There are many aspects to being a writer. Some authors do it for the money, some do it for the fun, and others like me use it as a creative outlet as well as stress relief. If anyone says they don’t do it for the money, that doesn’t mean the money wouldn’t be nice. I haven’t sold a lot so hence, I’m not rich but it’s not about the sales but instead, the satisfaction. It would be nice to have more sales and watch my books climb the ranking and get bigger royalty checks – easier said than done.
One satisfying aspect of completing a book is getting it published. There are numerous ways an author can take to get their book into the hands of a reader. The most popular in today’s age and society is self-publishing. Many companies such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble offer print on demand. If a book is sold on their website, the company will print off a copy and mail it to the buyer. Print on demand helps an author as well as publisher since gone are the days of having to store hundreds or thousands of books for when, or even if, one sells. Many authors self-publish because it’s cheap and easy. One problem with self-publishing is the market is flooded with a lot of bad books. Not that the author put out a bad product intentionally for the most part, it’s just many of the books are horribly edited (if edited at all) as well as have bad presentation and overall look, story, etc. Most self-published books would not have been published by a publisher so the author did what they had to. Another way to get a book published is using a vanity press which is the worst an author can do in my and many other author’s opinions. A vanity press is simply the author paying a company to publish their book. I’ve never done this and never will. The problem with this scenario is once the book is out, the company already got their money so the less likely they’ll need to sell any copies – they were already paid. A traditional publisher gets paid when a book sells so they want to sell books just as much as the author. Traditional publishing (even hybrid publishing) is the hardest to accomplish but the most satisfying. I say the most satisfying because finding a traditional publisher is tedious and hard to do since so many authors get numerous rejections before finding or being lucky enough to find a publisher. Famous authors have no problem finding a publisher since they’ve proved their books can sell. Numerous authors use agents to find the best publisher for their work but then again, finding an agent is just as hard, if not harder, than finding a traditional publisher.
I’ve just signed my third contract to work with a publisher for one of my novels. Like I’ve written in the previous paragraph, I haven’t always been able to find a traditional/hybrid publisher for a book so I have had to self-publish but with one work specifically, I self-published to have free reign over the decisions of the book. Working with a publisher, they take control of your book for two, even three years. So, signing the contract yesterday for my latest novel was very exciting and makes me excited that a manuscript I wrote is good enough in someone’s eyes to take the time, effort and money to publish. Now, after signing my book into almost existence, keep on the lookout for Soul Hunters – The Collector’s of Fear.
