Wednesday, August 1, 2018

#IWSG-What I wish I knew

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group! A blog hop for writers everywhere to talk about writing terror!  Join us!
http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html


Today they've asked a question of what pitfalls would we warn other writers about. 

There are so many! The publishing world is in a massive flux and it has been for a long time. When I was first dabbling into, "oooo--I have a story idea!" land, traditional was the only way to go and agents and publishers were Gods.

Now, anything goes. Trad, Indie, Hybrid. You name it, and someone is probably making a ton of money doing it that way.

Some ONE. Not a lot of them, however. This is sort of tangental to the topic, but new writers need to know--you're probably NOT going to make a lot of money. And even if you have a good year, it can crash the next. This is a very unstable business--you have to do it because you like the process (maybe not all of it, but some of it ;)). Money is good, but don't quit your day job just yet ;).

Not my own experience, but I would warn new writers NOT to fall for the vanity press pubs. These are "publsihers" who tell an author they've been accepted for publication, but the author needs to pay them a bunch of money for it to happen.

Now, since I'm Indie, I have heard folks say it's the same--after all Indies pay people too, right? Wrong. I pay independent contractors--cover artist, editors, formatters--I PICK them. I choose who I want and what I need them to do. These "publishers" take the author's money, then assign them bad covers, no promo, horrific editing--then the author wonders why they can't sell a single book.

Yeah- No. 

Go traditional. Go Small Press (a real small press is not going to charge you up front). Go Indie. Go Hybrid (someone who is both indie and trad--there isn't such a thing as a "hybrid" publisher--it's vanity press) Do what works for you--but do your research!



10 comments:

  1. Agreed on those vanity publishers. Picking your own editor, cover artist, etc is way different than being told they need $3000 up front and not knowing if you'd ever make that back since the press has no incentive to make money off your book since they already have your fee.

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  2. Great advice. I know a few that have fallen for this and it breaks my little writer's heart. :-/

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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  3. Yes, there's a big difference between picking who you will pay, and who is trying to give you crap for your money.

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  4. Definitely stay away from the vanity publishers. Very good advice. Looking forward to reading The Sapphire Manticore. I enjoyed the first three books in the series.

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  5. I have so much research experience for my books, of course I'd research publishers.

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  6. Excellent advice! I did not know any of that but it doesn't surprise me that some would try to charge you up front. I will definitely do a lot of research before I attempt to submit anything. Thanks for sharing!

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  7. Agreed on the research! If you don't like research, you're in the wrong field and if you're putting your literary babies out to the world, you darn well better make sure they're in good hands.

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  8. Hmmmm- just saw that none of my responses from last month are on here! I was doing it remotely but thought they worked-GAH! Thank you all for coming by!

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