I see an awful lot of “new” writers who are beginning or working on their first novel length manuscripts. They’ve never written a book before, but they want to know how much money they’ll earn, how long the book should be, who are the best publishers, and more.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works.

Sure, there are exceptions we can name, but those are exceptions. The vast majority of us have to play by the rules and follows established processes.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

One thing I caution these new authors about is the expectation that their first novels will make the rich and famous.

For someone to expect a first attempt at anything to make him or her rich and famous is unrealistic and smacks of hubris. The first attempt at anything serves as a learning experience. In the creation of that first manuscript, you learn what you do well, what you need to improve, and what you really struggle doing. That first attempt teaches you that you need a lot more practice.

Do you remember your first time cooking or sewing? Your first time building something? Your first time driving? You weren’t an expert at it; you were a novice learning how to master those skills.

Your second, third, and eighth attempts might also serve primarily as learning experiences. Remember, writing is a craft. Mastery of any craft requires practice and, often, instruction.

Your first manuscript will likely be a disorganized mess utterly unfit for public consumption. That’s normal. Expect it but don’t be discouraged. Learning is a messy process filled with errors and moments of brilliance.

I know this from my own experience. I wrote nearly 10 full-length novels before publishing one. They were terrible, but I learned from each as I worked on them. As I continue to write, I continue to learn. Like any other writer, my skill evolves as I practice.

Learn about the industry.

Every industry has its own jargon. Publishing is no exception and combines other fields, each with its own jargon. If you want to be successful as an author, it helps to learn as much as you can.

First, there are three basic kinds of publishing routes: traditional publishing, hybrid publishing, and self-publishing.

Traditional publishing is the kind of path most people immediately think of: the author submits his manuscript, the publisher publishes it, the publisher pays the author. What uninformed authors don’t realize is that traditional publishers typically accept only 1% to 2% of the manuscripts they receive and generally pay a maximum of 15% royalties after the author has earned out his advance. The reason royalties are so low is because these publishers employ professionals to produce quality books, and those professionals’ salaries must be paid.

To heighten their chances of acceptance, authors must follow each publisher’s submission guidelines. Oftentimes that means seeking out literary agencies and following their submission guidelines. This entails researching publishers and literary agencies, learning how to write a stellar query letter, understanding standard manuscript format, and patience, lots of patience.

When it comes to hybrid publishing, the first two parts are the same, but the author pays the publisher. Unfortunately, hybrid publishing is rife with vanity presses that exist to exploit naive, ambitious authors. (Again, my personal experience attests to this.) Hybrid publishers also have submission guidelines authors must follow, and many also employ professionals to help produce quality books. Hybrid publishers make their money by charging authors for their one-stop-shop services.

Self-publishing is exactly what it means: the author publishes his work himself. Because it’s highly unlikely that one is an expert at writing, editing, graphic art, page design, and proofreading, it makes good sense to hire a team of freelance professionals to produce a quality product. The author must pay these professionals for their services before the book even begins to earn any money—and the book won’t earn any money until the author develops and implements a robust marketing strategy (or hires a marketing team).

Be patient.

Fame and fortune do not await every ambitous author. Statistics show that 90% of authors earn less than $1,000 in royalties per year. Many earn less than $200 in royalties per book total. Publishing books is not a get-rich-quick scheme, especially if you’re hire ghostwriters to write your books for you.

There have been and continue to be ways to manipulate the system to your advantage. One such tactic was “book stuffing.” Plagiarism, AI content generation, and other cheats remain threats to honest authors and their revenue. Amazon and other online platforms do attempt to crack down on those dishonest tactics, but the best protection an author may employ is to be informed and aware of what’s going on in the industry.

Many new authors anxiously review their dashboards for sales figures and wait on tenterhooks for royalty payments. They don’t understand that sales figures take time to accumulate and royalty payments are not made when copies of a book are purchased. For instance, Amazon pays two months after royalties are earned. That means royalties earned in January will be paid at the end of March.

This means a one-time marketing blast cannot sustain sales. Marketing of books and authors is a marathon, not a sprint. It demands repetition and ongoing effort to be effective.

Follow the process.

Authors who pursue traditional publishing and authors who self-publish follow different processes. I typically work with authors who self-publish, so that’s the process I know best.

1. Write the story.
2. Edit and revise the story. Use robust editing software to help you refine your writing.
3. Solicit feedback from beta readers and revise the story.
4. Hire professional editors. You’ll most likely need both a developmental (structural) editor and a sentence level (line and copy) editor. [I am a sentence-level editor.]
5. Revise the manuscript after each round of editing.
6. Write the back cover blurb and get it edited.
7. Hire a book designer. If you’re competent at page layout, do this yourself. If not, hire a pro. Remember, book design for print differs from book design for e-books. [I offer book design for print.]
8. Hire a cover designer. If you’re knowledgable about your genre’s expectations and are competent at graphic design, do this yourself. If not, hire a pro. Do not use generative AI. Generative AI is unethical and readers don’t like it.
9. Hire a proofreader. Your proofreader should receive the whole package: book interior and cover. Your book designer and cover designer should be involved in implementing the proofreader’s corrections. [I offer proofreading.]
10. Publish. Upload the appropriate files: a PDF of the book’s interior for print, a PDF of the cover for print, a JPG of the book’s front cover for the e-book, and an EPUB of the book’s interior for the e-book.

