Most published authors who are Traditionally Published have to fight to keep their books relevant - the company prints up a set amount of books, sends to Book stores, and has to sell them every month or they are returned (and destroyed). They 'fight' by marketing the books (advertising) as by holding book signings, lectures (if Academic), parties, tours, paid advertising on blogs or social media, etc. Only the Best Selling Authors (who sell thousands or more of copies per month) are honored; some even have movies or computer games based on their work.
Self Published Authors (Amazon Kindle) have their books exist 'forever' via the company so don't need to worry about it disappearing unless the company disappears or stops selling a product (Cafepress or Fatbrain come to mind). Most have to market the book themselves. An Agent may do some of this, but not all have Agents.
Now as some of you may know my first novel was published by a traditional publisher in 1990s without my knowledge. I had allowed someone to borrow it for a few weeks. The book was photocopied. Then a few years later, I started hearing people converse about the book. When I was in my University, someone told me my book was published. So naturally I was upset. I tried to get the Campus Police on it, but could not. The USA Govt. read the book purportedly selling as a True Story despite my Classification as Science Fiction; they were investigating my book looking for 'connections to Middle East Terrorists or Iran's Nuclear Weapons' (from Chapter 20-21). They bugged my telephone and mail. They put me on a 'terrorism watch list.' They asked Al Qaeda if "any American knew of their plans for Global Jihad' --- in Chapter 20 my Fictional Character conquers the Middle East and establishes the Kingdom of God in it (a Biblical reference to what the returning Messiah does, but in Egyptian). The book was a best seller before and after I complained; first on the normal market, and later after someone said I died it sold on the Black Market from 1998 to the Present Time. I copyrighted the book. Criminals do not care about that saying it was "in the public domain" and no one ever paid me for it. The CIA said it made "From $900 Billion to $87 Trillion USD" since 1998. The CIA also said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Iran was planning to attack American Embassies in 2020. CIA lies. So I have neighbors (Chapter 18) who 'investigated me' looking for information that the CIA said, paying increments of "$30,000 to $40,000 USD" for information (bribes). IF this is not enough to stay away from Traditional Publication due to Mistrust, then who can you trust?
My first novel was called Eye of the Pharaoh c.1990.
It appears in 8 parts in the film, The Mummy Returns, and in parts of other films or television shows and some computer games. Hollywood steals. CIA lies. Some Egyptologists also steal and lie (ZH).
So, if you want to be published you can either find a book agent that doesn't reject your work, or if impatient try self-publishing until you are discovered. You won't make as much money but you will at least be able to show your work or build an audience.
Mike Costa, 2020.
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