Discouraged after reading about publishing

Status
Not open for further replies.

DavidTShank

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
135
Reaction score
9
Location
Cleveland, OH
Website
www.davidtshank.com
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I have a lot on my mind and it's all relevant to me. (There's a TL;DR at the bottom.)

My third manuscript is done and is waiting on the shelf for me to edit it with a fresh eye. In the meantime, I've started plotting my next novel.

(Please let me know if this is not the appropriate board for this. I had to really think about it before posting here.)

I also started doing a bit of research. I've been reading Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle both, and it's gotten me worried. Ideally, like I assume many others here feel, I would like to write full time one day. I've become more and more fed up with what I've been doing as far as school and work go and I'd like to move on to what I actually want to do. I've taken steps toward that goal (like finishing my manuscript) and now I'm a bit conflicted. I don't really have the words to describe how I'm feeling.

The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me. Even Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle are small time despite being great wealths of information. They do well enough to pay the bills, I suppose, but they also aren't names I would have known about if not for AW.

Moreover, reading Holly Lisle's FAQs About Self-Publishing has made me wonder if that isn't the better option. It's certainly not the way I'd prefer to go, though that might be from the shallow idea that self-publishing isn't "real" publishing.

The idea, I admit, is still somewhat attractive. I like writing many different genres (basically anything but romance) and I would like to continue writing in many different genres. Self-publishing - via ebooks or any other method - would afford me a great deal of freedom. And as long as I remained prolific, I could still turn out a profit on the whole as my collection grew.

I also have a friend who's very good at the whole networking thing. He spent a whole year building an audience for a YouTube show he hadn't even started yet. It's now more successful than anything I could have ever done. I would likely get him to help me build an audience and advertise.

In short, I could do it, and it would be the most comfortable option for me, so long as I got a decent editor to work with.

However, commercial publishing would altogether probably be the wiser option. First off, I'd get the gratification of knowing that someone wants to publish my work because they read it, liked it, and would like to represent it. Second, they would give me critique I could learn from - and I'd be willing to go along with whatever they said because they have the same goal as me: to sell my book. Plus, there's the cash advance...

But it all comes back to what I read before. The whole "It's easier to sell a first book than a third" or whatever thing seems to hold true. And that scares me.

I don't expect to be overwhelmingly successful. Hey, maybe I'll surprise myself and write the next wave of blockbuster movie-inspiring novels. More likely not.

I've also noticed something from my own reading experience: I don't read new authors. This might be because I've been catching up on the years I barely read anything, but it makes me wonder about other readers. How many people actually seek out new writers when so many great writers have already left behind so many things to read? I mean, Grisham, King, Baldacci and a slew of SFF writers I could also reference are already on the bookshelves (and will be for a long time). Where's the space for us new authors?

Maybe I'm just being defeatist. I don't want to rely on lightning striking. Yes, maybe I'll just need to be my own advertiser (and a damn good one at that) but I want to feel like I'm actually doing something I suppose. I am a writer but I won't consider myself an author until I'm published. I want to be successful but I'm afraid I'm living in the shadow of giants.

TL;DR: Self-publishing doesn't sound like such a bad option. And no, I don't mean vanity publishing.
 

benluby

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 22, 2012
Messages
713
Reaction score
62
Location
Georgia!!
My attitude is the opposite. I didn't even bother to submit to any of the houses. I think my writing is better an some of what I've seen on shelves in stores, but truthfully, and maybe I am going to sound like an arrogant douche, but I refuse to let one person who reads my writing tell me 'nope. Sucks. Next."
My beta's have been utterly thrilled with the first book in the series, and, I don't expect to be the next Don Pendleton or Tom Clancy.
I am writing for my pleasure and satisfaction, and the idea of waiting a year or so for my book to finally appease some nameless entity in a publishing house doesn't appeal to me.
So I am going self pub. I know I'll have to keep my day job and there's going to be a snotload of people who look down their nose at it without even cracking the cover, but I really am just writing for me.
If it makes money, yay, I'll order pizza. If not? I've wasted a lot of pixels. If I have ten loyal fans, I'll be thrilled.
Ten thousand I'll be ecstatic. Ten million? I'll need a drug test because I'm obviously smoking something that is making me hallucinate.
 

