Read the full text: “Publishing Is Easy” by David Gaughran
Publishing Is Easy
See some of his valuable comments (more on his blog):
There are three primary tasks a writer must undertake to get her work into the hands of readers: writing, publishing, and marketing.
Out of those three, I respectfully submit, publishing is by far the easiest.
Writing a book is hard, and writing a good book is even harder – at least from the perspective of the inexperienced writer. Most people who think about writing a book never start one. Most people who start one never finish it. And most people who finish a book never polish it to the point where it’s ready for prime-time and/or never get it out the door for one reason or another.
To write a good book, you have to put in the time in terms of reading with intent, learning about the craft, gaining mastery of the tools at your disposal, and putting all that into practice with book after book (some of which may never see the light of day). It’s usually a long process and it’s understandable that there’s a high level of attrition.
And:
“The Wrong Kind of Help”
Many newbies get suckered. Because if they think that publishing is hard or that publishing is expensive then they will seek out a third party to handle that part of the process. Which could result in:
- Signing with a large publisher for a small advance, resulting in no nationwide bookstore distribution, little marketing, poor sales, and little or no royalties.
- Doing a deal with a small publisher which struggles to get their books into stores, and which doesn’t have the time or money to invest in digital marketing.
- Handing over rights to an agent-publisher with a poor track record.
- Spending a lot of money on “publishing consultants” who don’t know what they’re doing.
- Engaging a “self-publishing service company” – and these run the spectrum of mediocre to awful vanity presses like Author Solutions.
As for me, I fell into trap numero 5…