Most publishing advice assumes there is One Correct Path. There isn’t, and pretending there is has probably cost you sleep. In this hour-long conversation, publishing consultant Jonathan Baker sits down with Manuscript Academy co-founder Julie Kingsley to lay out every real option on the table right now: traditional publishing, self-publishing, hybrid presses, university presses, and the increasingly blurry space between them.
Baker opens with a pop quiz about four wildly successful authors, all of whom started outside the traditional system, then walks through exactly what each path actually costs and offers: advances and royalty math, how long the traditional timeline really takes, why 80% of advances never earn out (and why that’s not a failure), how to spot a hybrid publisher that’s about to take your rights instead of your career forward, and why “money should flow to the author” is the one rule that catches almost every scam in this industry.
Then Julie and Baker open the floor. The back half of the hour is unscripted Q&A covering copyright reversion, whether to requery an agent after a personalized rejection, what to do after 86 queries with no offer, and how to actually stand out in a crowded self-publishing market.
If you’ve ever felt like publishing is a maze with no map, this is the closest thing to a map you’ll find. No hype, no false urgency, just two people who’ve been on both sides of the desk telling you honestly what each door costs and what it opens.
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About the Instructor
Jonathan Baker View Faculty Page
As an editor, writer, and publishing consultant, Jonathan Baker has worked with Richard Powers, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Charles Palliser, John Lahr, and Jonathan Eig, among many other authors, and his projects have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Booker Prize. He lives in Portland, Maine.
At the Manuscript Academy, we sometimes hear that writers want even more than we offer.
With this in mind, we’ve brought on submission expert Jonathan Baker to help.
Offering:
Thirty-minute conversation about project.
(Here, you’ll discuss what is working, what is needed, potential comps, and even some agent suggestions)
Baker will then rewrite your query for you!
This includes two email follow-ups (revisions) if needed via email.