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
18,981
Reaction score
6,933
Location
At some altitude
Website
www.jamie-mason.com
The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me.

<snip>

But it all comes back to what I read before. The whole "It's easier to sell a first book than a third" or whatever thing seems to hold true. And that scares me.

<snip>

Maybe I'm just being defeatist. I don't want to rely on lightning striking. Yes, maybe I'll just need to be my own advertiser (and a damn good one at that) but I want to feel like I'm actually doing something I suppose. I am a writer but I won't consider myself an author until I'm published. I want to be successful but I'm afraid I'm living in the shadow of giants.

It's all scary and uncertain and there is absolutely nothing you can do about that except give it a whirl. There is nothing that anyone will say here that will make the nerve-wracking part of this business not nerve-wracking.

Of course, it is better to go in with as much knowledge as you can, and in my opinion, there's no better place to get that knowledge than here.

Just know you likely have some a lot of rejection ahead of you. It's just the way it is. And it's no reason not to try anyway.

edited in respect of those AWers who didn't, in fact, have to suffer what would constitute "a lot" of rejection
 
Last edited:

ThatWolfAgain

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 27, 2013
Messages
70
Reaction score
6
I think both are still valid options; it's all in where you want to be and what you're willing to do to get there.

For myself, I definitely want to go the traditional route -- at least to start with. If I built up an audience that way, then I would definitely consider doing some self publishing as well. (Though then there are non-competing clauses and things to worry about; particularly since I really only write in the one genre.)

One reason I'm interested in that route is because there is still value in gatekeepers. I know I still tend to be wary of buying ebook only stories/novels by people that I haven't read before, simply because I've purchased some truly shoddy stuff in the past.

Also… I'm a bit old school that way. I hate ebooks in general. When I *do* buy things in ebook format they're generally nonfiction things on writing or magazines I'm considering submitting to. (Or that I just plain like to read, like Nightmare or Weird Tales.) It's pretty rare for me to pick up an ebook novel unless I'm in a place (like when I was in Italy for the summer) where I can't just go pick up the dead tree versions. The only author I regularly buy that way is Joe Hill, but he's a big hitter and of course I learned about him through his trad published stuff.

But all in all, I think self publishing can be a gamble as much as trad publishing can be. They both have different pros and cons. If you're not tied to paper on a shelf and you think you're up for the marketing (and have the money to invest in the other necessary bits) it's not a bad way to go. But try not to get discouraged before you start. This writer thing is a long haul, as I'm constantly telling myself. =]
 
Last edited:

Sage

Currently titleless
Staff member
Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Messages
64,562
Reaction score
22,369
Age
43
Location
Cheering you all on!
You're time traveling to the future and anticipating failure, and you've skipped out on the now. Do you want this first book published conventionally, with a possibility of seeing it in bookstores? How can your third book fail to sell well, if you haven't even gotten the first one published? Worry about that first book. Then worry about the second. And then you can focus on the third.

People do read new authors, when they're given a reason to. Could be the book caught their eye in the store. Could be a friend recommended it. Could be that the publisher got a big name to blurb the book. Could be the publisher paid to put it on an end cap in the bookstore.

How are they going to find your name if you self-publish?

There are many good reasons to self-publish, but if you're doing it because you're afraid of failing, I think you're not giving yourself the chance you deserve. So what happens if you get 3 books published conventionally and the third one fails? Are you better or worse off than you were if you self-published it? And if you do self-publish book 4, how much better would your chances be if there was the possibility of name recognition?

Or maybe you don't fail on book 3. Maybe book 3 does just fine, and so does 4 and 5. Or maybe the 2nd one fails or the first never gets any agent/publisher interest. Any of these things may happen.

Calling it quits because you don't know which it will be seems like a big waste to me. But it is your journey, so the choice is yours.
 

DavidTShank

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
135
Reaction score
9
Location
Cleveland, OH
Website
www.davidtshank.com
For myself, I definitely want to go the traditional route -- at least to start with. If I built up an audience that way, then I would definitely consider doing some self publishing as well. (Though then there are non-competing clauses and things to worry about; particularly since I really only write in the one genre.)

