Self Publishing vs. Mainstream Publishing

 

by Leo Maloney

Writing my first novel has been a 3-year process. When I started, I had no concept of the work and time that would be required. It seemed to me that I had a pretty interesting story, based on my thirty-years of experiences as a Black Ops contractor. I naively thought that when I was finished writing the book, a publishing company would jump at the chance to publish it. I had no training as a writer, but found I had a knack for telling a story. I combined events and characters from my past in a plot that I felt would appeal to thriller readers. Other authors had to do research … I was writing from experience, so I felt I had an edge.

I brought my manuscript to ThrillerFest 2010 in NYC with the goal of getting an agent. I didn’t. But I learned about writing “rules” and the procedures involved with publishing. Upon returning home I refined my novel and sent query letters to dozens of agents. Some sent back polite letters stating that the book wasn’t their type; others ignored me.

I considered giving up, but then decided to explore self-publishing. Having some experience with promotions, I opened my own publishing company, Independent Publishing House (IPH), with a NYC address and phone number. I found experts in the specialties that I needed: freelance editors, a graphic arts designer, printer, publicist, and a consultant who was working in publishing. With their help, I produced my book and printed a first run. With Lightning Source as distributor, the book was available on Amazon.com as both a print and e-book. I was able to place copies in a local Walgreens and independent bookstore, but was frustrated that Barnes and Noble would not talk to me.

I knew then I needed a publisher.

After about seven months, I was fortunate to have a conversation with Michaela Hamilton, Executive Editor of Kensington Publishing Corp. A couple of weeks later I went to NYC to meet with Michaela and also met everyone at the company, from the owner to the mail handler. Everyone treated me like a member of the Kensington family. Within days I had a contract for a 2-book deal. After some editing and an impressive new cover, Termination Orders was released.

I attended ThrillerFest again this year, and was asked to be on a panel. I will attend Bouchercon and will participate on a panel there as well. I have several signings at bookstores scheduled as well as radio interviews.

I think one of the most important benefits of a mainstream publisher is that “they’ve done it” … they have a formula that works. In addition, they can get you into stores that a self-published author cannot get into, unless he already has a huge reputation. It took a great deal of hard work, self-promoting and luck to get to this point.

What I have learned from this journey is not to give up. If you believe in yourself, have a good commercial product and work hard, you can be successful.

While Leo J. Maloney was serving in the army in 1966, he was recruited by a United States government clandestine agency and received highly specialized Black Ops training. Among his assignments in the decades that followed were asset extraction, espionage, and numerous missions still too secret to divulge. Now retired, he lives in the Boston area. To learn more, please visit LEOJMALONEY.COM.

TERMINATION ORDERS: Once a trained killer for the CIA, Dan Morgan has built a new life for himself. But when he receives a desperate plea from his former Black Ops partner - reportedly killed in a foreign battle zone - he flies to help. It should be a routine mission, extracting a human asset from the region. But it's not routine; it's an ambush. Now Morgan is running for his life, holding crucial evidence. With his contacts dead and family in danger, Morgan must take on a full-scale conspiracy in the highest echelons of a vast global network that plays by its own rules - when it suits them. For Dan Morgan, it's about to come to an end in Washington, D.C., on a national stage, in the crosshairs of a killer...

An Agent's Update on Thrillerfest

by Josh Getzler

Update:

Agentfest was, as anticipated, fascinating. I met with more than thirty writers in 2 1/2 hours yesterday, and as always came out of it with an admittedly self-selecting and small sample-sized idea of What Folks Are Writing These Days.

1) Lots of financial thrillers. People in banks, businesses, large corporations dealing with financial malfeasance and conspiracy. Which is just fine with me! 

2) Somewhat unusual settings, frequently dealing with jungles in South America and Africa.

3) Still a TON of terrorism stories, mostly dealing with Islamists and the CIA. More often than before they're set in the US, and frequently have Muslim-Americans as the antagonists. These blend together, frankly, and need to be beyond-super in order to have a chance.

4) More YA thrillers--a good thing, in my opinion. Very fertile ground.

Now, for the other side: what I didn't see:

1) Nazis. Almost a complete absence of WW2 books.

2) Old-fashioned Spy novels. These days, it's mostly CIA agents or ex-CIA, often disgraced or alcoholic and not smooth or suave. Which is a shame--the new kind isn't as sexy as the old.

3) I didn't see any romantic suspense at all. Very few female protags, which, in my mind, is a real shame. There were several people who pitched me where I would have been a lot more excited if their protag had been a badass woman than a middle aged depressed guy.

As always, I was impressed and heartened by the general good cheer exhibited by the authors--everyone showed up with a smile and a handshake, and there was little grumbling over waiting time. Thanks to all the organizers for your hard work, and to the authors for your patience and perseverance.

Thrillerfest: An Agent’s Perspective

By Josh Getzler

In around a half hour, I’m going to hitch up my pants, get on the subway, and head to the Hyatt above Grand Central Station. I’m going to Agentfest, the two-and-a-half-hour breathless sprint of queries that opens the three-day Thrillerfest conference with an event that combines the most harrowing elements of speed-dating (movement every three minutes, trying to look good and differentiate your story from everyone else’s) with the same odds of success. But as with speed-dating, what everyone hears is the success stories, and they do happen—every year a couple of authors stand out from the pack and receive offers of representation based on their presentations.

I always enjoy Agentfest. Yes, it’s a bit of a grind to sit for an extended period of time and be bombarded with pitches. And they do start to melt together after a certain point. But for several reasons I enjoy it nonetheless, and that’s what I want to write about today.

1)      It tells me, for better or worse, what people are writing these days. Every year I go to Thrillerfest, and every year at the cocktail party afterward, my agent colleagues and I have a drink and say “Yep, gonna see a lot of medical thrillers/Jack Reacher spinoffs/Basdass Tattooed women the next few months.” One year it was people searching for their Grandparents’ art which had been confiscated by the Nazis. Another year, bioterrorism.

2)      It tells me, for better or worse, what people aren’t writing these days. I’ve been surprised the last few years how few straight ahead spy novels I was seeing. Or historical thrillers. The worm had clearly turned on relic quests after all the years of Da Vinci wanna-bes.

3)      It’s always encouraging to see the community of crime fiction writers. I’ve had a certain amount of contact with authors in other genres. But I haven’t seen a group of people as consistently supportive of each other—and of prospective members of the Published Author club—than crime writers. They are, with very few exceptions, friendly and generous with advice, reads and blurbs. And while the Agentfest authors can sometimes look haunted, nervous and in need of a stiff drink (which they all get at the cocktail party, see above), they are an optimistic, interesting bunch.

4)      I know that I’ll get my money’s worth. For the two and a half hours I’m sitting at AgentFest, I know that everyone who’s standing in front of my will, at least theoretically, have something I could represent. I work on crime fiction. And while I like historical thrillers better than Key West procedurals, and Tudors better than the Civil War West, most of the people are at least playing in my sandbox. And so I go, hoping that I will be seduced, that my seventeenth three minute meeting (or my forty-third, or my sixth), will be the One I take home. My wife and kids might be a bit nonplussed, but, you know, metaphor…

I’ll update this post after I’m done with Agentfest, with Lessons Learned.

Josh Getzler is partner at HSG Agency, and represents more than 30 authors, including Joshua Gaylord/Alden Bell (THE REAPERS ARE THE ANGELS), Cali Yost (Work+Life Fit and TWEAK— forthcoming from Center Street), and Gerald Elias (DEVIL’S TRILL and DANSE MACABRE—Minotaur Books).