Dear Authors: It Pays to Have a Plan

A writer starting out in the publishing business is well advised to have a plan. I didn't have one. Correction: I didn't have a realistic one.

With all the information available to authors now; all the guides, blueprints, flowcharts; there's no excuse not to plan one's career. And he or she should start as soon as those first words begin trickling onto the screen.

I began writing my first novel expecting to land a literary agent. That was my one and only goal, and it seemed easy enough--write a good story and...well, that's it. Once my world-shattering manuscript got sold, somebody else would take care of all of the details. Whew--a load off my mind! Not that I knew what any of those details were, but I didn't need to know.

I never considered that it would be wise to allow for contingencies. What if I didn't land an agent? Well, that was impossible. Know how many of them are out there? I just needed to keep submitting until one enlightened one recognized my book's potential.

Had I taken the initiative to draw up a plan, I would have been forced to learn the fundamentals of my business--and that's what this writing game is--a business. I once thought of it as an art.

It's rare to find a writer with natural business savvy. Artists are right-brained, whereas numbers and other gobbledygook reside within the left hemisphere. But that doesn't mean we're incapable of learning. Look at me--I've learned things, albeit by traveling down that long, winding road, and my learning happened a bit after the time when it would have helped me.

That's why I'm issuing a word of caution. Writers, such as the "me" of 2019, can't automatically know the steps that need to be taken to become successful; nor do they have a grasp of the dollars involved in those steps. In hindsight, I would have set up a separate publishing account with my bank and contributed a small amount to it at regular intervals. Like many writers starting out, I didn't and still don't have disposable income, but a specific fund would have grown over time, and I'd never miss that money. 

But first I would have needed to absorb what all those expenses would be. Once I blew through my long list of literary agents and decided to self-publish, only then did I realize I'd need a book cover. I had no idea where to get one. At the time, KDP had some very basic, very ugly templates, and they were free, so I slapped one of those on my book. Later, when I discerned just how pitiful that cover was, I tried Fiverr. Wow; bad idea. I went through a couple of different "designers", but didn't pay either of them more than $30.00 or so. It showed. I could have deposited that (roughly) $60.00 into a bank account and saved up for a good cover. Next, I made my own (still free) design in Canva, but in order to make use of all of Canva's tools, I had to spring for a premium subscription. More money I could have put toward...you know. Had I saved all that wasted money, I'd have had enough for a professional cover in no time.

Similarly, I had no idea that in order to sell books, an author needed to advertise. I honestly didn't know that such a thing existed for books. I'd publish a book, then bemoan the fact that no one was buying it. Once I finally figured out that advertising was essential, I tried a few promo sites that simply swallowed my money and didn't regurgitate any sales. I should have studied. I should have had a plan.

And speaking of boneheaded rookie moves, after writing three full novels and after having them roundly rejected by every literary agent I could find; and after self-publishing them with zero success, I got pissed off and headed down the road of writing novellas.

Kids, novellas are losers. It doesn't matter how much effort you put into them nor how good the story is, readers look down their noses at novellas; consider them inferior works. 

For two years I focused solely on writing novellas--eight in all. Nine, if you count the one once known as "Second Chance", which is now my big fat novel, Running From Herself. I was so pleased with myself! I'd finally found my niche! With the last two, I even started soliciting ARC readers and paying for promos. Again, authors, readers don't want novellas. I should have had a plan.

I sabotaged my publishing career without even knowing it. That's on me. I could have written two novels in the time I spent writing all those novellas. Now, if anyone was to ask me, what else of yours should I read? I'd have to stammer, "Well, I've got some novellas." Those first three (now only two) novels are really inferior products. (I unpublished my second novel; it was that bad.) I certainly couldn't offer those up to anyone. Thus, I have no back catalog to speak of. I do, but I don't. Thomas Umstattd advises creating a separate website page for each of an author's books, but doing that for mine wouldn't even be worth the bandwidth.

I should have had a plan. But, you see, I just wanted to write. I treated self-publishing as an art, not as a business. At this point, I don't even know what the "art" of writing is. Instead, it's sell, sell, sell; promote, promote, promote. No wonder some lowlifes have AI write their books for them. They can skip the unimportant stuff and get on with the marketing. 

Even bad, and I mean really bad books sell. As I was admiring my temporary Amazon rankings today, I noticed a book that's ranked higher than mine, titled, "My Song Lyrics". Mind you, this wasn't published by some big-name songwriter, just a guy. The preview was not good. I'll wager that none of those lyrics were ever set to music, because they read more as poems. (As a songwriter, lemme tell ya, there's a HUGE difference.) You know, if I was mercenary, I could publish my song lyrics, too. At least mine have a melody and were recorded. Since they're all already written, like the AI "writer", I could skip right to the marketing part. (Trust me; I wouldn't do that.)

Bottom line, sure, write that wondrous novel, but first have a damn plan for what you're going to do with it once it's written. Otherwise, you're just gonna end up like me.