Hey, Garrett. My name is Aakash. I’ve actually asked you once or twice about how to pursue writing for a career.
So, here’s the thing. I’m a college student, and I’m still in the process of finishing my bachcelor’s degree and writing chapters for some of my fanfics and the one big story I have planned. But, I want to write for a living in the future. Preferably, I want to work on novels and stories, but I don’t know the full process of publishing a book.
What are the steps I would have to take to publish a book, and how do I know when to submit a manuscript for editing? (My writing style tends to change fairly quickly, and I don’t want to seem inconsistent to an editor or publisher.)
Thanks for all your cool tips! I love your blog! 💛
Well, the first big decision you have to make is whether you want to pursue traditional publishing or indie publish (self-publishing, though I hate that term because you don’t actually do everything yourself and it sounds bad to say that you do.)
I made this video very early about traditional publishing versus self publishing. My views have evolved a bit, but this covers the basics.
There’s a lot more information to help you decide whether you want to go traditional or indie. Do a lot of research on this before you decide.
If you’re going traditional, here’s the route for most people:
Write the book (the easy part)
Your agent sells your book to a publisher (difficult)
This will take a LOOONG time and most of the process is completely out of your hands. BUT, if you do ever get your book published, it will be backed up by a team of professionals who are better at their jobs than you. Your book can still fail, though, and if it does, it will be harder for you to publish future books traditionally.
If you’re going the indie publishing route, here’s what you have to do:
Write the book (the easy part)
Edit the book. No, again. Again. AGAIN. You think you’re done? Ha. Again.
Once you’ve made the book as good as YOU possibly can, now you need to PAY a PROFESSIONAL to edit the book again. Preferably, multiple professionals: a story editor, a copy editor, and multiple proofreaders.
You’ve got a book! Now it gets harder.
Thoroughly research your genre and learn all about cover design so you can communicate to a professional how to design your cover.
Pay the professional cover designer for your cover.
Market and sell the shit out of your book constantly, all the time.
Simultaneously to 8, IMMEDIATELY start writing your next book as fast as you can. There’s no magic guarantee of success in indie publishing, but if there was, it would be putting out as many GOOD books as possible, as FAST as possible.
Repeat 1-9 for the rest of your life, or your career at the very least.
I know this makes indie publishing sound like way, way more work. That’s because it is. You have to put in way more work per book you write, because there is no one else in charge of editing it, or publishing it, or distributing it, or marketing it for you.
And a lot of the “more work” you’re doing is not the fun part of writing, like, at all. Running Facebook advertising and Amazon advertising is not fun or sexy at all. Coordinating the production and publication of audiobooks is not why I became a writer.
BUT, if you can manage to grow it to the point where the income sustains you (which am lucky enough to have achieved, most of the time, and I have the most incredible wife who helps when that is not the case), you really are living the life of a working writer. You write as many books as you want, and you publish them when you want. It’s all books, all the time, and nothing but, forever.
Oh yeah, one thing about traditional: publishers won’t usually let you publish as many books as you want. They’ll take a max of one book a year per author, because their distribution networks can’t handle more than that.
Basically, if you go indie, you are setting your sights on an extremely fast-paced, demanding, full-time occupation. You’re running a business, and it requires EVERYTHING involved with running a business. But if you educate yourself, work tirelessly, and get just a little bit lucky, you really are living the life of a full-time working writer. It’s exhilarating even when it’s exhausting, and I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.
If you go traditional, there is a slight chance you can be the breakout success author who gets to write for a living. More likely, you are going to write and publish as a side gig in addition to your regular job.
The traditional publishing industry puts out a million books each year. Only a tiny fraction of those authors are the @neil-gaiman and John Green types, the international successes with huge, wide, devoted fanbases whose books get turned into film and television.
I guess, in essence, it boils down to this: if you ONLY want to be PURELY a writer, go the traditional route. It’s less likely, by straight percentage, that you’ll become a full-time writer. But you will ONLY be a writer.
If you want your whole LIFE to be about your books and ONLY your books, learn everything there is to learn about being an indie publisher, and then throw yourself in the deep end of the pool. You will have to do a billion other things other than writing, but it will all be in service of your books and your career, and you personally will be more directly in control of the factors that lead to your books’ success or failure.
