For paperbacks I use LyX, which talks directly to LaTeX, a typesetting programme. Which means that I can get one chapter into writing a book and see how it will look on the page – a great encouragement to keep going! Plus all the joy of deciding on margins, headers, fonts, what symbol to use for within-chapter breaks – I like to pick something thematic to the book.

It was a long hard road getting that first book out there and available in both formats, but slogging through it all meant that I – with stacks of help from my husband – learned to do things for myself. (As Linus Torvalds said, “The Linux philosophy is ‘laugh in the face of danger.’ Oops. Wrong one. ‘Do it yourself.’ Yes, that’s it.”) Except cover typography! It would take me years to learn how to do what Evelyn Doyle knocks out in a week.

I read an interview with an agent on Bookbub (https://insights.bookbub.com/literary-agent-querying-trends-subrights/) that this post reminded me of. Specifically this section about advice to new authors:

Don’t rely on querying alone to help you find the right agent for you. In the last two years, 80% of my new clients did not come from my query inbox. The majority of these new relationships came about through referrals from agency clients or colleagues, or they were established authors whose work I admired and pursued.

You should absolutely query to a select few legitimate agencies whose tastes and sales history align with your work. But my advice is to become part of the writing and publishing community. Find a critique group or professional author organization. Attend conferences and follow your contemporaries on social media. And more than anything, read widely in your genre.

This struck me as so depressing — ‘sink even more money and time into networking and marketing yourself before you even have anything published, because the query letter that you’ve always been told is the ticket to getting an agent is mostly a waste of time.’ I don’t doubt that it’s true, but yikes, no wonder self publishing looks so attractive.

I’ve found I know more than he does now, I’m the one who actually got his book published with my own access to editors and such. I do my own covers and I did his (still don’t like it but it was what he wanted). I was smart in the late 90s and took a technical certification in desktop publishing which has really helped in this.

I’ve been blogging, had to have help setting it up but now I can keep it going. Branched into Twitter, have my Facebook pages (my vampire cat character has his own page!) and work a lot on face-to-face and email stuff. SEO still is a mystery (and yes, I’m going to do a class from you soon) and I’m now trying to figure out book trailers (any sage advice on a post for that would be lovely).

You’ve been a guiding star in how to figure all this mess out and I always read your posts when they come out, even before reading the ‘important’ stuff like the bank statements and the family mail.

Thanks for being there for all of us.

OMG that is AWESOME! When I do a RoM 2.0 I need to put you in there ((HUGS)). So great to hear from you!

I also ran into the type of agents you mentioned, in my early days. It made me angry, but grateful my two agents quit me before selling anything, which left me in control of my IP. It was eye opening to me to read Kathryn Rusch’s posts on agents and the fact that they shouldn’t be negotiating contracts unless they were lawyers.

Your blogging course has definitely helped me and I’m grateful for it. I”m still blogging!

Authors, including me, live in a suspended belief that we are horrific, that our vulnerabilities in our MCs etc are about to make us cringe at a 1 star. Sigh. We procrastinate. Affording an editor means Save Up and self-edit to decrease this cost. I ain’t there ‘yet’ but closing in.

Branding is NEXT!