MYTH: Only Traditional Publishing Counts.

Jul 15, 2022

In 2012, I found myself practicing an age-old writing tradition that is 100% guaranteed to bring on insanity — I was writing query letters.

I had finally “finished” my novel after 4 years of writing and said, “Now I need to find an agent!” After all, that’s what all the writing blogs said to do. This was the only way to be a real writer and that was consistent with my way of thinking already, so naturally, it had to be gospel truth. Myth Number One.

Hours were spent scouring the internet to create a list of agents who were open to queries — though I wish I’d spent more time looking at their track records. As far as I was concerned, an agent is an agent. Myth Number Two.

More hours were spent crafting a template since I was only focused on my novel — something I could easily tweak, copy and paste, and send in rapid succession. I probably ended up sending it out to over 100 agents I’d found in a database.

Most never replied. A few considerate ones said, “Not the right project for me, but good luck.” No one said yes.

Which…I kind of get. My novel is unusual to say the least — and I fully recognize that it’s major weakness is that I didn’t write it for a niche audience. I wrote it for me. And there’s nothing wrong with that, unless, you know…you want other people to buy it and read it. But that’s a whole other post for another time.

I was burned out from querying. How was I going to find an agent? I’d joined a local writer’s group mostly because I knew that they sometimes had agents come in for their meetings, agents who normally didn’t take queries and would only talk with people that they met in person. This is a hilarious thought now, ten years later. But that was the world of 2012.

What makes you a real writer? For me, it’s this: Having your words read.

“This is it,” I thought. “I’ll join this group, go to their meetings, maybe learn some things, build some community, and eventually get to talk to a real agent.” I’ll be honest, though, the meetings were a drag. I was easily one of the youngest in the group, if not the youngest, but I wasn’t hearing a lot of insight being shared. Still, I was willing to tough it out if it meant I would eventually meet an agent.

Finally, the day was arriving. An agent was coming to the writing group. One that didn’t accept queries and had been in the business for a couple decades. This was it!

But I got confused about the date because I’m a little bit like Dory from Finding Nemo and I missed it. Was that my own fault? Yes. Was it still frustrating? Double yes.

I went back a couple more times, but we were on the verge of moving and I wasn’t really getting anything out of the group anyway. I know that sounds selfish, but the fact is, a good writing group should be giving you some value, otherwise what’s the point? But that’s getting us off track.

So what now? After all, I couldn’t be a “real” writer if I never got published and I couldn’t get published without an agent.

But then I found out about a publishing house that accepted queries directly from writers! And they had even published some legit New York Times bestsellers that weren’t a far cry from what I was going for with my book. I digitally dusted off my query, completely redid it based on their parameters and sent it off with a wish and a prayer.

Lo and behold, about a month later, I received a packet in the mail. Again, this was still very 2012. “Hey, we’d love to consider your manuscript,” it said. Well, more or less. There were instructions on sending in the full printed manuscript — again, very 2012 — along with a little bit more information and then they would read it and consider it for publication.

This had to be it! Right? It had to be.

I waited and waited for several months. Their letter had said it would take time, so I tried to busy myself with other things, trying not to allow myself too many daydreams of seeing my book in airports across America, visions of me accepting the Pulitzer Prize, and letters from adoring fans about how my book had “changed their life.”

Then one day, it came. A letter back. Now, that should’ve been my first hint. They had my phone number at this point. Why wouldn’t they just call?

Why? Because it was a rejection. “This isn’t the right project for us,” it read. “But that doesn’t mean someone else won’t love it. Keep going.”

In retrospect, I’ve come to appreciate that rejection letter. I wish I still had it. But in that moment, the only thing I heard was “You’ll never be a real writer because you’ll never be traditionally published.”

But that, my friends, is the biggest myth of them all.

What makes you a real writer? For me, it’s this: Having your words read.

Sometimes stubbornness can be a superpower.

Too many writers want to be published but they’re afraid to get their work out into the world. For every book that gets published, there’s at least twenty great books somewhere that will never get published. And yet, we’re living in a time where writers have never had more freedom of choice to be read.

