Still need an agent? + Notes on self-publishing + Don't get scammed!
+ August Meeting notes, September Meeting Invite
September Meeting Details:
Wednesday, September 25 · 5:00PM PST, 6:00 MST, 7:00 CST, 8:00 EST
Google Meet joining info:https://meet.google.com/wsw-pyuf-bzj
Notes from the August meeting:
Here is a recording of Jane Friedman’s Why Nonfiction Book Proposals Often Fail if you missed it.
The most common question asked in the seminar was about self-promotion. That ties into my last post on nonfiction authors and social media. That was a lot of work, so check it out!
- is here on Substack! She also has several other newsletters. I found out about the aforementioned seminar via her Facebook page. I appreciate her post “The Truth is, I don’t Love Books.”
Need a professional to review your query?
Book query review is a common service offered by professional…uh…author service providers? Writing advice sellers? Book helpers? Here are some recommendations:
Barbra Rodriguez
Book Proposal Review -- Receive broad feedback on elements in this essential document for landing agents and traditional publishers with a nonfiction book, and often, memoir. Involves an editorial letter of at least four pages that covers key elements to strengthen, such as your author bio, competitive titles section, and recap of the book's audiences. Investment: $800.
https://www.vitalwordplay.com/mission-meAny of the developmental editors I recommended in this post probably provide these services to nonfiction writers.
Self publishing?
Ah, yes, one of the 10 questions asked 100x/day in every writing group. Luckily there are a million articles on that, including this one published just recently on
!This question came up in the group, of course, but I don’t know a ton about self-publishing, so I’ll just share some of my thoughts with the caveat that I’m not the best person to ask.
I hear a lot of horror stories of self-published authors writing books that are terrible and/or sell terribly despite hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars spent advertising. But these horror stories don’t necessarily have to scare you away from self-pub—well, they scared me away, honestly—but everyone’s experience is different.
It’s fine to want to avoid the hoops of trad publishing just to have a book out there and go the self-route (but please ask yourself, why a book? They’re so hard!) I print postcards and magnets to give to my friends and family and to sell at the local coffee shop Fossil Fuel, with no big distributor, no protections, and probably close to $0 profit, and that’s fine. But, if your goal is just to have something creative out there without making any profit, might I suggest postcards and magnets? They’re way faster and easier to make than books.
Successful self-published authors
If you want to sell lots of copies of your self-published book, that happens too, but not commonly and certainly not randomly. I googled “How I make six figures as a self-published author” and there are at least a few examples from people who put out a LOT of books.
If you know of any successful self-published nonfiction non-memoir authors, comment and I’ll share them in the next newsletter. I’m not aware of a lot. One group member (I’m not sure if they want to be mentioned?) said they had much more success with their nonfiction book of essays when they got it back from a traditional publisher and went the self-publishing route!
I know Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a self-published nonfiction book that sold a ton of copies, but this year the author said he’s in $1.2 billion of debt…that’s more than the GDP of the Netherlands. Other than that, it seems a lot of successful self-published authors write romance and erotica, like the beloved Chuck Tingle, who recently published a trad-published book after a ton of well-earned self-pubbed success.
We discussed that if you want to sell self-published books at a trad-published level or higher, you must hold yourself to high standards, even when no trad publisher is holding your hand and forcing you to do so. Some self-published authors are willing to invest the time and money to hire developmental editors, copy editors, and cover artists to make their books the best they can be. They tend their craft often and take it seriously, and they spend a lot of time marketing, and functionally running their own business. Are you willing to do that and take on all that risk? Some make a killing doing so. Some still don’t. I do not know why. Someone probably does.
Some warnings about bad advice and scams
Aspiring authors are starry-eyed. I love that. But it’s hard to see clearly with your head in the clouds.
In this
post, freelance writer Natasha Khullar Relph says “I stopped listening to advice from struggling writers” as one of the ways she improved her freelance writing career. That’s wise. I recommend talking to/reading articles by people who have succeeded where you want to succeed, and if someone gives you advice, ask how that worked out for them, or whoever they learned that from.Here are some other things you should be cautious of when looking into self-publishing:
From what I’ve noticed, most authors are self-pubbed so you’ll see a bias in favor of self-pub in the free advice market. 100* people will tell you to self-publish for each one** who says to trad publish. That doesn’t mean self-pub is better, or better for you, it just means there are no gatekeepers and thus there are more people to suggest it.
