It'll Cost You To Play In Publishing

One word of warning authors hear over and over again is to never pay to have someone edit or consider your work. Please understand, I am not talking about someone who is a paid book doctor. I am referring to those people who say, "Send me $50.00 and I will determine if I want to represent you."

This is not good.

But, over the years, I get authors who ask me how they go about getting their books published or getting their books to the readers on a limited budget.

And frankly, there is no easy way around this. Publishing is going to cost you in a lot of different ways. Your approach to publishing and how far you will want to take your career will determine the amount you are going to need to spend.

Let's consider some pretty common expenses:

Conferences This is a big one and a very necessary expense. Going to conferences, and I am talking about the bigger conferences is important in a lot of ways. First of all, you will be getting great information from the experts. Your big gun editors and agents will be there and giving out a lot of advice. Workshops at those larger conferences tend to be a bit higher in quality, again, because the big guns are there. So, expect the following expenses:

• Conference fees
• Transportation
• Hotel
• Materials
• Food

Yes, you could be looking at a good $1000+ for a conference such as this.

Marketing Depending on how you are published will determine how much you spend here. If you take the traditional approach, your publisher may do a lot, but please understand, the publisher WILL NOT do everything. If you are self-published, this will be 100% on your shoulders. What are we looking at here? Professional websites, advertisements in major print publishing, books to reviewers, books for "goody bags" to be given away for free, contests, mailings, bookmarks and other swags. You cannot make marketing material that looks cheap. You might think you can do it all on your own using Open Source Software, but remember, you get what you pay for.

Technology Yes, you will need a great computer and a quality word processing program. Don't skimp on this. This means quality Internet service, quality computer, quality printer and an email service that is going to help you out. I fully get a lot of you "live off of your phone" but understand, submitting manuscripts on you iPhone is not going to cut it. When I get a submission that says, "submitted from my iPhone" 99% of the time I know this is going to be a project that is complete garbage and the person really has no idea what he or she is doing.

Editorial Services This is for those of you who are planning on doing all of this on your own. Unless you are an English major with a huge background in grammar, you will probably need to find someone and pay that person to do the editing for you. Traditional publishers do have an editorial team there to serve you, self-publishers or Print On Demand programs do not. Time to fork out some big bucks here.

Legal Fees Again, this is for those of you who are going to do this on your own. If you don't know how to read contracts and work through that legal language, or you don't know how to apply for an ISBN and Copyright, it is time to pay some big bucks here. Please be aware, you will need to find someone who knows contract law, and more importantly, publishing contracts.


The issue here is that it will cost money. How much you put into it will be up to you. Just remember, that there are no short cuts.

Don't Give Up Your Day Job...Yet!

Yes, I understand some of this is repetitive, but once again, I do have to remind new authors that this business takes time. Writers will not, in many cases, become overnight success stories. For this reason, I cannot say this enough...DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB!!!

Would it be great if we could spend our entire day focusing on our craft? I know I get jealous when I see news stories, or read articles about these authors who wake up in the morning, have an enjoyable breakfast reading the newspaper and then settle into their writing. Every now and then, the get up, wander around the house, take the dog for a walk or socialize with a friend. Now that sounds great. But in reality, this is not the norm.

The reality is that you will not be making an amazing amount of money when you start out. This means, if you wish to have this lifestyle, you can either be married to a spouse bringing in a ton of money, inherit the money, retire and then have the money (whatever that might be) come in, or live as a true starving artist.

More likely, you will have to continue juggling your writing career with your other job that brings in the real money.

There have been a lot of times that I hear authors tell me they plan on selling that first book and finally being able to write full time. These people, I am sorry to say, and IMHO, are delusional.

I don't want you to give up your dream of doing this with your writing, but please, remember your writing WILL take time to see that profit.

Scott

Don't Give Up Your Day Job Yet

Ahh, we all love the dream. Every writer has it running through our heads. I think it goes something like this.
The day begins with a leasurely morning cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. We then stroll into our nicely kept office and sit down to work on the next scene of our story. There is no pressure that day. Heck, we might even take a walk to clear our heads before finishing up for the day. No work. No kids. No hassle.

Um, yeah! Let's all bring this back to reality.

Very few writers in the early stages of their careers will get a chance to experience this. Simply put, the money is just not going to be there to make a living as writer. We don't call writers "starving artists" for nothing. Is it an impossibility? No. You will be able to get to this point, but to do so will require several things.

First of all, time. For you to make a career out of your writing will take time in the trenches. You obviously have to have a following of people willing to buy anything you write.

Secondly, your stories have to be at publishers that are going to pay the big money. Along the same lines, you have to be writing in a genre that will bring in the big money. Yes, romance can do it, but you have to have been in the business a while to get to those levels.

Finally, you have to be an amazing writer. Doing the "mid-list" thing will pay some bills, but it will take longer than you think.

I don't want to rain on everyone's parade here, but I do think every now and then we need a reality check. Writing is not easy and getting paid to do it is not something everyone will see. This doesn't mean you should give up your career in writing. Just bring it out of the clouds every now and then and put your feet on the ground.

And I promise, as an agent, if we think we can get you there, we will do it.

Scott

Question from a Writer

May I change the topic and ask if anyone has had any experience with the agents who are also advertising their services as "Book Doctors" ? If an agent seems enthusiastic about a submission but also says that it needs , uh, doctoring, for a fee, of course, in order to be more commercially acceptable, is it likely this is a good way to go?
I don't doubt all sunmissions could use a practiced hand that does not belong to the author, but it seems to me we are on a slippery slope here.
How much in extra fees raise a red flag? And what about the editors who advertise that service, but also emphasize their understandable "connections" within the business of publishing?
Hopeful authors OF Course want to believe that a legitimate editor might pick up the phone and recommend that an agent friend take on the ms. Pay for the editing service and wind up with an industry insider boost to boot. Why else would the editor mention his " extensive connections in publishing" ? And might professional doctoring make the difference between selling the ms to a publisher or not?
I'm sure some of these people are legitimate. Beyond checking with places like Absolutewrite, can anyone share their experience with me?

This is a common question I see and one that even came up this last weekend at SCWW. I think with Anon's question, we actually have several issues here.

First of all, let's talk $$. Agents should not be charging you money. This is commonly called reading fees. Now some agents may be trying to sneak past this one by calling it "Book doctoring" but that is essentially it. Agents may "doctor" your book after you have signed with them to make the book more marketable, but still there shouldn't be a charge for it.

Secondly, what about the book doctors out there? I do know of reputable people that do this. Yes they charge, yes they have experience in the business and yes they do good work. There are, however, a lot of people that do "book doctoring" that are just serving as another critique partner for you but getting money to do it. Many of these people, in my humble opinion, have no clue what they are doing but wow are they bringing in the cash. They have been able to portray this idea that without their help, you will not be able to get published.

Let me give you an example of that last one. I receive, at least 3-5 times a month, a submission from someone that has gone through a professional editor. It is always the same editor and frankly, the story is far from good. Other than being grammatically fine, the story telling has been awful, the plot is weak and the same horrible mistakes we see beginning writers do are still there. No, I have not signed a person yet that has gone through one of these editors.

Finally, in my humble opinon, I just don't think a book doctor is necessary. If you hae criticla thinking skills, have done your research and understand English grammar, punctuation and spelling, you can do it on your own. Oh, I should also add, having an intelligent critique partner that also understands all of that. If grammar is your weak area, learn it! Take a class. Do something!

Please people. Be careful out there. So many of you are eager to get published and there are far too many people out there (book doctors, publishers, self-publishing sites, etc) that have no business doing what they are doing and are taking all of your money!

Scott