I get it. The market is tough. I just saw a post from an editor who noted in the last 8 months she has signed a very small number of new authors. And when I say small, I mean SMALL!!!!! She was excited because she reached that number. For me, if I can get more than one a year, I am excited. Now, a lot of you, this might sound like we are being overly picky, and yes, part of that is yes. But I will also say that a lot of this has to do with the quality of the writing. Now, you might be asking, why I am bringing this up with the title of this post?
The answer is simple. So many of you are impatient. If you don't sell that first book, but your beta readers love it, you jump immediately to the self-publishing route.
I get it, the alure is great. There are so many authors out there telling you of how great their lives are. What many are NOT telling you is how much they are spending to get to that total. What many are NOT telling you is that many are still publishing traditionally and doing this as a side-gig.
I am not, at all going to say that self-publishing is not a route to take. All three of my books are self-published. Why? Because I knew my market and I knew what I wanted to achieve. That is it. Was I out to make millions of dollars. Hell no! I did this for the first two books because they were poetry and important to me. The last one, NAVIGATING THE SUBMISSION THE PROCESS came from those of you who "ASKED" for me to write it and help you out. I priced it as low as I could. It is there for you. Not me.
But, if you want to make a career in publishing, you have to ask yourself, do you have what it takes to carry yourself to "make a career on your own." I am talking about quitting your day job. How much do you know about this business? That is, what do you know about the business and do you know enough to carry you through all of this? The taxes? The cover art? The editors? The....god knows what???
All I can say is, think before you leap!
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