Agent Q&A Part Two

Last week’s post dealt with some questions that were asked about querying. This week, I’m going to answer those related to publishing in general. If I don’t get to your question, I may have categorized it as something else OR I may be planning to include it in another post, so stay tuned!

The publishing industry is always going through something, isn’t it? The introduction of paperback books meant mass production and distribution everywhere. The introduction of digital books led to a fear of the disappearance of physical books…yet, here we are, with hundreds of millions of physical books being produced each year in the US alone. (Literally, 3/4 of a billion books each year, just in the US.) POD (print-on-demand) technology and platforms like KDP meant authors could bypass submissions and more easily publish their own books. There are trends, scams, and now, AI is infiltrating our art. In the early 2000s, BookTok wasn’t a thing. Now, it helps sell millions of books. Social media followings are the bane of so many people’s existence, but platforms help sell books. There’s old school marketing and digital-age marketing and in-person events and virtual events… So much to keep track of and so much that’s constantly fluctuating and coming in and out of existence. It’s hard to get an understanding of how the publishing industry works when there are always changes happening from era to era, year to year.

Where do we begin?

Let’s start with a question that address the differences between hybrid and self-publishing, and for clarification and comparison purposes, I’ll also go over what traditional, indie, and vanity publishers are. That way, we are all…on the same page… (Yes, I love puns.)

Question 1

What are the benefits of hybrid publishing versus self-publishing? If self-publishing, where does one go to find editors, cover designers, etc.?

Answer 1

Traditional publishers are the bigger publishers who offer to publish an author’s book. In most cases, this is with the help of a literary agent; most trad publishers only accept submissions from literary agents. This is where the “Big 5” comes in: Penguin Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Macmillan. They have massive companies with many imprints and big budgets to put toward acquiring, producing, and marketing books. Independent publishers fall into this category too. Sourcebooks, for example, is almost like a Big 5; it surpassed Macmillan in 2025 with print units sold. With traditional publishers, advances are usually paid. Royalties are lower than other types of publishers; trad publishers are able to put a lot more effort and finances behind the book, so they take a bigger piece of the pie. Authors do not pay up front for services.

Independent publishers offer a traditional-style business model, but in many cases, no agent is required. This means the author negotiates their own contracts and doesn’t have an agent behind them every step of the way, and that’s ok if that’s what you choose. The indie publisher will have the same steps in place in terms of publishing, but they usually have a smaller budget for advances (many don’t offer an advance), production, and marketing/publicity. Advances, if any, are generally smaller and royalties are usually higher. Authors do not pay up front for any services.

Note: In either case, the author is still expected to do as much of their own publicity as possible. You may get a publicist and small (or large) marketing budget with a trad or indie publisher, but they’ll still want you to do as much as you can. I’ll go over this in more detail in another answer below.

Hybrid publishers don’t have a traditional-style business model. You pay for the services you need for the book, but the royalties will be much higher. You get slightly more creative control than you would with a trad publisher or even an independent publisher. They still offer distribution and they still curate their lists; they don’t just publish anyone who’s willing to pay them. It’s a co-investment business model where you’re both taking on the risk, but it gives you a chance to get your book published by someone who can take on the process if you’re not comfortable with taking it all on yourself by self-publishing.

Hybrid publishers are not to be confused with vanity publishers, which are generally predatory and a scam in most cases. They take your money and don’t put much toward the book. Avoid these publishers at all costs!

Hint: visit the Writer Beware website and view their list of scammy publishers, agencies, and agents. (But also know that just because you don’t see someone listed there doesn’t mean they aren’t scammy. Do your due diligence, get some legit testimonials, and trust your gut!)

And lastly, there’s self-publishing. This is where you’re the boss; you get all the creative control and don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself. You own all the rights to your book, and you keep all the profits, but you also have to set aside the finances for every part of the publishing process. You don’t have anyone who can do this for you; it’s all up to you. This includes all the editing stages (developmental, stylistic, copy, and proofreading—all of which are crucial in this scenario), formatting and typesetting, cover design, getting your ISBNs, etc. You have to pay for your own marketing and publicity, and the distribution into physical bookstores is much more challenging. It’s a lot of hard work to become a successfully self-published author. It’s not impossible, though! It’s not for everyone, but if you have the personality, determination, and funds for it, you can be quite successful.

