Because let’s face it. We all have to start somewhere.
So you think you want to be a writer? Do you? Do you? Because this job’s a lot harder than a person ideally envisions when first dreaming of being the next… oh, whoever [insert author of choice]. Everyone has this image of a writer. Sitting solo in a coffee shop. Sipping a latte. Writing the next best selling book.
You know what? There are no dang good coffee shops in my area.
Seriously.
Perhaps that’s why I’m not one…? Best seller, that is.
(Yeah, that was a full disclosure there. My Amazon rankings are a dead giveaway. Seriously, you can check them out. Not joking.)
But this blog isn’t about being a best seller. That part’s all on you. And I need a coffee shop. I need a latte. Because then I’ll be a best selling author. Really, coffee shops are the key to success. That’s a fact written… somewhere.
Yeah, whatever.
And don’t get me started on Starbucks and their crappy chairs. After New Year’s Eve 2017, a grande mocha latte earlier in the day, and a six hour date with John the Toilet later that night (and trust me, mocha lattes taste a hell of a lot better going down than they do coming up), I am done with Starbucks. Heck, my NYE bottle of Champagne is still sitting in the fridge… nine months later.
Starbucks, I blame you.
So, while this entire no-Starbucks thing kind of sucks because I still have almost 20 bucks on a Starbucks card—What the hell am I supposed to do with that???—here’s the Top Five things a newbie needs to know about when starting a writing career.
Thinking up a story and actually writing a story are two different things
Seriously. Currently I’m working on the final book of my Reaping Fate series, and I know what’s going to happen. I have scenes in my head. I have notes. It’s actually going to be the easiest book for me to write because it’s the end of a five book series. All of my story lines in the last four books need to come together for a final conclusion. Yet when I attempt to type the dang words into Scrivener (my writing software of choice) the words don’t always come out right, and I become frustrated. There’s a reason there are first drafts, second drafts, third drafts… you get the picture. Unfortunately I’m a perfectionist. I edit as I write the first draft. I do a second draft before it goes to the editor, but since I so heavily edit while writing the first draft, there usually aren’t a lot of changes during the second draft. Some people can simply write out the first draft with no editing. Just get it out on ‘paper’ and then worry about editing on the second draft. Regardless of what works for you, putting your thoughts onto ‘paper’ in a way that is engaging to a reader is just plain hard. It can be time consuming depending on how fast you’re able to accomplish the task. If you work a full-time job that takes a lot of brain power (like me… my day job’s in accounting. Let’s talk about this right brain vs left brain thing later, m’kay?), you’re tired once you get home and you just want to chill. Not figure out how to organize words on a computer screen even if you know what you’re supposed to be saying. So just realize this: thinking up an awesome story idea and actually writing said story are two totally different things.
Writer’s Block
I say it’s real… sort of. Perhaps procrastination block is a better word choice? Because I totally suffer from that. I get all of these ideas in my head and only have a limited time to deal with them. Then I’m overwhelmed and shut down. Suddenly I’m binge watching Friends on Netflix (because who doesn’t??) and my brain is all spastic, thinking why can’t I be one of those writers who can write 30 books a year???? Because those writers actually do exist. And I’m totally jealous. I have so many book ideas in my head waiting to be written and I’m stuck on the same chapter of a book that should be my easiest write to date! Listen, if you’re a writer you don’t get to write only when you’re in the mood. Nothing becomes accomplished if you take that outlook on your writing career. (Hey, look at me!! I’m proof!!!) There’s a saying in this industry: Butt in chair. You need to form a habit. If you can be consistent with a time/location that will probably be helpful to you. I’m still working on this one myself, but if you want a writing career, butt in chair even when you don’t feel like writing is a must.
Trad Publishing vs Indy Publishing
So prior to around 2011-ish this wasn’t a serious choice. When I first began writing I never dreamed of going Indy. I studied the industry for a couple of years as I finished writing my first book (which is not published in any form). I learned how to write the query letter—an entire process in itself. I researched agents… and then self-publishing took off thanks to Amazon. So I had a choice to make: Indy or Trad? I chose Indy for a main reason that I’ll get to in a moment. I stopped querying agents with my first book and instead began studying Indy authors and how they published. My Reaping Fate series has never been submitted to an agent. There are pros and cons to both sides (Indy or Trad) and not everyone is a good fit for both. As for Indy, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial streak within me. That’s my main reason for going Indy, and that’s what publishing is: a business. They say as a writer you should never pay someone to publish your book. I say that’s true. However, as an Indy, after I type The End I take off my writer’s hat and put on my publisher’s hat. A publisher does spend money to produce a book. There’s professional editing, cover design, formatting, and marketing. All of that costs money. Now let me say, I’m speaking of self-publishing here and not vanity publishing. A distinction should be made between the two. My uncle wrote a non-fiction book and chose to submit to a vanity press. It cost him ten thousand dollars to have that book published. Has he made his money back? Heck no. I am not an advocator of vanity publishing. I’m for either trad publishing or self publishing. I spend over $1k on each of my books… but that’s no where near the $10k my uncle chose to spend on a vanity press. It takes a lot of work to publish your own book. As I said, editing costs money. First you must find a good editor—and did I ever luck out with mine! (And she’d probably be cringing if she read this blog post) I’m so thankful she’s taken me on as a client and has kept me. Love her! But a good editor is a must. Typos and other obvious errors can kill your sells because you’ll get low star reviews pointing out the flaws no matter how good the actual story itself is. Cover design. You need to think about things such as does the cover fit your genre? There are decisions that as a publisher you need to make and determine what you can do and what you need to professionally hire out for. A marketing plan is a must… but marketing is no longer just an ‘Indy’ thing. Most trad-published authors are now required to handle their own marketing. So just know that as a writer—regardless if you’re Indy or Trad—you need a marketing plan. If you are not a business person, I strongly recommend studying up on how to properly write a query letter and get an agent. Trad publishing will be the best option for you. Anyone who says you can just write a book, stick it on Amazon, and start making money is scamming you. Don’t fall for it. Publishing a book is a lot of work, and it’s very hard to get noticed in a sea of other published books. But I also think in today’s age it’s hard to get noticed as a first time trad published author unless you’re the chosen one the publishing company has decided to throw marketing money behind. Just have your own marketing plan and expect it to be hard to build a reader fan base either way you choose to go
Writing one book doesn’t mean you’re going to be the next New York Times Best Seller.