There are many good reasons to self-publish, but if you're doing it because you're afraid of failing, I think you're not giving yourself the chance you deserve. So what happens if you get 3 books published conventionally and the third one fails? Are you better or worse off than you were if you self-published it? And if you do self-publish book 4, how much better would your chances be if there was the possibility of name recognition?

There's a lot of wisdom here that I didn't consider. Name recognition is a huge deal. What if I'm discovered on the bookshelves and people want more after I've stopped doing the commercial publishing thing? Why they can go to amazon or my website or something and get more, that's what.

The issue I'm still seeing, however, is that people might realize/think I stopped doing commercial publishing because my publisher thought I was crap or realized that I wasn't going to make them any money.

I know that I'm looking way into the future and I sound like I'm giving up before I've even started. I just want to make a solid decision on figuring out where to start. I've wasted too much time not writing and now that I have something I want to publish, I realize I'm lacking a lot of know-how.

That being said, I do think starting with a commercial publisher might be the best route to go. If I move onto self-publishing later then so be it.
 

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
18,889
Reaction score
5,029
Location
We couldn't possibly do that. Who'd clear up the m
Website
francisknightbooks.co.uk
Look, whichever way you go, the possibility of rejection looms. Either an editor says "nope" (or acquisitions does) or you self pub and no one buys it or....


First, finish your book. While you are doing that read, research, read some more. There are valid reasons for choosing either path, and there are...more dubious reasons also. Only you can decide which one is right for you. But whichever way you go, success is not guaranteed.


But hey, people do read new authors with the Big Five. My numbers haven't been OMGosh I can Retire! But I'm not OMG Never Publish Her! either.

We'd all love to make squillions from our writing, but we also need to live in the real world. For most of us, that means no mansions or helicopters (or groupies :(). So set yourself a realistic target to aim for. Then work out the best way for you to achieve it.
 

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
1,529
Location
between rising apes and falling angels
Website
www.cranehanabooks.com
These days, most readers won't care who published your book, you or a commercial publisher. Most of your fellow authors won't care, because a lot of them are considering or are already doing hybrid publishing.

It's probably going to be easier to build a readership if you start out in commercial publishing, because a reputable publisher can do more effective marketing than most individual authors. But self-pub writers can have breakout hits, too.

The only way you'll really lose is if you don't publish at all. Then you let the fear and doubt win.
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
These days, most readers won't care who published your book, you or a commercial publisher. Most of your fellow authors won't care, because a lot of them are considering or are already doing hybrid publishing.

It's probably going to be easier to build a readership if you start out in commercial publishing, because a reputable publisher can do more effective marketing than most individual authors. But self-pub writers can have breakout hits, too.

The only way you'll really lose is if you don't publish at all. Then you let the fear and doubt win.

Well, no, not at all true. It isn't that readers care who publishes your book, but the do care about quality, and 99.9% of self-published books smell worse than a dead fish on a hot summer day. Most readers know this well, which is why the big commercial publisher still get the vast, vast majority of readers.
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
Even Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle are small time despite being great wealths of information. They do well enough to pay the bills, I suppose, but they also aren't names I would have known about if not for AW.


TL;DR: Self-publishing doesn't sound like such a bad option. And no, I don't mean vanity publishing.

Seriously? If you had to come on here to hear about Uncle Jim or Holly Lisle, the fault is with you, not with them. You really know nothing about them, apparently, or how much they earn.

It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into self-publishing. If so, go ahead. You need no permission, but it is vanity publishing, unless you have a proven track record in selling books.

Bad is bad, no matter what you call it, and 99.9% of self-published novel suck in every possible way. Vanity is the only reason for their existence.

Commercial publishing is harder, but it's also real simple. You get paid what you're worth. New writers become millionaires of a regular basis, IF they're good enough to please readers.

If you aren't good enough, self-publishing won't make you any better.
 

benluby

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 22, 2012
Messages
713
Reaction score
62
Location
Georgia!!
Seriously? If you had to come on here to hear about Uncle Jim or Holly Lisle, the fault is with you, not with them. You really know nothing about them, apparently, or how much they earn.

It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into self-publishing. If so, go ahead. You need no permission, but it is vanity publishing, unless you have a proven track record in selling books.

