"You were nice enough to give me some advice and feedback on my manuscript, and I was wondering if you would give me advice about where else to submit it? And if I paid you, would you edit it for me? I'm very busy--as I imagine you are too--and I really don't have the time to research publishers and agents or join a critique group. Isn't there was a quicker way to go about this process?"
You mean a magical highway that allows you to skip all the work of publishing and go straight to "being published"? Of course there is. It's called "self-publishing." It's a highway paved with your money, but there's no tedious research and no pesky critique.
Of course, past the "Now Entering Published Authorhood" sign, the highway stops very suddenly against two brick walls called "No National Exposure" and "Nobody Wants to Buy Such Amateur Crap," but if all you care about is having something to pass around to your friends, my best wishes go with you.
...But maybe you want to join the ranks of genuinely published authors, who are paid for their work. In that case remember that editors know a lot of the hardworking authors who have fought their way through the publishing process and earned the places they now hold. Next to them, you sound like a real whiner.
My question is this:
ReplyDeleteWhy does the traditional publishing process HAVE to be so tedious and set up the way it is. There is no law written in the sky which states so.