How to start your author career.

Let’s get started!

Ready, set and Publish! It’s easy! Poof your author career is perfect! Just kidding. Or should I say “I wish”. Let’s not waste time with piffle, but get right down to business.

You are here right now, why? Most likely because you are looking to make your own book.

I get it, you probably are just starting to look into this book creating world and are very lost. Or you have been researching for days, and weeks and are ready to quit. 

You are the reason this blog exists!

In this blog you will read: Tips on how to write your story for the first time and the Three Main Publishing Styles and what they offer for authors.

Tips on how to write your story.

You must have your story written before you can do anything. You heard me, Completely written. Does that mean it needs to be perfect?

No, absolutely not. We are talking about having a beginning, middle and end to your story.

Here are some Tips for You:

1. Know what person you are speaking in, and STICK TO IT. Are you speaking in the first, second or third person?

You can always change or add during the editing stage if your story needs it.

1. Get your story’s skeleton in place. Make sure you focus on your characters, the plot line and how it all ties together in the end. Editing will help build the body of your story, this applies to first time authors. 
2. Save yourself the heartache and aim for great, not perfect! Your book does not need to be perfect, ever. Remember your audience wants to connect to your story and it’s hard to connect with perfection.
3. Know your genre! Are you writing for children, young adults, tweens or adults? Who is your book going to resonate with?
4. Write it in an editable, safe place. I prefer google docs, but other authors love Word. Totally up to you. Just keep in mind that when it comes to editing, if your story is on paper your editor is going to need that and most editors want pdf or google doc forms.

 

During your writing process you need to decide which publishing style you are going with. Don’t worry just because you choose one right now does not mean you can’t pick a different publishing style with another book. I’ve seen some authors stick to self publishing with all their books and others who have self published and had a traditional publishing company pick one of their books up later.

 

This next bit of information is one of the most important lessons you can learn when becoming an author. So pay attention and take notes!

 

There are three main publishing companies.

1. Self Publishing/Indie
2. Traditional Publishing
3. Vanity Press/Publishing Companies

 

Each of them are different and depending on your book goals are extremely important to know about.

 

Diving straight into it, we will start with:

What are they?

Definitions: Self Publishing is when you publish your own books through any kind of printing or/and distribution system that is not a publisher/author services company.

Indie Publishing: You are publishing your own books on top of other authors’ books.

Involving:

Writing, editing decisions, illustration decisions (if needed) Marketing, selling, sharing, telling, literally everything is on you.

Big benefits of Self and Indie publishing:

You are in control and call the shots. You keep all the profits. You name the prices of your book and book budgets.

Cons:

You have a ton of responsibility when it comes to the success of your book. You have to do all the work.

What is it?

Definitions: Traditional publishing companies are services that authors buy from a press and they are making money for you by selling your books.

Involving:

Editing, marketing and formatting your book. Depending on the type of agent you get, you will still have to do some of the marketing and book promotion yourself.

Big benefits of Traditional publishing:

Your agent and company do the majority of the work, they tell you want to do and take some quess work out of the process.

Cons:

You have to query agents. Which could take months to years. Depending on what kind of agent and company you go with, negotiate contracts and you might have little say in what happens to your book, story and prices. In the end you might not have very much control over your book.

What are they?

Definitions: Vanity Publishing, also called a subsidy publishing, are companies that the author pays to publish their books at the expense of the author.

Involving:

Specific author packs, usually there are three options starting at a lower price.

Example: $1000 usd for the Basic Package: includes editing, illustrating and formatting.

$5000 usd for the silver package: includes the basic package plus basic marketing.

And so on. These packages vary depending on the company itself and what they offer.

Big benefits of Vanity Publishing:

If you know exactly what you want and have a price budget you can get your book done faster and with help from experienced people

 

Cons:

Unfortunately, there are a ton of vanity companies that take advantage of new authors and will take your money and give very unprofessional and bad services.

 

How can you avoid this happening to you?

