Publishing a Book: My Experiences & Advice

So I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m a published author. Save your “oh my god”s and “that’s so impressive”s because I’m self-published. I’m proud of myself all the same, and I still have the title of Author, but people shouldn’t get so excited about it.

*My book is called ‘No Secrets: Eternity Series’ and is available on Amazon http://www.eternityseries.co.uk *

Anyway, I’ve written the sequel to No Secrets and it’s soon to be ready for publication, and so I thought it could be interesting for me to share my publishing experience with you.

When publishing ‘No Secrets’, I went about it the wrong way. My mother and I got excited about doing it when I was 16 almost 17 and we didn’t know much about what we were doing. We called random companies and they told us they don’t take manuscripts unless I have an agent. But we didn’t know how to get one of those…

Being clueless, we found an alternative that was favourable at the time. A company called Author House are an American publishing house, who self-publish books for authors. For a fee. Long story short, I went with this company, spent a lot of money and I did all the work. Like what am I paying you for?! I wrote it, edited it, designed the cover, the interior, everything! I have to market it too, and with a limited amount of money, of course that hasn’t been easy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve sold books. I don’t see the point in regretting my past decisions and I don’t think it has tarnished my career either. People know I’m an author, people in my area recognise my author’s name (some of them, as I went for an interview and they already knew me), and I’ve been in three news outlets. Nothing big, nothing impressive, but it’s something that wouldn’t have happened if I’d done nothing at all. For that, it was worth it.

But of course I’ve also learnt from my mistakes. This time around, I’m self-publishing through Amazon. Like duh, right!? Why didn’t I know of this before!? It’s free, easy and fast. With a click of a few buttons, my book will be published via e-Book. Through http://www.createspace.com as well, it can be made into a paperback and sold on Amazon too. Amazing, right? And did I mention it’s all free!?

But that’s the easy part. The right site and time and it’s done. It’s getting to that point that’s the problem though. I was meant to publish this book in September, the beginning of September. But unfortunately, I have been delayed. This is through no real fault of my own, and that’s the sad part. When self-publishing, as I mentioned, all the big stuff falls on you. You must write the book, edit it and design it. But of course, you can’t truly do that alone unless you’re amazing and can spot all of your own errors. So, you hire editors.

Either you’re willing to pay for an outsider to do it, or you enlist your friends/family to do the job. I went for the latter. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not bad-mouthing my friends. I love them and appreciate all the time and effort they put into tackling my lengthy, fantasy fiction. However, only one of my friends was able to read my full book for me. All of them were given the first half of the book 5 months ago and asked to finish by July, where they all said they could do it. As I’m sure you’ve guessed, that wasn’t the case.

I’m not stupid, or mean, I get that people have their own lives and, excuse my French, shit happens. What I didn’t like was that no one clued me in on it. When I’d check up on them, they’d give excuses. And that was hard to hear. It was hard to know that my friends couldn’t just tell me the truth, or value my dream enough to say “sorry, I’m not gonna get it done so you need to find someone else”. At least then I’d know where I stood. But no. Sadly, not enough was done in time. And I know someone(s) lied to me because there is no way all five people had “a laptop malfunction that deleted all their edits”. Yes, all five of my editors said that that had happened. Hmmm…

But like I said, I’m not bad-mouthing my friends. I know they were protecting my feelings and trying to help as best they could. And I do truly appreciate that. I’m simply telling you this story so that you think twice before asking your friends to help you. They’ll be great, of course, but you don’t want any conflict. It’s not fair to them or you. So consider paying a small fee for an editor so that it stays strictly business.

Apart from that, if you want to be a published author, then write. Write everyday that you can without any excuses. Even when it’s hard, even when it bores you – get your story out. Allow yourself to make mistakes and have setbacks. Do your research! I didn’t and I regret it. But you should check out what past authors have done. Check out what sells and what doesn’t. What’s a good deal and what’s a con. Know all about publishing. And other authors aren’t your competition, they’re your friends. They can help you because, well, they are you! Remember that. Need any help, feel free to ask me any questions.

Good luck!

~ Damsel