I’m often at a loss for whether I want to seek an agent and publish via traditional channels or publish independently or find some happy hybrid blend of which I haven’t yet seen any compelling success stories. And having only self-published, I yearn to understand the traditional model so that I (1) know what I’m missing and (2) can replicate it as best I can. Debbie Weil has trod both roads and favors whistling to her own tune. You see, she’s published with Penguin. While that yielded an education in managing a relationship with a Big 5, it did little else. She sold roughly 10,000 copies of The Corporate Blogging book—a not-so-insignificant number by any means, but to Penguin it was tater tots opposed to owning the potato farm. And if you were to ask her today if she could redo it, team with Penguin over self-publishing through her own company Voxie Media, you’d receive a different response forged from dense steel that can only be crafted through experience.

In this episode of Bleeding Ink, Debbie Weil (that’s pronounced while not wheel) and I delve into this very topic. We also branch into audience building and the inner workings of book editing. It’s a great conversation. You will be delighted with her positive energy. She’s a smart cat—after all she did study English at Harvard—but she’s also humble. She doesn’t conflate her success and intelligence with superiority, rather she uses her life-experience to enrich those around her. I admire Debbie’s kind of people.

And to answer the enigmatic question of whether an author should publish traditionally or not, it is “it depends.” And as we continue to speak with author after author on this show, you will develop the necessary tools to make that decision for yourself.

Scott James clanked this out on his typewriter just for Bleeding Ink! You'll hear him recite it at the start of this episode.