Last week I was corresponding with an aspiring book author, Vicki, who is interested in attending the BEA/WD Writers Conference, which I help organize. She asked the following:

We have written a self-help book, neither one of us has been published before, and we would not be considered "experts" in our field.  We would not only like to sell our book, but we would also like to hold workshops based on the book.  So with that tiny bit of information here is my question ... Should we self-publish and sell the book through workshops or look for an agent and a publishing house to publish the book for us?  A grass roots marketing campaign through workshops is how we originally thought we should go, but then we always go back to the question of whether or not to look for an agent and go that route.

From what I have been reading the author is required to do all of the info gathering leg work, come up with a marketing plan, and then market their book. So what is the benefit of going through an agent and publisher?  If we are going to have to do all of this type of work anyway - why not just do it for ourselves? The agent may or may not help with some of that - they seem to mostly shop the manuscript around.  The publisher seems to print the books only. Or am I mistaken in the roles of writer, agent, and publisher?

There seems to be so much conflicting information out there.  Trying to interpret it all can be a little overwhelming at times.  This is how I have finally broken it all down in my head.  If we self-publish we pay to have the book edited, we layout the book, we pay for the publishing costs, we come up with a marketing plan for the book and workshops and we market them ourselves, we put the book on Amazon and a few other sites, we deal with orders and shipping, and we deal with ordering more books from our publisher.

If we go the agent and publisher route we pay to have the book edited, we do the market research on our type of book, we come up with a marketing plan based on those findings, we find an agent (I can see where The Writer's Workshop could considerably cut down the time this would take), the agent shops the book around and then if we are picked up - a publishing house publishes the book, we market the book based on our plan or a revised plan, the publisher tries to get the book on as many shelves as possible, and I don't know how the workshop aspect would work.

I guess the third option would be to self-publish and then when we have sold so many books and held so many workshops then look for an agent and publisher.   This route would probably get us closer to the "already been published" status that is more appealing to agents and publishers alike. However, I am still not clear on the benefits of an agent and publishing house other than possibly the book being on more bookstore shelves and not having to deal with shipping and receiving.

I know I dropped a HUGE question on you. I think we are just too close to the process to see a clear path.  So any directional advice that you feel comfortable in giving we would greatly appreciate.

I could probably write an entire book in response to this one question, but I wanted to be succinct, and sent Vicki the following.

I don't think you're mistaken about what a publisher does at all; it's true you end up being responsible for marketing, promotion, publicity --  and the burden is definitely on you to ensure the book's success.

The bottom line here is that if you decide to publish the book yourself, how will you distribute the book and get it placed in stores nationwide? (This is exceptionally difficult.) Are you willing to sell it out of the back of your trunk and fight for every bookstore to stock it? Plus, as you've noted, if you want a traditional print run (rather than a print-on-demand book), you have to pay the costs associated with warehousing, fulfillment, and order processing. It's basically like running a small business -- very time consuming and requires a skill set that's very different from writing a book. Most people tire of it quickly.

A traditional publisher lends your book credibility that self-publishers have to earn and prove every step of the way. And it's easier to get others to pay attention to your book if you are traditionally published -- e.g., reviewers, media, other professionals, etc.

However, if you think that 75% or more of your book will ultimately be sold direct to consumer, at workshops, then self-publishing is probably a smarter way to go. Then it really doesn't matter if your book is stocked anywhere.

That's a pretty brief answer to what is indeed a big question, but that is what it boils down to. While finding a publisher or agent takes time and effort, the self-publishing path requires the same investment -- if you're doing it in the best way possible.

Considering the brevity of my answer (and the many facets of the question), I told Vicki I would open up the conversation on my blog. Would love to get your comments (as Vicki would)!