Have you been published?

[arrytus]

I was curious how many people who frequent this site have been published, and what sort of things you've had put in print [novels, stories, essays, poems, et cetera]?

For those, if any, who've published a non-vanity press novel did you first have a literary agent or did you fight through the slush piles?

[MystyrMystyry]

novels, stories, essays, poems, et cetera

your best bet is an agent, because 10% of nothing is actually less than nothing (and actually negatvely something!)

but the best agent can't beat a great publisher and no agent, and the best publisher is a writer's good friend, unless they tell you you've wasted the last year writing something they're not going to touch with a bargepole

when that occurs you have to invent a pseudonym and get a new agent, and try to make friends with a new publisher (the hard part) and try to start the ball rolling all over again

sometimes vanity publishing is preferable, and at least you won't get publicly criticised

john donne was one of the great vanity successes, and samuel pepys was one of the great diarists


(with apologies to ee cummings)

[Jozanny]

I came up through the ranks without an agent, but in my case, this doesn't matter. For a novelist it does.

[howtowriteabook]

I self-published my 2 non-fiction books on CreateSpace.com and then marketed the daylights out of them, taking the first to Hot 100 on Amazon.com (at peak, it was #83) and the other to #5 in its genre on the Kindle store (as an ebook). Made me wonder if I'm ever going to struggle with the "find a publisher" route!

Mani