Drop Out... A Cautionary Parable

Let me introduce you to Amy Anybody. Amy is a bright student who doesn't feel like her school is giving her everything she needs to succeed in life. With two semesters left until graduation Amy drops out and goes her own way, home schooling.

For six months she has a world-class education. She learns Latin and Greek, speaks German and French fluently. Amy takes up playing classical piano, finishes a correspondence course for calculus, and tours the museums regularly. Her education is a hundred times better than what she could have obtained in an over-crowded classroom and the world is her oyster.

Until she applies for college.

Amy's dream school is the Ivy League Big School, and will not accept her GED. Suddenly, she's stuck. She either has to go back to high school, possibly for an extra year because she missed six months of school, or she has to go to Small School.

Sure, Amy is a genius, but she's in a pickle now.

Flip this scenario on the writing side.

Now Amy Anybody is an amazing pre-published author. She's a writer with a bright future, but she's not willing to do the Query Slog with everyone else.

Rather than wasting years trying to find an agent and sell her book, Amy goes with self-publishing. She does the editing and design herself. She puts months, maybe years, into her project. Everything is flawless.

The book sells well for the genre. She starts receiving good reviews. Amy starts thinking big time. Maybe she should try to get the sequel published with someone bigger. Maybe earn an advance.

But big publishing houses won't look at her because she's self-published.

There are still options open to Amy. She could go with a smaller publishing house. Many smaller houses aren't worried about your previous publication credits. Amy could back track, try the Query Slog, and go the route big publishing demands. She could self-publish her next title.

The only thing Big House has in common with Big School is the network.

We're a society that needs contact. Writers are everywhere: facebook, twitter, blogs, radio... Readers want to find you. And they don't want to be limited to finding you on Amazon at Create-Space. Not everyone has an e-reader yet and your audience wants to walk into a brick-and-mortar store to find your book.

If you can put your book in the brick-and-mortar, you will lose some readers.

You can still sell. You can get your self-published book in the brick-and-mortar.


I'm on the fence about self-publishing. It seems to be the right option for many people, especially those willing to put the time and capital into creating what amounts to their own publishing company. All the work done by a publishing house is done by the author. Some of them seem very happy with this.

Other people are very happy to go with the big houses, or smaller houses on a smaller scale.

Then I read things like Why I Did Not Submit to Penguin by Ruthanne Reid and I'm reminded why going-it-alone is a dangerous path.

All in all, I think publishing is something you can not jump into blindly. This is a business. There are multiple ways to succeed. If you know what you want up front, you will know which path is best for you. If you want to be published by a Big House, you need to do the Query Slog and find an agent. If you just want to see your book in print and sell a few hundred/thousand copies, a small press will work for you. If you're willing to do all the work yourself, maybe self-publishing is the right venue.

Even more than having a good story, it's about knowing what you want when you're done.

What do you think?

Comic found Here and used under Fair Use laws. Thank you to the artist for understanding the situation and putting it so well. :o)
Picture of Amy Anybody found HERE