Publishing Journey
I knew by high school that I wanted to become an author. Not everyone who writes does it with the intention of becoming published, but that had become my goal. More specifically, I wanted to be published by the time I turned 30.
It may sound like an arbitrary number, and it kind of is. I found that giving myself a solid deadline, though, was the best way to hold myself accountable to the younger versions of myself. It made it easier to uphold the promise to myself that I would one day have my words printed and bound more formally and available at large.
I was 26 when I started looking more proactively into how to achieve this dream. I learned that my dreams fell most in line with what the industry referred to as traditional publishing.
What is traditional publishing?
Most, if not all, of the books you read in school were traditionally published: the author secured an agent, the agent helped them secure an editor and helped bang on the doors of large publishing houses to see if they would accept their completed works and help put them out in the world. Some of the big names you might recognize are Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Scholastic. There are benefits to traditional publishing, like more resources and perceived value, that make it attractive and preferable to some writers.
How do you get there?
If you want to get traditionally published, you need to get an agent first. A literary agent is an author’s cheerleader and the biggest publishing houses won’t even take an email from you if you don’t have one. To get an agent, you generally go through a querying phase. Querying is a nice way of saying, You’re going to be sending tons upon tons of letters to potential agents who work in your preferred genre and hoping that they’ll give you the time of day.
The querying process can be very taxing. You might have found an agent who you feel aligns perfectly with your project and writing goals, maybe even personalities — just to find out they’re not open to queries at the moment. Or, worse, they might seem like the perfect fit, except they’ve listed one part of your project as something they specifically do not want to see.
Most of the time surrounding this process is spent waiting. Waiting and hoping to get a phone call or an email that an agent wants to work with you. If you’re active on social media during this phase, you’ll likely see other stories of success. It can be very easy for your mind to play tricks on you during this stage. You might think to yourself that maybe you haven’t heard anything because you’re not a good writer, or your manuscript isn’t good enough.
It’s important to recognize there is a very high chance that this is not the case.
The entire process of traditional publishing — from querying to launch — involves a lot of waiting and a lot of luck. Like, a lot of luck.
Luck isn’t something I’ve ever had an abundance of. Most of my patience is spent at my day job — because I still need one to pay my bills while trying to reach my dreams. Between this and my self-imposed deadline, I made the decision in late 2024 that I would switch to self-publishing.
What is self-publishing?
Before I get into that, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the secret third option: small presses.
Besides places like Penguin Random House, there are other, smaller publishing houses out there. Some of them are willing to take on direct queries from authors without an agent.
This is an option I explored midway through my publishing journey, but was just as unfruitful within my time constraints.
Self-publishing is exactly what is sounds like: the author does all of the work in securing an editor, purchases ISBNs, getting a cover artist, formatting or getting someone else to format the manuscript for publishing, and gets the help of a publishing service to get their books printed or made available as e-books. It’s the more expensive option because the author foots a lot of the costs up front before they can even get to having their works published.
I’ve done things a little out of order as I’ve navigated my way through the process, but nothing that’s prevented me from being able to move forward. I’m still not published, but I’ve come up with a plan through self-publishing where I can proudly say I will be publishing my debut novel — Body of Hate — October 2025.
Any tips?
First of all, I am but an infant in the world of publishing. By no means should you take my word as absolute. I also moved through things very quickly and already had my own goals in mind, so that definitely had an effect on my journey.
That said, I think if anyone wants to have their work published, they should weigh their options and decide what feels right for them at that time with their goals. If they even have goals — because it’s okay not to. Both tracks have their benefits, but they each have their own downsides.
For anyone entering what are referred to as the query trenches, I’m going to strongly recommend having a good support system and checking in with yourself. How are you feeling? It’s important to give yourself honest answers, too. I’d suggest considering taking periodic breaks from social media — as great as it is to see your friends doing well, some of us have a hard time differentiating the success of others from our own failures. It can be a very slippery slope, but it’s important to remember:
You’re not competing with other authors.
You’re networking. You’re making friends and learning about the industry. There is no way for one author to secure all readers of a given genre exclusively for themselves, nor should there be. Your stories and your words have just as much value as your friends’.
While the idea of being an author brings with it notions of isolation, you don’t have to be lonely. The more friends and the more support you’re able to build, the better off you and the writing community are as a whole.
As I continue to learn, I’ll try to share any other things I’ve noticed or picked up on — just as others have for me.
I’d like to thank two of my peers for providing me tips and support throughout the process, including J. Von Tobel and MJ Huntsgood. These are both lovely people and talented authors. If you have the opportunity, please check them out.