Oh my gosh, but isn’t that fun to envision while you’re laboring over your hard work? But as I mentioned in the previous point, writing a book and slapping it up on Amazon does not make you a multi-millionaire. And those people selling courses to teach you how to stick a book on amazon.com and become a multi-millionaire? They’re becoming millionaires thanks to you and your gullibility. Stay away from them. I will say, it’s pretty exciting to publish your first book and see people begin to purchase it—or if you’re in Amazon’s KU program, people began to read your book and you see how many KENP you’ve received for the day. There are some people who have hit the publishing lottery. Their first book happened to hit right: right timing to be published, right genre for readers, right whatever marketing strategy they did to get the word out, and they’ve taken off. Yeah, that didn’t happen for me, and that doesn’t happen for most writers. It’s fun to dream big, but be realistic with your expectations. Don’t give up. I will continue writing and hope that one day I’ve built up a large enough fan base that I can quit the day job and become a full-time author. And that’s the reality for most writers.
Writing Resources
Figure out where and what your resources are and use them. And by resources I’m talking anywhere from your writing tools to gaining knowledge on how to achieve your purpose—which is to write and publish a book. Let’s start with tools. Mark Dawson (and I’ll get back to him in a second) recently had a podcast listing the top writer’s tools based on a survey he did and it’s worth a look at his list at Indie Author Toolkit First you need something to write with. In 2018 most people use a computer (although I really want a typewriter. Is that just me? I think I just want the novelty of it. Doubtful I’d last long using it as an actual writing tool.) I’m a Mac Girl. Total Mac. Every day at work I’m threatening to pull an Office Space on my PC and Microsoft. (And I really hope you understood that Office Space reference. Classic! If you haven’t seen it—go rent it on Amazon or something.) I use a MacBook Air, although for the second and third books in my series I wrote them completely on an iPad. The writing software I use on my Mac (and iPad & iPhone) is Scrivener. There is a PC version of Scrivener, but the software was originally designed for Mac and I’m not certain if the PC version comes with the full bells and whistles the Mac version does.
Ulysses is another writing software I’ve heard of people using. It appears to be for Mac only, and I believe it’s subscription based. Scrivener is not subscription based, and I think sells for a reasonable price. Of course there’s always Microsoft Word. Some people are completely happy with Word… but that person would not be me. Well, first back to that whole Microsoft and Office Space thing, but writing software such as Scrivener allows you to be more organized. I have a Story Bible for my series set up in Scrivener. I can link external reference sources to my file and keep everything organized. Plus with Scrivener I store my files in Dropbox and can access those files on both my iPad and iPhone through the Scrivener app as needed. So if I’m waiting in line somewhere I can whip out my iPhone and work on my my book Note: can. Doesn’t mean I do. The one main downside to Scrivener I have is I need to export it into Microsoft Word (not a problem) to send to my editor for editing. The problem is that there’s not easy solution for importing an edited Microsoft file back into Scrivener. So I basically stop using Scrivener for that book once I’ve exported it into Word—and I actually do own one PC laptop for the (very) few things in my life that I need a PC for.
Another awesome resource I use is Vellum. When I first began publishing I purchased Vellum to format ebooks. You can format ebooks in Scrivener. I don’t. I used to for ARC (advanced reader copies), but I put everything into Vellum for preparing the file for publishing. This software is so worth the money if you’re an Indy publisher doing it yourself. Sooo worth it. Get it. Last year (?) they came out with Vellum print options. Thank goodness! Prior to that I had a Adobe InDesign subscription. Do you know how long, and what a pain it was, to format for print in InDesign? Now I just switch from ebook settings to print settings in Vellum to print the pdf for publishing. So freakin’ simple. It takes just minutes to have a print file ready when previously it took me hours. So Scrivener and Vellum are my musts for writing tools.
Along with writer tools, there are lots of awesome resources for writers that help you to learn, especially if you’re Indy and are doing everything yourself. Podcasts have become my number one thing to listen to. Some that I highly recommend are Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Formula, The Career Author Podcast, The Creative Penn Podcast, and the Sell More Books Show. The Writer Files might also be worth checking out and, being an urban fantasy writer, I also listen to the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Marketing Podcast.
Message board forums are also a great resource regardless if you’re a Trad or Indy published writer. Although different forum focuses are best for different writers. A writer wanting to be trad published will want to veer towards a board that discusses query letters and agents. A writer wanting to be Indy published will want to go to message boards discussing the business side of book publishing. Facebook groups are another thing to check out. Same rules as forums and possibly more active.
So let’s recap this bad boy of 2,555 words:
- Thinking up a book idea and actually writing it are totally two different things.
- Practicing Butt In Chair is a must even when you don’t feel like it. Writing is a job if you want to be a career author.
- Not everyone becomes famous best selling authors. Actually, most don’t.
- Trad vs Indy. Decide which one you want to pursue—or perhaps you’ll be one of the lucky hybrids?
- Utilize writing resources and learn your industry. Learn from other people’s mistakes so you don’t make so many of your own.