Self-Published: Doing it Right

Deadly by nature. Possessive by instinct. These darkly beautiful gargoyles must hide the secret of their existence in today's world…while protecting the ones they love from an ancient evil.

I am wary of new authors and investigate thoroughly. For an odd and fateful reason I fell into Valor by Taylor Longford without reading the sample chapter, back cover, or reviews.

By all that is Holy, I hit the jackpot

MacKenzie opens a crate sent by her ‘step-person’ (love that btw) and finds a life-size statue of a young man. A gorgeous man. While she eyes the realistic sculpture, MacKenzie is unaware that the stature looking back. He is a gargoyle who turned himself to stone hundreds of years before and awaits only the touch of sunlight to return to flesh again.

The Greystone Series details the adventures of a pack of young gargoyles from 13th century England. After being trapped between the walls of an old building, they're unearthed eight hundred years later and shipped to the United States. Ms. Longford continues the series with Dare and Reason. Folks, this is a keeper.

The tone of the books range from lighthearted and fun to a bit on the dark side, depending on the different characters and their personalities, YA paranormal with – IMHO – a bit of New Adult as well and romance that goes from sweet to smokin' in zero point 5 seconds.

Valor is Ms. Longford’s debut novel and she is working on the fourth in the series, Defiance. She is self-published, a monumentally difficult but ultimately rewarding road to take. In her words:

“I decided to self pub rather than try any of the other routes like a traditional or small publishing house. Basically, I heard of Amanda Hocking's success and was encouraged to try and ‘make it on my own’.”

I highly recommend this series. Ms. Longford does not disappoint. Her characters and Voice are unique, easily the best I've read in a while. Check out Valor on Amazon and GoodReads. 

Literary Agents and 8-Track Tapes

An interesting post from The Passive Voice titled You Must Have an Agent…Or Not appeared in the blogosphere. 

Actually it is only another in a long line of musings about this industry.

I spoke with one famous fantasy author who believes agents are not the influence they once were in this business. Note yesterday’s post about Fifty Shades and the agents who moan how their philosophy was shot to hell by just one book.

But it isn’t just one book. There is Amanda Hocking who self-published herself into fame. Or John Locke, the first to sell one million Ebooks on Amazon.

Indie Publishing. For another eye-opener, go to Jeff Bennington’s blog The Writing Bomb. Essentially, he is a writer who chose not to wait on an agent but made his own way into self-pub. His blog is chock-full of info.

“But you must have an agent,” the ‘experts’ cry to us unwashed masses. “Write a good book and we’ll accept you as our client,” agents say.

Um, no. They won’t. Because:

The project you describe does not suit our list at this time.
This project doesn't seem quite right for us.
This project doesn’t sound right for me.
I am not the right agent for this work.

My fave is the ‘no response means no’ response and leaving the writer with hours of wasted research into an agent who blows them off without acknowledgment.

So you’ve polished your manuscript to a shiny new penny, educated yourself about adverbs and dangling participles, read every word regarding queries. Now what? Are the agents ignoring your baby? Does the prospect of self-publishing leave you cold?

Pick the in-between route, the publisher.

Apply directly to small pubs like WiDo Publishing, Curiosity Quills, MusaPress, MuseItUp Publishing, Sapphire Star, and Baen Books. Or publishers that tower over the industry, Del Rey, DAW, and Tor/Forge.

So what is your flavor? Are you determined to go the traditional route? Or ready to explore small publishers or even self-pub?