What Does It Take to be an Author?

Good morning and welcome to wwwblogs. Today, we’re going to be talking about what it takes to be an author.
Many people think all it takes to be an author today is to write a book and upload it to Amazon or any of the many other sites available to do this. That can’t be further from the truth.
Being an author in the twenty-first century means you have to wear a lot of hats. First of all, you’re the writer who pens fabulous work. Your characters are alive in your head at all times. They interrupt your sleep. They refuse to let you finish a meal. We all know the time we’re hiding and writing our next book is when people want to see us the most, but we must get the story out of our head before we go crazy.
We’re also an editor, in that we have to go through our work and make sure we didn’t miss an important plot point or spell a word incorrectly. Don’t rely solely on spell check. That works well for certain things, but not if your word processing program recognizes the word as correctly spelled. These programs will also slip right on past some misused words, because it’s part of a machine’s program. It hasn’t been set up to read your mind.
Proofreading is next on the agenda. How many times can we go through our book and miss the same mistake every single time. I have to shake my head at that. Because I’ve been so involved with my book that I see everything as perfect, which is why I absolutely adore my editor. She catches what I miss, and that’s the perfect symbiotic relationship between author and editor.
Finally, we’re a promotions expert, even if we’ve never marketed in our lives. We have to decide on the best way to present our book to the reading public. We have to figure out what materials to use and how to use them. This isn’t a perfect process and I usually redo my promotional tools at least twice a year, because you need to freshen what you’re using to promote.
That’s what it takes to be an author in the twenty-first century. There are more things we must do, but that’s a different post for a different day.





About K.C. Sprayberry
Born and raised in Southern California’s Los Angeles basin, K.C. Sprayberry spent years traveling the United States and Europe while in the Air Force before settling in northwest Georgia. A new empty nester with her husband of more than twenty years, she spends her days figuring out new ways to torment her
She’s a multi-genre author who comes up with ideas from the strangest sources. Those who know her best will tell you that nothing is safe or sacred when she is observing real life. In fact, she considers any situation she witnesses as fair characters and coming up with innovative tales from the South and beyond. game when plotting a new story.

Find out more about my books at these social media sites:
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