Young Writers Society

Just out of curiosity, which would you guys prefer to do when you get published and why? Do you have any opinions on which is the *best* way?

Self publishing is the easiest since you can just upload onto amazon and ping! You're published. Whether anything comes of it is a different matter. The ability to do this has led to a lot of slush on the market.

Going straight to a mainstream publisher is harder and they all have different standards, but generally you would be in control of most of what happens to your book, including the editing and cover design and all that, and you'd get a bigger share of the money.

Agents know more about the publishing and marketing world though. They add extra opinions and make demands on your work, and take a share of your profit, but they also have the knowhow and contacts that we don't.

I think I'd personally prefer an agent.

As cliche and sickly as this sounds, it's not about the money for me so them taking some of the profit wouldn't bother me much. Anyways, if they're the reason I'm published with a good publisher and what not, they deserve some of that money in the end. Plus a good agent wouldn't take complete control of your writing, and they would make sure that you're happy with what's going on.

I've sent one of my novels out to a few agents before actually, and one asked for the whole manuscript and was interested. Although she didn't accept the novel in the end, she gave me brilliant feedback with really good advice, so that's another advantage. Searching for agents can also give you a professional opinion on how to improve your writing.

I don't think I'd be very eager to try self-publishing because it just seems like cheating to me! Plus it's unlikely you'll sell many copies if you self-publish. If I'm 90 and still unpublished though, I might give in.