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Paul Millerd's avatar

I think authors like you, not just taking one shot on goal, will likely become more valuable to publishers too. Having the track record of working with them will likely work in your favor too.

Didn’t realize war of art was self published. That’s cool.

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Kiri Masters's avatar

Love how you steel-manned the self-pub route first, because self-publishing CAN indeed be the best route for some writers, at various stages of their writing career.

You shared the benefits that are hard (though not impossible) to replicate by self publishing. Hey if you have the time, money, audience, and expertise to replicate those benefits, perhaps you should self publish. Most people do not.

For better or worse, publishers are the gatekeepers of many opportunities today. The “real” Best seller lists being one of them. A book from a published author is a simple quality measure that many readers and tastemakers will happily outsource to.

I think of it like paying my M&A advisor a percentage of the sale of my company. Writing that check kinda hurt. But they made me way, way more than that amount because of their expertise. they have done this dozens of times compared to me having never done it, knew what to say and do, and stopped me from doing silly things. Heck I may have totally killed my own deal if not for them. I’d choose to write that check every time.

The good thing is that authors today have a choice unlike in the past. So it’s horses for courses.

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