Should You Just Get Your Book Out There?

Hi friends,

I've been thinking more about self-publishing lately, not because I want to do it, (I do not have time for that) or because my clients are asking me about it, (though we talk about it from time to time) or because I think it's about to take over traditional publishing for true book supremacy. (It isn't. There doesn't need to be One True Way to publish a book.)

I've been thinking about it lately because I've been asked more about it lately, and because Threads puts tons of selfpub posts in my feed. (Will I one day stop talking about Threads + Book Publishing? Probably not.) I am now the author of two traditionally published books. Frankly, I love it and I never want to stop. (And no, I will never quit my day job, either.) My job–my jobs–all intersect with self-publishing all the time. I have no qualms about that.

Except this one thing. I think there are some FANTASTIC reasons to self publish: opting out of the rat race that is querying and trad publishing; total control over every aspect of the publishing process; faster everything. But.

The One Reason Not to Self-Publish, IMHO.

I hear writers say they want to self-publish or did self-publish just to get the book out there. And if you really and truly just want to be able to point friends and family to a link where they can see and/or buy your book, so you can say I did a thing! and that's that, really and truly that's all, then I say go for it. It's published. you did it. People can see it and buy it if you show them it exists. Huzzah. Mission accomplished.

But I suspect, and have seen, that this isn't really all writers want or hope will happen. I think a lot of writers hope, want, and expect to put it out there, tell two friends, and wait for the firestorm of word-of-mouth marketing to take off. The author thinks it's so good (and it probably is!) that readers will just sense its inherent goodness and want to read it instantly. That the work will speak for itself and they don't need to do any marketing. Ok, you all know I'm exaggerating and I don't mean to be hard on any dedicated self-publishers out there. I mean, I hope this happens. Hell, I hope this happens to traditionally published books, too! But the sad truth is it doesn't happen to anyone. Publishing of all kinds is not If you build it, they will come.

What motivates most just get the book out there authors, I think, is not (only) wishful thinking but also a lack of understanding of actually how to self-publish, so just getting the book out there is all they know how to do. This is understandable! It's a hard, opaque, and variable process! There isn't just one way to self-publish any book, and writers don't know this until they've done it a few times first. So? Just throw it up there and hope for the best! But outsized expectations and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ideas on what to do are both shaky foundations for a book publishing strategy.

What's the Solution Then?

The solution, unfortunately, is to learn all you can and give it a shot. There are tons of resources on how to learn about self-publishing, and I don't even know the best of them. Readers, drop those in the comments. But I suggest resisting, as much as possible, trying to find the best way to self-publish because someone else's best way is not going to be your best way. There isn't one best way to do it. The same goes for traditionally published books. Someone's best way to write a dual-POV book, best way to market a thriller, best way to get more Goodreads reviews is not necessarily going to work for you. It's very frustrating I know!! That you can't find the one, true best way doesn't mean someone is hiding something from you or that you are doing anything wrong. There just isn't one way!

Why?

Because readers don't buy books in just one way. Because reading tastes are variable and unpredictable. Because sometimes you want to read an a 19th century British mystery and sometimes you want to read a middle grade graphic novel with fart jokes and the only person who has control over that is you. Not the people whose posts you're reading. Not the algorithm or hash tags or celebrity book clubs. Some of those things influence the books you know about, and that might dictate what you read, but the only person who decides to hit buy or tap their library or debit card to get a book is the reader. And everyone one is fighting for her attention all the time. If she doesn't know a book is there, because you just wanted to put it out there but didn't have any plan to market it, she's not going to read it.

This is also why we don't know what works when it comes to writing, marketing, publicizing, and selling books of any kind. Sure, there are some easy things to cherrypick: being on the New York Times best seller list is damn good advertising. A celebrity book club can move the needle. A movie deal, a huge advance, and/or significant publisher buy-in makes a difference. But it makes a difference in what readers know about, not necessarily what they buy, read, and tell their BFFs about. Yeah, I don't love it either.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Now What?

The takeaway here is not never try, lol. I do not suggest never trying to publish anything, self or trad, or just resign yourself to writerly obscurity forever. But I do suggest doing as much research as you can, even if that takes a long time, even if you get conflicting advice, even if you're only mildly more sure about what to do than when you started, and even if the research itself is boring. You will not find a one stop shop for how to do all this stuff, not even here. You will not find the One True Way to write or publish a book anywhere. What works for someone else may or may not work for you. You can throw money at the problem, but that still doesn't guarantee success. What you can do is get comfortable with the uncertainty and do the best you can. I know that's easy for me to say. But you know why it's easy for me to say? Because I've been doing this for 20 years. Learn from my experience and also go gather your own.

So maybe you do just put it out there and see what happens. You're much more likely to learn good things on what to do for the next book, than become an overnight success, though. And that's ok.

Summer is coming and if you can swing it, I think you should go do some yoga and write a lot at the Beyond the Noise retreat in the Hudson Valley (NY) at the amazing Spruceton Inn, August 27-30th. I can personally attest that organizer and author Jen Doll is insightful, kind, funny, and will treat your writing like she'd treat her own. Just a few spots left! Register here: https://www.elizabethvoetsch.com/retreats

OXOXOXOXOXO,

Kate

Who am I and what is this? This is Agents & Books, a twice-weekly newsletter about writing, publishing, and the creative life. I've been an agent for 20 years, most of it at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, and I'm the author of two books: Write Through It: An Insider's Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life (Simon Element, 2025) and a picture book called Pay Attention to Me!, with illustrations by Rob Justus (Sourcebooks, 2026). If you haven't already, become a subscriber today. $5 a month or $50 a year. Same price since 2019!