From A Writer's POV
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First off it is going to be sooo hard and unless you have a about $15 – $20 THOUSAND dollars on cash reserve set aside for your publishing and marketing then it will be even harder. Self publishing seems to be the way of the publishing world right now. Unless of course you have killed someone or you just decide to make something up about your life – hey that worked for a few Oprah recommendies!! That way you MIGHT get published traditionally. Or you can just hope and pray that the person with the power to publish you at a national house will see your book somewhere. There are plenty of people who get signed large music contracts from just being on YouTube for crying out loud so why not the publishing world right? —- Maybe.

I won’t make this blog my next book so I will just jot down a few tips for you:

1. WRITE YOUR BOOK - nothing is more annoying than someone with just a “pitch” or someone with who says “I have always wanted to write a book so how do I do it?” well first off start by WRITING THE BOOK!!! And for those of us who have actually sat down and written a book be it prose or true story or self help, we know that writing the book is easier said than done. That is why I want you to start there. Write the book first.

2. GET IT PROFESSIONALLY EDITED!! - I know a pain and costly. But it has to be done. I have tried to edit on my own and let me tell you the worst thing to hear from a reader is “It was great but there were a few errors – but it was great!” All I heard was you had a few errors. And tha is all a potential publisher will see as well. If you happen to know an editor or an English professor have them read it and have them make note of any errors. Also getting about 5 friends to read it and do the same thing. But the best way of course is to get a professional editor to do it and that is going to cost you anywhere from$300 – $700 dollars if not more! A professional edit can also give you insight on how to restructure the story so it flows better. What you do want to hear from a reader is “I couldn’t put it down!” These are the fans who tell their friends about it.

3. DO NOT SIGN ANY CONTRACTS!!! - The publisher/printing house I use is Lulu.com . They do not require you to sign any contracts which mean all of your work is YOURS. This is critical! Let’s say that person with the power to get you signed up with a publishing house comes along, reads your book, and says ok we want you! Well if you are under contract with some of these vanity presses you will find it very difficult to make your work available to a publishing house. DO YOUR RESEARCH! Read the fine print and if it is unclear then ask someone because signing a contract with those vanity presses can be the biggest mistake of your life!

4. DO IT YOURSELF!!! - Ok things not to do yourself – Editing and Book Cover (unless you are very good at graphics etc…) but everything else do it yourself. Such as marketing. Look folks I know you’re writers not marketers but DO NOT fork over thousands of dollars to “roodie poops”. Don’t know what a roodie poop is? Well that is someone who “claims” to be a publisher that will market your work etc…. and will do nothing UNTIL YOU PAY FOR IT!! If you have to pay for it then you can do it yourself. Meaning there are presses who charge you Thousands of dollars for thier “publishing packages” that seem to offer all of this exclusive “like a traditional publisher” type of marketing but really all they are doing is collecting your money to do what you could have done yourself – such as bought your own ISBN, got your book on Amazon etc.., and even cover design. Unless you are paying for a UNIQUE cover design that blows you away then you can put text and a graphic on yourself. Just take a look at some of the examples that they give you and you will find that they are not that impressive. You want impressive then find a book cover designer yourself – A REAL ONE – now you are going to pay a nice penny for it but it would be something YOU did on your own and not part of some bogus “package”.

5. THIS WILL TAKE TIME - Remember that anything worth doing is going to be hard work and time consuming. Hopefully the people in your life understand this. First just writing the book may take you up to a year to do, and then publishing and marketing will take another 6-9 months. You will spend many hours in front of a computer and in front of people promoting your work, so get ready for every waking moment thinking about it. There is not a full staffed publishing house working for you. You have to do it on your own. I hate marketing. There I said it. HATE IT!!!! All I want to do is write, make a few appearances, sign a few books, then get back to writing!! But alas I am a self publshed author so I do spend alot of time working on my book and promoting them. And lets not even factor in my day job and family. So do the math doesn’t leave much time for socializing – unless of course it is socializing and promoting your work at the same time!

6. KEEP WRITING - I know it will be hard to be creative AND think about marketing etc… but you have to keep writing. Actually writing my next novels is my way of staying sane. I write. I do the promotions, then I write my NEXT novel. You just have to keep at it. It will be frustrating, costly, mentally and emotionally draining, but a writer writes ALWAYS so just keep at it. Remember as soon as you put pen to paper, so to speak, you are immortal.

7. LEARN ALL YOU CAN!! - Read up on the lastest in the publishing world. Read Dan Poynter, and get advice from other authors like you. Understand your genre. Get to know what are the going trends in it. Write what you know and write what YOU like to read. Don’t write for quick cash. Write because you love what you are saying and you love the stories you are telling. In the end that’s who you are.

8. And LASTLY: Be Grateful for Your FANS!!! - Even if it’s just one or two – you may have others but you may not ever meet them. Just know that if you are proud of what you have written then I bet you, you have a fan out there loving your work and waiting anxiously for your next novel. Write for them! Do it for them! Not a paycheck. Yes fame and money will hopefully come but I personally live for when a reader tells me how much they enjoyed my work. I love it when they interpret the message and characters in ways I never thought of. So be gratefull for your fans and readers. Don’t worry about the critics, you are an artist!!

Submitted by: Crystal Hickerson