Why Not To Publish A Book.

Not to be a downer…but

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Don't get me wrong; there are good things about publishing a book, the sense of accomplishment and knowing you've done something many people give up on. I wish someone had pointed out how publishing a book might be something I should think twice about; I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation and money. I could have flipped another house, found another creative pursuit, leased a home in Mexico, or who knows. Still, I wish I'd known some of the things below. Here are some reasons why publishing should only be pursued after serious consideration:

1.   Everyone is writing and publishing a book. Amazon has made it easy to do, and god bless them. Every day 7,500 books are released on Amazon, but who can read all these books? The answer: No one. Using the story rocket app, I reviewed pages and pages of books that didn't show a single book sold; others showed less than ten. It was rare to come across a book with thousands of books sold. 70% of authors will never make a profit.

2.  No matter how you plan, things get screwed up or turn out differently than you want them to. If you are a perfectionist, plan to drive yourself crazy every day. Your debut novel with your publisher, the most edited book ever, comes with a typo. Your publisher ships books to your house, and you hate the back cover. When you complain, they say it's too late to change it. The publisher didn't put the proper keywords into Amazon. Amazon won't change them unless your publisher requests it. The publisher's marketing person has left, and they've not hired a new one.

3. If you aren't with a publisher, you need money to release a book. Editing, covers, audio, and promotional copies all add up. Then there are Beta and Arc readers. Some of them charge money too. Getting your manuscript ready to submit to a publisher takes editing, that takes money.

4. Are you willing to put as much work into marketing the book as you did into writing the book? Be honest with yourself. If you don't like marketing, don't like social media, and don't like talking up your book to friends, think twice about publishing a book. Even if you are with a publisher, publishers do little to promote specific books unless you are a big name like Nora Roberts. You'll have to do most of the heavy lifting, or the book will tank. This is one of the primary reasons some traditional romance authors leave small presses, they discover they are doing all the work and leave.

5. Are you willing to put time into building your brand, study conversion rates, keywords, and all the other things to make you a successful author? If you say no to this and think you can hire someone, you can, but again this takes money, and most likely, you need to make money before you can spend it.

6. Are you ready to expose your work to the public? Part of this is opening yourself up to trolls or frustrated writers who have nothing better to do than take a shot at you. Yes, you'll meet many friendly folks, but those few hateful ones can take a lot out of you. Can you live with some three-star reviews? How about a one-star one? Will it cause you to go into a funk, not write, cry, or cause deep depression?

7. Do you love technology? And Solving Problems? You better, because you'll be using lots of it and solving them. Facebook might lock you out of your account. The password that worked now won't let you in on one of your computers. You go to your other laptop, and it lets you in. Your ad manager tells you to change the password. You must enter the old password, which it now magically accepts. WTF?

Can you upload files to Audible? Run your campaigns off of Mailchimp. Keep your mailing lists up to date, so apple and all the rest don't think you're spamming people. It would help if you were a filmmaker, too. TikTok, IG Reels, anybody? The list goes on and on. Truthfully, I thought I was pretty hip for my age—technology savvy, but discovered quickly—NOT! If anything can go wrong, it will. I should be a tester for all software and websites everywhere.

I will end this whiny post and blame it on the shortened month and too much thrown on my plate. I apologize that it isn't uplifting. Most likely, it's my attempt to regain the balance in my life and preserve yours if you haven't started on this road. Writing is a fantastic and fulfilling thing. I believe everyone has a story in them, but publishing a book doesn't have to be part of the equation. If all of the above doesn't phase you a bit and you have the time, money, and energy and are willing to do all of the above, go for it, and publish your book! But if most of it sounds god awful to you already, I'd say seek other avenues.

There are other ways to get an audience for your writing besides publishing a book. Writing serial style is one. Before I published, I wrote on Radish. I never thought about conversion rates, my brand, or marketing when I was on there. I wrote, had fun, and forty thousand people read my book in three months. I also made a small amount of money ($116.00), even though that wasn't my primary aim then. I'm not saying I'll never publish another book. Still, for the next year, I'm focusing on marketing the books I've already written and getting back to my primary purpose—writing and perhaps returning to a serial-style platform like Radish, Kindle’s Vella or Wattpad. I’ll write about these platforms in a later post.

Have a great week, peeps! Hello to my new readers, and thank you for joining us.

Next week, guest author, Editor Dayna M. Reidenouer from Your Publishing BFF, is stopping in. She's writing about The Role of a Book Editor. I invited Dayna after several beta readers said they are often asked to edit work rather than comment on the story. Dayna will discuss the different types of editing a manuscript might require.

I'm looking forward to Dayna sorting it all out for us!