I came to the conclusion that if I couldn’t get “Reawakened Flames” going with self-publishing, then maybe I had to publish it traditionally. I thought I wasn’t cut out to be a self-published author. So, I started learning about traditional publishing. I prepared a query and a synopsis. Over the next few months, I sent out thirty-four queries. I either got rejected or never heard back from them. I never received a manuscript request. I didn’t edit the story that much either.
I did get some personalized replies in which agents had kind words for the book. There was one thing a few of them said that got me thinking. They told me that I needed to find someone who was as passionate about the book’s content matter of mental illness as I was. I guess that was a sign. I realized I could send queries to every available agent, but I might not find anyone who would passionately represent the book. And then who knows if the publishing companies would even want it. The person who is the most passionate about the book and the series is me. If I wanted this to work, I needed to find a way myself.
I found out some other things that closed the door on traditional publishing. I always thought that a book is a book, but there are categories based on length. My book would be categorized as a novella. I had been familiar with the term, but I didn’t know what it meant. I found out that traditional publishers don’t prefer to publish novellas. I can’t blame them. They can’t sell novellas for the same price as a regular full-length novel, and if the book doesn’t do well, they’ll lose a lot of money. Plus, I am an unknown, new author, so they probably wouldn’t risk publishing a debut novella.
And even if I had been able to get a publisher, my book is going to be a series. I have, at this time, thirteen books planned in advance. From what I’ve heard, when you work with a publisher, there is no guarantee that you’ll be able to write your series. Think of a series of books like a television show. If the first season of a show is a success, then more seasons will be made. If the first season flops or doesn’t do well, it may be canceled. So, if the first book doesn’t meet all the expectations, then I may not be able to write the others.
I also found out something that I wished I had learned sooner. If you self-publish a book and it isn’t successful immediately, do not try to take it to traditional publishers. They don’t want a book that has technically been tested and failed. I’ve seen agencies say on their websites that they don’t want books that have been previously self-published.
I wish now that I hadn’t wasted so much time trying to do traditional publishing. This will be a series of novellas about mental illness being written by a new author. The books would probably never go anywhere in the traditional publishing world. So, I embarked on the journey back to self-publishing…