SHOW ME THE MONEY!... Er... HARD WORK!

Get comfortable, ladies and gents! This is a LONG read!

Many have the misconception that all you have to do is write a book, publish it, and VOILA! Queue the song called “For the Love of Money” by The O’Jays. You know, the one that starts with, “Money money money money…. MOOOOONEY!”

Boy, do I wish it happened like that! After self-publishing three books, I should be rollin’ in the dough, right? WRONG. So many factors are involved when it comes to a successful launch! You could write the best book in the history of every book ever written and every book to be written, but unless you put in the work involved in building publicity and really pushing to gain exposure, it won’t be the success you feel it’s meant to be.

So… while I am certainly NOT the expert on how to get rich on writing (because I’d have to be rich to claim I have knowledge on that invaluable nugget of information), I can at least share some insight on how to navigate through some of the waters, as well as what I’ve been doing.

Firstly, you have to knuckle down and write the book. You have to stop TALKING about writing it and making excuses as to why you DON’T have time to get it written, sit down, and WRITE the book. If you’re a perfectionist and the type to want to get it right the first time (you know, someone like me), you have to figure out a way to put that aside and just WRITE. Because as I’ve been told many times before (and if you’re in the writing world, you’ll get told this many times as well), you can’t edit what you don’t have. You have to WRITE something before you can EDIT and PERFECT it. If you’re scared that it’s not going to be good enough, bear in mind that the more you write, the better you will get. So while your first book may not be everything you hoped, you’ll learn more for the next one… and the next… etc. At this point, I’m in the process of working on my seventh book. While I’m still by no means an expert, I’m pretty confident in the fact that it’s certainly better than the first book I ever wrote (but don’t get me wrong, my first book is just as precious to me as all the rest).

Let’s say you’ve written the book. What now? Well, let's talk about beta readers and editors. I have found that beta readers, while some might have some knowledge on grammar and such, are generally wonderful at letting you know if your story is engaging, the plot seems to be without holes, and if it catches and holds your attention. It is helpful if these people are not family and friends who will tell you your work is fantastic in the same way they would tell a three-year-old their scribblings are the makings of the next Rembrandt. Am I saying that it's wrong to encourage a child and tell them they are doing an excellent job, NO! What I am saying is PLEASE make sure your beta readers WILL NOT HOLD BACK on telling you that you need to go back to the manuscript and make some GREAT BIG CHANGES if they're necessary. So you DON'T want people who are biased and afraid of telling you the point-blank, honest-to-goodness TRUTH!

You need an editor! Let me repeat that. YOU NEED AN EDITOR! You need eyes other than your own to look at it. You need someone who has the knowledge base to find those nasty little things left behind after you (the writer) looked at it at least a thousand times to ensure its error free. BECAUSE THERE WILL BE ERRORS YOU DID NOT SEE! In writing, as in life, there are things you will be blind to. You need that honest person who knows their sh... er... STUFF... to help you find those grammar errors, punctuation issues, gaping plot holes, and many other things you may have missed. It is SO easy for your mind to fill the blanks of letters and whole words you missed while writing the work. The editor's job is to find that stuff and fix it... BEFORE THE READER SETS EYES ON IT! Is there still that ONE nasty little bugger of an error that tends to trailblaze through the MANY hands that held that manuscript before it hit that paperback or eBook? Absolutely! But the editor's job is to (hopefully) catch most (if not all) of them.

And then there's the formatting, the cover art, the ISBN (if you are self-publishing), putting it in the appropriate channels, and making sure the eBook and paperbacks are error-free once it is printed. SOOO much goes into ALL of these, and perhaps someday, I'll post about the headaches that come with ensuring all of this is relatively seamless. Although, I will say I was blessed with a fantastic cover artist who took my vision and ran the extra two hundred miles with it. I have been complimented many times over for the phenomenal cover well before they have even cracked the book open to enjoy the inside!

Promotions! This is what I've been working on for the past many months. Working with many other authors on trying to get that much-needed exposure by way of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Facebook ads, etc. At some point, I'm going to try to work on Amazon ads and see how successful that is. I've also been talking to bookstores in the area and booked a few book signings and events to sell my book as well as gain more exposure. This is the time I go to Vistaprint and many other different printing places to buy bookmarks, business cards, multiple copies of my paperback books, banners, posters, etc. I even bought a laminator and the clear sheets to laminate the bookmarks so they won't get destroyed as soon as a person uses it a couple times.

One thing I have learned over the past months is you have to pay money to make money, and you hope like hell it... literally... pays off. If it doesn't, it's just like any other business. You have to see it that way. It generally takes any business between 3-5 years (if they're lucky) to be in the black. That means, with hard work and really pushing their product, it takes YEARS for them to get back more than what they are paying to make their business a success. The way I look at it, many people spend hundreds of dollars a year on bad habits such as drinking, smoking, gambling, etc. That extra money I could be spending on all that is going into INVESTING IN MYSELF. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the time I'm writing, the time I'm spending being around others as I'm doing events and participating in book signings; the time I'm able to stretch my horizons and do things I never thought I could do before (like create my own book covers!).

There is so much more involved, and depending on how you look at it, it can be depressing or rewarding. If you look at it as a "get rich quick" type of thing, it's going to depress you very quickly, and you won't give your work the longevity it deserves to make it a success. On the other hand, if you look at it like a small business and something you enjoy doing (because it's a passion, not a job), and you are okay with "investing" the money in the hope that you will someday get a return on that investment (albeit possibly years into the future), then you might have what it takes to push it all the way and reap the rewards of a job well done.