Time

It struck me recently that if I’d signed a deal with an agent back in mid-2022, my two recent books might not be published yet. I wasn’t posting to this blog at the time, but I’ve talked here previously about taking several months to research agents and send a multitude of query letters. It took a lot of time away from actually writing, but I figured it was worth a shot. The deal with that model is the time for the search, you sign a contract with the agent, the agent shops your book around, a publisher wants it, you sign a contract with the publisher, and then you wait. If an agent had been interested and able to sell First by the end of 2022, it might have come out toward the tail end of 2024. Next Time wouldn’t even be on the schedule yet since the publisher would probably want to see how First sold before committing to any other books. And Assignment Day? I probably wouldn’t have had time to finish it yet due to promotional commitments. All that to say, I’m incredibly happy I went the self-publishing route. I’ve sold more books than I expected but not as many as I want, and both have earned multiple awards. Would I have sold more with a traditional publisher? Can’t say for sure. All I can say with confidence is that it’s nice to be in control and put my books out there in my own time.