The 10 Most-Asked Publishing Questions

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“How Do I Publish My Book?!?”

I participate regularly in writing forums, including Facebook groups where new writers seek guidance. As a freelance editor, I commonly come across the simplest questions. Many people have various perceptions about what it takes to become a writer, and now, with so many options available for publishing your work, it can be overwhelming for beginners.

Questions like, "Should I self-publish?" "How do I find an agent?" or "Do I need an editor?" are all legitimate concerns. However, the truth is that sometimes there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. Most of the time, the response is, "It depends." That being said, the publishing industry is notorious for keeping its secrets from new writers.

But here at the Weird Circular, we don’t gatekeep, we share. This list is 10 of the most-asked questions about publishing with short, simple answers.

Here are the top ten most asked questions about publishing.

1. How Do I Publish My Book?

There are many ways to get a book into the world in today’s publishing industry. The two main venues are self-publishing and traditional publishing. In self-publishing, you, as the author, are responsible for the costs, including creating cover art, formatting the book for print and ebook editions, marketing it, and selling it (or hiring someone to do all these things.) In traditional publishing, the writer either pitches the book to an agent, who in turn pitches the book to an editor at a publisher, or else the writer submits their book to publishers (often only indie publishers take submissions.) There is also hybrid publishing, where an author takes on a portion of the costs while a publisher provides services, but buyer beware: The hybrid publishing world is rife with scams.

2. Should I Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish?

It depends! I always tell my clients that self-publishing works best when you can put your money into the project and have the skills and passion to make the book happen. In self-publishing, you need to hire someone to help you create a cover, format the book, and market it, or do all that yourself. If you’re a self-starter who doesn’t mind marketing, self-publishing might be for you. Plenty of self-published books have gone to the bank because the writer was great at self-promotion, or else the book was just fantastic enough to break through on Amazon and other online sellers.

On the other hand, the traditional route has a much larger potential with a larger risk. The risk of self-publishing is that your book might not sell. The risk of traditional publishing is that your book may never get published. I’ve met plenty of writers with agents on their fourth or fifth book “on submission” to editors. Agents want writers capable of writing several books, hopefully for a lifetime, because agents make money selling your book to publishers. But the risk is that publishers may not want your book. If you can stomach that risk and hate self-marketing, then traditional might be better for you.

A third route, which is often overlooked, is indie publishing. In the world of small presses, the writer submits their work to a submission call, and a small press publishes the book. IMHO, this is often the best of both worlds. Writers often have more control over their books with a small press because they get to work directly with the publisher. On the other hand, some self-marketing will still be involved because small presses have less money for marketing than big presses.

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3. Should I Hire an Editor?

Whether you need an editor depends on your preferred publishing path and writing ability.

Most self-published authors hire a freelance editor because otherwise, their work wouldn’t get seen by an editor. If you’re going to self-publish, you should consider, at the very least, hiring a proofreader to help catch any big errors. It depends on your writing skillset: Are you great at storytelling but suck at grammar? Hire a proofreader. Are you struggling to pull together your plot but have beautiful prose? Hire a developmental editor.

Do you need an editor if you plan to submit to agents? Well, maybe. I know many traditionally published writers who have landed an agent only to be told they should have a freelance editor read their work. Some agents are also editors, providing feedback on their client’s work so it can be more likely to land a publishing deal. But does that mean you have to hire an editor? Absolutely not. Many authors successfully land an agent without an editor. That being said, hiring an editor can be a really helpful learning process if this is your first book.

At the very least, you should have someone who is not you (preferably not a friend or family member who might just tell you nice things to make you feel better) read your book. Many self-published authors use beta readers to give them feedback, which is often preferable because they are readers, not writers or editors. After all, the goal of a book is not to please an editor but to please a reader.

4. How Do I Get an Agent?

There are several methods for finding a good literary agent who will represent your work and pitch it to publishers. If you are a new writer with no connections in the industry, you can still land an agent. The primary method is by querying. This involves sending agents who are open to new clients a query letter, synopsis, and the first few chapters of your book. The agent querying process can be a long haul. Most authors will pitch 10-20 agents at a time, wait to hear back from them, and then send their book out to more agents. Agents can be found via social media like Twitter/X, where they scope out pitch parties like #PitDark (for dark books), or via websites like Manuscript Wish List.

