CIOs And CMOs: Feuding In The C-Suite

Most of the time, published writers make nothing to about a third of minimum wage. And that is if you even do get published. You’re honestly better off getting a job at McDonald’s. Basing the calculation on Twilight would be ludicrous because the vast majority of books aren’t half as popular as Twilight. That’s like asking “how much do IT technicians make, please base your average on Bill Gates”.

And that’s before I even get into how to get published and boy, did you think that was going to be easy? First of all if you “overelaborated” on one part, it is not going to be published, so go back to editing. Publishers aren’t interested in books that aren’t perfect.
First of all, you do not contact anybody until after your book is finished. Your ideas and unedited unfinished manuscripts are worthless.
Second, all writers should know Yog’s Law: the money ALWAYS flows towards the author. Any agent who asks you for money upfront is a scammer. Any publisher who asks you for money upfront is either a scammer or a vanity press and often enough, they’re both.

1/ Write your book to the highest standard. Learn all you can about the craft. Get it criticised by people who are neither your friends, family or teachers. Get your ego crushed. If they say it is terrible (and they will. All first drafts are awful), ask why. Ignore anybody who says it’s great, they’re not helping. Follow people’s advice. Then rewrite it all. Go get crushed again. Rewrite. Then edit and edit and edit. Repeat that process as many times as you need until people are just criticising tiny unimportant details.
Keep in mind it is UNACCEPTABLE to have grammatical, punctuation or spelling errors or typos in a manuscript you submit.

2/ Research. A LOT. Research how the publishing industry works. When you know how things work, start researching for an agent. Writers’ Market is there for that purpose. Find agents who cater to your genre. Do a background check on them to make sure they are legit. I suggest the forum Absolute Write to start with. These guys are very good. Also google “Agent Name + scam” and read what people are saying. Then find out their query requirements and query. Get rejected. Often. Just persevere. Eventually you might be accepted. If that is the case, move on to step 3

3/ You and your agent will probably do some more editing and then your agent will help you query publishers. Again, research publishers before querying and make sure you follow their query guidelines. Again, get rejected a lot.

4/ If you’re one of the lucky few, you will be accepted. A legitimate publisher will NOT ask you for any money. In fact, they will pay YOU an advance and if your book sells well, you’ll get royalties after that. If your book doesn’t sell well you keep your advance and the publisher is the one who will be at a loss. That’s why publishers are so hard to get. They take a big financial risk when they take you on. It also means they are much more motivated to sell your book.
The publisher will provide: editing, cover artist, formatting, printing, marketing, copyright registration if you’re in the US, ISBN and distribution at a cost of ZERO to you.

The alternative is self-publishing, but I don’t recommend it unless you’re a talented businessman. Be aware there are free options out there (lulu.com or Amazon Kindle for example) and certainly plenty which don’t cost thousands. That alternative means you are alone. You do all the work. All the marketing, all the editing, the cover art (unless you buy extra options). They just print it for you. Be wary of vanity presses posing as Print On Demand and self-publishers (again google Name + scam and ask the guys at Absolute Write.). Be aware that self-publishing also means you will probably not sell a lot of books if any. It’s a great option if you just want a few copies for friends and family or a small local project (ie a History of your local parish or a book about your family’s ancestors.) or if you have a niche genre or a book that wasn’t given a chance by a publisher because of reasons other than quality. Be aware that self-publishing does not count as publishing credits and you would not be able to join any professional writers guild as well as being constantly reminded of the fact that your work was not selected by professionals. You will also have more trouble finding reviewers for your book as many bloggers, websites and most magazines and newspapers have a no self-published books review policy. I especially advise against self-publishing if you are a young writer because you are not yet able to judge how good your book really is and a bad self-published book out there might destroy any future writing career you might have as every publisher you’ll contact at age 30 will see it with a simple google search.