Back in September of 2014, I joined an elite club of folks who have had a book published by a well-known publisher. I found out, quickly, the things I thought about published authors weren’t all that true. And as I get into more conversations with people who ask me about the process, I find I’m not the only one who had these misconceptions. Here are a few of them and what you can learn from them – even if you aren’t trying to get a book published.
1. Getting published won’t make you rich.
I get about $1 at most per book I sell. So even if you sell 5,000 copies, which is pretty reasonable, you only make about $5000 bucks from the process. And it can easily take a year or two to sell that many. It’s a nice supplement to an income you already have, but it certainly won’t make you wealthy.
People don’t do it for the wealth, though. They do it because they have something to say and they want people to hear it.
2. Published authors don’t write genius sentences.
I also felt a bit like a fraud with my first book, because I saw the first draft compared to the edited, final product. You don’t realize, but most writers aren’t so incredible at first. It’s only in countless rewrites and edits that a good product happens.
I’d say that’s true with most artistic endeavors. It’s not the first draft that will ever be genius. Excellence comes from iteration and editing.
3. If you get published by can’t sell, it’s considered failure.
Finally, I thought getting published was the hard part. And it was. But the hardest part was actually selling a lot of book copies. It isn’t easy to sell a ton. You also find out that those 2,000 friends who told you they planned to buy your book – they didn’t. Otherwise you’d have 2,000 sales. And the numbers don’t support that.
Hustle starts after you get published. The process isn’t done just because you made a finished product. I’d say that’s true with any idea. Once you finish work on the idea, that’s when the work actually start.
I’d love to hear from you now! What are some misconceptions about your industry you think people should understand? Chime in with a comment below.
