Horse of a Different Color

In the world of publishing, it's no secret that having a literary agent in your corner is an amazing thing.  However, finding one can be difficult for some (I use myself as an example of this).  Criticism, rejection letters, etc. don't really phase me...basically par for the course and as a co-worker once told me, "Mike lets stuff roll off of him like water off the back of a duck". 

I read a ton of blogs and try to comment on a ton too and I've noticed that there seems to be a disconnection with the idea that you need a big publishing house and an agent to simply "be read". I wanted to make a distinction that you actually don't need any of these things if you want people to read your work. "¿Qué pasa?" you might ask...allow me to elaborate.

I'm a member of this wonderful website called Gay Authors where I post stories for free and people read them.  Do I get paid?  Not one bit. But let's put it this way, my story has probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 to 7,000 reads (from the first time I ever posted it and counting the Nifty Archive) and I got probably 60 comments and or reviews on it over time from people that read my story and either liked it or had great constructive criticism.  For someone that really doesn't have too many real life friends that read, this was awesome.  Disclaimer:  all of my friends spend most of their free time on Facebook, World of Warcraft, or socializing.  Reading is an "alone-time" thing and most people I know, really don't read that much because they cannot stand being alone.  But anyways, I digress.

Finding G.A. was a wonderful breath of fresh air for me.  It also allowed me to connect with like-minded people who are intelligent, concerned about writing, and love to read.  And...my experience is based on my first story ever posted on the site.  It wasn't complete when I started posting.  Rather, I did so a chapter at a time and I only partially storyboarded it but I knew where I wanted to go with it.  So you can imagine...a first draft just going up on the web, no one to edit or beta-read it, and bam...tons of people are suddenly involved with it.  I had great writers that go by the name Nephylim, Anytasunday, and KingdombytheSea who took time to read my story and throw me a comment or two.  It's great.

But my readers and reviews pale in comparison to true hard working writers on the site.  My good friend Andy (who's a lawyer and having a baby via a surrogate with his partner and blogging about it) has probably over 20,000 views on his story and hundreds of thought-filled and provoking reviews (some an entire page in length).

Now, Andy's story that I've linked above called "Second Shot" would be considered basically "unpublishable".  It's essentially an on-going soap opera that is over 230,000 words in length and still going (publishable being essentially 120,000 words or less by most outfits).  I've seen stories on G.A. approaching half a million words...does that mean they're bad?  Well they've got people devouring them up.  All it means to me is the author has a different way of telling a story and that if it went to print, an entire forest would die.  But in the digital age...this happily doesn't need to happen ever.

So my point is, that if you're a writer, you don't need the trimmings of a big publishing house and an agent to be "read" which is what I see a lot of writers saying.  "I want to be read."  I think the distinction is, "I want to have fame and fortune and a prestigious publishing house."  If this is what you want, then yes, you need to go the traditional route.

And there's nothing wrong with that either.  I too seek fame and fortune with a prestigious publishing house.  I think it'd be cool to see my books featured on a Barnes and Noble bookshelf with cover art and some marketing done by a publisher and a humble book-signing.  I also believe that everyone that writes should also get their dream of this.  But realistically, it all depends on whether or not what you write appeals to the people that have enough discretionary income to buy your book.  That's what the agent is...he's a person trained to know whether or not your writing can fatten a bank account for a publisher since publishers no longer print stuff that doesn't put money in the bank (did they ever?).

Horses of a Different Color!

So anyway, I think that if your dream is just to have people read your stuff...then I'd advise just finishing your manuscript because there's a world of people on the internet that would love to read it.  You just won't make any monies.  :(  However, they'd reward you in other ways with thoughtful praise. But don't be confused that wanting to 'be read' means you need an agent, publishing house, and book deal with all the trimmings.  That's "fame and fortune" and a horse of a much different color.