Will You Consider My Self-Published Book?

This is a question I get a lot in query letters. "Dear Scott, I am submitting to you my Regency romance, The Duke and the Alien Vampire Bunny for your consideration. This book as been self-published and has done really well, but I would like to consider moving toward more traditional publishing..." or something along those lines. You get the idea. Inevitably, the next question will always be, "Do you consider authors who have previously been self-published." 

The fact is, this is a pretty common question that is asked of editors and agents all of the time and the answer is always "Yes". Of course, when you hear that answer in person, there will be a bit of a tone in our voice that indicates there is a "Buuuuutttttttt......." that follows it. 

Sure, we will consider self-published books, but you have to consider a few things that we are seeing from our end. Remember that quote I frequently bring up here on the blog? "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." Well, that is coming into play here. When we hear that the book has been self-published, our minds start racing with a whole bunch of questions:

• So if the book is doing this well, and the author is making a lot of money, why on Earth would someone now want to start giving a cut of that to an agent or an editor?
• What made that person go to self-publishing in the first place?
• Was this book rejected by everyone in traditional publishing and they gave up and ran to self-publishing?
• Is this book doing so poorly in self-publishing due to the quality of the book and the author thinks simply having an agent or an editor will miraculously fix things?

Do you get the idea here?

One of the things I always say when people want to submit a book that has been self-published, or if the author has been previously published is to "show me the numbers!" Don't show my your Kirkus reviews or your rankings on Amazon (#1 in Kindle books in Regency romances, with Aliens Vampire Bunnies, that are set only during the month of March), or those 5 Star reviews that only 30 people have reviewed. Show me the sales numbers. Show us units sold! Tell us when you were published! 

I get it. Some people who have been self-published realized the made a mistake. That's fine. You can tell us that in your query letter. Maybe sending us "that book" might not be the best one to send at first. Send us your BEST book. 

So, in the end, will we consider you? Heck yes! Buuuuutttttt, just know, we are considering a few things.