A faster route is to level up your network. Attend workshops, conferences, and conventions where agents have panels. These events often have “pitch sessions” where you pay for a 30-minute consultation with an agent. This is useful because the agent can give you feedback on your book’s idea and how you talk about it. Talk to other writers. Look at your favorite books and the comparative titles in your genre: What agent represents them?

5. I Self-Published My Book. Can I Send it to an Agent/Publisher?

It depends, but probably not. Agents make money off selling your book to publishers. They get a portion of your sales. But publishers often do not want books that have already been published because they want what the industry calls “first rights,” i.e., the first-ever publication of a title. They may also want subsidiary rights to publish new book editions. So a self-published book is not appealing to most publishers.

That being said, many self-published books that become wildly successful do end up being reprinted by major publishers or attracting agents. That’s because the book has already proven it can succeed, and the author has already proven they can sell books.

6. How Do I Protect My Work from Theft? Will an Editor/Agent/Publisher/Betareader Steal My Work?

Any creative artwork is already protected by US copyright law the moment it is created. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to go through the effort of copyrighting your book if you’re afraid of it being stolen. The cost to copyright a work with the US Copyright Office is about $65.

Most editors, agents, and publishers you submit your book to have no interest in stealing your work. The reason is that they are probably already too busy to bother with the effort. No one is interested in stealing a book from an unknown author who hasn’t proven their work can sell yet. It is rare to hear of this happening in the industry.

That being said, I have seen cases where someone’s work was stolen and repackaged for Amazon by a beta reader or someone claiming to be a reviewer. The easiest way to avoid this is to research where you are sending your book. Make sure the publisher/agent is legitimate (Have they published books recently? Do you recognize any of the authors? Buy a copy of one of their books and check it out: Does it have good formatting and no errors?). When sending work to a beta reader, send a protected document/PDF that is harder to edit. Consider having a simple beta-reader contract. Then, if your work does end up on Amazon, you have proof of theft. Consider hiring a professional editor who has a working contract.

6. Why Is My Self-Published Book Not Selling?

The reality is that the book market is currently saturated with authors. While many fantastic self-published books exist, they compete with traditional publishers with huge marketing budgets. While this seems like a bit of a gloomy landscape, self-published books can still make a big splash if they are situated correctly.

One reality to accept is that self-publishing is a money game. It is worth the effort to sort out a budget before you get started. That budget should include costs like Amazon Ads (IMHO, the primary way to market a self-published book), NetGalley listing costs (a review site), and any other paid marketing endeavors that appeal to you. The saying “you have to spend money to make money” applies here because Amazon is inherently a site that boosts ad-paying products.

Consider the following basics of self-marketing:

• Have you created an author website?

• Do you post regularly on social media?

• Where does your audience live: Twitter/x? Tiktok? Instagram?

• Do you have a mailing list or other way to alert potential readers of updates?

• Can you create a network of other authors willing to crosspost your book?

• Do you run Amazon ads?

• Is your book listed on the major book websites? (BN.com, Indiebound.com, Goodreads.com, etc.)

• Is your cover art professional & eye-catching, as well as tailored to your book’s genre?

• Is the book well-written? Has it been professionally edited & proofread?

• Are you writing the next book? (Books often sell better when there is more than one: If a reader likes a book, they will be more likely to buy the next book in the series.)

These are just a few basic steps. Book marketing is a lot of work. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to market a book. Bookbub has a great list of ideas.

7. What Costs Are Associated with Publishing?

Many people will rush to say that a writer should spend no money on their book. But that point of view favors traditional publishing, which is highly competitive and slow.

