“Author”: A viable career?

Probably not. I hate to be a downer, but if you are dreaming of a career as a “Published Author”, there are too many variables and undefinable hurdles in your path. Most writers don’t make it past the gatekeepers of the traditional publishing world, which makes it difficult to make a living as a full-time Author. I’m not saying you should give up your dream of a big publisher like Penguin Random House buying your book manuscript and turning your masterpiece into a Netflix series. I daydream from time to time about writing a real page-turner, then having said book become a bestseller and TV series.

Hello Fempreneurs! Lyndsie here. This blog is another excerpt from my NEW BOOK which is now available on Amazon: click here to buy it now, or keep reading!

If you have researched the traditional publishing world, then you know it comes with as many restraints as financial benefits for the less than .01% of writers who make it past the gatekeepers. I’d rather keep writing books and choosing every word, image and book cover design by being a self-published Author. After all, we’re all “Authors”, even if our books don’t make us rich or famous.

My goal was to become an Author. Once I was an Author, my goal became:

I want to continue writing books to share my knowledge and stories until the day I die.

Why? Because my mission is to help as many women as possible know the feelings and benefits that come from becoming an Author. I am very grateful that Amazon got on the “Print On Demand” bandwagon in 2016, the same year I self-published my first book. Talk about impeccable timing!

The self-publishing revolution: Print-On-Demand (POD)

Prior to POD, self-published Authors had to take the risk of bearing the costs of printing up-front, without knowing how many copies of their book (if any) would sell. With POD, a book is only printed when it is purchased, so Authors don’t have to worry about printing more than they sell.

Thankfully in 1997, Lightning Source, one of the largest POD companies, was founded.

By 1999, blog hosting services like Blogger, LiveJournal, and WordPress were making it easier than ever for Authors to share their writing with the world. This led to a few of the top bloggers being offered book and movie deals.

Then came the first ebook reader released by Sony in 2004, and a few years later Amazon released the Kindle eReader. Of course it was linked to a huge online store full of ebooks and a monthly subscription… CHA-CHING!

Then Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing for ebooks, followed in 2016 by a POD paperback option.

My point in sharing this brief history lesson with you is the days of needing a publisher to print and market your book are over. Sure, it’s nice to have the option to sell your book manuscript (and the rights to all your work) to a publisher for $10,000-$100,000, but it’s not necessary.

You will get to add “Author” to your current list of professional roles no matter how many people buy your book, or how many book stores put your book on their shelves.

You are not a “lesser-Author” because you did all the work yourself and didn’t wait through years of rejection letters before a friend-of-a-friend got your book noticed by a big publisher.

You have full control of your book

Maybe you’ve sent your manuscript to a dozen publishers only to receive a few rejection letters and crickets from the rest. Maybe you’re not going to quit trying until your book has been accepted by a traditional publisher, even though it could mean you paying them to publish your book, rather than the other way around.

If you’re OK with handing over ownership of your book to a publisher, giving your creation to them to control…

May I ask WHY?

Why do you want to give control over the culmination of 100 -1000 hours of your time and effort, not counting the sleepless nights and daydreaming about what you want to say in your book, to someone other than yourself?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. I am not you, so I am not trying to steer you in any direction. I want you to understand what motivates you to write.

If your answer is money, that’s fair. Depending on how much money they want to pay me, and what the contract looks like, I might even consider accepting a book deal from a well-known publisher.

If the reason why you would hand over your book has anything to do with getting your book on the shelf in big bookstores, or marketing your book online, know that you can do both of these things yourself. If you want to have your book for sale in stores, take copies of your book to the stores and ask to talk to a manager about selling your book in their store. Here in the Calgary area the Indigo stores have been very supportive of both myself and Tiana by agreeing to put our books in their stores. All you gotta do is ask!

Old-school marketing

Marketing is always evolving, but the old-school methods will never change. Flyers on a few grocery store and coffee shop billboards are often as effective as boosting an Instagram post.

There will always be new and better ways to spread the word about a new book, product or service we have to offer. Keep repeating the marketing steps in this book so that you will never have to feel like it was someone else’s job to market your book and they dropped the ball (your publisher).

You decide:

how to spread the word about your book

what to charge for it

how many different ways you want to repurpose the knowledge in your book
whether or not to record an audio version, or ebook

Do you want to turn your book into a course or workshop series? Do you want to give a free PDF version of the first three chapters to your new email subscribers? You decide because you created it and you own 100% of the rights to do what you want with it!

I hope you found this taste of my new book helpful!

Order it now on Amazon: click here.