Relic Worlds - Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World trailer

I released the trailer for my book Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World this weekend, and I have never had so many problems with Youtube.  First, when I uploaded it, Youtube gave only three options for gray screens as thumbnails.  This was never corrected.  Of course, they have no call in customer service, so writing to them takes weeks to get an answer, and it's always more questions at first, followed by answers which you've already tried.  Any time I've dealt with Google customer service it's taken months to solve what would have taken ten minutes on the phone.

After several more problems on Youtube, I have tried to post it here on Blogger, and for some reason it won't recognize this specific video.  It's really bizarre.  It's almost as though this video is cursed.  So the best I can do to show it off is to place a link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcDFJT5RPQ8

A Big Decision to Make

After a couple weeks of not posting, this week I’m going to post something similar to what I wrote a while ago.  The reason for this is less laziness, (though I am a bit lazy right now,) and more because it’s a very serious decision I need to make.

After approaching more than 50 agents to try to get an upcoming book published through a traditional publisher, I had finally given up and was willing to accept that this book would be published independently as well.  I had been wanting to do this one traditionally so that I could connect with a lot of places that I couldn’t connect with on my own.  But now it was looking like it would be added to my collection of independently published books, and was making plans.

Then one single agent wrote to me and showed some interest.  I’m not sure how interested they are, as their emails have seemed pretty indifferent, but they’ve at least been wanting to take a look at more and more of the book.  So I’ve been sending it to them bit by bit.  I have meanwhile been making plans to independently publish it, so now I’m left with a dilemma.  If they say they want to represent me, should I accept it and go with them, or should I go independently anyway.  Here are the pluses and minuses of each.

Traditional Publishing:

Positives – There are two basic positives to publishing traditionally.  First, the publishers provide promotions.  Second, they get your book into places you can’t get them; namely bookstores.  They have connections at all of these places and send out regular catalogues from which materials are ordered.  These are too numerous for us to do on our own, and when we do contact them, they usually turns us down because we’re not traditional publishers.  This is true both of bookstores and promotional places, such as television and radio stations.

Negatives – To get to a publisher, you have to first sign with an agent.  While you do research on an agent and try to get one you can trust, it’s difficult to know for certain until you’ve already signed with them whether they’re going to do right by you, and by that time it’s too late to turn around and do it yourself.  There’s also no guarantee they’ll actually send it to publishers.  They could just sit on your book because it competed with one of their other books, and they didn’t want it out there in the market, or they might change their mind and not do anything with it for whatever reason.  Then there’s the possibility that even though they do pitch it to publishers, the publishers decide they don’t want it, and then you’re completely stuck, because the agent still has exclusive rights of the book, but it’s not getting published.  And in the end, either the agent or the publisher could decide that you need to revise it in ways you don’t want to revise it, and if you don’t, they still have the rights to it, and you’re not getting published.  And then, even if it is published, it could take two years or more to actually get onto the shelves.

Independent Publishing:

                Positives – Full control.  This is especially important with this piece because it’s about a family that really wants to make sure their ancestor is well represented.  Also, there are multiple places that might want to make this into a movie, and if I get it published soon, they might be serious about that.  If I wait too long, they might lose interest.

                Negatives – A lot of people close their doors to independent publishing.  It’s not right, but they do it.  Many bookstores won’t carry it; even independent bookstores, (go figure.)  As for promotions, many, many radio and TV stations won’t cover you.  Even many blogs, which are independently published themselves, won’t cover your book.  And even those radio and TV stations that criticize corporations and claim to support independent artists, (like the Colbert Report,) won’t even consider independently published books.

So there you go.  That’s my dilemma.  I don’t know which direction I’m going to go.