Bad is bad, no matter what you call it, and 99.9% of self-published novel suck in every possible way. Vanity is the only reason for their existence.

Commercial publishing is harder, but it's also real simple. You get paid what you're worth. New writers become millionaires of a regular basis, IF they're good enough to please readers.

If you aren't good enough, self-publishing won't make you any better.

99.9%? Wow. Talk about having their mind made up with nothing to back it up.
I read both traditional and self pub, and you can find a lot of good self pub out there. My biggest reason for preferring it over the traditional methodology is I have a much better chance of being surprised.
Most of the mainstream seems to have a template and all stories fall within it, and if they don't...they just don't publish it.
 

DavidTShank

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
135
Reaction score
9
Location
Cleveland, OH
Website
www.davidtshank.com
Seriously? If you had to come on here to hear about Uncle Jim or Holly Lisle, the fault is with you, not with them. You really know nothing about them, apparently, or how much they earn.

I meant no insult. I was going off of what Holly Lisle said about her success as a full-time writer. It seemed like she made about what she made at her full-time job, from what I read. Which is good.

But you're right, I don't know how much they earn, or much about them really. I don't really know how to defend myself on that count or how to rationalize how I'm at fault for not knowing of them before. My research on writing is a recent thing, much later than it should have been. I really wish I had participated more (or at all) back in 2010 when I set up this profile. It might have been just the kick in the pants I needed (as it is now).

But yeah, I think everything you said is pretty spot-on. I need to prove myself through a "real" publisher. I don't want to just be another morsel of crap on top of a dung heap without realizing it. Thanks for that push :)
 

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
18,981
Reaction score
6,933
Location
At some altitude
Website
www.jamie-mason.com
There are a lot of ways to make money. Writing isn't really a very easy one. And, honestly, you'll make yourself nuts if you're worried about name recognition. With a small stable of exceptions, most living writers, even bestselling ones, will not be immediately recognizable by name to a large cross-section of the population. Within genres and various avenues of topics, the group of "famous" will be larger, and still you wouldn't know the names of most very successful writers off the top of your head.

Your best bet is to start taking bites of the whale you have before you, but don't look too far down the fins. It's a lot. Just take little bites and chew very slow, just like a good writer should...
 

SianaBlackwood

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 21, 2012
Messages
735
Reaction score
99
Location
Australia
Website
sb.siasan.com
My third manuscript is done and is waiting on the shelf for me to edit it with a fresh eye. In the meantime, I've started plotting my next novel.

The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me.

Surely this means "your third published book" rather than anything to do with how many you write or query? No need to panic just because you're up to your third or fourth manuscript.
 

DavidTShank

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
135
Reaction score
9
Location
Cleveland, OH
Website
www.davidtshank.com
Surely this means "your third published book" rather than anything to do with how many you write or query? No need to panic just because you're up to your third or fourth manuscript.

Haha! I didn't think of that phrasing. Yeah, I know this adage is about published books. I'm not worried that this one won't sell just because it's my third manuscript.

I'd like to thank everyone responding to this, by the way. I like hearing the different viewpoints. Some on this side, some on that side, and still others in the middle. All of it is helpful.

To clarify my original concern, I wasn't leaning toward traditional or self-publishing at first. I felt that there was reasonable risk with either one and I wanted opinions on the different paths. I wanted to see others' concerns and compare them to mine.

Now I think I have a better idea of what I want to do. More importantly, I have a better idea of what I need to do.
 

Ken

Banned
Kind Benefactor
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
11,478
Reaction score
6,198
Location
AW. A very nice place!
It is good that getting published is difficult. That way only the best of the best books get published, with some exceptions. If getting pub'd was easier then there would be a lot of junk on the shelves and readers like myself would have to wade thru the rubbish in search of a good read. The difficulty of getting pub'd is beneficial to me as a writer as well. I want the standards to be high. Otherwise some piece of junk I write might go to press and make its way onto the shelves. For a moment that would be cool ("Horay, horay!") until readers began weighing in. "What tripe. I demand my money back. My 3-yr-old daughter could write a better story this this!" :-(
 

jaksen

Caped Codder
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 6, 2010
Messages
5,117
Reaction score
526
Location
In MA, USA, across from a 17th century cemetery
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, you know? We can all find things to worry about, drag us down, make us sad or disillusioned, etc. Oh wait, am I describing my mother? hehe

I wrote and sold my first stories long before there was an AW. I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I just wrote them, mailed them off and sold them. Now, I am not a huge literary success, but I had no worries or fears about the stories. I knew they were good - great? Maybe not. But it was, hey, maybe I'll sell them, but if I don't, life goes on. (I already had a career and family, a happy life.)

