To empower first-time authors, 11 members of Forbes Coaches Council Book Authors, share their top tips to understand and navigate the complex publishing world in the below article:
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescoachescouncil/2023/08/22/first-ti...
2 people like this
Thanks for sharing, Ashley Renee Smith ! While I think a lot of these tips apply mainly to non-fiction work, I can see them useful for fiction writers too. I always approach writing a book as first writing something that I would want to read, but I do try to make sure that it's communicated well to my readers.
3 people like this
This article has some great tips for non-fiction authors, which can be a much different experience if you're a fiction author.
Also, I'd strongly caution you to be careful about self-publishing through a company. Most are a bad risk.
First do your due diligence. Most of the time, you'll be giving up a percentage of your royalties for crappy editing, a badly designed book cover, and little to no marketing and promotion. And you might have paid a hefty fee to work with them. Depending on the contract, you might be stuck working with that company.
4 people like this
Debra Holland agree with practicing caution. One dirty secret of publishing is that if the press is on the cheaper side (less than $25K to publish with them), you'll likely be disappointed. The only legit hybrid publishers I know charge $25K+ and typically have a vetting process. Also, they typically only do nonfiction titles. The small presses targeting fiction authors with $2K-$5K editing/marketing packages are predatory at worst, naively inept at best.
2 people like this
Great advice, Debra Holland! Thank you!
1 person likes this
Thank you for providing those insights, Jonathan Jordan! You're the best!