06/05/2023 — I’ve done an alpha read, beta reads, and (currently doing) editor reads of To Favor Blood & Flowers… but when is this thing actually getting published?!
I—the author—wish I knew!
After edits, I’ll be doing ARC reads before opening preorders up to you all. And then, finally, publishing.
*big deep breath*
The publishing world is one I’m still learning (a lot), but for this email, I wanted to break down the basics of traditional publishing versus self-publishing.
Traditional publishing seems to be the most common. If you walk into most bookstores, chances are that the vast majority of the fiction books on the shelves are published through large, traditional publishing houses (think: Bloomsbury). The traditional publishing process requires little money upfront. Authors are not supposed to pay for things like cover designers, interior formatters, and/or editors; the publishing house is in charge of that.
However, what has become the new normal in traditional publishing is the presence of a literary agent. A literary agent is someone separate from the publishing house found by the author themselves. Authors will query literary agents (send book information to and answer questions? Honestly, this one is fuzzy for me) until they find someone they like. There are different levels of agents, and the “higher up” ones are a lot harder to find.
Authors must have a literary agent (in most cases) in order for traditional publishers to even look at a manuscript. This type of publishing also ends up stripping away some creative rights of the author.
The difficulty/extra step of a literary agent and the creative rights were two of the reasons I chose to pursue self-publishing.
Self-published authors retain all rights to their creative work, and they are in charge of the fun details, like cover design. One con to self-publishing is that you pay all out of pocket up front for any services used. For example, a lot of up and coming authors are starting to hire sensitivity readers. Sensitivity readers read books with a critical eye to inform the author of any topics that should be mentioned on a content warning page, any stereotypes (racial, ethnic, religious, etc.), and/or any terms used inappropriately. If you were self-publishing, you would pay for that out of pocket, and usually by word count.
So, there are pros and cons to both. For what I envisioned in the future of To Favor Blood & Flowers, self-publishing seemed the way to go.
As always, I will keep you updated on the publishing journey, as I still have loads to learn.
Much love and happy reading,
Gail ❤
P.S. - What else to you want to know? Send a message and let me know!
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