| 24 million adults in the United States describe | | | | publish-on-demand book, also referred to as a |
| themselves as creative writers but less than 5% | | | | vanity/subsidy book, seriously hurt an author's |
| have ever been published anywhere. It has been | | | | chance at being commercially published. Agents |
| estimated that at any one time there are | | | | were asked to rate their response from 1 - |
| between 5 to 6 million manuscripts looking for a | | | | significantly hurt, to 5 - significantly helped. The |
| publishing home. "How to get a book published?" is | | | | average rating was 2. |
| a question many writers are turning toward | | | | 28% declared a POD title to be neutral (a rating |
| publish-on-demand (POD) houses like iUniverse, | | | | of 3) and half of those specified that a POD title |
| AuthorHouse and Publish America to get their | | | | would only help if the sales reached a significant |
| books into readers' hands. About 45,000 titles will | | | | level, from 5,000 to 10,000 copies. Just a handful |
| be released by these vanity/subsidy POD houses | | | | of publish-on-demand titles have reached that |
| in 2007. Does a publish-on-demand book help a | | | | level of sales. The average number of copies sold |
| previously unpublished writer get closer to the | | | | for a POD title is around 100. |
| brass ring of a commercial book publishing | | | | The book publishing industry has never been easy |
| contract? Or does it bump them down a rung on | | | | to break into and these same literary agents see |
| their climb up the book publishing ladder? | | | | the environment getting a bit more challenging in |
| Writers often comment that a publish-on-demand | | | | the next year or so for unpublished writers. |
| book will at least 'get their name out there' or | | | | Combine that with the significantly increased |
| that a vanity/subsidy book will show that they | | | | number of unsolicited submissions agents say |
| are capable of writing a 50,000 to 100,000 word | | | | they're receiving and writers need every boost |
| manuscript. But do these types of books help a | | | | they can get toward agency representation and |
| writer get published by a traditional commercial | | | | the ultimate goal of commercial publication. |
| book publisher? | | | | Unfortunately, contrary to what quite a few |
| "That question was asked of nearly 60 successful | | | | writers think, that boost isn't going to come from |
| literary agents in the Power and Hill survey of | | | | a publish-on-demand book." |
| literary agents." | | | | There isn't a short cut to how to get a book |
| These agents' collective opinion is that a | | | | published. |