Ceara Comeau's Blog: Lessons From A Struggling Writer - Posts Tagged "publishing"
Publishing
In my previous posts, I've expressed how challenging writing can be. But, that's only half the battle. The real difficulty begins when you go to publish.
Years ago, a writer could only publish their manuscripts through a traditional publisher, but with the 21st century comes self-publishing. A writer no longer needs to beg an agent to take a look at their manuscript. The writer is their own publisher...sounds great! Right? Well it depends.
Self-publishing and traditional publishing have their pros and cons. Traditional publishing comes with their own editors and cover artists and the agent who you get will work with you to make your book "best-selling" material. But, it takes months just for an agent to return your email and sometimes the answer is a rejection...sometimes they won't even respond and you have to take that as a rejection. If you're like me and were rejected by about 100 agents, don't worry, because self-publishing is just as real as the traditional way.
In fact, in some ways it feels more fulfilling. Although, in my opinion, self-publishing is much harder than the traditional way. Sure it might be faster depending on how you do it. But you have to format your own book, look for the right cover, edit it over and over again, and do a bit of extra marketing.
What it boils down to is this. If you have a book worth reading, prove it to the world! You definitely don't need an agent to be accepted. They are only of the small minority of people and even if you can't land an agent, that doesn't mean your book isn't good. It just means you have yet to find YOUR group of readers. Trust me, they're out there!
Years ago, a writer could only publish their manuscripts through a traditional publisher, but with the 21st century comes self-publishing. A writer no longer needs to beg an agent to take a look at their manuscript. The writer is their own publisher...sounds great! Right? Well it depends.
Self-publishing and traditional publishing have their pros and cons. Traditional publishing comes with their own editors and cover artists and the agent who you get will work with you to make your book "best-selling" material. But, it takes months just for an agent to return your email and sometimes the answer is a rejection...sometimes they won't even respond and you have to take that as a rejection. If you're like me and were rejected by about 100 agents, don't worry, because self-publishing is just as real as the traditional way.
In fact, in some ways it feels more fulfilling. Although, in my opinion, self-publishing is much harder than the traditional way. Sure it might be faster depending on how you do it. But you have to format your own book, look for the right cover, edit it over and over again, and do a bit of extra marketing.
What it boils down to is this. If you have a book worth reading, prove it to the world! You definitely don't need an agent to be accepted. They are only of the small minority of people and even if you can't land an agent, that doesn't mean your book isn't good. It just means you have yet to find YOUR group of readers. Trust me, they're out there!
Hand in Hand
A couple of years ago, I created a YouTube channel to review other indie author books. Sadly, life happened and I began to neglect my channel. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I got some serious encouragement/reality check from an unlikely source.
I was working at my 9-5 job and was organizing things in the backroom when my co-worker/manager above me came in. We started to chat a bit about nothing super important and somehow, we got onto the topic of internet videos. (I’m pretty sure the conversation involved Tick Tock as that’s one of his favorite things). Something inside me compelled me to talk to him about my dormant YouTube channel and his eyes pretty much lit up. It was honestly pretty funny. He took a break from work and looked at all my past videos. He then came back to me and said, “You’ve got to keep doing this!”. Even though he isn’t much into books, he thought the book review video concept was pretty amazing. And although his encouragement was super heartwarming and helpful, it’s what he said next that gave me an epiphany.
“You’re fighting against thousands of other writers. It’s a tough thing to do [write]. You can also go somewhere with these videos. I haven’t read your books, but from what I’ve been told [by another coworker], they’re pretty good. I can’t say you’ll become the next best-selling author, but I believe in you.” I can’t remember all that was said, but that is what hit me the most.
Then I started reflecting back on the videos and what he said. He’s right, all writers have it tough and we all need that one person that believes in us whether we become best-selling authors or not. That’s why I’ve decided to resurrect my channel.
I am always hearing (and guilty of saying), “Please review my book!”. Why do I feel guilty for saying it? Because before now, I wasn’t dedicated to helping my fellow author out by reviewing their work loyally. See, as indie authors, we hope people will review our stuff but how often do we actually think of reviewing “Sally” on Facebook who just asked for the same thing of her latest novel?
It was once suggested of me that I review popular books to get my channel huge. And, there’s a very good reason that I don’t. A LOT of people review books like, “Harry Potter”, “Maze Runner”, “Lord of the Rings”, to name a few. Those authors don’t even NEED reviews at this point let alone care to have them. Indie authors who have self-published through Amazon or through independent publishers DO! Most of those people are like me and are still working full-time jobs just trying to make ends meet, while at the same time trying to keep their author dream alive. Does this mean I won’t read popular books? Heck no, in fact, most of my bookshelves are caving in with the number of “popular” books I have.
I want to challenge you this year; this decade even. If you’re an indie author, practice what you preach. Get to know the author behind the book. Look up their website, PURCHASE, the author’s book, and ask them where’s the best way to post your review. Show your fellow indie author you believe in them! If we don’t speak up for our writing minority, who will?
I was working at my 9-5 job and was organizing things in the backroom when my co-worker/manager above me came in. We started to chat a bit about nothing super important and somehow, we got onto the topic of internet videos. (I’m pretty sure the conversation involved Tick Tock as that’s one of his favorite things). Something inside me compelled me to talk to him about my dormant YouTube channel and his eyes pretty much lit up. It was honestly pretty funny. He took a break from work and looked at all my past videos. He then came back to me and said, “You’ve got to keep doing this!”. Even though he isn’t much into books, he thought the book review video concept was pretty amazing. And although his encouragement was super heartwarming and helpful, it’s what he said next that gave me an epiphany.
“You’re fighting against thousands of other writers. It’s a tough thing to do [write]. You can also go somewhere with these videos. I haven’t read your books, but from what I’ve been told [by another coworker], they’re pretty good. I can’t say you’ll become the next best-selling author, but I believe in you.” I can’t remember all that was said, but that is what hit me the most.
Then I started reflecting back on the videos and what he said. He’s right, all writers have it tough and we all need that one person that believes in us whether we become best-selling authors or not. That’s why I’ve decided to resurrect my channel.
I am always hearing (and guilty of saying), “Please review my book!”. Why do I feel guilty for saying it? Because before now, I wasn’t dedicated to helping my fellow author out by reviewing their work loyally. See, as indie authors, we hope people will review our stuff but how often do we actually think of reviewing “Sally” on Facebook who just asked for the same thing of her latest novel?
It was once suggested of me that I review popular books to get my channel huge. And, there’s a very good reason that I don’t. A LOT of people review books like, “Harry Potter”, “Maze Runner”, “Lord of the Rings”, to name a few. Those authors don’t even NEED reviews at this point let alone care to have them. Indie authors who have self-published through Amazon or through independent publishers DO! Most of those people are like me and are still working full-time jobs just trying to make ends meet, while at the same time trying to keep their author dream alive. Does this mean I won’t read popular books? Heck no, in fact, most of my bookshelves are caving in with the number of “popular” books I have.
I want to challenge you this year; this decade even. If you’re an indie author, practice what you preach. Get to know the author behind the book. Look up their website, PURCHASE, the author’s book, and ask them where’s the best way to post your review. Show your fellow indie author you believe in them! If we don’t speak up for our writing minority, who will?
