To EVERY Would-Be Author Out There...

I recently met up online with a man who wanted desperately to be an author and not just a writer, and was disappointed after just his first few rejections from major publishing companies (he really hadn't had that many rejections, just unrealistic expectations of how many rejections he should expect).  This had him considering self-publishing.  Then, after looking into self-publishing, he was further disappointed at how much time and money the self-publishing process would cost him, and at the large number of publishing scammers out there.

Sadly, the story he told of getting ripped off is a common one.  Too many authors are drawn in by the promise of a quick publish, or a cheap edit, or similar schemes, and they end up handing over lots of money to people who do them little or no good, or throwing away lots of their own money and time getting their book e-published with no profit, when the only money they should have to spend is on postage.

Remember, there are VERY few writers who have both great ideas and great style, and this great style is usually developed after a LOT of practice, rejection letters, and/or simply many years of living. I've seen some really great ideas, very badly written, get re-worked and published.  I've also seen some really well-written very unimaginative published work more times than I can count, so don't give up, no matter what ANYone might say what to you! 

KEEP SUBMITTING!

 You CAN do it!

 ("Gone With The Wind" was rejected countless times, and ended up becoming a classic.)

Now, as for the edit... 

A really thorough edit, a really GOOD edit, will never cost you less than $3,000.  Anyone offering a "budget deal", as I’ve seen some freelance editors propose, are either just giving it a quick once-over— merely proofreading for spelling & grammar errors— or they're ("oops") suddenly going to find that "it needs a lot more work than the original bid" (gosh! imagine that!).  The most recent book I contract-edited took me about two weeks for just the first few chapters, but it WAS rather poorly written, so it took me much longer than usual. And THAT was only for the first time through, since I had yet to edit the changed version (properly done, there's ALWAYS a second edit for errors that came into the process during changes as well as problems that were missed the first time around, etc., then edits again after typesetting/prepping it for publication). 

If you decide to self-publish, you should expect four rounds of edits or more (two pre-typesetting or pre-final format, two or more post-formatting).  One extra round should be dedicated to graphics, images, page references (if you have an index/contents page/etc), and other extraneous items, since they need special attention.  Also, you must be VERY careful about copyrights and ownership of any images or quotes you use if you self-publish.  You need to be sure that your characters and events do not too closely resemble any real people or events, or other author’s characters and events, to avoid lawsuits down the road.  Non-fiction also requires good fact-checking and source-verification, as well as any possible permissions for quotes, trademarks, etc.  Even the copyright page has to be double-checked, and the legal language of the copyright itself must be correct (you will want to pay a copyright lawyer for that one)! 

Somewhere along the way, you’ll have to do lots of online searching (beyond just Amazon.com) to see if anyone has a title, cover art, or author name too similar to yours (and you should re-check that just before sending it to press).  Then you need an ISDN number assigned to your work.


Eventually, you're ready to go on the market.


If you're self-publishing the RIGHT way, you'll need to create your own imprint and corporate identity. If you’re generating printed material instead of just e-publishing, you should use a printer that is not affiliated with any vanity press. (Trade publishers know ALL the vanity press imprints, so once a book is self-published through any vanity press, the author's online profile will always have that for the trade publisher to find when they consider you for future publication— it's not something the industry should be proud of, but there IS an industry stigma against authors who've self-published, and you will NEVER re-publish through the trades any work that was once self-published.)  E-publishers should also do their best to look like another company approved the work, and not just that the author was able to download it to the internet cheaply.

So that will get you started, but the toughest part of publishing is SALES.

On top of all this work, you'll also need to know about marketing your book (which actually, by the way, starts LONG before it's ready for press/market).  The timing of a book's release-- depending on the book's subject, material, etc.— can be vital, so sometimes— very rarely— a work is held back from market intentionally.
 

(Whew!  Wow!  Let's take a breath... )

Well, that might give you an idea of why it costs so much, and takes so much time.  Too many authors wonder why it takes their book so long to get on the market through the trade publishers, because they don't realize what all is actually involved.  They think that the paper press portion is the major chunk of time, and/or that the editor is just letting it sit on their desk untouched for months on end, but that's a big mistake.  Self-publishing might seem faster, and it sometimes is, but it can also create poor end product, or slip in and out of the market unnoticed.  (Just a "heads-up", here.)  Yes, it CAN sometimes create great product that sells well, but this is rare and difficult.  And, as you've sadly already the hard way, it can lure a lot of scammers to your door.

So you NEED to have some VERY realistic expectations for your work. 

If you trade publish, and if you're lucky, you’ll get a good publisher who really wants to promote your work, and you might be asked to get yourself out there and do events/gigs/etc for publicity.  I have seen at least one great work fail when one author thought his job ended when the book made it to press, and the editor never want to go near that author again.  Also, I've seen an author's willingness to help out and cooperate with the editor as much as possible help sales immensely, as well as make for the editor's future willingness to work with the author again.  (We LOVE writers who take criticism well and want to promote with us.  That does NOT mean you have to accept every change that's asked of you, but it is nice for us not to have to spend hours on the phone trying to talk you into every little thing.)

The one thing to try to remember, the one thing it's hard for EVERY author to remember, is that your writing is not really YOU.  It feels personal when you get rejections, criticism, etc, but it's just some words that you wrote down.  But your work is not YOU.  So any rejection or criticism is NOT a rejection or criticism of you personally, just the words on the page.  Besides, even the great authors have had to do re-writes, changes, and/or abandon work completely.  If anything like that were to happen to you, it would only put you in some pretty impressive company!