From Indie To Traditional Publishing - A Success Story For Author Tracy Banghart

This is a shout-out to my friend Tracy, whom I met in a pretty random set of circumstances while on vacation last summer (which I explained a little in this post). At the time, Tracy had just self-published two books, By Blood and Moon Child, which had both come very close to being traditionally published. Tracy was also working hard on her next novel called Shattered Veil. Half a year later, she self-published it, too. I read it a few weeks later, when it already had acquired quite a few rave reviews. No real surprise for me: It's amazing. One of the best self-pubs I've ever read. 

Since I'm totally biased, my opinion might not impress you. Except I'm not the only one who thought the book was amazing. Firstly, Tracy won an Indie Book Award for it. Secondly, she was contacted by an editor from Alloy Entertainment, who made Tracy an offer for the book. 

I'll let that sink in a moment...  

Yes. The publisher contacted her, because they loved the book so much. 

Tracy explains the hows and whys on her blog in The Story Behind The Story. Basically, Alloy offered her a three-book deal. Shattered Veil went through revisions and is now titled Rebel Wing. Movie optioning has been discussed. 

Tracy is living every writer's dream. I'm insanely happy and excited for her, and for me by extension. Because once I got over the stab of absolute envy that wouldn't be denied, I realized that such success stories do, in fact, hit close to home. So close that, maybe, if I follow Tracy's example and work hard at my craft, it just might happen to me, too (the being-published thing in general, not the being-contacted-by-the-publisher thing. That's got to be a one-in-a-million occurrence).

Tracy, you're my hero. Kudos to you and Shattered Veil. You both deserve the recognition. I'll be (re)reading Rebel Wing and can't wait to see how Aris' journey continues. If the series becomes the next big thing I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

Author Incomes - Aspiring vs. Self-Published vs. Traditionally Published vs. Hybrid

Here's an interesting survey by Digital Book World on the Annual Writing Income by Author Type:

from the People Who Write Blog

I find this interesting not because it shows how most authors don't make even a thousand bucks a year (that's not really a surprise), but because it suggests that going for a hybrid of self-publishing and traditional publishing seems to be the most lucrative approach to writing. I thought traditional publishing was still the best bet in regard to the amount of money earned. But it seems mixing it up literally pays off. 

Just some food for thought.

Why I'm looking for an Agent

This is why I'm sending out queries to agents and not thinking about the self-publishing-route (yet).

I'm aware that this could mean a long wait. I'm working on the second novel I'll seriously try to find an agent and publisher for, but a lot of authors take six or seven books before the eighth is good enough and finds a home with a publisher (some take even more, some natural storytellers less). I'm sure they'd all tell you that those six or seven rejected books weren't in vain, because like with anything else it's about practicing, learning and honing your craft.

I'm (hopefully) in this for the long haul and I want to give my stories the chance to be as enjoyable as possible, which means taking my time with them and getting them edited before they're made available to readers.

Self-Publishing Success Story

An uplifting story about an author who started her career by self-publishing and then finding an agent. 


Self-publishing is still an option for me - especially after reading such an exhilarating account as this. Though I'm sure there's a lot of work and elbow-grease involved, and your product, i.e. the book, has to be the best it can be to garner long-term fans. 


All things considered, I'm not going to go for self-publishing in the near future. I still haven't shopped all possible agents yet, and I want to go through one more run of reviews, change my main character's profession. That's postponed until February, and when that is done, I plan on sending out the next few queries. And keep writing my next book. 


Keep persevering, period.

My Views on Self-Publishing

My reasons for not going for self-publishing (just yet) are:

1. I firmly believe my book is good enough to find a publisher.
2. An agent and especially an editor can make it better – more so than I could by myself.
3. When I find an agent and/or publisher for it, I’ll know it’s not slush, meaning
4. readers won’t be confronted with slush but instead will (probably) enjoy it, which will
5. counteract the impending slush-wave which is promoted by self-publishing and which is threatening to drown readers in disappointing stories.

I read a terrific article not too long ago on point #5, but of course now can’t find it anymore. If and when I do, I’ll post the link here. If I remember correctly, it discusses parts of David Niall Wilson’s article on ‘Some Thoughts on Book Promotion and Publishing’.


10/18/10 Found it here. 

I’m not saying that I’ll never consider self-publishing; I’m not a saint. If in five years time I’ve found no agent or publisher for any of my writing, I might – as a writer – be tempted by the ease of getting my books out there by self-publishing. As a reader I’m begging my writer-self never to consider it, since the reader in me hopes to never be subjected to the slush-wave that promises to roll over us if everybody who thinks him/herself a writer thrusts his/her work on the unsuspecting public. From what I’ve heard and read, there are huge amounts of slush – hair-raising, brain-frying slush – being submitted to agents around the world every day. Imagine all this slush made available to readers, without even a spell-check or grammar-screening. Imagine working through all this slush just to find the stray story-gem – it’d be akin to going through the brimful laundry basket, searching for that one clean sock that might have been thrown in accidentally with the dirty ones. Except, no matter how much effort you put into washing, scrubbing and ironing them, these particular dirty slush-socks will never be good enough to wear; nay, they don’t even resemble socks anymore – too many holes.

Of course, readers have a way of getting the word out there that a book is good or bad: the rating stars on Amazon are only one example of how it can be done. But even these ratings, as David Niall Wilson explains in his article, can be faked or circumvented.

Ergo, I, the reader, beg myself, the writer, not to contribute to the slush-wave, and to accept a (possible future) defeat with dignity, but also without shame – at least I’ll have tried.