Today’s question comes from H., who is just starting out on a path to publication:
As an unpublished author, should I start an author webpage?
Should I share snippets of my story on my social media?I’m very nervous about putting my work out there, but I also know I’m never going to get anywhere if I don’t share it and start building a reader base. Thank you for all your efforts, your stories, and your blog.
You’re putting the cart before the horse.
An unpublished writer has one primary goal: to finish the manuscript. Nothing happens until there is a complete story and it’s written down. Once the story is finished, you have two options.
traditional publishing
I recommend trying this option first. Always. If you google a bit, you will find triumphant stories of self-publishing success, where writers go on about how traditional publishing didn’t want them and look at them now hitting the lists and making mad money in the self-published world.
The point is: they tried traditional publishing first.
Why should you do this: because you want to be the best writer you can.
Hearing that the manuscript you sank months of your life into is not good enough is painful. Pain forces us to improve. As you start collecting rejections, you concentrate on trying to pinpoint where you suck. Why aren’t you getting published? Is the beginning not gripping enough? Are you rambling on? Is this a story that you have read multiple times before and now you managed to write another clone? What do you need to fix to make it good enough?
And if you do manage to land an agent and then sell the manuscript, being paired with a professional NY publishing house editor teaches you an entirely new way to look at your work. You learn to be ruthless and you finally start to understand how to invoke a particular emotion in the reader.
This doesn’t happen with self-publishing, unless you can get a very experienced, professional editor. And even then, that editor works for you instead of the publishing house. That degree of professional dependence often shaves the edge off the edit. I’ve experienced this and it made me miss the NY viciousness.
Once your book is published by a traditional house, they will promote it. Even when it seems they don’t do anything, they are doing something. Let them build your audience. If you want to do self-publishing later, you can. But get a reader base first.
How to do this: learn how to query an agent. Identify an agent who represents works in your genre. Most authors have a website where they list their agent or the agency is often thanked in acknowledgments. Query following the agent’s guidelines and hope for the best. While you’re waiting, work on a different book.
Self-publishing
Why you should do this: because this is the only way you can get the story to the reader.
Self-publishing heavily favors authors who already have a reader base, so if you’re just starting out, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of other authors. A lot of self-published authors churn out crap. There is no politic way to say it. They churn out crap and they do it fast. And, as previous posts showed, some of them don’t write their own books and aren’t particularly choosy about what they put in them.
But you’ve been rejected everywhere else and you are confident in your work. If you are ready for others to read it, and you saved some money to do this properly, go for it. Self-publishing gives you freedom to explore. And money can be very nice.
How to do this: find a strong independent editor, find a copy editor, hire a proofreader. Google is your friend. Look at self-published books you liked, ask their writers who their editor is. Get first edit, revise, send your file to your copy editor, and look for a good artist. Pay a small fee to someone who can properly format the books. Resist the urge to do a split contract where the artist or editor gets a percentage of your earnings. This type of contract will cost you a great deal of money over the lifetime of the book.
Promotion
You have chosen a path, and your manuscript is either sold to the publishing house or is in production for a self-published release. Only now you have to worry about promotion: websites, snippets, social media, free stories, etc.
From the reader point of view, until you have some work for them to read, something they can order in the near future, they don’t really care about your snippets. We occasionally share snippets from unpublished work and the first and most frequent question is always “When and where can it be ordered?” If you have no full length work to offer your audience, what’s the point?
There are exceptions to this rule. For example, Scalzi started out by posting OLD MAN’S WAR on his blog and a Tor editor read it and decided to purchase it. Lightning does strike, but I wouldn’t gamble on it. So if your sole reason for a webpage is promotion, I would wait.
Sanity
However, writing is a lonely, crazy-making occupation. If you feel the need to connect and share your struggle with the writing and publishing, if you want to open a metaphorical window and talk to people across the street, if you want to blog, then by all means, get a webpage now.
Follow other writers, interact, make friends, listen when they vent and soon they will visit your blog and listen when you vent. People are pretty awesome like that.
That’s the only good reason to bother with the website before you have anything to offer for sale.
