I came up with this week’s challenge:
If you’re published, how is the business different than what you expected? If you’re planning to publish, what are your expectations?
When I first started writing novels and submitting them, I expected lots of rejections. And I got ’em. But, even in some of those, there were enough encouraging words. I kept at it and I am happy to say I am published. But the reality is very different from what I expected.
I was around in the days when you submitted to a publisher, they wrote you a contract and, after editing, you sat back and starting working on the next book. Now, with millions of books flooding the market every year, most authors must handle their own marketing and promotion. Social media alone can keep you busy day in and day out. Self-publishing used to be only for the writers who paid for a vanity press. Not anymore. Now it’s another avenue that offers all kinds of opportunities. And learning curves.
I am a hybrid. I am traditionally published and self-published and I spend hours every day keeping up with my writing and managing all the aspects of getting my name out there so readers will, hopefully, buy my books. I am not famous and I am not rich. Okay, that wasn’t really an expectation. But, why not aim high?
The good news is – the business makes your reach exceed your grasp. There is always another goal, another milestone. The most important of these is to ensure that the next book is better than the last. And I work at that every day.
Let’s see what the incredibly talented S. C. Mitchell’s expectations were…
