Do you have a book ready to get published but find the publishing world a confusing place? Are you worried you’ll miss something during the publishing process? The publishing industry can be confusing, especially for first time authors. Which is why at Talk+Tell our goal is to be your publishing resource and provide you with all the information you need to successfully publish and market your books.

If you are new to the publishing work then you NEED to read this article. In this article we asked 25 authors to share one piece of advice they wished someone would’ve told them before starting their writing/publishing journey. These authors will help ease your mind and hopefully provide comfort to your worries.

25 Authors Answer: “What’s a piece of advice you wish someone would’ve told you before starting your writing/publishing journey?”

1. Day Leitao

“At 16, Karina has a shot at adventure—and an odd first kiss—when she’s called to Whyland, a kingdom in another dimension, to save Sian.”

I wish I had known that I could write for readers and publish independently and that it’s a viable alternative for a writing career. I mean, OK, I knew self-publishing was an alternative, but I thought it was some hall of shame or something, not that it was a valid way for someone to become a professional writer.

2. L.S. O’Dea

“If you like short, disturbing stories similar to the Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt, then you’ll love this series.”

It doesn’t matter how good or how magical your story is, if you can’t attract readers it won’t live. I hate to say this but the writing part is the easy part. Once you’re done, if you want someone to read your book, you have to market. I really wish someone had pointed me in the direction of the marketing courses. I wasted well over a year throwing money at every endeavor I could find and I barely sold any books. Then, I stumbled across a marketing course and it changed my writing/publishing life.

3. Lois Petren

“While baking holiday cookies, Lulu and Grand-mère amuse themselves by singing a clever rendition of the beloved Christmas carol using knitted items as the gifts.”

If your goal is to make a career of your writing and make an income from it, then write what you love, but also research your genre to determine if there’s a market for it. This can help set realistic expectations and drive the decision-making process about how to market the book. There are sites and tools that can provide important information about the ranking and relative success of each genre, which can be very helpful.

4. Michael Timmins

“Three epic tales about magical swords, treacherous races and forbidden magic.”

The moment you start writing, you need to start building. Build your audience. Post on social media. Blog. Interact on groups that focus on your genre. That way, when you are finally ready to publish, your audience is waiting.

5. C.T. Walsh

“Meet Austin Davenport, whose fabulous luck landed him on this earth only eleven short months after his brother, Derek, putting them in the same grade.”

To trust the creative process. I’m now writing the tenth book in my Middle School Mayhem series (only four are published so far) and I learned over time that it always comes together in the end. I take consistent action every day and build layer upon layer. Eventually, that turns into something special. When writing the first few books, I really stressed over whether or not they were any good. I was judging them before they were done. It took me a while to realize that every phase of the process added value from brainstorming to editing. I stopped comparing my outline or first draft to the previous book, which had been through a few drafts already, a proofreader, and an editor.

6. Deborah Lucy

“14-year-old local girl, China Lewis is reported missing by her friend Amy. Detective Inspector Temple is tasked to find her. The more he discovers about China, the greater the danger he knows she’s in.“

I wish someone had told me earlier that in writing a book, it will probably take me about ten edits/drafts before reaching the state where it can be submitted. This is now what guides me.

7. Megan O’Russell

“He’s loved her since the moment they met. Now a spell might tear them apart forever.“

Start a newsletter right away, even if you’re only going to be sending it to five people at the beginning. Really think about what your goals are before you sign a publishing contract. And don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Writing is fun. Publishing is really hard work. You are going to be frustrated. You are going to have days when you feel like you’ve never written a decent thing in your life and have no place calling yourself an author. When you feel like you can’t get anything right, ask for help. Find a query buddy and look over each other’s submissions. Test out your tag line on twitter. Find a mentor who’s been through the publishing process before. And when you have the day when you want to throw your laptop out the window, don’t do it. We’ve all been there. Don’t delete your files.

8. J.B. Cantwell

“In a world monitored by mind-manipulating implants, one young girl will risk everything for liberty.“

Learn what “writing to market” means, and then decide whether you want to do that. (Read Chris Fox’s Write to Market for a road map).