If you are eager to have a book traditionally published and want to work with an agent, the costs should be only those you choose to take on, such as self-marketing or creating a website. The actual process of creating the book (cover art, distribution, etc.) should be at no cost to a writer. The trade-off you make is that you don’t have creative control over your book. Publishers often get the final say in how the book looks or is marketed. A good agent can negotiate on your behalf, but there is only so much you can control. Traditional publishing is glacial—it can take years to publish a book. Agents don’t charge fees but take a cut of royalties and advances. Publishers generally pay a portion of royalties received, generally 10-15% for traditional publishing and higher rates of 30-50% for small press publishing.

Whereas in self-publishing, you shoulder the entire burden of costs, but you get the final say in everything. And you get to decide when the book gets published. You get 100% of any royalties or sales.

8. What Is the Ideal Book Length/Word Count?

Word count is determined by genre. Any book over 40,000 words is generally a novel (shorter is a novella or novellete). Fantasy books can be quite long, up to 150,000 on the very-very long side. The average book is about 70,000-90,000 words. The best way to determine how long your book should be is to pick up a few books that you feel are comparable titles to your book and see how many words/pages they are for comparison.

Writers often bemoan the trouble of cutting a book down to fit these guidelines, but I can say, as a freelance editor, I have never met a book that didn’t benefit from tightening the prose. I have also never encountered a book that was over word count and didn’t benefit from being brought in line with genre expectations. It’s a hard truth, but meeting the reader’s expectations matters.

9. How Long Does Publishing a Book Take?

Publishing is a slow process. While it’s tempting to rush your book to print (I get it! You finished a thing! Woo!), it’s much better to take the time to build an audience, make sure the book is well-edited, and do the work of pre-marketing.

Here is a general timeline for book publishing:

Write the book: up to 1 year or even more; there is no wrong or right length of time it takes.
Revise the book: up to 1 year. It’s good to set a deadline so you don’t spend forever on this step, but again, you do you.
Submit the book: 6-9 months, depending on whether you are submitting to agents or small presses.
Land an agent: It could take years. Agents are notoriously slow because they have tons of manuscripts to read. Most agents respond in about 3 months. Most authors send their book in batches to 10-20 agents at a time, wait for feedback, then send it on to more agents.
The agent submits the book: This can also take 3-6 months. An agent will send a book “out on submission” and send back any feedback in this time period.
Editing: 3-6 months on average. Most publishers will do a developmental/content edit that takes a few months, and then the author is given time to make changes. There might also be a round of copyediting or line editing, and there will always be a proofreading stage, followed by proofreading with print-ready proofs stage. All of this can take a long time.
Cover Art/Interior Formatting: I generally give my cover artists about 1-2 months, with a few weeks built in for changes. Interior formatting is something I do for my clients, and it takes me about 2 weeks.
Pre-order Period: Ideally, you want a longer pre-order period of 3-6 months to give you time to promote a book.

10. How Do I Publish Short Stories/Poetry/Nonfiction or Another Genre that Isn’t Fiction?

“Know your genre” is one of the best pieces of advice for any author. For example, short stories are not published as “books” per se (although there are places on Kindle now for short stories). They are generally sent to magazines/journals, then collected later when the author has a lot of publications under their belts. Sadly, there are not a lot of short story collection publishers in the world.

Poetry is similar, although there are a lot of chapbooks (under 30 pages) publishers these days. Poetry is primarily published via small press or self-publishing. Similar to short stories, many poets start by submitting their work to magazines/journals and then later collecting their poems in a book.

The above books fall into the gray area, meaning most agents don’t accept them because they can’t make much money off them.

Nonfiction books like self-help have their own unique process. Generally, it involves creating a compelling proposal, a document that has comparative titles, marketing plans, an outline, and other useful information about the book. Most nonfiction publishers will list their requirements for this in submission guidelines.

Thanks for reading this list of the top 10 most-asked questions about publishing. Publishing a book can be daunting, but I believe in you!

If you have more questions, you can always book a consultation with me, Holly, your weird host. I offer 30-minute and one-hour editing consultations via my website. Book any time that works for you, as many times as you like. Not sure where to submit your work? Want advice on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing? Need advice on pitching to agents? Want a writer pep talk? I'm here to answer your questions!

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