5 Things No One Tells You Before Publishing

That You’ll Be Glad You Knew

1. Your Book Isn’t Finished

You’ve slaved away on your manuscript with the help of friends, editors, and proofreaders. You’ve poured over every word until you’re sure you’ve got it all perfect. The book is out the door and in the hands of readers. But guess what. It still isn’t done.

Whether it’s a couple of typos that must’ve sprouted like weeds, a minor factual error, or some little detail rubbing early readers the wrong way, there’ll be something about your book that you’ll want to change even after publishing. No matter how perfect you thought it was, it won’t stay perfect for long.

Or worse, as you grow and become a more-seasoned writer, you’ll notice aspects of the style or flow you would now do differently. You’ll have to choose either to expend significant effort making changes or accept that your book has faults. No one can make that choice for you.

2. Marketing Is Your New Part-Time Job

Many authors scrape together an hour or two or write after a full-time job and publish only to discover another mounting demand on their time: marketing their work. Whether it’s getting tips while talking to other authors, interacting with fans, or doing the nitty gritty of promoting your book, this is going to suck up time you’d rather spend writing.

And the more successful you get, the more time this’ll swallow. Have you become a mainstay of the Amazon Top 100? Prepare for a deluge of requests for interviews, help, and more. Just got a book deal? Get ready to attend a string of signings, expos, and maybe even international appearances. As Joe Konrath says, these things can gratify your ego, but they won’t help you finish your next book or even put money in your wallet.

3. The Climb to Success Is on the Backs of Other Authors

Nobody wants to admit this, but for you to succeed in publishing someone else needs to fail. That doesn’t require any meanness on your part, but you have to accept that when a large number of people are producing a similar product, a small portion of them will reap the lion’s share of the rewards.

Much of this has to do with exclusivity and scarcity. The bestsellers lists, space in magazines, or attention from a reviewer, the part that makes them valuable is that they’re not available to everyone. Be friends with your fellow authors and help each other where you can, but at the end of the day there’ll be space for only a limited number of success stories. And if you’re in the spotlight, beware of crabs trying to pull you down:

4. The Pleasures of Publishing Are Greater Than What You Imagined

Making money, getting awards, and even fame can be nice, and many people start writing with just those goals in mind, but there’s an even more powerful reward to writing that trumps the rest. It’s been said that if all you have is fame and legions of adoring fans, you don’t have much.

The greatest joy of writing is that it can provide a window into the mind of another, where you can actually have an impact on someone’s life. I’ve heard of authors receiving mail from troubled men serving in the military abroad, people on death’s door, or teens facing the divorce of their parents, all of whom found immeasurable solace in a book. There’s the possibility of doing a kindness that goes beyond simple entertainment, and best of all it only takes one reader to have that kind of deep, meaningful impact.

5. There Will Be Times When You’ll Miss Your Old Job

Whether you’re hoping to get out of a stuffy office or looking for an alternative to a profession involving physical labor, writing fiction for a living has obvious appeal. But writing is a job like any other, one that takes constant dedication and has plenty of sources of stress. There are deadlines, shifting trends that must be addressed, and the ever-present need to produce new work. Sure, that ebook product page might be live on the Internet forever, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to crank out new content on a regular basis to remain successful.

You have to think hard about the kind of person you are. If the most important things to you are the safety and security of your job, you might find yourself missing your current one when you’re trying to stretch your last royalty check for months while you pound out another book.

It’s hard work that can seem even harder when you depend on each new title being a breakout hit to provide your salary for the next year. Publishing can be fickle, heartless, and unforgiving. It’s a fair-weather friend. The only thing that can propel you to keep at it despite all of this has to come from inside. If you don’t love writing, if you don’t feel the story churning in your gut and the tension to get it out, and if you don’t have the dedication it takes to throw words at the wall nearly every day, then the odds of making writing a career are stacked against you.

A final note: think long and hard about the lengths you’re willing to go to in order to be successful. Expect to be pushed to the brink before, during, and after publishing. It’s the ability to put in that extreme level of effort that’s the true success.