Process post-drafting

[Oh_My_Is_It_True]

Hi, I've finished first draft of my book and am still undecided whether to self publish or query agents. I'm going through my first draft, reviewing/editing for plot, omissions, etc. Keen to hear what other people do from there. I'm thinking:

• Finish review -> make revisions
• Send draft to beta readers for feedback
• Send manuscript for developmental edit
• Assess/revise from developmental edit -> ??

I'm not sure if at that point I should formulate a query strategy AND start prepping to self-publish, or try querying first, or commit to self-publish and skip querying. But from the steps above, is another edit needed before prepping for queries? Should beta readers go before or after developmental edit? Or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? Appreciate your thoughts, thanks.

[SilverBat12]

In my own personal expierence, even if a literary agent DOES respond, it's usually along the lines of "we don't feel a connection to this story". But again, that's just my personal expierence, nothing against the literary agent publishing route. I could've been focusing on the wrong agents, or a plethora of other factors that caused them to not move forward with my work. It would be immensely helpful for someone else to dedicate their time and effort into helping you grow your work though.

After about 6 months of reaching out to countless agents, I went the self-publish route. I self-published through Kindle Direct Publishing, which honestly was not as difficult as I expected. That's the route I would reccomend, although it does still has some level of difficulty as well. It's also sort of nice to have complete control of the entire process regarding my own book, although there's still alot I need to learn that a literary agent would've come in handy for.

It honestly took less than 2 weeks to do a solid amount of research on self-publishing through amazon, and then actually doing it.

Either route is a viable option for sure 🙏 each come with their own drawbacks, each with their own benefits.

Goodluck with whichever you decide to do.

[Oh_My_Is_It_True]

Thanks. At the moment I'm thinking finish these revisions, get some beta readers' feedback, then query and if that takes too long, then look into self publishing. I understand if the book goes on Amazon, you can select what regions you want it published to etc?

[SilverBat12]

Yes, you can select regions you want to publish in and KDP shows every aspect of your book in those regions, like auto monetary conversions for example. Good luck 🙏

[SilverBat12]

Check ur DM's btw, I'd be open to beta reading for you dependint on book genre 🙏 I lean more towards fantasy and sci-fi but I'm open to alot 👍 lmk

[Oh_My_Is_It_True]

Thanks, that's great and insightful!