ISO Literary Agent or Travel Publisher for My Book

[Erin Leigh Dinan]

Hello,

I have been compiling my personal travel story together as a small "book" and have a dream of publishing it.  I understand you can self-publish books but it doesn't seem very lucrative to do this! I am wondering if anyone has any advice on finding a literary agent?  I continue to write but am starting to feel discouraged that my writings will only find a place in my own bookshelf! :)

Thank you!

Erin Dinan

[Allan Lynch]

I wish I knew of something encouraging to say, but every writer seems to want an agent. That's because most writers are shit at business. But not all agents are created equal. And most agents are so swamped with requests for representation by writers that they're hard to reach. The best advice I know is to ask a published friend to recommend an agent (like theirs).

Failing that, you might ask one of your published friends to share the name of their editor with you. That's how I got my third book published. One major publisher had it kicking around their office for a year. The publisher loved the idea, but in the end the sales department vetoed her recommendation. So, impatient, I asked a friend who has written about 20 books if he would mine sharing the name of his editor. I then wrote her saying 'so-and-so gave me your name'. That gave me a fast foot in the door and the book came out the following year.

As for self-publishing, what people who promote it don't discuss much, if at all, is distribution. How do you get it into a readers' hands? Do you sell it via bookstores - that's a lot of work - or sell on-line? Then you have to be able to deliver it. Either via mail, courier or an cyber edition. It's complicated. That's why publishers take the lion's share of the book price.

[Jill Wood]

Self-publishing might still be your best way to start with - you don't have to have a huge print run nowadays, so you won't end up paying a hefty fee to have a load of books under your bed.
What happens is you load up your book, get a nifty cover design (ask me - prices very reasonablle!) and stick it on amazon. When one sells they print one off for you. Winners all round, and eco-friendly, too.
You could also consider doing an e-book...
Either way, you might want to have your book checked over/edited (ask me - prices still very reasonable!).
All the best with this, whatever you do - but I reckon you WILL end up with a book on the shelves :-)

[Erin Leigh Dinan]

Hi Jill and Allan,
Thank you for your replies! Jill, is there a way I can contact you directly?

Thanks!
Erin

[Jill Wood]

OK - My email is [e-mail] :-)

[Jill Wood]

How goes your book?

[Murray Lundberg]

>> I understand you can self-publish books but it doesn't seem very lucrative to do this!

 

Think about that statement - if you don't think that you can make any money from your writing, why would a publisher take it on? BUT, you can make money self-publishing - I've done it twice with very small print runs but large profits, not getting rich but making it worthwhile. I haven't continued with printed books because I've moved on to other interests including a downloadable local guidebook that sells well, but it's on the "to-do" list to get back to writing and self-publishing real books. I also wrote a small travel/history book on contract (bad idea!) and it continues to sell thousands of copies a year with me getting no royalties :)