10 Things I Didn’t Know About Becoming an Author
This blog post first appeared on Serena Synn's blogspot at https://serenasynn.blogspot.com.
1) It’s not all about being a “good” writer. Writing well is definitely important, but it’s not everything. Many elements go into creating success for a published book. It’s imperative to work on your craft, but know that beautiful writing is not the only thing.
2) Marketing is not something you do once or for just a short time before and directly after a book is released. It’s not a start here and end here kind of thing. You’ll have to continue to market the book for as long as you want to find new readers for the book.
3) You should market a book that’s important to you for 3 to 5 years. It’s a long game, not a short one, and you should do three to five things to market your book every day for several years.
4) Librarians will not jump at the offer of your free book. Getting your books into libraries (in most cases) requires that you convince librarians that their patrons will want to read your book. Same goes for bookstores.
5) You will receive some bad reviews (everyone does), and some reviewers seem to enjoy tearing writers down. It’s not fair and there’s nothing we can do about it, but it does happen. Be prepared. And when you get a mean review, go on Amazon and look up your favorite book, whatever that may be, and click on the one-star reviews readers have given it. Knowing that even your favorite book has received some zingers should make you feel a little bit better.
6) There’s still a stigma on self-published books. Knowing this, make your book as good as it can be. Do not indulge in a “this is good enough” attitude. Be better. That means purchasing a professional cover, professional editing, and whatever other professional help you need to create an A+ product.
7) Publishing is a business, and you have to spend money to make money. (See the above entry concerning professional covers and editing.)
8) Advertising won’t help much until you have several books published. The reason for this is that advertising costs a certain amount of money, and if you are selling only one book, you probably will not sell enough copies to make a profit. If you have several titles to sell, however, that one ad for your latest-book-in-series will help sell all of the other books in that series.
9) You must work very hard to get even a little bit of attention on book release day. Many, many books are published every week, so go out there and grab as much of the spotlight as you can. Organize a launch that does more than you think you need to do. Post on social media, hire a blog tour host, purchase professional reviews (if you can afford them), gather up a street team (a group of supporters who receive an advance review copy and review your book on release day), get a podcast to interview you, and don’t forget to text everyone you know and tell them your book is available. Pull out all stops, in other words.
10) The joy of hearing from readers who loved your book is greater than you ever imagined. No matter what happens, whether you reach the goals you’ve set for yourself or you don’t, positive reader feedback is an invaluable perk that will remind you why you chose to write in the first place.
Kim Catanzarite is the author of the award-winning sci-fi thriller series The Jovian Universe. She is a freelance writer and editor for publishers and independent authors, and she teaches copyediting for Writer’s Digest University. Her Self-Publishing 101 blog discusses the ins and outs of indie life as well as all things writing craft (www.authorkimcatanzarite.com/blog). She lives on the east coast USA with her husband and daughter.
