I don’t have all the answers, but I can give you some of what I know about being an author. I’m going to try to include answers for what people ask me most.
My writing journey and every other author’s out there (including you) will look wildly different. Don’t worry about that. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting today at 99 years old, or started yesterday as a 3-year-old prodigy, scribbling out your magnum opus with a pack of Crayolas.
I’ve been writing since I was a kid, but only began finishing full length novels since 2009. I have a Bachelor’s in English and journalism, worked as a technical writer, and currently have over 18 books in print. I’ve written novels full time since 2013.
I WANT TO WRITE A BOOK. CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO DO IT?
Sure. Get on your jammies and settle in. There’s a lot to this. Writing is a process. No, it’s a marathon. Every book trains you to improve with the next book and the next. It’s going to take some time, experimentation, and mistakes to learn your craft, and then, to get really good at it. I’m not sure any of us ever absolutely master writing. There is always more to learn.
In the very beginning (novels that will never be published because of this), I plerped an idea on paper and magoo’d my way through until I had enough words to call it a book. I had a germ of an idea and followed it to discover the rest of the story. This method is called pantsing- writing whatever comes to mind, or writing by the seat of your pants. Some people do it well, but for me, it produced a meandering story with too many rabbit holes. Too much ‘fat’. The endings weren’t satisfying. Feedback indicated readers had no confidence that I knew where I was going and they were right.
This is why the fifth book I wrote was the first book I actually published. The first four were my learning curve.
Lately I’ve become more of a plotter. There are a ton of books that can show you how to plot scenes and manage a character arc. Some of my favorites are:
Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing: Revised Edition
Ok, That was the structure stuff, but How Can I Get really Good At writing?
Simple answer: be an avid writer and an avid reader of whatever genre lights you up. Read the good, the bad, the in-between, and try to figure out how they did it or how you could do it all even better.
Also, you can read every book you come across on how to write books. Read books on grammar. Books on sentence structure, pacing, how to build plots. Read about enneagrams for characterization and plotting arcs. Read everything and anything that helps you arrange those 26 letters into piles of words that excite you.
Me? I read gobs of novels to see how others do it. I take notes on how other authors devised the plot, how they described characters, switched scenes, how they paced the story, where they revealed information, where they hid clues, and how they used dialog. Eat other authors work for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but remember to do some home cooking too. (PRACTICE!)
What if I’m still stuck?
If you are stuck, re-write a page from a favorite novel-there is some kind of magic in actually copying down the page – you can suddenly identify patterns or rhythms. I don’t know why it works, but it does.
Read your own work out loud to a friend and you’ll find typos and weird phrases that you probably won’t catch while reading it over in your head.
The best advice I’ve gotten is to read everything you can and write every single day. Write, write, and write more. Finish what you start, and edit it three times more than you think it needs.
I have an idea that I know would be a best seller. Can you write it for me?
God love you…we all have best sellers in us, but the catch is that every author I know is busy writing their own best sellers. Nobody has time to write anyone else’s. However, you might be able to pay a ghost writer (sorry, it’s not my thing), but you’ll have to use that magic Google machine to research that further.
How do I publish my book?
I wouldn’t worry about publishing until you have a product to publish. Lots of folks want to throw that cart before the horse, but there’s no sense hauling that cart to town.
It’s great to start researching the route you want to take, but be sure you’ll have something to publish before you start worrying about how to handle the rest of this enchilada or how to spend the money you’ll make.
But. If you’ve got your polished manuscript, which you have written, revised, edited, and proofed, then…
Let’s talk publishing routes
Traditional Publishing
Traditional usually means you’ll be querying agents for interest with a query letter (Google it) and a sample of your completed work. Don’t query until you have a finished and polished manuscript to offer. And, btw, legitimate agents will never charge you a fee for reading and considering your work for representation. If you query and land an agent, the agent will then query your work for interest from editors in publishing houses (Possibly even the big five: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster). The publisher decides upon and pays for cover art and editing, which is collected from your book’s earnings.
Indie/Independent Publishing
This route is the one I am currently traveling. It means that you choose to publish your own work, possibly under your own label/house (although some use Indie Publishing to mean you are publishing with a small publishing house that is independent from the Big Five).
With Indie Pubbing, you hire and pay up front, out of your own pocket, for a graphic designer to create your book’s ebook/paperback cover art, a proof reader, an editor, a formatter, marketing and promotion costs, and whatever other services you require to be published and market your book.
You might choose to self-publish through Amazon, Ingram/Ingram Spark, Lulu or other publishers.
Vanity Publishing
Vanity Publishing means that you are paying a company to publish your book for you. Some provide your cover art, formatting, and possibly editing, in-house, which means the publisher has chosen the graphic designers, formatters, and editors for you. These services may be provided in a package deal with a substantial price tag that can range into the thousands. There may be contracts included for how long your book will be listed with the publisher, and/or release fees if you’d like to gain control of your publishing rights that run you additional sums.
*Be careful and do your research before signing a contract.
HOW MUCH WILL I MAKE ON MY DEBUT BOOK?
The beautiful thing about the arts, and the frustrating thing, is that there is no way of knowing what you will make on a debut. I will not stomp out your dreams by saying you can’t be an overnight bestseller.
I hope you are.
My experience has been that working in the arts is not like holding down a 9-to-5 job. Earnings ebb and flow, so I have learned that it’s helpful to be a wizard at managing your costs, as well as thankful and attentive to your income streams.
This is a career I chose because I love the work…and I would say that was one very clever decision, because being an author is a tremendous amount of work. It’s been easy for me to put in 70+ hours a week in writing, marketing & promotion, managing a website and a newsletter, researching, creating cover art or working with a cover artist, re-drafting and editing, exchanging editing favors, etc.
If you don’t love it (and sometimes, even when you do), the work can grind you down to a miserable nub. Don’t be a nub if you can help it.
So…How much do you make?
Damn.
Don’t ask this question.
I know you may have good intentions of simply wanting to know if it’s worth it for you to write your own book or not, but I don’t know many professionals who feel comfortable disclosing such personal information, and I am asked this one a lot.
I can tell you that if you don’t love writing with your heart, soul, and bones…the paycheck will never be enough.
Writing is a lot of work. Even if you have a big five publisher, you are still expected to help promote and market the book. You’ll have deadlines mixed into that. Any way you cut it, if your eye is on the quick buck, this profession will eat you with a sharp knife and a rough fork.
My best advice:
- If you don’t love a job that requires a 24/7 work ethic…run. Save yourself.
- If you want to know how much authors make, know that it ranges from zero to millions. It’s the arts, man, not a 9-5 corporate job with a clear cut number on the salary.
- Even if you’re ready to hand over your own banking information and financial portfolio, don’t expect an author give you theirs. Asking anyone to reveal their financial information is super rude, dude.