My advice is to do this, write, do the best you can, find a beta or two (if you need to do that), then try and get an agent, try to get published. What more can you do? Worrying achieves nothing but to make a person miserable.

And put all that 'worrying' energy into writing. Any one of us can find things to despair over, be anxious about. Life. Disease. Family issues. Marriage/partner issues. War. The economy. That list will never end.

Of course, just my saying all this prob. won't change anyone who is a worrier, but it seems to me a waste of time and talent to worry over things like this.

imo
 

job

In the end, it's just you and the manuscript
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 27, 2005
Messages
3,459
Reaction score
653
Website
www.joannabourne.com
Let me toss out a few thoughts.

-- Random folks who self-publish have maybe a 1-in-100,000 chance of making 'a lot of money'.
Folks who sell books to one of the five major publishers have maybe a 1-in-3000 chance to make 'a lot of money'.
Kinda like winning the lottery
in both cases.

So I wouldn't go into writing with the intention of making a lot of money.

(I'm making up these numbers, btw.)

-- Folks who self-publish their books have maybe a 1-in-1000 chance of eventually pulling in $20,000+/year.

So many folks self-publish that a large number of folks make this kind of money. It's a tiny percentage of all the folks who self publish, but it's a large number.

My own thought is that folks who make significant money self-publishing could very probably do well in traditional publishing. Quality wins,in the long run.

-- Folks who publish with one of the Big Five will mostly, eventually, make $20,000+/year or better. (See advances for big and small publishers at Brenda Hiatt.)
Smaller presses are going to be less money, on the whole.


Right now, you're exploring many possibilities and gathering information. Very wise of you. If you plan to self-publish, you should make acquaintances who do this and learn from their experience.

If you decide to go the Big Five route, self-publishing is always possible later on if a manuscript doesn't fit that particular route.

The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me.
I don't know what this means.

In some types of publishing, thirty or fifty years ago, publishers would frequently give a writer three unprofitable books before they chucked him. Not relevant to today's publishing. Not relevant to someone who hasn't yet published.

Getting turned down for publication for three manuscripts doesn't mean you're 'done'.
 
Last edited:

Literateparakeet

Nerdy Budgie
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
1,386
Reaction score
226
Location
Seattle
Website
lesliesillusions.blogspot.com
I was like you, I mean I was reluctant about self-publishing . . . but now I love it. I think both trade publishing and self-publishing have value for different reasons.

Self-publishing has been great for me because:

My first book never would have been picked up by a trade publisher.

1. It's too short. Only about 50 pages.
2. It's non-fiction and I don't have a substantial platform
3. It gives advice about parenting, and I don't have a degree

I self-published it mostly to learn and make my mistakes on before I launched my second book (my baby). I knew that the odds of it selling a lot were slim, so I decided my goal was to get at least 25 reviews before my next book was published.

My next book will be published in August, and the first one has 31 reviews (woo hoo! better than I had hoped!) It hasn't sold a lot (as I suspected) BUT...something I never even dared dream of happened!

I was contacted about the film/TV rights. With the help of an attorney, I signed a contract for the option, and the check will pay my publishing costs for both books! Perhaps my book will be made into a TV show (that is the plan apparently) or maybe it won't, but that check and the ego-boost it gave me were awesome.

That never would have happened if I had left that book just sitting on my computer.

For my second book I tried to find a trade publisher. But I was told by three writing professionals that the market for books about abuse is flooded. (I was also told my writing merited serious consideration.) I trust they know about books, but I know about abuse and what information is needed but not available right now. So when I couldn't find a publisher, I decided to self-publish it. I'm working on the pre-release buzz now, and the feedback I have received so far from survivors makes me so glad I followed through.

Perhaps my next book will be a novel, and I will try my hand at trade publishing again because there are definitely perks to going that route. I'm keeping my options open.

