Let’s say you’re a writer who has written a few things that you’ve tried to get published. Let’s say you’ve even had some success. You’ve submitted your novels, short story and poem collections, or magazine articles to New York publishers.

After receiving enough reject slips to cover the walls of your two bedroom condominium you finally managed to place something in an obscure publication located 500 miles away from New York.

Don’t break out the champagne yet. It may or may not be a start.

It all depends on how well it sells, what your next “masterpiece” may be, and how well the editor thinks that will sell. You may soon discover that your first piece didn’t sell well and the editor spent so much money on it she’s not interested in buying another one from you.

And you still haven’t “broken into” New York.

Your initial elation at having “finally published” drops rapidly into the psychological gutter, and you find yourself back to “square one”. You’re almost worse off now than if you had never published in the first place. Other editors may shy away from you because you are not writing “salable” material.

Before you raise a disdainful eyebrow at this scenario, let me assure you. This has indeed happened to more than one writer.

IF ONLY I HAD ONE

“Ah Hah!” you say. That’s the reaction of discovery. For scientists it’s the word “Eureka!”

You elicited this reaction when you discover that real, published authors all have literary agents, and that nobody in New York seriously considers a book that is not presented by an agent.

You have also made the depressing discovery that the creations you sent to publishers like Harper and Row weren’t rejected by the top editors, but by an 18 year old high school graduate sitting in a small cubicle. Her desk is surrounded by stacks of manuscripts sent by hopeful writers. The stacks nearly reach the ceiling.

After finishing reading your manuscript, putting a canned reject note in the SASE you provided, and tossing it on top of the other stamped manila envelopes overflowing an outgoing bin, she climbs up on a stool to reach the next manuscript, located on top of the nearest stack. Three months ago, yours was at the bottom of that stack.

That’s why it took so long to get your reject slip.

To get your manuscript past this girl and to one of the top editors, you realize you need a literary agent. So, after submitting your manuscript to several prominent New York agents you discover –

They only take already published, famous authors. Ever read the novel Catch-22?

I’ve got bad news, which for you, probably isn’t news at all…

THE SELF-PUBLISHING NON SOLUTION

Maybe, just maybe, you can self publish. There are all kinds of “Vanity Publishers” out there, and some do it on a “print on demand” basis, receiving their orders over the web. Maybe you are foolish enough to have gone this route, in which case you now have:

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