I’ve written in several genres, and it’s something that has hurt my career financially. I once tried to write to market in the romance genre (under a pen name); it failed miserably and was a waste of a year of work. I should have stayed with my Middle Grade and Young Adult genres, which are what I enjoy writing. In both Middle Grade and Young Adult, there are plenty of more targeted genres that I can aim for.

That said, some people like writing to market, so do some homework and consider your financial situation (whether you need to make money now or whether you have some time and resources to put into this). Then decide on a genre and stick with it if you want to find financial success.

One last unsolicited piece of advice…

Save up all your money for a good cover, then advertise. The idea that you can’t judge a book by its cover may be nice in theory, but it’s not true in reality. You are creating a product and the first thing people see when they see your book listing is your cover. It is of utmost importance that you put your best foot forward. If your cover looks unprofessional, or like it doesn’t belong in the genre you’re writing in, you must change it. You can expect to pay anywhere from $300-$1000+ for a rockin’ cover. You won’t regret it.

From there, learn how to write a compelling description (or “blurb”) for your book, and look carefully at your first chapter (which will be visible with the “look inside” feature on Amazon). That leads us back my response to question #2: Start with the action and make your readers wonder what will happen next.

9. Colleen Brunetti

“He was a superhero with a furry sidekick.  She was a secret mad scientist in the kitchen. But he was sick… and she was stumped.“

That it’s going to be both the hardest and most satisfying thing you’ve ever done. I had no idea how many sleepless nights I would have, or how many times I would second guess myself. I also didn’t anticipate how gratifying it would be to break through barriers in production and finally hold my finished book.

10. Sue Lachman

“Through the insightful and reflective lens of wife, mother of five, special needs advocate, coach, and public speaker Sue Lachman’s everyday events and stories reveal the simplicity of life when experienced from Mind, Thought, and Consciousness—the Three Principles that changed Lachman’s outlook on life.“

I wish someone had reminded me to be patient and what impatience really means.

There is no point in rushing anything and it is far better to get your ducks in a row before diving in blindly.

I have found that being patient with the process of writing and knowing that the right words will come at the right time has been very helpful. I don’t need to force my writing.

Being patient with the editor knowing that she or he is doing their best and that means not expecting a hard and fast time stamp on their work of when it will exactly be ready.

Patience for the cover expert knowing that he needs the space for his genius to come out and in turn, this will help me.

Patience with myself too. Being impatient is when the world looks like it is slow when in actual fact our minds, our thinking is what is rushing around so everything around us looks too slow. It isn’t really, it’s just how it looks to us.

11. Stacy King

“The Luggage Drop is a riveting, heartbreaking novel about a family’s struggle with bipolar disorder, suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder that illuminates the fragility of life and explores the world of mental illness from the inside out.“

For me, this question brings up the importance of marketing again. I wish someone would have told me about the importance of SEO. For instance, what a difference keywords and categories have made in making my books visible to my audience. As a blogger, I know how important SEO is but I didn’t put this skill set to use with book publication. What a game-changer it has been since doing so. To see SEO in action, check out my contemporary fiction novel The Luggage Drop on Amazon, available in eBook and print format. In particular, check out the categories and hone in on what categories will be the best fit for your book.

12. Andrew Anzur Clement

“Yugoslav People’s Army brats Jovana and Hristijan grew up in a secluded border-watch compound, dreaming of grander horizons.”

Know your goals, your strengths, and your weaknesses. This is about being aware of why you write and how you view writing. Do you want to publish one book, or write full time? Are you a content-generating machine? Do you suck at promotion? Do you view writing as a job, or is it – like I imagine it is for many authors of fiction – what you do for its own sake. All of this will influence the many hard decisions that you will have to make regarding publishing, marketing and writing to market, among others. Perhaps the hardest thing for me was realizing that once you launch your ‘book baby’ out into the world, no one will ever love it as much as you do. Be aware of these things from the start; forewarned is forearmed.

