From the last two posts, we can summarise that while making a self-published career successful is a lot of work, it's actually not that much more work than making a successful traditionally-published career. You still have to do a lot of the same things, you swap once set of annoyances for another, and trade brick-and-mortar sales for more control and a bigger cut of the pie (though it may well be a smaller pie).

So far, it seems largely a question of how much work you want to do by yourself. Does the idea of designing, producing and selling your own books excite you, or fill you with dread? Does the notion of asking permission from hundreds of gatekeepers if they would deign to consider your work offend or inspire? Do you long to see your work on the shelves of B&N, or would you happily watch the numbers roll into your paypal account?

Who said it had to be either/or?

Both paths have their advantages and disadvantages, but there's no reason they have to be mutually exclusive. Self-publishing doesn't automatically disqualify you from the traditional route - indeed, many successful self-publishers are picked up and re-published by traditional means, and if publishers allow the rights to lapse, there's no reason you can republish the work yourself.

In fact, working both into your business plan may well be the most efficient use of your work. Many writers making the mistake of thinking their story is a one-shot sale. But with the arena of rights available for sale and resale, a single story - short, mid-length or otherwise - can make you money several times over.

Short works (stories and/or poetry)

Short works have perhaps the longest potential path. It all depends on what rights you sell when. There are thousands of competitions around the world for short stories and poetry, but almost all of them require the work to be unpublished. Many of these competitions don't actually publish the work, however, so after your story has brought home its prize money, you're free to submit it to magazines for first-publication sales. Then there's electronic rights, audio rights, anthology rights, and any other rights you can hock. Therefore:

1. Competitions first. Do your research, make sure you know what rights you'd be giving up should you win (or enter - some nasty competitions take the rights even if you enter - stay clear of these) and make sure the competition follows your national society of authors guidelines.
   1. I usually give a story 12 months in the competition ring - depending on the competition entered, that's anywhere between three and eight competitions it's been sent to. If it hasn't won or placed anywhere in those, it's time to move on to:
2. Magazines and other publications that take single-short works. (Skip this step if your story won a competition that takes first publication rights.) 
   1. Send the story out until it sells. It may take over a year, and bring back less money than you'd hoped, but if you keep sending it out, it will eventually sell.
3. Magazines and other publications that take reprints. There are fewer of these, and they can afford to be choosy, but it's a good second-wind for your work. Also:
   
   1. International markets, if you didn't sell world-rights with the first publication.
   2. Audio / podcast sales. Get the story read on the readio, sell a podcast or release it for free as a sample of work.
   3. Electronic sales - offer it online for free / a fee
   4. Anthology rights - sell it as part of an anthology of short stories.
4. Sell if yourself online, either singly or as part of an anthology.

It's all about keeping track of which rights you've sold, whether they were exclusive sales, and how long until they're returned. Obviously, first-publication rights can never be returned, but almost all other rights will eventually come back to you, and then you can sell them again.

At the moment, I use a spreadsheet to track what I've sold. It's a tad disorganised, as each sale has a mess of different rights split up in different ways, and I haven't made the time to work out a definitive structure to handle it all (I'm saving that for when I incorporate rights management into SubTracker). Whatever method works for you - but don't just put a story in the 'done' pile just because you've sold it.

Novellas and Non-fiction

These are traditionally the most difficult areas to get a traditional sale in, especially if it's a niche non-fiction area. However, the very nichness of it can be a boon for self-publishing. The ordering is very similar to short stories, although there are less competitions going around:

1. Competitions, but don't wait too long on non-fiction, especially if it's a topical issue.
2. Main publishing avenues:
   1. Magazines and other periodicals that may want to serialise the piece or print it whole.
   2. Traditional publishers (especially for non-fiction).
3. Reprint avenues
   1. International avenues
   2. Serialised podcasts
   3. Electronic sales
4. Direct sale online.

Novels

Novels are still the easiest format to break into traditional publishing, but that's not to say that a novel rejected by publishers is headed for the recycle bin. And don't discount pre- and post- publication competitions, either:

1. MS-stage competitons. Again, be wary of the rules - some competitions, such as Amazon's Breakout Novel, lock you into an unfavourable publishing contract should you win, or may nab rights you didn't want to sell.
2. Publishing avenues:
   1. Traditional publishers - you'll have to give this a while, and I mean a couple of years. However, that doesn't mean you can't do anything with the novel. The most important rights are First Printing rights (World, Commonwealth and North American), so protect these if you're still hoping for traditional publishing. If you sell these, the book will have to do extremely well to interest a publisher.
   2. Self-publishing:
      1. E-book sales
      2. E-book serial
      3. Serial podcasts
      4. Print-on-demand (as mentioned, be aware this consumes your first-publishing/first printing rights.)
3. Published competitions - this is when the book is out and selling, whichever way you got it there. Post-published competitions often have a lot of stipulations (some are still rather rudely excluding self-published books), but they can garner both prize money and (depending on the prize) a nice boost in sales for the book.
4. Self-publish online - assuming you didn't write a great literary classic, the book will eventually go out of print, and the publication rights (if you indeed sold them to a traditional publisher) will return to you. At this point, (some ten or twenty years after initial publication) there's no reason not to sell it online, as POD, e-book, podcast, however.

You'll notice that each of those paths contains a 'traditional' publisher along the way (magazines and periodicals still operate as traditional publishers, just of smaller items), and they're all roughly similar, favouring things earn money without selling rights before the 'typical' sale, and following each piece up by squeezing out the last the rights have to offer. Several of those steps are repeatable - if your story gains a place, but not first-prize, in a competition, it is usually eligible for other competitions. Several magazines take reprints, and publishers will republish self-published material if it shows strong enough sales.

Making regular money with your writing is entirely possible, provided you're willing to approach your business plan logically and thoroughly, and do the work to keep track of your rights.

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