*(These are not real numbers.) **(That’s me. I’m thrilled with trad. This group and this newsletter are trad-focused, so keep our bias in mind too.)
One more warning: I think scammers and less-than-ethical business people prefer to target self-publishing authors. You don’t have an experienced agent or publisher there to safeguard you from those trying to take advantage of your dreams.
Scammers and vanity presses put out a lot of articles on the benefits of self-publishing, sometimes publishing bogus numbers to scare you away from trad publishing and into their standards-free embrace, just so they can reach into your back pocket for just one more thing forever until you realize you’ve been had. Writer Beware has a big list of scammers to watch out for.
Be very cautious of unsolicited DM’s and emails, and don’t give your email and phone number to every website that says it can help you. If things are getting dicey and suspicious, consider asking an experienced mentor, or maybe join the Author’s Guild. Read contracts, and if you don’t know if a condition in the agreement is reasonable, ask someone who might know more. (Not me.)
Author Victoria Aveyard on TikTok warns aspiring authors of how common publishing scams and unscrupulous collaborators are in the publishing field, saying “This is life in the big city…vet the people you work with.” This goes for trad publishing, too, but if you have an agent, talk to them.
Now, if you are still interested in trad publishing…
Still Need an Agent? I can be your contact!
The prevailing wisdom is to look for an agent on Publisher’s Marketplace. It costs $25 a month, but I’m sure you wouldn’t need it for more than a month to get an agent, and $25 would be worth it for sure. And, luckily, you can filter by topic and the sizes of advances they secure. I want you to know that a lot of authors like Publisher’s Marketplace, so there must be something great about it. I just don’t get it personally.
Manuscript Wishlist is a similar idea to Publisher’s Marketplace, but it’s free. You can see my agent search results here:
As you can see, colleague referrals were the most successful for me. I also included in the chart above two people who gave an anti-referral, ie, they said “My agent sucks, don’t use them.” I appreciate them helping me dodge the bullets! That’s another benefit to the in-person community, getting more authentic reviews and evading the not-so-great agents.
So, as I’ve said before, my agent is open to submissions. You don’t need a referral to talk to her, but please read the submission guidelines and FAQs and be ready for a response ASAP. Here is the query letter I sent with some more info.
I talked to a few agents who were interested in my book Carcass to ask if they were interested in clients I could send their way through ANBIP. Although I didn’t work with these three people, you should note that they all 1) wanted to represent my book, a nonfiction non-memoir science book by someone with a journalism background, and therefore might want to represent you, too and 2) they actually got back to me about it. Two offered representation and one said, “Maybe, with changes.” That puts them ahead of the average agent, I think. They seem like good agents from my research and limited experience.
Luba Ostashevsky, Panda Literary
“I'm looking for popular science narrative by platformed authors who write for publications or teach at institutions.”
Represented The Other Dark Matter: The Science and Business of Turning Waste into Wealth and Health by Lina Zeldovich“Nonfiction: my favorite categories are narrative nonfiction, history, science (I love math!), politics - especially the progressive kind, environmental books of all kinds from lifestyle to science to adventure, business, and memoir. Most of my clients are journalists, writing all of the above.”
Represented Darwin Slept Here: Discovery, Adventure, and Swimming Iguanas in Charles Darwin's South America by Eric Simons.
A third agent who only wants private, personal referrals because she’s pretty busy right now. She’s open to fiction and non-fiction.
Note: if you want to contact the first two directly and you (at least kind of) know me/my work, mention my name (Kristin Hugo, and you can mention Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress and/or my book Carcass if you like.) If you want me to hook you up with an email intro with any of these people, send me some writing samples first. You don’t need to impress me a lot, but if you want my personal backing, I just want to see that you’re serious and have been serious about your writing and topic!
Thank you, and see you soon!
Thanks, I caught up and watched Jane Friedman’s video. Several helpful points, especially with regard to “making the business case” for your book.