Jul 10, 2020 Written By J David Baxter
Who knew writing a book was the easy part? So much goes into becoming an author, and I had no idea until after I had finished the first book.
“ I chose the Indie route. With Traditional Publishing these days, I feel companies are not giving a very good deal to authors.”
Being a writer is hard…
Of course, there is more than one way to skin the cat, Traditional Publishing vs Indie Publishing. Either way, there is a lot of behind the scenes tasks that have to happen for a book to make it to market. I chose the Indie route. With Traditional Publishing these days, I feel companies are not giving a very good deal to authors. Once upon a time, you sold a book to a publisher, and they ran with it; doing everything -editing, cover art, distribution and most importantly, Marketing. I can’t speak for all publishers, but unless you get a sweetheart deal from a major house, the chances of getting more than cursory editing services, and pitiful ad campaign are very low. You will also have to wait a year or so before your book ever hits the shelves digitally or otherwise. then another year before the next book releases. It might be 10 years before your first series is complete, not to mention the royalty payouts and advances are not something you can live on unless you hit it big. On the other hand, as an Indie author you have to do it all yourself, but the upside is you control everything. I have seven books planned in my first series, the Greymantle Chronicles, and if life doesn’t get in the way, I should be able to have them all released by the end of next year. Book One is with a professional editor who is not only doing a line edit for grammar, but also developmental editing to ensure the book is tight and has no plot holes or other issues. I’ve contracted with cover artist Jeff Brown to do the cover art for my first three books, (that’s not cheap!), but he is one of the best in the business and his work is fantastic, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does. In addition to services I’m contracting out, I am doing other things myself, such as this website. This was a challenge because I do not have any background in creating these, but thanks to modern technology, I think it’s looking pretty good. Sadly, it will be a couple months before the cover art is done so I’m stuck with using stock photos as placeholders until then. (If you are seeing the site after October, this will no longer be the case.) Then there is social media presence. I’ve created an Author’s page on Facebook for people to follow me there. As well as Twitter and Instagram accounts, although I have to admit, I’ve never sent a tweet before, shocking in 2020 I know! Alright, enough procrastinating, time to stop mucking about with the technical stuff and get back to writing the next book…
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