Should I kickstart & self publish or go through the agent-publisher route?

Brian Boyko · Oct 12, 2014

I'm planning on writing a non-fiction book called "American Politics Observed from the Mandatory Minimum Safe Distance." To sum it up, while most political books on American politics are focused on either people and personalities, or on policy, this book would take a look at 1) How policies are decided in American politics, 2) How policies should be decided in American politics, 3) How to get from #1 to #2.

So, here's my situation:

This isn't my first book. My first book was self-published, and while not a success, it shows I can complete the full book.
I am very likely to get a forward from Lawrence Lessig (an expert - THE expert, really - in this field) because of my friendship & work with him on the Mayday PAC
I have no experience with getting an agent or publishing, but I *do* have experience with social media promotion.

If I went the Kickstarter route, it would be used to hire a professional editor and to get a cartoonist to illustrate key points. (Zach Weinersmith of SMBC-Comics.com has expressed interest.)

The problem is that while I think there would be interest in the book, I don't know if publishers would *see* that there would be enough interest to not only pick up the book but also to promote it.

What I may do is self-publish this one using kickstarter and then when I write Book #3, whatever that is, it'll be done through traditional publishing, having "proven" my marketability if this is a success...

What do you guys think?

girlyswot · Oct 12, 2014

"The problem is that while I think there would be interest in the book, I don't know if publishers would *see* that there would be enough interest to not only pick up the book but also to promote it."

Until you query publishers/agents, how do you know? Unless your content is time-sensitive, I think it would be worth spending some time going through that process. If you do decide to self-publish, bear in mind that whatever promotion happens, you'll have to do it all. So you'll have to be good enough at selling books to prove that the books can sell. That's a weird way round to do it, imo. Not to mention that you'll have to be able to sell the kickstarter to enough people to raise the funds.

I have nothing against kickstarter as a way of funding self-publishing. I've done it myself. I just think that if your end goal is trad-publishing, you should go for that at the start.

Osulagh · Oct 12, 2014

Unless the success is evidently amazing, a trade publisher will probably not see marginal success from one book as a reason to support the next. In fact, because of your first book's "not being a success" and if the second book doesn't end up a success as well, the publisher might have more of a reason not to sell your book. Some editors do believe that the debut book is the waterline for the author. This of course if just sales history, and content and way of selling the product can differ greatly.

Crowd funding is great if you already have an established audience. Seeing your low success of your first book makes me question if crowd funding would be successful. While you might have social media down and people ready to help you (some for money) if you don't have an audience, good chance you won't get funded.

In the end, I agree with girlyswot; If your aim is trade, start there.

Cathy C · Oct 12, 2014

If you have a guaranteed foreword from a known expert in the subject, that's a pretty strong platform to interest a publisher. And, politics are always a good sell to the mainstream audience, which publishers look for. Unless this is a time-sensitive book (which could limit interest to publishers because of timelines in the industry), there's no real reason you can't send out queries to your top, say, 5 dream agents, or even some proposals to publishers that accept unagented proposals (McGraw-Hill Business springs to mind) and if there are no nibbles, go the crowd sourcing route.

IOW, the best of both worlds.

cornflake · Oct 12, 2014

Brian Boyko said:
I'm planning on writing a non-fiction book called "American Politics Observed from the Mandatory Minimum Safe Distance." To sum it up, while most political books on American politics are focused on either people and personalities, or on policy, this book would take a look at 1) How policies are decided in American politics, 2) How policies should be decided in American politics, 3) How to get from #1 to #2.

So, here's my situation:

This isn't my first book. My first book was self-published, and while not a success, it shows I can complete the full book.

I am very likely to get a forward from Lawrence Lessig (an expert - THE expert, really - in this field) because of my friendship & work with him on the Mayday PAC

I have no experience with getting an agent or publishing, but I *do* have experience with social media promotion.

If I went the Kickstarter route, it would be used to hire a professional editor and to get a cartoonist to illustrate key points. (Zach Weinersmith of SMBC-Comics.com has expressed interest.)

The problem is that while I think there would be interest in the book, I don't know if publishers would *see* that there would be enough interest to not only pick up the book but also to promote it.

If a publisher picked it up, they'd promote it.

What I may do is self-publish this one using kickstarter and then when I write Book #3, whatever that is, it'll be done through traditional publishing, having "proven" my marketability if this is a success...

If it's not...?

What do you guys think?

I think you should decide what you want to do.

Do you want to pursue trade publishing or do you want to self-publish? Your post doesn't actually address this question.

Your qualifications are at issue if you want to trade publish though. A non-fic like that usually requires qualifications.

Literateparakeet · Oct 14, 2014

cornflake said:
Your qualifications are at issue if you want to trade publish though. A non-fic like that usually requires qualifications.

This would be my concern as well.

Either way you decide to go, it is a good idea to write a proposal. You will have to have a proposal if you want to approach trade publishers, and it is a very helpful tool even if you self-pub.

Should I kickstart & self publish or go through the agent-publisher route?

Brian Boyko

girlyswot

Osulagh

Independent fluffy puppy.

Cathy C

Ooo! Shiny new cover!

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie