Go Indie or Publishing House?

 Like the song says; You can buy your own Flowers. 

Yet still we hesitate. 

Agent - Publishing House - Indie

Okay, getting an agent who can give you a 3 book deal with a movie option would be a dream. The question is; How often does that happen? 

A publishing house probably wants you to have a decent social media following. (Agents too.)

 Indie? Enough if you want it bad enough. Amazon and Barnes & Noble can get your book out there but you better be prepared to advertise and share the heck out of it. Build a website, an author facebook/TikTok/BlueSky/Instagram... and whatever other platform comes up. Be social and let them love you back. That helps sell books. See what other authors do and steal some marketing ideas. 

 Publishing house? Check them out in every way possible. Make sure they're legit. There's a lot out there that just want you to pay them. I believe the first rule of "never paying to publish your book" still stands. Good publishing houses don't take your money, they help you make money and take a percentage of sales. If a publishing house asks for upfront money, they're a vanity press. Not exactly legit and will probably publish things without the best editing which will kill your book in the long run. Unless you want to pay a good editor before going to the vanity press. But if you do that, why not just go full Indie? 

Back to agents? My dream was to get an agent to get me a big deal so I could just sit back and write more stories. Is that realistic? I'm sure agents make you work for it, too. 

Bottom line? Check it all out. Spend a day reading reviews on all the ways. Read agent reviews, pub house reviews, and find out what other authors whom you respect are doing. 

Homework makes the Dream work.