The person who asked this question also asked about where to find editors, cover artists, etc. Aside from asking others in your various writing circles (word of mouth is excellent advertising!), you can look on platforms like Reedsy, where freelancers are rigorously vetted before being allowed to book clients. (I know this because I’m on Reedsy and went through the process!) Reedsy has editors, book coaches, ghostwriters, book cover designers, and other publishing professionals who can help you. You can see their ratings, reviews/testimonials, other books they’ve worked on, and speak with them first before hiring them. Other places like editorial organizations (i.e., Editors Canada, the Editorial Freelancers Association in the US, the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading in the UK, etc.) will usually have a list of professionals and a job board you can post to in search of whatever service you need. Places like Fiverr… well, it’s kind of a crap shoot. Many people go to Fiverr because they can get a service done cheaply…but you get what you pay for. I started on Fiverr several years ago, but I keep only my smaller services there (query critiques, things like that) because most people who are looking for full manuscript edits know that it’s quite a big investment, and Fiverr is not the platform for that for several reasons. There are also many folks on there offering the same kinds of services, and they’re not vetted, and they want to earn a quick income, so they undercut serious professionals like myself. (I have a like-hate relationship with Fiverr…!) Although I’m vetted as a top seller and Fiverr Pro seller, you don’t have to go through a vigorous vetting system like Reedsy does, and that means almost anyone can go to Fiverr and start selling services they may or may not be qualified to provide.

Note: In these scary times, no matter where you book through, be sure to ask about AI usage, and be honest about whether you’ve used it in your manuscript (and for what purpose). You’ll (hopefully!) want to hire a real, human editor and book cover designer and avoid your book (or you!) being associated with the AI nonsense that’s out there.

So, that’s a very basic breakdown of the differences between the types of publishers out there. Do your research and think about what’s best for you and your project.

Question 2

What publishing advice that gets endlessly repeated online do you think is outdated, misleading, or simply wrong?

Answer 2

Oh, there’s so much of that out there! But here are some examples:

Publishers handle all the marketing, so you can just focus on writing.

The reality is that, unless you’re a celebrity (and even in those cases!), you’re still going to be expected to do some of your own marketing and publicity. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sell their own book? The tangible thing that they created out of their own mind with hours upon hours of writing, editing, and revising? Marketing is part of being an author, plain and simple. The less a book is put in front of the public, the fewer the sales will result from it. You must treat being an author like what it is: running a business. Businesses must be marketed to be successful.

If you don’t earn out your advance, your writing career as a traditionally published author is over.

First, “earning out” means when your book goes on sale, enough copies are sold to pay for the advance the publisher gave you. Royalties don’t begin until after the advance is paid off. But publishers start earning a profit off your book before you do, so even if you don’t earn out your advance, as long as a decent number of copies have sold, that’s still viewed as a success from a publisher’s perspective. Many, many books don’t earn out their advances, and publishers know this is a reality of traditional publishing. If things still went well with Book 1, you could still get another deal for Book 2 and so forth.

Write to the trends, and you’ll get a book deal.

This reminds me of being in high school English class. We’d either get assigned a book (likely randomly) or the list of books would go around the class and you’d sign up for one. By the time I got the list, all the good books were taken. I’d be forced to read a book I didn’t want to read just to make the teacher happy and get a grade. And let me tell you: my heart was not in those book reports I wrote. It was painful and I didn’t do a great job. (For the record, I disagree with forcing children to read books they don’t want to read because it makes them resent reading all together. Kids should be excited about what they’re reading—but that’s for another time!) If I happened to get a book I wanted, I was excited to read it, and my book reports would be so much better. So, when it comes to writing a book, it’s equally important to be writing something that makes you excited instead of being told what to write because that’s where the excitement and passion drops off.

My advice on this is to always write the book of your heart. That’s where the passion will show on the page. If you’re writing something that the “trends” are telling you to write, there’s all kinds of associated pressure with that, and it may lack the passion that you’d otherwise have by writing the book your heart wants you to write. Trends come and go; there are constant ebbs and flows with genres, styles, tropes, etc. What’s not a trend now will likely become a trend again later. So, write what you want to write. Make it the best you can be. Who knows? Maybe your book will be the one that brings the trend back!

Note: keep an eye on the trends. Be mindful of what’s happening in the literary world. But don’t write something your heart isn’t into. Remember, by the time a book is queried, represented, out on submission, bought by a publisher, and out on the shelves, chances are that trend is long gone anyway!

If you don’t have a massive social media following, you’ll never get a book deal.

This is not currently true for fiction (although I have heard editors talk about having a solid presence on social media, and it’s been mentioned in rejections I’ve received for client submissions). But it is true for nonfiction—most of the time. There are some outliers where the premise is so out there, fascinating, unique, that the potential for the book’s success outweighs the need for a large platform (and the expectation is generally that the platform will be built during production). But this is not the norm. For nonfiction writers, you need to prove to publishers that you are the only one who can write this book. You need people who believe in you who are waiting for the book to be published. People who follow you and listen with interest to what you have to say. You need to show your expertise in your field.