13. Nick Cook

“Is our reality all there is, or could there be something lurking beyond the edges of our perception? That’s exactly what Jake Stevens is wondering after he starts seeing something in the shadows and begins to question his sanity.“

That to find your voice as an author takes time. Yes, you can turn out words, maybe enough to fill a book, but are you being true to yourself with your work? In my experience that inner journey of exploration takes time. Get it right and your reader will recognize the authenticity in your writing helping it to stand out in a crowded market. Your readers are out there waiting to discover your work so make sure it’s the best it can be and something you’re truly proud of.

14. Gary Ponzo

“Margo Sutter, a proven teenage clairvoyant, claims to hear invisible aliens planning to destroy the planet.”

That’s so hard because everyone’s journey is unique and if someone would’ve suggested I’d have the success I’ve had I would’ve laughed at them. I guess if someone told me to focus on the writing, I might have been better off than trying to develop name recognition. I’d have ten Nick Bracco thrillers out instead of six. Also, I would’ve gotten my books published on audio much sooner. That’s going to be a big part of the future. Someone should’ve told me about that instead of filling my head with stories about flying cars. I’m still waiting for my jetpack.

15. Michele Pariza Wacek

“A fresh start. That’s what Becca hoped the move from New York to Redemption, Wisconsin would be for her troubled family. A way to get her crumbling marriage back on track, and to bond with her difficult 16-year-old stepdaughter.“

Be patient. Is it possible to be a successful indie author? Yes. Is it possible to make 6-figures or more a year publishing fiction? Absolutely. But it’s likely not going to happen with your first (or even your first few) books.

I know that can sound discouraging as it takes time to write a good book, so if you start multiplying the time it takes to write one book with multiple books, it can feel like it’s never going to happen.

But, it will. You just need to be willing to invest the money and the time to build a business around your fiction writing. It can happen. Just be patient.

16. Derek Shupert

“Fifteen-year-old James would much rather hang with friends than go hunting with his survivalist dad. But the boring weekend trip turns into a living horror when they’re attacked by an undead horde.”

Writing good stories is only one piece of the puzzle. You need a great book cover that will instantly inform the reader of the genre the book was written for. Also, you will need to market. Simply putting your book up for sale and not marketing it will not work. You will get buried and lost within the depths of the digital-book world.

17. Sunshine Somerville

“Esme, the Order’s current alterni, wields magic she barely understands. This is not her world. These are not her people. Whenever she closes her eyes, she relives battles with a thousand malevolenci demons. And tonight, she knows this could be the end.”

Writing is the fun part; publishing feels like work. I wish I’d better understood how much time, energy, and resources it takes to successfully publish/release/market a book. Being prepared for that part of the author’s job is important so you don’t get burned out. Have a plan. Have obtainable goals and expectations.

18. Johanna Craven

“They say only the brave ride Bridles Lane at night.”

Know who your audience is before you start writing. You may just be writing for yourself— and that’s absolutely fine— but having a clear idea of who you want to read your story makes it much easier to market and sell later on.

19. Allen Kent

“During Missouri’s Mormon Wars of the mid-1800s, the Whitlock family seeks to escape mob violence on the state’s western frontier by hiding in the rugged north Missouri wilderness where the Hill Spring Trail crosses the Chariton River.”

Don’t try to perfect as you go. I know too many aspiring writers who have stalled out because they have tried to develop a perfect product as they go. Get the story you want to tell down, then rely on re-writing and editorial help to clean up and perfect. The challenge here is that this latter process takes lots of time – as much as the initial writing. The inclination, once the story is on paper, is to want to get it out there. Re-write and re-write until you feel that every sentence is what you would like it to be.

20. Michael Layne

“The world is out of balance, and only one person can make it right again.”