I am so grateful that I self-published. It's been a great experience!
 
Last edited:

amergina

Pittsburgh Strong
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
15,599
Reaction score
2,471
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Website
www.annazabo.com
Seriously? If you had to come on here to hear about Uncle Jim or Holly Lisle, the fault is with you, not with them. You really know nothing about them, apparently, or how much they earn.

It sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into self-publishing. If so, go ahead. You need no permission, but it is vanity publishing, unless you have a proven track record in selling books.

Bad is bad, no matter what you call it, and 99.9% of self-published novel suck in every possible way. Vanity is the only reason for their existence.

Commercial publishing is harder, but it's also real simple. You get paid what you're worth. New writers become millionaires of a regular basis, IF they're good enough to please readers.

If you aren't good enough, self-publishing won't make you any better.

Mod Note:

Mr. Ritchie, while I agree with your first paragraph, the rest of this screed is disrespectful of the many writers who *have* found success via self-publishing.

Though you might want to ignore it, you do know that the cardinal rule here is Respect Your Fellow Writer. If you can't abide by it in the forum, do let me know.
 

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
15,472
Reaction score
767
Location
Missouri
The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me.

Where is this information coming from? Are you referring to the third published book, or just the third manuscript you've written, as you mentioned you're doing in your post? Some writers write dozens of manuscripts before they write the one that sells.

Even published writers can come back after less-that-stellar results for the first few books. It might require a pen name, but it can be done. A good book is a good book.
 

DavidTShank

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
135
Reaction score
9
Location
Cleveland, OH
Website
www.davidtshank.com
Where is this information coming from? Are you referring to the third published book, or just the third manuscript you've written, as you mentioned you're doing in your post? Some writers write dozens of manuscripts before they write the one that sells.

Even published writers can come back after less-that-stellar results for the first few books. It might require a pen name, but it can be done. A good book is a good book.

Quoted from Uncle Jim:

First off, you can take this as true. It's easier to sell a first book than a third.

With a first book, anything can happen. It could take off and be a wild best seller. It could become a quiet back-list perennial. It could find its niche. It could develop a fan base. Anything.

Another plus for the first-time novelist: the editor doesn't have to offer a big advance. A couple thousand bucks, the book's his.

The book goes out. It sells some number of copies. This is great. Maybe it earns out, maybe it doesn't. That doesn't matter much; publishers can make profits even on books that don't earn out.

Then you turn in your second book. It too hits the stands. Now here's the problem. Your second book must do better than your first book. A rising career is good. A falling career ... isn't.

Lots of readers will give a new author a chance. Fewer readers will give an author a second chance. If someone read your book and didn't like it, the odds are they won't buy your next book, even if it's radically better. (You wanted reasons why you shouldn't publish a book that isn't quite ready? That's reason #1398.) Word of mouth can be negative, too.

So, if you're on a declining curve, that third book is going to be a really tough sell. Especially since, as a third-time author you should expect your advances to be rising.

There's more after that. The death spiral mainly. So to clarify (as I did above already) I'm talking about if you're in a position of already having two published books.
 

C.bronco

I have plans...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
8,015
Reaction score
3,137
Location
Junior Nation
Website
cynthia-bronco.blogspot.com
I am too dense or I have delusions of grandeur. Either works for me. I like to call it tenacity.Do what it is that you do and don't give up if you love it.
Some people do get published and have success despite the odds, some early on and others after many trials.
There are books published every year. You could be in the list if you work for it and don't get discouraged.
 

frimble3

Heckuva good sport
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
6,396
Location
west coast, canada
The issue I'm still seeing, however, is that people might realize/think I stopped doing commercial publishing because my publisher thought I was crap or realized that I wasn't going to make them any money.
If they found your first couple of books on a bookshelf, why would they suppose any such things? Lots of writers take a while between books.
When your first book is published, by whatever means, you start up a website proudly announcing this. Mention the website in your book somewhere. Back of book, book jacket, whatever. Now, the person who's read your first couple of books and can't find another (there's a list in the front of the book of all books published prior to that one, right?) can go to your website, where all your books are listed - including the new one that you self-published.
Most readers don't really care about your business decisions, as long as they like your books. Keep the quality up.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.