Pub Talks: It's Hard Doing it All On Your Own
It's a lonely world as a writer/author/marketer/publisher.
I read my first indie author on Kindle well over a decade ago. When I found out she didn’t have her book traditionally published, I was intrigued, to say the least.
I had already started to write at that point and though I was still in school, I filled myself with as much knowledge as I possibly could and that was provided to me through the internet.
I understood what a publishing house was and what the “Big 5” publishers of the time were. I researched the full, in-depth process of what it took to get a novel published from finishing the manuscript to finding a literary agent and going on submission in hopes that one of those Big 5 wanted your book and give it the marketing budget to make it a bestseller and all your dreams come true.
But indie authors and self-publishing? It was a whole new way of book publishing I wasn’t as aware of, and not only that, but the self-published books I was reading were good—no, great.
So, I started to research and see what it took to become an indie author.
Back in 2012-2013, it didn’t seem too complicated save for making a cover, I figured. Still, I wasn’t ready to publish at that point and I wasn’t willing to simply let go of the traditional publishing dreams.
Now, it seems all that information and How-To articles I voraciously consumed as a baby writer didn’t go to waste.
In 2020, I decided that I was done (at least for now) querying only to end up rewriting the same book I’d worked on since high school over and over again. I was going to get my book out there and continue to write new ones. I was going to become an indie author like the ones I admired. And I did. I self-published in 2021.
It’s been a ride of ups and downs since, but I don’t regret going indie at all. I’m surrounded by other amazing indie romance authors and I’m trying to keep up on publishing new love stories whenever I can. But, that being said, I also am here today to say just how difficult it can be some days—doing it all on your own.
Because no matter how beautiful the book may be or how proud you are of your writing or how many readers you have it is, ultimately, a lot.
A lot of work.
A lot of time.
A lot of money.
A lot of self-doubt only you can pull yourself through when you are sitting alone at your desk constantly second-guessing your work. When you’re worrying that it’s not good enough or that you’re not a writer, despite evidence to the contrary. Or when you simply fear failure when comparing yourself to others or feel as if you are striving for the unattainable perfectionism we can hope for but will likely never reach because it doesn’t exist, which can turn into one big writing block that feels like a brick wall too tall to climb.
And how can it not? When you are sitting alone on release day and find yourself refreshing the page over and over again to check your sales or KU page counts, bushing off achievements like how you just wrote a book (which is so amazing!) all because you don’t have anything to post about being #1 in the charts somewhere?
Not only that, but self-publishing isn’t just the writing, as we all may know if you’ve started to read my other posts readers, dawning the hat of a writer/publisher/author/marketer/editor, etc.
And as a writer, whether or not you may realize it, you’re an artist—and wearing that business hat doesn’t always fit quite right. Especially not when following up with a cover artist who hasn’t gotten back to you when you’re on deadline or having to be an account when numbers were the exact thing you were running in the opposite direction of most general education requirements in school.
It’s so important to surround yourself with other writers readers and supporters. It is also another thing to add to the to-do list. It is hard to be everything all at once to achieve your dreams.
But I believe in you.
(As I whisper these words to myself as well.)
I believe in you.
You’re never alone as you hit publish. You have so many readers just waiting to read your story that don’t even know it yet.