As an aspiring author, you want to make sure that your work is in the right hands. In the publishing world, there are different routes that authors can take in order to publish their books. Today, we’re going to compare working with a literary agent and working with a publishing services company, in an effort to help writers like you find the right path to publication.

By definition, a literary agent is a person who works with a writer to get his or her work published. Literary agents receive hundreds, if not thousands, of pitches every year from budding authors seeking representation.

Before an author can work with a literary agent, the writer must first research and determine which agent they think would be a good fit for their book. Once they have picked an agent, they must to write a query letter. Through this query letter, the author must explain the work, talk about the plot, detail the book’s target audience and talk a little about themselves to showcase why that literary agent should consider working with them. Once the literary agent receives this letter, it’s reviewed and the agent decides if they’ll work with the writer. If the agent declines, the search continues. The cycle could go on for quite some time.

After all is said and done, more times than not, an eager writer would have to have already been published before a literary agent would even consider working with them. It’s becomes a catch-22: you can’t get an agent without already being published, but you can’t get published by a traditional publisher if you aren’t represented by an agent.

This brings us to publishing services companies. The biggest difference between literary agents and a publishing services company like Dorrance is that the doors to the Dorrance opportunity are open to most aspiring writers. This means that a person with a publishing dream in their heart has a much better chance with Dorrance to turn that dream into a reality and see that idea become a published book.

At Dorrance, your book will be touched by skilled professionals at every step of the production process. It’s this attention to detail and our willingness to work with most authors with “a book in them” that makes Dorrance the ideal choice to help an author bring a book to life at a reasonable cost. You choose the services to be performed based upon the level of financial commitment you are comfortable making.

Though we aren’t saying that it’s impossible to work with a literary agent, the process can be a difficult one filled with much uncertainty! If you want to put your publishing dreams on the fast track to reality, with nearly 100 years of experience in the publishing industry, Dorrance Publishing is the trusted choice!