Pros and Cons about submitting to an Independent Publisher

....and why is that preferred over an agent?

 

Pros:

• One slush pile instead of two, like Homer said.
• One less slice of the pie going to somebody else, leaving a proportionally larger chunk of the deal for you.
• Independent publishers are more likely to take books the big ones shy away from because they defy genre conventions or are so unique they’re hard to figure out a marketing angle for.
• Smaller volume of submissions means your odds of an acceptance are better as long as you still have a quality manuscript.

Cons:

• Independent publishers have fewer resources to support your book than the major publishers, who only consider agented submissions most of the time. Less money for editors, cover art, marketing, etc.
• Indies don’t have the same influence when it comes to distribution and placing your work in the big bookstores.
• Independent publishing can be very volatile. Your publisher might fold, taking everything you’ve sold to them out of print. Getting all your rights back and finding those books a new home could be quite the ordeal.
• Agents can negotiate you a better deal than you’d get going it alone and help you avoid bad or predatory ones.

 

These days, I’m not sure the marketing difference matters as much. From what I understand, the major publishers aren’t going to spend a lot of marketing dollars on most books and are increasingly relying on authors to get the word out.

 

Has anyone here purchased many books from small publishers? I'm not totally convinced they've much more coverage than self.

 

I have for my library... but thats because I get an Indie/Small Press Publishing catalogue each month (which is actually how i came upon the 2 small presses that I was curious about). but they are rarely on any of the regular lists i get unless its slated to be a "best seller" and the vendor has over 1,000 on backorder