From ghostwriting to producing your own podcast like I do, to having a Medium or Vello account like so many others do, to social media marketing jobs, there are so many ways you can get your writing out into the world that simply weren’t as accessible even ten years ago.

And yet, the myth still holds on: “You’re not a real writer unless you’re traditionally published.”

I see so many writers still believe this, despite the fact the publishing world has been turned upside-down over the past decade — and they’re scrambling to catch up. And I wish for myself that I hadn’t believed it for so long.

I didn’t mourn the rejection letter for too long. I had put too much time and effort into my novel to let this be the end. Sometimes stubbornness can be a superpower. (But don’t tell my kids that.)

So instead of giving up, I got back to work on it. While they hadn’t given me a list of issues in the rejection, I knew there had to be some. So after letting the manuscript rest for a year, I came back to it in 2014 and did an entire rewrite. Turns out, there were lots of problems I just hadn’t seen before. Then I had two friends with literary experience read it and provide me editorial and proofreading notes. More changes and revisions.

Finally, I had something I realized was much better than what I’d sent to the publisher. But what now? I didn’t really want to start querying again, but I still wanted to publish as I made more tweaks.

Life things got in the way for a while but eventually, I started researching self-publishing. And I’m not gonna lie…I felt like I was giving up when I did that. Why? Because part of me still believed the myth I could only be a real writer if I was traditionally published. Self-publishing was the easy way out, self-publishing was the mark of bad writing, self-publishing was a vanity exercise. Myth. Myth. Myth.

To be clear — are there bad books that are self-published? Yes, a lot of them. Are there bad books that are traditionally published? Yes. Yes, there are.

And even if we implicitly know this is true, that doesn’t mean we always accept it as true. This results in us embracing myths as truth that make it impossible for us to achieve what we really want.

To call back a previous blog, though, I finally asked myself, “What do I really want?” And what I wanted for that novel was just to get it out into the world, no matter how many people would read it. I had no marketing plan, I didn’t even talk it up to my friends, I just realized that it had been too long, I was proud of the work I’d done and I wanted it out there.

So in early 2019, over eleven years after I had first conceived the idea for the book, I finally hit “publish” on CreateSpace (now Amazon KDP) and a few days later, got my first batch of books in the mail. It was real finally. My book was out in the world at long last.

Now, I’d love to tell you that suddenly my novel was discovered, that it sold millions of copies, and was a major breakthrough in my writing career. None of that happened. In fact, as I write this, I don’t think it even has a single review on Amazon even though I’ve sold a few copies here and there.

While the notion that “only traditional publishing counts” may have had some truth to it thirty years ago, it’s not true anymore.

But you know what? I don’t care anymore. It was a huge breakthrough for me to realize that I was a real writer and that I could help others be real writers too. Honestly, I can’t believe that only three years later, now I am writing full-time and helping others publish their books and get their messages out into the world where they can be read and make a real impact.

So here I am to bust the myth: You don’t have to be traditionally published to be a real writer. All you need is to get your words out into the world and be read by people who aren’t your mom or significant other. (No offense, Mom and Christa.)

In fact, more than ever, getting your words out there and building a platform will actually help you get traditionally published! Publishers are asking authors, “How many followers do you have online? How many hits does your website get? How many people are on your newsletter?” Because for them, it’s about volume.

But for you, the writer, it’s not about volume — it’s about the words, it’s about stories. While the notion that “only traditional publishing counts” may have had some truth to it thirty years ago, it’s not true anymore.

That doesn’t mean self-publishing is right for you either. If I ever publish a novel again, I’ll probably do hybrid because I’m just too busy to want to mess with things like book layout and cover design — not my areas of strength. And for some people, traditional is the right route — just know that it’s going to take some time and you’re more likely to land a deal if you have done some other things first.

Not to mention there are the wild exceptions like Andy Weir who self-published The Martian, which later went on to be traditionally published, become a best seller, and then adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie (which is excellent, by the way). Who’s to say you can’t be next?

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