But for fiction writers, you need to have a brilliant story, an incredible hook, and stunning writing. Right now, having a large following is not a requirement—but as mentioned, I’ve noticed from talking with some editors that it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a platform. My prediction is that it’s heading in that direction. It absolutely can’t hurt—it can only help.

If you self-publish, you ruin any chances of being traditionally published.

There was a time when I believed this as well, back when I was still writing and deciding which path to take, but it’s simply not true. At least, not entirely. What is true is that, in many cases, sales track records matter. Especially in the US. There are ways around it, such as publishing in a new genre under a pen name, for example. But if you’re following any publishing news as of late, you’ll notice an uptick in traditional publishers buying books from previously self-published authors and even books that were previously self-published. The thing is, this generally only happens if the sales behind those previously self-published books were really good. (We’re talking in the thousands, probably in the tens of thousands). And to do that, not only do you have to have a great story and great writing skills, but you also need to ensure you’re putting the best book out there—which means investing in a good editor and doing all the steps I talked about above, right up to and including marketing and publicity.

This falls in line with another question that came in:

Question 3

With a lot of indie authors [self-publishing authors, to be clear] now getting traditional publishing deals, is that now a better way to go? To prove you can be successful and worth the investment?

Answer 3

There’s no definitive answer on that, because there’s just no way to know for sure which books will take off and which ones won’t. If you can self-publish and sell tons and tons of copies, it can be attractive to a publisher, but there are never any guarantees. If there was a formula, we would all be following it, and we would all become successful authors. If you listen to The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, you’ve probably heard Cece Lyra talk about “the allure of the debut.” This is a real thing. Publishes love debut authors, and they love to be the ones to launch their careers. If you’ve already put a book out there, they miss out on that chance. So, if they’re going to take on a book that’s already been marked as a debut, they’re going to have to really, really love that book and what it’s doing in the market as well as the author’s next book. That has to outweigh the fact that they didn’t get to launch your career.

The bottom line is that the publishing path you choose to take is a very personal decision. It’s not cut and dry; and there’s no one way that works for everyone. Some people have what it takes to be a successful self-published author, and some people have the patience and determination to make it to being traditionally published. Even with traditional publishing though, success isn’t guaranteed. Publishers don’t have all the answers—no one has a crystal ball that can tell you whether you’ll be successful, whichever way you choose. All you can do is go with your gut and do the best you can, and keep going. Keep trying. Keep improving. Do what feels right to you. Your only measure of success is however you define it for you.

Question 4

Why is the children’s book world so exclusive?

Answer 4

Firstly, let’s look at how adult books are bought. When you write an adult story, you’re also marketing it to that audience. Adults directly buy adult books—no one else needs to make that decision for them. Now consider children’s books. Children are almost never the person who’s buying the book; it’s their parents, their grandparents, their favourite auntie or their best friend’s mom. There are adult “gatekeepers” that book must pass through first before it ever makes it to the child. Aside from the agent and editor, you’re looking at school librarians, public librarians, and independent booksellers. You’re also now looking at strict rules about what books can be sold and read in various locations; think banned books. (Don’t even get me started.) There are strict standards regarding age-appropriateness, educational value, and developmental themes, and so the industry filters out what isn’t fitting exactly what they’re looking for at the submission stage.

It’s also not easier to write children’s books, although many people think so. Picture boards, middle grade, and even young adult books—they may have smaller word counts, but that’s not what makes a book easier to write. A child’s attention span is much shorter than an adult’s, and their level of patience is also much smaller. There are fewer liberties that can be taken with writing for children than for adults.

Many/most children’s books also have illustrations, and some, like board books, use a higher-quality paper stock than what you see in a novel. This means productions costs are quite a bit higher, so the risk becomes higher—especially with a debut author.

Something else to keep in mind is that publishers often want the freedom to pair the author’s work with an illustrator they find themselves. Sometimes, authors come to the table with a completed manuscript and all illustrations already done, either by themselves or by someone they hired. It’s not impossible to have this work, but it’s not typically how it goes. If an author is married to their own work or that of the person they hired, that can cause a publisher to decline the project.

There are also much tighter production rules that publishers need to follow, so if authors are going outside the norm, they won’t take the book. Word counts matter more in children’s books than in adult novels.

