The avenues for publishing on the internet are multitudinous.
An author can self publish e-books, or create print-on-demand books in a variety of ways, ranging from the bare bones do-it-yourself approach to paying exorbitant amounts for book design, formating, publishing, and marketing.
An author can self-publish or publish through traditional means, working with an agent and/or publishing house, who will most likely utilize both print and digital opportunities.
There is a dizzying number of internet sites offering advice to authors on how and where to get published. One such site, Marketlist.com, http://www.marketlist.com/ is an online resource for genre fiction writers, providing information on genre-specific electronic publishing opportunities.
I explore these sights and quickly remember my many former attempts to wade through print versions of the same information. I stalled then and I am stalled now.
There is too much information.
Given lists and lists of publishers with names, facts, and figures, I am quickly overwhelmed and resentful of the time it takes. I still can't decide who or where to send my work.
Even armed with facts and figures, I still don't know who these people are.
I don't know where I am sending my creations, my pets.
I don't want them to go just any place. I want them to go to the "right" place, and I've never been able to identify the place I feel is "right."
Now I am seeing the efficacy of the agent.
"To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person."
Hsin Hsin Ming
I have made a personal creed of working with what I have and going from there. This has led me to explore the world of do-it-yourself projects, but I can only get so far on my own. I do not have the interest, attention span or capacity for detail to wade through all the options and plan a course of action.
I had assumed that the digital age would negate the need for agents, but I don't think I will ever be a successful writer without the expertise and navigation skills of an agent.
Likewise, I believe that in the face of the explosion of digital information, the need for skilled librarians increases rather than decreases.
