Monday, November 1, 2010

Can Beggars be Choosers?

Last week, I sent out my very first manuscript, Intimate Healing, to a few publishing houses when I decided to do some more research on publishing. In my search, I stumbled across a writer’s message bored. Imagine how happy I was to have found a new hangout. I knocked politely on the door and entered. But this wasn’t just any writing bored; this was the elite writing bored with the cheerleaders and jocks of the writing world. These people were too good for romance novels, they write serious stuff. That should have been my time to leave, but I stumbled on a tread on e-publishing and before I could leave, I found myself clicking on it. They weren’t receptive to that publishing forum. E-publishing? It will never take off! (That’s when I looked at the dates and realized that thread was very old) They seemed to trash on those e-publishers, especially a few of the smaller houses. They would rather not publish at all then publish with those. Some of the publishing houses they trashed were the same ones I have submitted to.


That message bored left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. It also made me think. Is it really better not to publish at all then to publish with a small house? I personally, would rather have my hard work rewarded, even if the reward is a smaller publishing house. How about you? Are there any publishing houses you would never submit to?

Also, let’s look at the “Twilight” series for a minute. Of the top of your head do you know what publishing house published it? Do you think if a smaller press would have done it, would it have made a big difference? Or do you think it’s more about marketing and the actual quality of the work that made it into a success rather than who published it?

4 comments:

  1. Lia, good luck with Intimate Healing!!

    Little Brown published TWILIGHT, I believe. A smaller publisher probably wouldn't have had the marketing budget to make it a success so quickly. That said, even smaller presses have published successful books. So many factors--the story, the budget, timing, word of mouth, the author. Always a good idea to fully research publishers (and agents) before submitting.

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  2. You asked a lot of good questions, Lia. And Liz gave a lot of good reasons what will bring success.

    The thing is there is no magic bullet or blueprint to a bestseller. People will either embrace it or they won't. Marketing helps some, but the book still has to appeal to the masses.

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  3. Good luck with Intimate Healing, Lia!

    I agree with Liz and Maria. Marketing helps, but the book has to be good to appeal to the masses and a lot of that is down to word of mouth.

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  4. in addition to what everyone has said let me give you one other reason, if you go the small pub route that might be your stepping stone to getting noticed. I once read a story of an author who got a call from the president of a big pub house because he read one of her epubs on his kindle.
    Just do your research and decide which is the best fit for intimate healing, there is no particular path to success we all have to make our own way.

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