Disregard the Gatekeepers
This may be the perfect time to self-publish your book
It’s getting harder and harder to get a traditional publishing contract unless you fit in a neat little box. If you write genre fiction, you have a better shot, it seems. But if you write literary fiction, forget about it. Unless you are already a star or have the kind of pedigree that is developed at Oxford or the Iowa Writers Workshop, you have a small chance of landing a traditional deal.
It hasn’t always been this way.
There have been times when publishers, even the big ones, would take chances with new talent, help develop them, support them. Little chance now. The gatekeepers are locking them out. Publishers are increasingly under pressure not to take a risk. They can’t afford to. The margins are not there.
Still, this shift is not all about the changes and risks of the publishing world. There are many factors. Readers, for one. New studies show there are more people reading than ever before, but that doesn’t mean they are buying books, and certainly not necessarily buying or reading literature. A colleague, a superb writer, published one of her novels with a big press, but it never went to paperback. The book didn’t sell enough hardbacks so the paperbacks, which tend to sell better in the long run, never happened. Even the mid-level and small presses are taking…