At least until you’ve developed your style and a following, keep your genre, covers, blurbs, and style all aligned, not because you want to be like all the other writers in your genre(s), but because you need to always think about the reader and their expectations. What do they want? What are they looking for when they try to find a book? Do you as a reader go to the bookstore or to Amazon and think, “Man, I am dying to find a really good epic fantasy novel set in today’s world with some high-tech science fiction and some mystery elements thrown in for kicks and maybe a shark?” You might indeed love such a book, but only if someone gives you a tip on it by word of mouth, probably. The more likely scenario is that you hit the store and think, “I’m really in the mood for a great thriller.” And when you find something that might be a thriller but might not be a thriller, you may just shrug and move on to the next book that shouts, “Hey, I know what I am, and I am thrilling!” Be original. Be innovative. But also, be findable and don’t make your potential readers work too hard at understanding what the heck you write or what they can expect from reading your work.

21. Matty Dalrymple

“Ann Kinnear has created a peaceful existence at her cabin in the Adirondack woods. But the calm is shattered after Philadelphia socialite Elizabeth Firth is reported missing. With few clues and fewer options, detective Joe Booth calls upon Ann’s spirit sensing abilities to help solve the mystery.”

Recognize that, if finding readers for your books is important, you will need to spend as much time on outreach as on the writing. Three pieces of advice have helped me in my own outreach efforts.

One is to recognize that successful outreach does not mean forcing your books on unwilling customers; it means finding ways of getting your work in front of the readers who will love it. This attitude puts you on the side of the reader, not in an adversarial position.

Another is that reader outreach is far more successful if you approach it not with a sell, sell, sell mindset, but rather an opportunity for you to share your genuine self with your current and potential readers. A hard sell might perhaps sell a single book, but building a relationship with a reader will earn you a follower who will likely want everything you have to offer, and who will champion your work to other readers.

The third is that nurturing relationships with other authors is just as important as nurturing relationships with readers. Sharing a table at a book fair with another author? Consider recommending that author’s book to the browsing customer if it seems like a better fit for that reader’s taste (about which you will have inquired); you may lose one sale, but you will earn that sale back in referrals and recommendations from a grateful fellow author. Reader outreach is not a zero-sum game (and if the author with whom you are sharing the table behaves in a way that indicates that he or she thinks it is then to find yourself a different author with whom to share a table at the next book fair!).

22. D.W. Gillespie

“Jack didn’t know what to call the nameless, skeletal creature that slunk into her house in the dead of night, stealing the very things she loved the most. So she named him The Toy Thief…”

The biggest piece of advice I wish I knew is to manage my expectations. It’s a big world out there, and there are a lot of people writing books. It’s great to be proud of yourself, to celebrate your wins, but just know that it’s not easy to make it as a writer. I assumed, like many young writers, that if I did the work, I’d reap the rewards.

The truth is, success is a moving target. Every year since I wrote my first book, I’ve had to reevaluate what I consider success to be. I’m still aiming high. I’m just more realistic now than I used to be. I’ve seen lots of people struggle with this, eventually growing bitter and thinking the game is rigged. It’s not. It’s just a tough business that’s not for everyone. It’s also, in this writer’s opinion, one of the best things in the world to do.

23. Allie Burton

“For all her sixteen years, Pearl Poseidon has been a fish out of water. A freak on display for her adoptive parents’ profit. Running away from her horrible life, she craves one thing—anonymity.”

I wish someone would’ve told me that writing the book is the easy part. The editing, the querying and pitching, and the marketing are more difficult and more emotionally straining.

24. Dan Petrosini

“The pain from being abandoned never went away. After briefly coming back into her life, Joyce’s mother is now gone, for good.”

It would have been incredibly useful if someone would have told me that when writing across genres to use a pen name. I would also have appreciated if someone would have explained the reason to write a series.

25. Cheryl Carpinello

“Travel back to 1330 BC Egypt–When15-year-old Rosa agrees to help the ghost of King Tut find his lost queenHesena, she doesn’t count on falling for him.”

Believe in yourself and trust your creative brain. Writing is such a solitary endeavour. It’s easy to question your writing and yourself. If you need to, pin this message or a similar one up where you write: I am a writer. I trust in my creativity.

Conclusion

We hope that these pieces of advice have helped settle down your fears. Do you have any advice you wish people have told you before starting your writing and/or publishing journey? Let us know!

Best of luck to your journey!