Allaboutwriting

Judy Croome takes a long, hard look at the additional skills a writer needs if they want to self-publish.

The mystique surrounding An Author has always captivated the public’s imagination.

Avant-garde, bohemian or plain eccentric, published writers attract admiration wherever they go.

Being traditionally published by a publishing house was—and still is—almost impossible. Besides having the talent to write a good book, an author needs the discipline to learn his craft, the emotional endurance necessary to carve out a finished book from an initial abstract idea, and a determined self-belief to keep him walking the long, and often lonely, path to publication.

Today, with dynamic changes such as the advent of print-on-demand and eBook technology sweeping the publishing industry, anyone with a bit of natural savvy can publish their own work.

Is that all there is to being An Author?  Write a book, self-publish it and—voila!—you’re a rich and famous author?

Not quite. There’s more to self-publishing than that.

While there are similarities, a self-published author is a different beast to a traditionally published author and needs an additional set of skills for her self-published book to be a success.

Do you have what it takes to be a smart self-publisher? Do you have:

•  Self-sufficiency: Where a traditionally published author has a publisher’s established power and might behind her, an author who chooses to self-publish must deal with every aspect of publishing her book, from writing to editing to printing to marketing, on her own. That’s a lot of work for one person. Even when you delegate some of the tasks, such as the copy editing or converting the written file to eBook, the responsibility for your book’s success or failure ultimately rests with you.
•  Professional behaviour: Writing is a creative art. Publishing a book is a business. Treat your writing career as you would any other professional career path.
• Flexibility: Be willing to constantly learn new skills, for example, read how I learnt to make a book trailer. When you see something isn’t working, be flexible enough to change direction as quickly as possible.
• A desire for perfectionism: You’re offering your readers a service. When you put your self-published book on the Amazon or Loot shelf, you enter into an implicit contract with the future purchaser of your book. Give them value for money. Poor writing skills, sloppy editing and unattractive typesetting don’t make for an enjoyable or easy reading experience. Learn from your mistakes and strive for the best product (your published book) you can provide.
• The ability to collaborate without competing: Each of us has a unique voice. There is room in this world for all our different voices. See your fellow authors as potential partners, rather than as competitors.
• Humility: The paradox of the writer’s personality is that you must be both self-confident and humble. An arrogant author thinks and acts as if her talent alone was responsible for her success. A humble author knows that her unique talents may have got the book written, but any success is due to a multitude of factors beyond her control.
• A thick skin: Accept that there’s a stigma attached to self-publishing. Self-publishing is going main-stream, but people’s behaviour changes slowly. Some book sellers, book reviewers and readers state clearly on their blogs or websites that they won’t even consider self-published books. Earlier this year, one blog commentator said that she sees self-published authors as those who “weren’t good enough to get properly published.” To serious authors who, for one or more of the valid reasons to self-publish, have chosen self-publishing as a legitimate career path, this attitude is hurtful and annoying. But it’s real and will take time, effort and many excellent self-published books to overcome.

Of course, you can still self-publish your book without any of the above, or many other skills, a self-published author needs.

Authors Jane Austen, John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, James Redfield (The Celestine Prophecy) and Deeprak Chopra (to name but a few!) are household names who first self-published their early books.

Why not you?

In today’s publishing world, anyone can self-publish. But self-publishing without a total commitment to being the best that you can be won’t help you meet fame and fortune along the way; it won’t even garner you the respect of your fellow authors, let alone a surfeit of loyal readers.

If self-published authors want to stake a claim to the mystique that surrounds traditionally published authors, we don’t have to be good at what we do.

We have to be twice as good.

Only then we can call ourselves smart self-publishers and look forward to a long and rewarding career as that mysterious being: A Published Author.

Judy Croome lives and writes in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was recently shortlisted in the African Writing Flash Fiction 2011 competition, and other short stories and poems have appeared in Itch-e Magazine and “Notes from Underground Anthology.” 

Read Judy’s thoughts on the pros and cons of self-publishing. 

Her independently published novel, “Dancing in the Shadows of Love,” is available from Amazon.com and Loot.co.za.

Visit Judy on her blog www.judycroome.blogspot.com and read more about self-publishing.