This tweet from IngramSpark is getting a category in Filigree’s Rule, but I thought it should have its own blog post, too:
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IngramSpark#Selfpublishing is a great way to promote your new book, even if you plan to use a traditional publisher in the future.
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That’s not how this works…and the Ingram folks know it.
Once a specific book has been self-published, 99% of the time, literary agents and commercial publishers are less likely to promote or publish it.
Why should they? First rights are gone. If the book flamed out without a trace in the market, they’re going to take that as proof it won’t make money in commercial publishing. Even if it was modestly successful and got a few thousand buys, the agents and editors might do a Profit/Loss analysis and decide the market has already been bought out.
Too many self-publishing gurus either imply or outright say that every author has the sales potential of Hugh Howey, C.S. Pacat, Andy Weir, etc.
That’s not true. Yes, we who dabble in self-publishing have to put our best efforts and attitudes forward…but the odds are that we’re still not going to sell much more than a few thousand copies, tops. Effective self-publishing is not well served by self-delusion.
The only way – hedged with many caveats – that self-publishing can help an author go commercial is if they query/sub an unrelated later book to literary agents and commercial publishers. Even then, there will be that P/L report, drilling down on the author’s previous sales…where dismal self-published results can still harm an author.
Everyone spies on everyone else in this industry. We have to, to get a sense of where to jump next.
Why do you think that even agented, commercially published authors are often told to find a new pen name to reinvent their marketability? Or they are cut loose from commercial contracts altogether? Their past performance didn’t meet market expectations.
Self-publish if you want the control and are willing to do the work. Self-publish if there is no other option available. Please don’t self-publish if you want that same book to have commercial potential later!