A Tale of Two Authors

Two authors signed with an agent, both having written exceptional books. Both waited and waited and waited for six whole weeks to hear back from publishers.

Author one wanted so badly to be published and went off on his own to self-publish, so he could say he had written a book that he could show to his friends and family.

Author two got an offer from a subsidy publisher, a great deal, if she could come up with the $5000 needed for the buy-in.

Was either author properly served by the agent? Should author one have waited longer to get a positive response from a publisher? Should author two wait for another publisher or spend the money and take the offered deal?

This post could be about ten authors, or a hundred, or a thousand. It would not matter. The publishing world is fickle. We've all read books that we think should never have been published. Some of us have written books that should get a publishing contract right away. But in the publishing world, it can often take six months to get a response from a publisher. This is very, very hard for some authors, and even harder for an agent who does all the work she does and doesn't get a dime in return until after the first royalty check, which can be two years away!

Yes, the publishing world is fickle. I was chatting with a publisher just this afternoon and was told that he gets over 200 manuscript submissions a week and turns down over 90% of them. He told me about one of his authors, who was turned down 113 times before landing a book contract that has now turned into both a best seller and a movie deal!

Two authors diverged on an agent...
One took the traveled road and self-published...
The other took the less traveled road....
And waited, and waited, and waited....
And got an offer, but not the one expected...
Which one fared better?
Who knows?

(A little tribute to one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost).

Yes, the publishing road is fickle. But it is our world and we live in it and have to live with its ups and downs, its excitements and disappointments. We cannot change it.

The good thing about the above two authors - I think they both did the right thing, for them, personally. There are many roads to publishing. Which one is right for which author?