Publishing a book these days isn’t easy. You can’t reach out to publishing houses directly anymore; you first need to acquire a (paid) agent to represent you. Thanks to the advent of email, these literary agents get hundreds of manuscripts a day, so you need to win them over in about five pages. If you don’t, you won’t even hear back from them. (Or if you do hear back, it’s in the form of a template rejection letter.) It’s a highly-subjective industry, so much so that many famous authors have accumulated sacks of rejection letters before their manuscripts are ever even touched. And, as is the situation in my case, if an agent likes your work, but you don’t have a significant social media following in this highly-competitive day and age, they won’t work with you until you accumulate one. Hence why many modern writers – myself included – opt to self-publish. It’s a grueling, oftentimes-expensive, lonely, and frustrating business to self-publish, market, advertise, and sell your own book in order to gain a following (and/or snag an agent for something you’ve poured your soul into).
Anyhoo, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my friends, family members, and strangers alike who have helped me spread the word about The Lightning Conjurer by buying a copy, liking the social media pages, sharing news of the book with friends, leaving book reviews, etc. Truly, you outspoken champions make such a difference in the life of an indie author!
Fondly, Rachel
PS – Good news – I’m about 125 pages into book two 😉