Writing and Publishing Your Novel is Easy, But...

Twenty-five years ago, if you wanted to write and publish your novel, you were faced with a lot of hard work, big expenses, and no guarantees.

Setting aside the actual writing of your novel for a moment, let's look at the other factors that go into putting a novel together.

You probably went to school or took some courses at the local college to learn writing. If you lived in the boondocks, no class for you. Then you needed an editor. This might have been someone at the local newspaper or high school moonlighting. You print out your manuscript, mail it out, and wait. And wait. When you finally get the edits back and make the changes, then you need to get it published. So you had to have an agent or take your chances submitting your story to publishers and that took lots of time and energy and frustration when the dozens of rejection slips show up at your door.

If you're lucky enough to get a publisher, then they'd fuss with your book for a year before publishing it and getting it on to a shelf in a store somewhere.

Compared to today, writing and publishing your novel is easy. There's software to help with editing. Cheap editors overseas who can fix your manuscript. There are DIY covers or you can make your own with PowerPoint and a cell phone. You can publish yourself on Amazon in a fraction of the time it used to take.

But, in the digital world, there are infinite bookshelves. Your novel is lost among the million other books being published this year.

So writing and publishing your novel may be way easier, but getting it noticed is today's challenge. How do you stand out from the other million stories out there in the naked (digital) city?