#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!

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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!