Getting traditionally published is a monumental feat these days. In order to convince a business to invest in your talent as a writer, you need to make sure the product you are selling is as top-notch as possible. This requires a multitude of good habits and practices, but some of these universally accepted methods have no place in the arsenal of the professional self-publisher.
From the outside, the self-publishing business and traditional publishing business are practically the same. Even for writers, it can be difficult to understand that both avenues are so different that you cannot hope to approach one avenue the same as the other. It is very common to see writers who have not had any luck in traditional publishing settle for self-publishing but try to go about it in exactly the same way. This brings about some of the worst bits of the traditional publishing process and lumps them in with a different market.
If you are coming from traditional publishing, I will be the first to welcome you with open arms. However, if you do these three things, you need to leave them at the door, or your introduction into the self-publishing world will go about as well as those 100 rejection emails.
1. Using Critique Partners
I LOATH working with critique partners. When you decide to pursue a career as a self-published author, you are no longer a contractor. You are an entrepreneur. This means that every hour of your life is worth a certain amount of money. Working with critique partners is insanely time consuming and therefore insanely costly. Finding the right partner, reading their manuscript, and hoping they actually finish yours with useful info take entirely too long and every hour you spend fiddling around with that whole mess is an hour you could have written 1500+ words on your next money maker… I mean book.
In traditional publishing, having critique partners can potentially increase your chances of getting an agent and may well be worth the time dump if that is your one and only way of making money as a writer. They can provide valuable feedback on your manuscript and since it is rare for writers on this path to work on more than one project at a time, there is no risk of wasting time assuming your partner doesn’t dip out on you. When you only need to produce one or two books every couple of years, you have all the time in the world to go through this process.
In self-publishing, if you try to produce one or two books a year, you will never be able to make it a career. Your success will be directly tied to the size of your backlist. You cannot afford to waste time on other people’s, often terrible, manuscripts when you could be writing or working on other projects related to your brand. That being said, having feedback is still important for self-publishers to have before launch. So where do you get it?
Beta readers. Free or paid. It is very difficult to find reliable free beta readers that can finish your manuscript in less than a few months, but it is doable when you have a couple of super fans that represent your target audience. Their feedback is more valuable than any random critique partner, and if they have proven themselves to be super fans, they will gobble up that manuscript in a couple of weeks and tell you exactly what they liked and disliked. Since this is something you earn from a year or two of self-publishing, you may need to rely on paid beta readers. I have never used one that charged more than $100 or took longer than 20 days to finish it. Find a few you can trust and get your feedback quickly.
I understand shelling out a couple hundred bucks seems like too much, but remember, time is money in this business. If you save yourself 50 hours of reading and writing critiques for $100 that is 50 hours you can spend writing. If you write a modest 1000 words per hour, that’s 50k words. Half of your next money maker… I mean novel.
2. “Perfecting” Your Manuscript
This habit could be a bad one for traditional publishing as well, but because of the high rejection rate of manuscripts, the very nature of the business promotes constant perfecting and tweaking of a manuscript before launch.
Your manuscript will never be perfect. Even if you get lucky and land an agent, the editors are going to rip your manuscript apart to the point where it’s almost unrecognizable in some cases. If you are coming from a background of constant rejection letters, I can understand why you would be very paranoid about releasing a novel before you were absolutely certain it was as good as it could be.
You need to abandon that mindset. You no longer have to wait for someone else’s approval to make money off your work. Hit that publish button once you feel that the work is respectable. Not perfect. If your beta readers say it’s good, trust them! Let your work start making money for you as soon as you want it to.
The best part about self-publishing is that you can go back and revise your work even after it is published. Even as Festival of the Azure Moon is being proofread, I desperately want to go back and change an entire scene after I just now thought of a much better way to write it. Will I do it? If it is worth the time investment, you bet I will!
It’s ok…
Rejection letters can’t hurt you anymore. You’re safe here… Now publish that damn book and get to work on the sequel and reader magnet! Hustle!
3. Writing Queries
This one may sound a bit strange. By this point, you may be wondering how this would even relate to self-publishing at all when we no longer need to query agents. Well, despite the lack of agents, some writers still write their product description on Amazon as if they are pitching their book to the reader in a query.
Readers are not agents. Agents look for different things in a query letter than readers do in a product description. You need to sell that book like it is a movie. I recently completely redid my blurb for Festival of the Azure Moon when I was given this advice from best selling indie author, Chris Fox.
Long ago, I once had a query letter typed up for Festival of the Azure Moon, but never used it. Here was the blurb on that letter:
Don Traveler, an eccentric young magician, embarks on a quest to reunite with his long-lost family and recruits the jaded, shapeshifting thief, Shalnark, to escort him on his journey. Don’s sole clue to his family’s location is his father’s love for the Festival of the Azure Moon that only happens every eight years. After an incident with the all-powerful Church of the Holy Trinity, the duo finds themselves on the run as they race against time to reach the festival before missing their chance. Meanwhile, a zealous bishop intends to start a bloody crusade that could jeopardize Don’s quest. Don has the power to save countless lives, including the family he longs for, but the price may be more than he is willing to pay.
Is it the best blurb ever? Eh, not really, but it is exactly what agents are looking for. Is it a good product description? No. It is dreadful.
After consulting with Chris, this is what I came up with.
How far are you willing to go to find where you belong?…
Conclusion
In order to be successful in traditional publishing, critique partners, constant reworkings, and queries are essential to your profession. In self-publishing, these practices will only slow you down. Your greatest weapon to compete against the traditional publishing market is the speed of production. If you are not using that to its fullest, you are weighing yourself down with the worst bits of both avenues and are doomed to fail. If you are wanting to take self-publishing seriously and make a living with your writing, leave these three practices at the door and be ready to learn an entirely new business. You are always good enough to be published. Now get back to writing so I can buy and review your book already!
