I got a literary agent who wants to sign me, should I do it?

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Self-publish when you make a name for yourself.

>>8841772
>My thing is can't I make more $$ self publishing if its good?
No.

>>8841887
70% royalty if you self publish
10% if you don't

>>8841911
70% * $0.00 = $0.00

>>8841911
This.

The thing is, how much exposure can a publsher really bring you? How much of that money do you have to repay? (They call it an "advance" but it's really a loan).

In all likeliness your first published as an unknown author will maybe sell a few thousand copies, if that. As a unknown, self-published author, you might sell a few hundred, if you know how to hustle, and have a quality product for the right audience. Do the math.

>>8841926
>>8841911
You are both delusional and know nothing about publishing.

>>>/r/writing

There are unpublished people who've sent out hundreds of queries and would kill for an agent. Quit being a retard, op

>>8841949
wow what psychopaths

>>8841911
wtf i hate agents now

>>8841934
>/r/writing
Inform us, then, oh mighty shitposter.

>>8841918
Publishers do not market anymore.

>>8841926
>(They call it an "advance" but it's really a loan).
t. duped by vanity press

>>8842062
>Being this uninformed
>http://www.macgregorliterary.com/blog/ask-agent-average-first-book-pay/
>There’s a long tradition of publishers paying advances to authors, since it allows the author to survive while he or she is working on the book. This isn’t free money — it’s sort of a no-interest loan that will be earned back after your book releases.

>>8842101
Yeah no shit, the publisher recoups the cost of paying the writer by selling products. This is the same as every other business ever.

>>8842117
If you were the same autist with the "vanity press" snide comment, then I don't know what you previously meant. But yes, it's just like record industry.

>>8842131
You personally don't pay out of pocket to repay your "publisher" for unsold volumes unless it's a vanity press.

>>8841772
>can't I make more $$ self publishing if its good?
No. Unless you're very skilled and hard-working at marketing, have written something in a popular genre, and are lucky. The quality of your writing probably comes a long way after those in terms of importance.

>>8841772
>can't you make more self-publishing
You're delusional. No.

OP, if I could strangle you and take your agent for myself, I would. You have no idea how lucky you are, and you'd be a fool to pass this up.

>>8841772

I self-published my first horror novel because I didn't really have any other choice. I was accepted at a small-ish publisher and leapt to take the first offer I got. Turned out to be a bad fuckin' idea. They went under three months after my book came out. I never got an advance or anything. Sure, I got all the rights back, but when I spent the next four months querying agents and small presses only to hear back that they weren't interested in something that had been previously published or not respond at all. I even had nibbles from an agent who loved the manuscript (her words) and who had her minion guy proof the MS to be shopped around to editors. But in the end she lost interest. Despite getting some great reviews, some from professionals and one that even compared me to Stephen King, nobody was interested in selling a book that had already been "found."

So I self-published it, since I already had all the files and layout stuff. Got a new cover. Started pushing it. Wrote a few viral articles. Even bought Facebook ads. I still have not made a profit in the two or so months the book has been back on Amazon under my own control, but at least it's selling. I get a few hundred page reads a day on Kindle Unlimited. Every few days I sell a few copies, usually in clusters, but my income isn't going to be radically changed anytime soon unless the book finds more readers.

OP what you need to know is that the recipe for success in self-publishing is "write a great book" + "ake your audience aware of it." The problem is that "making your audience aware of your book is nigh fucking impossible even if you're a master spammer (which I am not) and have unlimited free time and money to dump into it (which I also do not). For example, horror readers. I have had a hard time reaching them. I post in forums, target ads, have done everything short of going to conventions. With an agent, you'd at least have a shot at getting your publisher to convince Stephen King to write a tweet about you and put your book on the map (like what happened with A Head Full of Ghosts). Not so with indie authors. Even horror fans in general just sort of tune us out.

OP, I'd say if you have a legit offer from a legit agent, you should take it. Not because of the money but because it will save you a huge headache and give you an advantage most of us don't have, which is momentum out of the gate. It won't be a magic want that magically makes people buy your book, but at least they will see it exists.

>>8842000
Yeah, self-publishing is for fucking retards. An advance isn't a loan it's an advance, you don't have to pay it back, if your book sells it covers the advance, if it doesn't you still keep the advance money.

>Publishers don't market
Not to the public you fucking retard that's not their job. They market to book stores who decide what books to really get behind if it's a new author.

To anyone with experience, how can you find a publisher for a really weird, weird book?

It's nearly done, and I want to share it and see if I can make money in compensation for this sort of work.

How do you find a publisher for something that doesn't really fit into a category of novel?

>>8842131
>autist
>snide
>uninformed
Don't take it out on me coz you had to pay Archway 1500 dollars for your shitty unsold books you retard.