I am quite content to be an amateur author and self-publisher of speculative fiction stories. I enjoy everything I do as a writer and publisher, and avoid everything I don’t. And if I don’t make much money doing so, I don’t lose any either. So, I’m happy. But maybe a little bored.
Back when I published my first three novels, in 2015, there seemed to be the potential for something to happen. For lightning to strike. What did I know? In 2022 I do know. And what I know is that I’ll not be missing any buses to fame and fortune if I hold off self-publishing my new novel for a year while I try selling it to a traditional publisher.
A year and a half or so, ago Mark Paxson wrote about his efforts to get his novel The Dime traditionally published, You can read about his journey in these posts:
I’m embarking on that same journey through what is often called “Query Hell” more or less as a lark. Not having been hatched yesterday, I know that my odds of selling my novel are pretty close to zero. However, I think there is something to be said for simply having tried.
One motivating factor for me was that the British SFF publisher Gollancz had, in June, opened a one month long submission window for manuscripts by unagented authors. Since I wrapped up my novel in June, I researched how a manuscript should be formatted, and sent mine out to them, along with a cover letter and synopsis, as requested. I gather that they expected to receive 1,000 plus manuscripts during the month and hope to get back to everyone within 6 to 9 months. Which is fine, since it gives me a nice 6 to 9 month window to find an agent for my novel while I await word of its fate, with no temptation to fold early and self-publish the story.
For agents, I found a list of 141 agents accepting science fiction on the web site reedsy here: https://blog.reedsy.com/literary-agents/science-fiction/
I went down the list, copying only the info on agents who are accepting queries and open to the works of non-published writers. I then viewed the websites of their agencies to see their profiles to get a feel for what they were like and what type of stories they were looking to take on. I found 31 agents that I thought worth querying and rated each as to how promising they struck me. I also noted how they wanted the queries – letter only, letter & 5 pages of the manuscript, or letter and 10 pages, or if they used the query tracker web app instead. All this was the work of a few hours over two days.
Then I researched on how to write a query letter. There are plenty of guides online and on YouTube that tell you not only how to do it, but what not to do as well. Alexa Donna has a number of good YouTube videos that you can find here on the entire process: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexaDonne/search?query=query%20letter
I wrote a hundred variations of it (just a guess) before settling on my current one.
I also wrote a 1,000 word synopsis of the novel for Gollancz and any agents wanting to see one.
In short, I think I did my homework. Or as much of it as necessary. I was never a lad for homework.
While there is no reason not to send queries out to everyone on the list all at once, I’m only sending out four a month. Sent out the first four yesterday. Better to savor the joy of the journey. And, with having to wait on Gollancz before I could self-publish the book anyway, I figure that I might as well spread out the query process, renewing my hope every month with a new batch of query letters. We’ll see how that goes…
Though I read Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness in high school, half a century ago, one image remains…
“The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black, fringed with white surf, ran straight, like a ruled line… we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush… In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen.”
I am quite sure Conrad was thinking about querying when he created this image.. Ah, the romance!
All that remains is for me to mutter, “The horror. The horror” six months from now.
I know that readers of this blog have gone through the same process, and no doubt some have succeeded in finding publishers. And there are probably others who are considering giving it a try. So how did you find the experience? Do you have any suggestions for others who would follow you down this path?
Writers Supporting Writers 
Good for you, Chuck! It’s worth a try. I will link to this from my blog. It’ll be interesting to see what comes up in the comments.
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Thanks Audrey, I’d appreciate that. I know that you have gone down this path in the past, and I suspect many of your blog followers have done the same. I hope to learn from them, and I also hope that by approaching the whole effort as a lighthearted experiment will avoid the dreary discouragement that this process all too often produces. We’ll see.
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You’re welcome, Chuck. A lighthearted approach will surely help. It’s tough when one feels that an entire career depends on the judgment of others.
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It’s always worth the try if you have the patience for it and go in with your eyes wide open. I wish you the best of luck with your effort. Let us know how things go.
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Thanks. I will keep you guys up to date. I’m hoping that approaching this as a dilettante I can avoid all the stress and frustration usually associated with this endeavor.
