Why Attend the Pitch & Publish Conference if You’re Not Ready to Pitch?

BY SAMANTHA KELLER

The short answer: If you’re going to publish at any time in the future, you need to start making connections and educating yourself about the industry now. But here’s the long answer:

This April, my novel, The Light Remains, will be published through a hybrid press in South Africa and in the United States. I began this book while doing my MFA, which I graduated from 10 years ago. For many reasons, as many reasons as there are authors frankly, writing and publishing a novel for most new writers is a long process. Books take time to write and they also take time to get published. As a new writer, there’s a lot to learn about both the craft of writing and the business of publishing, and in my case, I spent years walking one narrow path when perhaps I should have paid attention to the turns and cross-paths along the way.

After two years at a low-residency MFA program, which I loved and where I built community and learned a great deal about writing craft, I left with the understanding that the next best step I could take to being a writer, was to secure an agent. While I worked on my novel—between family and work and life, and the multiple responsibilities we all face every day—I also worked on becoming a professional querier. I did short courses on How to Write a Query Letter, How to Pitch your Book, How to Secure an Agent, and How to Find the Right Agent. I spent hours on research and polishing and revision and more research and emailing and further revision, and kept a neat, color-coded spreadsheet (shout out September Virgos) of the agents I approached, when I approached them, and any response I received (not many). My primary focus became Querier rather than Writer, but I was convinced the only way through the gates of the ivory tower and into the hallowed halls of “published writer” was via an agent.

Agents can be wonderful. They love books and make it their life’s work to bring them into being. They’re often looking as hard for us as we are for them, but where our projects feel very personal to us, agents have to view them critically, in the context of the industry. What sells and what doesn’t. Once you find your match though, an agent can be nurturing and encouraging. Writers who have good relationships with their agents love them for all they do. Having an agent can feel like having your own cheerleader, as well as your own navigator, lawyer, editor, and useful hotline into publishing. However desirable having an agent may be, they are not the only path to publication, and not having one should not stop any writer from pursuing their dream of being published. There are multiple paths to publication. Arguably, from a publishing point of view, it’s never been a better time to be a writer because of how dynamic and accessible publishing has become.

After searching for an agent for a few years—200+ queries, a handful of manuscript requests, a large number of never-replieds, and no offers of representation later—I decided to take matters into my own hands. I knew I wanted to publish my novel. The energy of the book was sitting like a cork in the bottleneck of my future as a writer, and so I made the decision to approach a publisher directly. This intention took me on a completely different and surprising journey. Instead of feeling isolated while knocking on the high door to the ivory tower, immediately my writing community engaged. Soon, much lower gates into kinder places began to open. Since the novel is set in South Africa, I decided to try my luck there. A writer friend introduced me to her writer aunt and she suggested a handful of women-only publishers in Cape Town. One of the names on the list looked familiar. Via an old school friend I confirmed that our high school English teacher now owned and ran a small press in Cape Town. I reached out to her from the distance of thirty years and many miles and asked her if she would be happy to read my novel, (for which I paid a reader’s fee) and give me an honest appraisal of whether publication was possible or whether I should abandon all hope and start from scratch. Fortunately it was the former, and she offered me a hybrid deal, which led to an introduction to her US partner and the release of the book in the United States. Finally my intention had found some expression.

Hybrid publication does come with a financial cost to the writer, and this may seem like another ivory tower, but in my experience the cost was transparent and flexible. I was offered tiered options—some included marketing for example and others didn’t—and I could pay in installments, which made it more manageable for me. Hybrid also gave me the opportunity to work closely on the project, with people who were supportive and willing to explain the process and include me in the decision-making when appropriate. I learned a great deal this way, and the result is a published novel, with established distribution, and the support of a respected press.

The outcome for me was an experience that shot the cork out of the bottleneck in my writing future. In the months after signing the hybrid contract for The Light Remains, my children’s picture book, Are You An Alien? was picked up for publication, I published four short pieces of fiction and flash fiction, I won a short story award, and in a collaboration with two writers on a different novel, I managed to sign an agent. Whatever creative magic or self-perception was at play, there was a definite and tangible shift, and I began to feel like a real writer.

This experience taught me to consider each book’s journey from start to finish independently. To ask: What’s right for this book, right now? You may publish many books and each one may take a different path to publication. No route is perfect but all are worth exploring. Whether it’s the traditional path via an agent, an editor and a big-5 publisher, or a hybrid press. Whether it’s self-publishing, Kindle Direct Publishing, or direct-to-print, all options are valid. 

This variety of publishing pathways is precisely what we hope to explore at the Westport Writers Workshop Pitch & Publish Conference on March 21. If you are looking for an agent, the opportunity to pitch is available. If you’re looking to educate yourself about the pathways to publication, the importance of building an author platform, and becoming part of a strong writing community, consider a lower-priced conference-only ticket. It’s important and empowering to understand your options and find the one that’s right for you and for your book.