About Writing

More Than Meets the Eye

My partner, Roland Fishman, and I run The Writers’ Studio, which Roland founded in 1992.

We were both shocked and saddened to hear of the recent death of one of our writers under suspicious circumstances. And even though it was 10 years ago now, I can clearly remember the night we met her.

Once you’ve written the best novel you can and feel ready to get your novel published and release it to the world, the first decision you must make is whether to self-publish or pursue a traditional publishing deal. This article explores the pros and cons of both paths.

The British author services firm, Reedsy, describes self-publishing vs traditional publishing as one of the great debates of the literary world.

Self-publishing authors sing the praises of having creative control, not having to deal with the publishing gatekeepers and receiving higher royalties.

This fourth article in our publishing series aims to explain why the synopsis, along with the Query letter, is such an important tool when seeking representation from a literary agent or publisher.

A synopsis is an overview of your manuscript. Writing it forces you to define your story and capture its essence, conveying that you are in command of your material, in an engaging manner. It is an artform in itself. The quality of your synopsis will determine whether an agent or publisher will read your full manuscript. Most agents and publishers simply do not have time to read every manuscript they receive.

Crack the champagne or mineral water! You have finally finished the manuscript of your novel, having written numerous drafts, ideally had it assessed by a professional editor to ensure it is the best story you are capable of writing and are now ready to put your creative baby out into the world.

If you have decided to go down the traditional publishing route, you will need to engage with the business of writing, especially when seeking representation from a literary agent or publisher. This requires a very different mindset from the one that created your novel.

This article aims to give you the information required to successfully Self/Independently publish your novel as an ebook and a printed book through digital publishing. In our next article, we will focus exclusively on marketing and getting your novel into the marketplace.

“The process of publishing your own book can be both very simple and very complex. The actual mechanics of publishing an ebook, or even a print book, has become relatively easy …

Congratulations! You have written and produced a quality novel and have decided to independently publish it. Now comes the important step of getting your novel noticed and read.

There are three effective marketing platforms authors find effective to promote their books: