A Simple Guide To Publishing

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, “I’d like to write a book!” I’d be a very wealthy person. In fact, I’d be so rich I wouldn’t need to help anyone create their book. As soon as people know you work in publishing in any capacity, they tend to share their dream (or the dream of someone they love). The truth is, a LOT of people have a dream to write a book someday. 

It’s because of this that many of us shy away from making the dream a reality.

“So many people have tried and failed.”

“I would just be one of many.”

“Who wants to read what I’ve got to say?”

“It’s all been done before, and better!”

The crazy thing is, for all those dreamers there are very, very few do-ers. As with all creative industries, the fear of failure stops many people before they even make their first attempt. They fail, not because they suck at writing, but because they never actually try in the first place. 

The other place that wannabe-writers fall down is that their dreams are a little too lofty. Nothing wrong with that, of course. Someone needs to be the next JK Rowling or Lee Child, may as well be you. The thing to remember though, is that many best selling authors wrote (and published) multiple books before their careers took off and their incomes surpassed the average person’s annual wage. The unicorns…those debut writers who receive a seven-figure book deal…are very, very few and far between. The general, run-of-the-mill, household-name novelist who is making serious coin is someone who has (often over decades) built up a back catalogue of awesome work. And there’s only one way to build a back catalogue – WRITE.  

Something else that comes up from prospective authors is the issue of time, and often this mad hurry to get your manuscript out there (and potentially make money from it) means that we rush the process. Traditional publishing is notoriously slow. From concept or first draft approval, through to book-on-shelf, you could be looking at two to three years. A lot of people take the self-publishing route because they are impatient and want it to happen sooner. That’s totally fine (and one of the many reasons self-publishing is awesome) but I’d also recommend people taking this route give themselves around six months (minimum) from finished draft to book-in-hand. The biggest complaint readers have with self-published work is that it’s not professional. This can be anything from a shoddy design that looks like it was made on publisher, to a single obvious spelling or grammatical error. Take the time to get it right. 

So, this brings me to a little breakdown of the general publishing journey. There’s a lot of steps, but none of them are especially hard. This isn’t an exact science and often these steps are in a slightly different order, but generally it looks like this. Write the book. Have it edited (a lot) so it reads beautifully. Put it together so it looks awesome and the visuals complement the words. Sell the shit out of it (this is often the hardest part, btw). 

The most important thing to note is this: doing it on your own is a massive, massive challenge. It’s totally possible – don’t get me wrong – but I wouldn’t recommend it. Whether you choose to pay for assistance along the way, or you set up your life so that you are surrounded by people in the know who can help, don’t feel like you have to slave away in a quiet room for months on end to make it happen.  

For many people, creating a book is often just seen as one or two of these steps. Because of that, they give up too soon or beat themselves up because they ‘failed’. Others are so busy thinking about steps 10-24 they completely forget that none of that can happen until you do step 3. And the reason I know this is because I am just as guilty as the rest of you! Many a time I’ve been bogged down in the process and lost sight of the real reason awesome books exist…because someone sat down and wrote it. 

Whereever you are on your writing and publishing journey, you are exactly where you need to be. Keep on keeping on, and I can’t wait to see what you create.