Most people, like me, are not very good at selling things.

But according to what I've learned, there's really only one true thing about selling your book: You have to do it -  one on one, one at a time.

Unless you're John Grisham, you're not going to get a marketing budget, a promotional manager or personal assistant. You'll have to do it all on your own.

Your book has been accepted by a publisher. The hard work's over!

Well, no. You've pretty much just entered the Twilight Zone and that means dealing with contracts.

But what kind of contract you get depends on the publisher you're negotiating with, and you need to set your expectations accordingly.

So you've sent your materials to a publisher or agent, you've waited politely for the prescribed amount of time, and finally a letter from them shows up in your mailbox.

Chances are you've been rejected.

So, now that you have: a completed novel, a killer query letter and a short but riveting synopsis, who do you send these things to first: a publisher or an agent?

If you're like me, you ask people who have more experience in these kinds of things. And that's what I did: I contacted several published mystery writers on what they'd do if they could do it all over again.

If you think there's a consensus out there, you might be surprised.

"A Road Less Traveled" is a series of articles by Tim Broderick detailing the path to publication of his graphic novel, "Cash & Carry" (based on his webcomic Odd Jobs, featured at Moderntales and Timbroderick.net). In this month's article, he discusses crafting the synopis for a graphic novel.

In previous installments, Tim reviewed how he signed with a traditional publisher for his graphic novel and how he constructed his ultimately successful query letter.

Last month Tim Broderick, began a series of articles detailing the path to publication of his graphic novel, "Cash & Carry" (based on his webcomic Odd Jobs, featured at Moderntales and Timbroderick.net). In his first article at ComixTalk last month, Tim covered how he signed with a traditional prose publisher as opposed to a comics publisher. This month Tim dives into the specifics of how he constructed his ultimately successful query letter for "Cash & Carry".

I thought things were changing. Apparently I was wrong.

When Zuda released its contracts last month, I think they showed that the major comics publishers are more interested in acquiring properties than publishing books. As Gary Tyrrell over at Fleen said about the contracts, "Webcomics can do better and so can you."

A few years ago, I got tricked on a message board.

Someone posted a question attributed to Edgar Allen Poe asking whether writers need to know their topic. I weighed in that, yes, writers need to do their research or readers will not buy into their stories.

Later, it was pointed out that Poe was out to prove that, no, you don't need to have intimate experience of something to write about it and promptly described how it would feel to die from hanging – obviously something he hadn't experienced first-hand.

I didn't have a reply to that then, but I do now: