I agree that the world is changing. But one thing remains the same, at least for now: individual writers don’t have access to the marketing and distribution channels of the book trade. That’s one of the biggest advantages that commercial publishers offer–and for most of those publishers, having an agent is essential, or at least will substantially increase your chances, for getting a contract offer.

Commercial publishers never did significant promotion for the majority of their titles. It has always been true that only a few authors got the perks of book tours, advertising, and the like. But all commercial publishers market their books–with catalogs, advertising, book fair displays, reviews, distribution, and a sales force that makes direct contact with booksellers. This kind of marketing, which mostly happens prior to publication, is quite different from the self-promotion that authors are expected to do, and far more important, since it gets books onto bookstore shelves. Without that kind of marketing and distribution support, authors’ own efforts don’t have much to build on.

The thing about the horseless carriage was that went faster than a horse, ate less, and required less care. It offered, in other words, substantial advantages. By contrast, most of the “emerging venues” for writers (by which I’m guessing you mostly mean self-publishing options) are slower (no real distribution), eat up more resources (since many require the author to pay a fee and/or encourage authors to “invest” in buying their own books), and everything that must be done, other than merely producing the book for sale, must be done by the author. In other words, more money, more labor, and a smaller return.

Do authors sometimes succeed with these alternate venues? Absolutely. But if they do, it’s generally in spite of the venue they’ve chosen, rather than because of it. Self-publishing is indeed an alternative to the agent-and-commercial-publisher route, and can work well for some writers–but it’s at best naive, and at worst misleading, to claim that it’s equivalent.

While it is true an agent provides subsidiary rights service and runs interference between the author and the publisher, these services are quickly becoming weak reasons to have an agent.

Agents have slush piles read by, often, unpaid interns. If a writer wins the agent lottery, what, may I ask, are they getting for their 15%? The aforementioned services and career guidance? Really, that’s the reasons I should have an agent?

The only reason I try to acquire an agent is they have the ability and opportunity to pitch my work to editors and publishers.

On another note in the same vein, I’ve often read or heard that books are rejected primarily because they lack quality. Let’s see if I can thresh through the quality angle here:

1. Words, sentences, and paragraphs do not have grammar, punctuation, or syntax errors.

2. Plots are logical and coherent.

3. Characters are full, rounded, and complex.

4. Conflict is compelling, drawing the reader in and keeping them there.

5. Length of novel (which varies, but 85,000 words for a first novel ought to fit the bill).

Now, if a book meets these ideals, a rejection letter is still mailed out when on that day, in a slush pile of three hundred manuscripts, the unpaid intern determines that, well, the itch doesn’t make them scratch enough.

This, my dears, happens all the time. Good books are rejected by agents on a daily basis. Thus, for the publishing industry as whole to continue to stick to the same old, tired line of soliciting a manuscript to agents who are more and more posting “unsolicited manuscripts” not read, is, at the very least, naive.

Furthermore, the idea that a manuscript will get read based on a query letter’s quality is an absurd practice that is strictly for the convenience of the agent, editor, and publisher. The “good book” has a bad query letter, so how would an agent even know if they rejected a good book or a bad book? What they rejected was a bad query letter.

The world is changing and the publishing industry has dealt with it almost not at all.

Future writers with “good books” should not despair if the agents doesn’t pick their book, especially if the writer wrote a bad query letter. Just try another angle. It’s ok. It’s not demeaning for the unpublished writer to try and sell their own book.

Writer Beware is one thing; casting doubt and shame on emerging venues that lead to publishing is quite another thing. It’s like saying, “Who needs a horseless carriage when I’ve got a fine horse right here in my stall.”

Change happens even when everything else is standing still. Publishing and distributing books is not necessarily in the same arena as the occupation of selling books. By their own words, publishers seldom promote the books they publish. I can’t believe I just wrote that. Incredible! Not promote something they the publisher invested in? Well dang, no wonder they are going out of business.

As for emerging writers, the sooner they learn about distribution and selling, the better chance they have of surviving in a brutal business.

Or, you can get an agent who gets a publisher, and for 15%, the agent can recommend a publicist. Getouddahere already!!!

If you pay to publish, you’re either vanity publishing (never a good option, as noted above) or self-publishing (a reasonable option in some circumstances, but not in others).

I suspect that Mr. Rhodes is talking about a vanity publisher.

Of course I had to pay, however the overall cost is less than if you did it all yourself. Could you provide more insight? I was under the impression that author-to-publisher payment is never in order if you are publishing commercially. What did you pay for? All the information I can get is helpful

If you want to place a book with an imprint of one of the big publishing houses (Random House, Penguin), an agent really is essential. Few imprints will even look at unagented work any longer, and those that do give it rock-bottom priority (i.e., there will always be an author with an agent in front of you). Also, agents don’t just place books with publishers–they sell subsidiary rights, run interference between you and your publisher, and provide career guidance. All very important functions.

If you want to go agentless, there are many good independent specialist publishers that are willing to deal directly with authors. For SF/fantasy, you can find a list of them here. (There are also a lot of amateur publishers, though, so watch out. You can always contact Writer Beware–see our About Us page for contact info–to see if we’ve gotten any complaints.)

There’s also no need for an agent if you’re willing to pay to publish, whether with a vanity publisher or a self-publishing service such as Lulu.com. In Writer Beware’s opinion, vanity publishing is never a good option (see the Vanity and Subsidy Publishers page for a fuller discussion). Self-publishing, by contrast, can be a viable alternative for some people in some circumstances–but for others, it’s not a good starting point. Because self-publishing companies provide very little meaningful marketing and distribution, and individual authors don’t have access to the marketing and distribution channels that commercial publishers use, it is a huge challenge for self-publishers just to get books into the hands of readers–never mind getting national review or media coverage.

There are also major problems of visibility (as a self-published author, you’re competing not just with commercially-published authors in your genre, but with all the other self-published authors as well–and you have almost no tools to help you do that), and, in many cases, of perception, since self-published books are widely (and not always fairly) perceived to be of lesser quality. As a result, the average self-published book sells around 200 copies, mostly to people the author knows or can contact face-to-face.