.S. Lewis's work. It's amazing how many admirers that man has, and how very few actual imitators. Search for "theological fantasy," and you'll find a billion variants on Left Behind, or other anti-intellectual fundy rubbish. Bah!

Anyway, I've put in a query to The Fielding Agency. Though even that's spitting into the wind.

[Guynemer]

Is it genre fiction? There are a number of small and medium-sized imprints for the big publishing houses that specialize in one or two different genres, i.e. sci-fi, classic fantasy, modern/urban fantasy, etc. That's how the good ladywife got published, she sought out a small specialized imprint of one of the big publishers, the imprint having just one editor who picks the manuscripts she wants to publish.

If you have a more general fiction book on hand, I don't know what to tell ya, but I gotta say that I find it rather suspicious that you pay them to publish.

[Jon Miller]

People who are successful authors normally go about selling their books for a number of years until a major publisher takes it, then they start being an author.

I haven't heard of many/any who start out with the independents (except BAEN).

One thing that is true is to get in writing circles (a publisher is more likely to read something if it is given to them by an author they already publish and are told that it is good) or to publish short stories/etc (which don't really make money, I think).

JM

[Elok]

Yes, I'd laugh in their face if it weren't for the fact that I personally know someone who makes decent money with them. I guess I'll talk it over with her?

[Jon Miller]

Fantasy? You can try BAEN.

I would recommend writing a short story and trying to get in on one of the fantasy/etc anthologies just as a method of getting your name out there.

I like the idea of well done theological fantasy/etc and there is remarkably little that is good (there is remarkably little SF that is good period though).

JM

[Jon Miller]

All these recommendations are as an internet weirdo and reading many author websites, not from personal experience or anything of the kind.

JM
(The BAEN recommendation is because they have accepted many people that other publishers refused...)

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, forget getting a big publisher.

Even if they took you, you'd get a bad deal. Yours is definitely a niche genre. Have you had other people read it over and have they liked what you wrote? I have a few ideas of folks you could submit to, that might be interested in publishing something along the lines of the screwtape letters.

[Wiglaf]

Give me $500 and I will publish and market your book.

[Lonestar]

Give me $500 and I will publish and market your book.

I'm not sure if handing our xeroxed copies at the Union Station Metro stop counts as "marketing" Wiglaf.