Becoming an Author: POD vs. Traditional Publishing
Getting published is no easy task. It takes a mountain of dedication and an unwavering will of perseverance.
But then, getting your words into actual print wouldn't be nearly as rewarding if it were easy. Right? Imagine how much better you'll feel when that magical phone call comes in from the one agent who likes your work among the list of the hundreds you queried.
Blah, blah, blah. Sure, these words may bolster your confidence, but you're going to need to do a lot more than read some positive quotes to scale that mountain.
Something now exists that generations of writers before us never had: options. So exactly how should you focus your energy then?
Just lift your head up from that novel you've been diligently working on and you'll notice a publishing war has surfaced. There's a new frontier and it's called Print on Demand (or POD). Agents and Traditional Publishers, alike, are looking down the barrel of this revolution and it is locked and loaded. And while the traditional methods need not retreat just yet, POD’s goal is to see them on the endangered species list as soon as possible.
I have about 40 rejection letters for Pinesport Divide from agents (and agents' assistants) sitting in a virtual folder reminding me just how hard it is to become ‘accepted’ under the traditional approach. Somehow, I was lucky enough to find a great start-up publisher willing to take me on un-agented. However, I will admit that I still have a nagging desire to be welcomed into an agent's circle, because that (in my stubborn mind) is the historical sense of one being able to say "I made it." It's kind of like being offered a job that you interviewed for, but really don't care to take. It feels good just knowing you made the cut.
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