by Joe Taylor

Legitimate Doubts

Just the other day I tore up and threw away the list of over 80 literary agents that I had queried about finding a publisher for my radio book. My self imposed deadline for finding an agent had passed quietly nearly a month earlier.

While exercising my thumb deleting in rapid succession the couple of dozen irrelevant emails that clog my phone every day I almost missed the one that read “Query”. I expected another, “thank you, there’s no market for your book, good luck” email.

I had to read twice that the agency was actually interested and wanted a proposal and sample chapters for review.

Conditioned toward the negative by my submission experience of the past two years, (with individual pieces I’m something like 3 for 70) I immediately attached a negative connotation to the word “review.” Oh, so they’re going to review it and tell me it’s not right for them.

Because I’d already sent the book to Sunbury Press, where it’s in line to at least be considered, and with a backup plan to self publish, I initially thought I’d pass on this belated request from the only literary agency to show any interest in it. But damn, it is tempting.

What a kick it would be to sit around Writers Block Party meetings and casually toss out that, “my agent is shopping my book to Random House.” Thankfully, I hadn’t deleted my 11 page proposal. I coupled it with 4 “chapters”—mine are individual essays and pieces—and emailed it to Grace, an assistant at Ross Yoon Agency. Honestly, I don’t if Grace or Ross himself will get to back to me, and if they do if the book is broad enough for a national market. I’ve always had legitimate doubts about that.

A Mix of Plans and Encouragement

Meanwhile my book, “In The Turn Of The Dial” (I’m thinking of changing “turn” to “twist”) sits in Submittable as “received” by Sunbury two months after Jess Weible helped me submit it and put in a good word for me.

I think we are all frustrated by the slow pace of editors and publishers. I don’t believe I’m alone in wanting to get a decision, even a negative one, so I can either get a work published or move along to Plan B. In my case, an agent was Plan A, Sunbury Plan B, and self publishing Plan C.

While I have been waiting for an agent to respond—then submitting to Sunbury—I started warming to the idea of self publishing. My only caveat was that my work be reviewed and scrutinized by knowledgeable literary types with the proven qualifications of a professional editor.

I have found those qualifications in Patty Zion, Jo Scheier, and Jess Weible. All of the work I’ve written and submitted has been edited by one of them. In many cases two of them, with some pieces, all three. Inspired by the books published by Peggy Zortman and Rachael Robinson, and encouraged by Ray Bugay to use KDP Amazon and self publish, I finally relented. 

Testing out Amazon KDP

But, the book that I have just self published, “I’m Just Lucky To Own My Own Car“, is, of course, not the radio book. It’s a smaller book, part memoir, part observation, and some riffs thrown in for good measure. My plan is to “test” KDP, to see how it works, how effective it is, what I need to do to promote and market my book. If the agent and Sunbury turn my radio book down and KDP proves its worth, I’ll use it for “In The Twist Of The Dial.”

While self publishing with KDP sounds like it’s an easy 1-2-3 process, simply clicking and inserting your manuscript into their portal, it is not. Adding your book requires considerable entering, editing and formatting. Unless you are an IT whiz you will need to find someone like Ray to guide you through the process.

Unlike literary agents and publishers who take months to even look at your work and then longer to respond, KDP self publishing gets your book out into the market within days. But, because you want to be proud of your published product, your book should be edited and beta read to be the best example of your writing skills.

You should self publish a book that an agent or publishing company would read and wish that they had published.