And I also want to mention the fact that celebrities, who have built-in publicity, have also been publishing children’s books lately. Matthew McConaughey, Hilary Clinton, LeBron James, Meghan Markle, Kristen Bell, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Pine, Dolly Parton, Channing Tatum, Elizabeth Olsen, Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Alba, Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Lopez, Julianne Moore, Kevin Jonas… (Some of these surprised me!) When celebrities get picked up by a publisher, they’re taking a slot that a “regular” author would have otherwise received. They have the massive platform, which is instantly more attractive to a publisher. Not to say that celebrities shouldn’t be writing books, but it is a factor in how publishing slots are filled. Imprints only have so many books they can publish a year; they can’t just take all the authors and keep printing all the books.

Question 5

Do anthologies stand a chance? If so, in what genre?

Answer 5

For those who don’t know what an anthology is, it’s a group of authors who come together to produce a book of short-form fiction. However, they’re often released by very small presses and literary magazines/journals. Anthologies historically don’t do well in the commercial landscape, but they can introduce readers of anthologies to new authors, which is great. If all the authors in the anthology are marketing the book, that can be very powerful. But not everyone reads anthologies and short-form fiction. Some people love it, but for others, it can cause reader fatigue when they have to reset their brain every few pages and start something completely new.

I’ve actually seen quite a few horror and dark fiction anthologies over the last few years. Other popular anthology genres are mystery, crime, romance, and sci-fi.

Question 6

Do publishers hire ghostwriters to help their prospective authors get published?

Answer 6

Short answer: It depends. An acquiring editor must fall in love with the project that’s been submitted to them by an agent. Then, they have to get everyone else on board and present their case to their editorial board. If the board votes yes, then the editor makes an offer on the book. That means the entire team is behind that book. (That’s great news!). If the author is a celebrity or some other person with an extremely large platform, but they’re not a writer, the publisher will hire a professional ghostwriter who’s suitable for the project and it becomes part of the deal.

In some cases, a ghostwriter might be hired if an author was supposed to write their book but it didn’t happen for whatever reason. The publisher has already paid an advance at that point and doesn’t want to lose out on the potential ROI. Enter ghostwriter. However, there are safeguards in contracts that enable a publisher to pull out of a deal if the author isn’t pulling their weight (and vice versa), so don’t rely on that. I would say this is not the norm.

There are also sometimes ghostwriters for massively popular writers where publishers are churning out a book a year and having a ghostwriter can make the process a little easier. But in normal circumstances, most authors are writing their own books. Ghostwriters are expensive and generally reserved for high-profile individuals.

Question 7

What is the prevailing opinion as to why romance seems to be in crisis? What can fix it? Increase sales? Bring readers back? (And another person wanted to know the same about MG).

Answer 7

While I talked a bit about children’s books above, I also recently wrote this article about the decline in pleasure reading in children. That may help answer your question. It’s a sad reality, and I think the answer is that we all need to get creative and come up with interesting ways to get kids back into reading!

As for romance, it’s not a genre I really represent (at least not now), but I personally feel like the romance book marketing has changed a lot in recent years. It’s all about tropes rather than letting the character chemistry drive the plot. I also think we’re seeing a lot of the same plot points and elements in the books, so they may be becoming too predictable. However, I also feel like there’s an audience who wants that comfortable predictability. It’s like the Hallmark movies; we all know what the typical plot line is, and we all know how they’re going to end, and that’s part of why we watch them. They’re comfortable, typical, familiar.

BUT. Readers are also getting more particular these days about what they read and how they choose to spend their time. We have a million things to do every day, a thousand different things to distract us, and all kinds of things that we want to be doing. Books have a lot to compete with.

How do we fix it? I can’t say for sure…but perhaps it’s breaking the cycle of romance norms. Move away from trope expectations in an exciting way. I also personally think there needs to be more diversity in covers. So many romance covers look nearly identical, and I think we need to bring more creativity back in that respect.

As far as fixing things in MG, that’s another big hurdle. Kids are simply spending less time reading and more time in front of screens. Graphic novels seem to be on the rise, and I know my kids have enjoyed them. It’s a good mix of illustration and prose, and it bridges the gap between young children’s books and young adult books in a fun and interesting way. Making books fun is key, too. Recent studies show that kids enjoy boos with robots, dragons, and adventures—heavy escapism. If you write MG books and those are areas you enjoy writing, go for it!

This is already longer than I wanted it to be, so I must end it here! For the next Agent Q&A, I’ll dive into some questions about writing and a couple of other general ones.

I hope you’re finding these Q&A newsletters helpful! I always liked participating in these on Twitter, but I think it’s even better here because answers can be more thorough and it’s all contained and saved in searchable posts. PLUS, you can chat about it after in the community chat! If you have questions or want to get other writers’ thoughts on these, please join the chat!

You can also leave a comment below if you enjoyed this post or have a question about writing, editing, querying, or publishing, and be sure to share this with your writerly friends. Knowledge is power! 😊

Until next time, happy drafting!