Ten Things I've Learned About Publishing a Book

1. Everything takes longer than planned. (You would assume by now that I’d just plan on an hour to get something done, but no, that would be learning from past experience. Apparently, I continue to cling to the hope that whatever it is, I can finish in twenty minutes.) 

2. A Technology Glitch will occur at the worst moment. (Which may or may not have some bearing on anything taking at least an hour to complete.) 

3. It is possible to find any answer to any problem. (The trick is figuring out exactly how to phrase the problem. Specificity is the key! And um… perhaps swallowing pride and checking before wasting that hour in the first place.) 

4. Comparison is good, up to a point. (Comparing book covers to determine likes and dislikes in cover design turned out to be a smart move. But constantly comparing rankings, sales, followers or any statistic in which one might compare unfavorably, is not so smart, and steals all the good vibes. As a smart Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”) 

5. Investing in the product is money well spent. (Using professionals for the book cover and editing, plus buying a pro formatting program, definitely paid off in a superior product. The self-publishing market is jam-packed, especially with AI now pushing out books in a matter of hours, but it’s obvious, even to the casual eye, the books that have been thoughtfully and professionally designed and produced.) 

6. Marketing is harder than it looks. (Harder in a gosh-there’s-a-LOT-to-do kind of way and just when one thinks one might have covered all the marketing bases, oops! Something else pokes its head up, like those moles in Whack-a-Mole. Which brings us back to #1 on the list.) 

7. Friends and family can be surprisingly supportive. (It’s remarkably humbling when people support you so much that they’ll buy your book even if they have no idea what a cozy mystery is. Or if they’re not really readers. Or if they haven’t seen you in years or honestly, didn’t even know you’d been writing for years.) 

8. Never underestimate old-fashioned word-of-mouth. (It only takes one or two friends talking about the book in a group to start the ball rolling, so to speak. Before long, everyone in the group wants to be part of the excitement. It’s the FOMO--Fear of Missing Out—phenomenon at work. And it’s something to see! 

9. Reviews are a tough sell. (All kinds of folks will buy and actually read a book and rave about it—but find it intimidating to write a review. No matter how much you explain that giving stars is enough or writing a few sentences is fine, some folks just will not write a review. And then one must remember why one published the book in the first place.) 

10. Publishing a book is amazing! (And fingers crossed, you’ll remember everything you learned before you publish the next book!)

~Cathy C. Hall

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3 comments book publishing, Catherine C. Hall, Cathy C. Hall, e-book publishing, Secrets Laid to Rest

Is E-publishing Helping or Hurting Authors?

by Brooke Warner

The rise of digital publishing has completely changed the landscape of how we consume content. That e-books have surpassed and continue to surpass the sales of hardcover books has been newsworthy more than a few times this year. Most people, even industry professionals who ten years ago were prematurely mourning the ways in which digital publishing would make paper books obsolete, agree that digital publishing has actually revived publishing. It’s given non-readers a whole new platform for reading, and it’s proven that certain demographics—older women and professional men—are in fact buying more books than ever.

The question of whether it’s helping or hurting authors, however, is a little more nuanced. I’ve previously made the case for why all authors want to publish paperback versions of their books. And publishing a digital version simultaneous to a paperback version is status quo for traditional publishers at this stage of the game. So where the nuance comes in really has to do with e-only publishing. I only advocate e-only (by which I mean you opt to publish a digital but not a print version of your book) in very specific scenarios:

1. You're a business owner looking to build visibility for yourself and your business and you publish an e-book to use primarily for promotional purposes.

2. You’re an already well-known author who has a big following and want to publish something short and sweet (in the 5,000- to 10,000-word range) for your readers—and you know they’ll come.

3. You’re publishing a few chapters of a longer book in an e-only format several months (but no more than a year) before the full print (and digital) book is released for the purposes of gauging readers’ interest and/or building buzz for the bigger book.

4. You’re in the business of producing quick e-books as products, making use of key words to encourage impulse buys in what closely approximates a get-rich-quick scheme.

The above reasons are good reasons to publish digital formats without a print counterpart. All of them have to do with increasing visibility (i.e., growing your platform) or making money.

You can make good money with e-books, but only if you follow the low word-count model. If you have a traditional-length book (60,000–100,000), that’s a book you want to see in print. Because Amazon essentially forces authors to price their e-books at $9.99 or less, the vast majority of authors aren’t making big bucks off of their e-books (unless they’re a scenario #2 author, like Stephen King or Ann Patchett).

By the time you’ve written 60,000 to 100,000 words, you’ve put a lot of work into your book. I’ve worked with a lot of authors who’ve trimmed down their 100,000-word books to 80,000 and published the other 20,000 as Kindle edition books. Smart business!

The only way to make digital publishing work for you is to use it in tandem with print publishing. Digital publishing isn’t hurting authors, unless they don’t understand that it’s supplemental. E-publishing has not surpassed print publishing, and it will be a good long while before it does.

If being an author is part of your long-term goal for yourself—whether exclusively or in conjunction with what you already do—you need to value print publishing as king and use digital publishing to your advantage. Yes, I’m pretty much saying honor the former and use the latter. When you make digital publishing work for you, it will never harm you, but if you start to believe that it’s anything more than a stepping stone, or perhaps a quick way to make a few bucks (when you do it right), then it can be detrimental to your long-term publishing goals.

***

About the Author:

Brooke Warner is founder of Warner Coaching Inc. and publisher of She Writes Press. Brooke’s expertise is in traditional and new publishing, and she is an equal advocate for publishing with a traditional house and self-publishing. What’s Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author is her first book, and she’s honored to be publishing on She Writes Press.

Find Brooke online:

www.warnercoaching.com
www.shewritespress.com
www.facebook.com/warnercoaching
twitter.com/brooke_warner
www.pinterest.com/warnercoaching

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9 comments Brooke Warner, digital publishing, e-book publishing, print vs e-book, She Writes Press, What's Your Book?