The process outlined above generally yields consistently good results in product quality, but don’t expect perfection. Editors and designers aren’t perfect. The quality of the end product also depends upon the quality of the author’s work: no editor or designer can turn dross into gold.

Every word counts.

In the last few days, I’ve responded to inquiries as to whether an author can do everything oneself. My response to those questions is to ask another question: Yes, you can produce your book yourself, but should you?

To determine whether you should produce your book, it’s important to ask yourself some basic questions.

1. Have you written the story? If you haven’t written the story yet, then it’s far too early to even begin worrying about the minutae of publishing. Especially if you’re writing a novel and you’re not already famous, no one cares about your book. Publishers won’t care because you have no track record. They don’t even know if you can or will finish writing the manuscript. You have no built-in audience of fans slavering to purchase your book. Literary agencies sell books to publishers. If you don’t have a manuscript, then they have nothing to sell. Write the story first.
2. How good a writer are you? Just because you have a wonderful story burning a hole in your gut doesn’t mean you have the skill to express it effectively. Even if you do have the ability of effective expression, how good is your command of narrative structure and grammar? Setting your masterpiece aside and letting it marinate in your subconscious while you focus on other things will give you a bit of necessary objectivity when you return to it to review, edit, and revise it. If you thought your first draft was ready for public consumption, this simple tactic of putting distance between your brain and your story will surprise you with the errors riddling your draft.
3. Do you know what kind of editing your manuscript needs? If you’re not aware of the different levels of editing (the basic three are developmental, line, and copy editing), then you absolutely need an editor. Can you use editing software? Of course! You should if you have the knowledge and critical judgment to know when the software’s “corrections” are actually incorrect.
4. Are you experienced in page design? There’s more to designing the interior pages of a book than filling them with words. Page design directly affects the reader’s experience with the content. If you don’t even know what the proper tools for page design are, then hire a book designer. If you don’t understand that designing for print differs from e-book formatting, then hire a book designer.
5. Are you a skilled graphic artist? The cover of your book is its more important marketing piece. A cover has multiple purposes. It indicates the book’s genre at a glance through alignment of color and style and imagery. It distinguishes the book from its competition via the same factors. That’s difficult to do. The artwork and placement of artistic elements (e.g., images, typography, color, shapes) all contribute to an effective book cover. Unless you’re intimately familiar with the expectations of your genre and a good graphic artist and understand concepts like “bleed” and “resolution,” then hire a professional cover designer.
6. Are you an effective copywriter? The blurb on the back cover of the book is its second-most important marketing piece. Many authors are content writers, not copy writers. Copy writing has a singular purpose: to convert a potential customer into a buyer. It makes the sale. If you’re not good at copy writing, hire a marketing pro who is.
7. How eagle-eyed are you? While understanding that perfection cannot be attained—you can always tweak things—a proofreader brings that necessary nitpicking expertise to bear in ensuring your entire book—the cover, page design, back cover blurb, and book contents—are as correct as humanly possible.

Of course, if you’re embarking upon this grand new project without any concept as to how the industry operates, there are other questions you should ask yourself.

1. Do you want to pursue traditional publishing, self-publish your book, or hire a hybrid publisher to publish it for you? (Yes, “pursue” is emphasized for a reason.) Whichever option you choose, do your research. For traditional publishing, look into the Writer’s Market, Literary Marketplace, and Writer’s Digest. These are chock-full of valuable information. For self-publishing, see above. If you want to hire a publisher (i.e., pay to publish), then consult Writer Beware for bad actors, those vanity presses that exist to exploit naive, ambitious authors.
2. How good a writer are you? If you have a wonderful story premise but you’re not sure you have the skill to develop it and bring it to life, consider hiring a ghostwriter. It will still be your story, but written better than you could have done. Or perhaps you have a really rough rough draft. Hire a book doctor to develop and expand upon what you have. Again, it will still be your story, just better than you could have written it.
3. How good are you at marketing? This is one aspect of publishing a lot of authors fail to consider. These days, regardless of your publishing path, marketing your book falls on your shoulders. Marketing encompasses direct sales, social media outreach, promotions, and paid advertisements. If you’re skilled at marketing, more power to you! Put those skills to good use!

Publishers employ teams of professionals to produce quality books. Not perfect books, quality books. If you decide to self-publish, there’s no shame in hiring a team of professional freelancers to perform those tasks you either cannot do or don’t already do well.

DON’T FORGET AMAZON PRIME DAYS: OCT. 7 & 8

This big day for retail sales is almost like the Friday following Thanksgiving, which opens up the holiday sales season. This year Amazon Prime Days are on October 7 and 8. Sellers on the world’s most ubiquitous online commercial platform will be offering discounts and incentives to boost sales of their merchandise. That includes authors.

To that end, four of my books will be discounted to 99¢ (e-book format only):

• The Falcon of Imenotash (fantasy)
• The Eagle at Dawn (paranormal romance)
• Hogtied (MC romance)
• Shot from the Hip (western).

For less than a buck, you can’t go wrong. Give them a try!