1. By doing your research before going with any company.
2. Always have a good long talk with an agent from the company before agreeing to anything.
3. Do not let them rush or pressure you into signing up right away.

They will try their hardest to panic you into buying a package deal right away, Don’t.

1. Take time to think it over, really ask informed and specific questions.

Then when you have the answers you need, make your decision and do what you think is best for your book.

Warning: If you sign up via email for any vanity press companies you will most likely be bombarded with emails and phone calls. If you don’t want this but still want to talk to an agent from the company just tell them that. Ask politely and professionally, to keep you off all calling and emailing lists. Do this IMMEDIATELY! You’ll thank yourself later for it.

Now that we have discussed  the Three Main Publishing Styles we can take a look at your book goals real quick.

 

What do you want for your book?

This alone is a big question, you need to think long and hard on what your specific goals are for your book. You can still be writing your book while you decide on what goals you want to focus on.

 

Why should you think about your book goals?

Simply because without a goal or direction for your book, you will end up spinning in circles when you are ready to edit, publish and market your book.

 

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

 

Remember this quote? It rings true, every time. 

Your goal is to create a book right? Ok, what then? What kind of book do you want to create? What kind of marketing do you want for your book? What kind of audience do you want for your book? What do you want from your book? Money? Fame? Fun? A career? 

All these questions are important, you may not have all the answers right this second but you really need to ask yourself what you want from your book.

Questions to think about:

Do you want to be an amazon best seller?

Do you want to see your books in Barnes and Noble?

Is this book going to be a one hit wonder or a series?

Do you care if your book sells great?

Is this a serious career in your eyes?

Do you want an agent for your books?

Do you have a specific audience you want to reach?

 

What exactly are your book goals?

For example: My first specific books goals were to traditionally publish a book series, have a great agent for my books and to have my books on the Barnes and Noble bookshelves.

 

How many of those goals came true? Absolutely zero.

 

That’s fine, in fact that’s exactly how things were meant to go for me. I learned the hard way that I didn’t want to publish under a traditional publishing company. It’s just not for me right now, the self publishing world called me over and I have found the publishing style I want for my books. 

 

Back in 2019, where it all started. I had just congratulated a fellow co-worker on publishing their first children’s book. I was shocked and inspired. She had achieved a dream that I have been longing for. In my mind that meant only one thing. She had the secrets to becoming an author!

Long story short, we started talking. She showed me how to publish my book on Amazon kindle publishing, kdp, for short and in a few months my first book was up for purchase.

 

With my coworkers help, I successfully published “Grandma’s Magic Blanket” on kdp.

YOOHOO!! HOORAY!

Beaming with happiness and pride, as a new author, I set up a book signing at a local store. My book was well received and I got my first taste of fame as an author. It was an amazing experience.

 

Shortly after however I ran into a HUGE problem.

How do I keep my book in front of the eyes of the public? How do I make a best seller? How do I become a fulltime author if my books are not selling? So many of these questions filled my thoughts and started crushing my dreams. Will I ever be able to become a full time author? How? Come to find out my coworker didn’t have the answer/secret to author success. Now I was back at square one. How do I become a successful full time author?

 

Now present day I am currently on my 2nd book which is a YA, young adult, series. I haven’t found the answer to my big question yet but I have learned so much about what it takes to start your career as an author.

 

When I decided, no matter how long it took, I would become a full time author, I had no clue what I was getting into. I didn’t know any of this information, shared above. I am sharing what I have learned in the past two years. Why? To help you, dear author. Becoming a new self published author is a HUGE adventure that should never be taken alone. So I want to invite you to join me on this author career adventure. We will learn and grow together. Celebrating our wins in this new lifestyle.

 

This post was all about: Tips on how to write your story for the first time and the Three Main Publishing Styles and what they offer for authors.

 

“There’s something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you. Mine took me here, where I belong.”

Beatrix Potter

 

Thank you for reading until the end. As a new blogger any and all support is appreciated and welcome.

Write on~

Cecilia