In my previous posts, I've expressed how challenging writing can be. But, that's only half the battle. The real difficulty begins when you go to publish.
Years ago, a writer could only publish their manuscripts through a traditional publisher, but with the 21st century comes self-publishing. A writer no longer needs to beg an agent to take a look at their manuscript. The writer is their own publisher...sounds great! Right? Well it depends.
Self-publishing and traditional publishing have their pros and cons. Traditional publishing comes with their own editors and cover artists and the agent who you get will work with you to make your book "best-selling" material. But, it takes months just for an agent to return your email and sometimes the answer is a rejection...sometimes they won't even respond and you have to take that as a rejection. If you're like me and were rejected by about 100 agents, don't worry, because self-publishing is just as real as the traditional way.
In fact, in some ways it feels more fulfilling. Although, in my opinion, self-publishing is much harder than the traditional way. Sure it might be faster depending on how you do it. But you have to format your own book, look for the right cover, edit it over and over again, and do a bit of extra marketing.
What it boils down to is this. If you have a book worth reading, prove it to the world! You definitely don't need an agent to be accepted. They are only of the small minority of people and even if you can't land an agent, that doesn't mean your book isn't good. It just means you have yet to find YOUR group of readers. Trust me, they're out there!