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There certainly value in taking the “whatever happens happens” approach.
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I tried to go the agent route back in the ’90s, when everything was snail mail.I got no takers and came to the realization that the novel was fundamentally flawed. At this stage of my writing life, what has given me pause is the number of writers I new with agents who a) can’t sell their manuscripts or b) quit returning phone calls or emails. I love your “Heart of Darkness” analogy!
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Thank you for your thoughts. I submitted my first fantasy novel, a novella, and short story back in 1980 when you didn’t need agents to do that. (And you had to type them up on a typewriter…) I would much prefer that, (not the typewriter part, the other part) but I don’t think any publisher that is anything more than an indie publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts, except on rare occasions. Alas, agents are a necessary evil, these days. My project for the week is to paint the cover for the eventual self-pub edition, so you can see just how seriously I’m taking this project. Thanks again!
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I think your approach is a smart one, and could well result in positive responses. I would also recommend pitching in person at writer’s conferences as it helps establish a connection with the agent. I chose the traditional publishing route back in the late 90’s and up to about 2006, on and off, for my mystery novels. I wound up working with 2 agents, at two different times, who were sole operators. The first agent gave me some great tips with my first novel regarding editing, but she never sold the book. The second time was the first novel in a new series and this person did get responses back from large publishing houses that sounded positive, but again didn’t sell the book. Both of those agents had my book for two years before we parted company. I wound up finding a small press publisher for the second series and went on to publish 4 books with them. I’m self-publishing again for my mysteries, but also working on a fantasy that’s over 100,000 words, so I’ve decided to approach agents once more. We’ll see what happens. I have a track record that might carry some weight. We’ll see.
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Thank you for your insights and sharing your experiences. An important factor in my rather whimsical approach to selling this story is that 72, my dream of a career in traditional publishing is long dead. My goal would be to have a book or two published, just as a legacy — to join all those dead authors on those used bookshop shelves. Knowing how business works, I think it pays to focus on agents who have either sold successful books to publishers, or worked for them, as personal relationships are often the key to deals, which is why I will probably only query 16 or 20 agents while I await word on my story’s fate with Gollancz. The only thing I have going for me is that this is my 13th novel, and hopefully that shows….
I hope you are successful in placing your new fantasy novel with a traditional publisher. If you write just the right book there may be fortune in self-publishing, but not fame. If you want both, even on a modest level, traditional publishing still seems the way to go.
Thanks again & best of luck!
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I totally agree that you have to at least ‘give it a go’. I did the same with my first novel because Harper had a free submission event as well. The only thing I don’t agree with is the search for an agent. If you managed to get one, they’d skim 15% off any book deal you won. Given that the only book deal – so far – is likely to come from your own efforts, why on earth would you give money to a stranger for a service they haven’t even offered?
There’s also the issue of theft. If you read Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s
Business Musings, you’ll find that she thinks even the biggest agents are one step away from being crooks. If you do get a book offer, you’d be better off going to a good lawyer to vet the contract for you. 😦
Sorry to be such a wet blanket, but this venture only remains a lark until it works. After that it becomes deadly serious, and you have to protect both your bank account and your intellectual property rights. I’d really recommend reading Rusch’s Business Musings as part of your homework. She a highly successful writer in both the Traditional and Indie spheres. 🙂
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Thank you for sharing your insights into the process. I am familiar with Rusch. She provides valuable insights into the perils of publishing. The fact is that all authors, indie and traditionally published, swim with sharks, so we all need to do due diligence when it comes to rights and legal matters. However, if you are traditionally published, you have an agent, since publishers these days use them to filter out uncommercial manuscripts. They are simply a fact of life in traditional publishing, like it or not — and for that matter, in almost all the arts — and must be dealt with. Legal advice on any contract is probably a wise precaution, should it prove necessary. And while Rusch recounts horror stories about agents, many, if not most traditionally published agents seem not only happy with them, but often thank them for all their help in their acknowledgements, so I don’t think a few bad apples ruin the barrel. Stay tuned, we’ll see what, if anything, becomes of this venture.
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