PS. As an aside to this a bit dry post, when I was looking for images on a stock site, I ran across this guy.
I wanted you to know, that’s exactly how we write, naked in bed on old typewriters, while sipping espresso and eating crescent rolls. Just like that.
I laughed for a whole minute. There is more of him here, and it’s all equally hilarious.
OMG. The advice, as ever, excellent, but the PICTURE. I’m weeping with laughter. Also, slightly horrified by how many crumbs there would be on his beautiful pristine white sheets.
Crumbs. And espresso. There’s no way I could lay on my stomach like that and type and drink espresso without spilling it everywhere. Why does he even need espresso? He’s not going anywhere. He’s all relaxed. Maybe he’s done with his book and he just got out the old typewriter so he could write The End and then take the rest of the day off lounging in bed eating a croissant and spilling espresso.
The description: Daily routine of writer. Writer handsome author used old fashioned manual typewriter. Man writer lay bed with breakfast working. Morning bring fresh idea. Morning inspiration. Erotic literature
“Morning bring fresh idea” will be my wake-up motto from now on.
Thanks for the info and the laugh. The paper in the typewriter looks like the old fashioned scroll. I am sure y’all write on scrolls too! 😀
Omg, I hadn’t even noticed the scroll! Fresh tears of laughter ?
Technically the guy isn’t naked. He’s at least wearing underwear. If you look at his waist you can see the dark color of the band.
(Yes, I looked closely. She said he was naked! I had to verify.)
lol! yes, I checked, too.
Your diligence is truly inspiring!
I shared this to my writers group as “Must Read Post.” Thanks.
I’m always in awe of how generous you guys are on giving advice to aspiring writers. The amount of time you spend sharing experiences is very humbling.
But today, you gave us even more… that picture just cracked me up! I’m so glad writing is such a stress-free experience for him. Where would he even put down his espresso cup? So it’s single-hand typing too.
Small slice of a second saucer on the left edge of the photo (matches the cup, too. So, at least in theory, he can type with both hands…
(No, not touching that any more – )
Thank you so much for this post! In one blog post, you’ve answered a multitude of questions that have been driving me crazy!
I finished my revision (and I’m certain there will be more changes) and I’ve enlisted the aid of a trusted friend who is going to spend her spring break from law school reading it.
I hit the end of the “just write it” road and was left wondering what to do next.
You’ve helped really helped me wrap my head around how to share my story. I’m nervous but I get it, I’ll never progress till I take a leap of faith.
You guys are awesome!!
Hey! Good job and good luck!
Thank you.
As a struggling writer this made my afternoon brighter. And I burnt my nose laughing over the stock images.
Onward…we few, we happy few.
+1
I had absolutely no doubt you wrote naked in bed with vintage typewriters and croissant crumbs ??. Thank you so much for confirming (I laughed so hard my husband came from the other end of the house to see what happened).
I love love love these writing/publishing posts. The work and energy it takes is monumental.
This guy in the photo needs to be a character. Somewhere. And he’s having way too good a time, if you ask me.
There’s no watermark on that photo. Does that mean you purchased it and we’ll be seeing more of this guy? Lol
Well, of course he is purchased. I either buy the images from stock sites or get them from Pixabay, but I prefer to buy when the image is available. Photographers and models have to eat.
That’s not Ghastek???
I think Ghastek would have a pair of vampires typing for him.
OMG. I can just envision that too!
He’d be sipping his beverage, but no crumb would dare fall to his sheets.
“Of course he is purchased”.
He’s walking around the house with a bed sheet. That’s his sole job. He is our ..er, my.. inspiration.
HAHAHAHAH
Thank you for pointing that out. It’s a necessary reminder for too many people.
Great advice, as always.
But the picture. I am super glad no one was near my reference desk as I started laughing out loud at typewriter dude. I’m not anxious to reinforce the crazy library lady stereotype.
I’m reading over lunch and my one click in makes me think that those pictures are NSFW so I’ll have to peruse later… once I’m home and dinner’s over and the kids are in bed… now I have something to look forward too!
OMG that picture. Also if you go to the website the descriptions of the photos are great. For example the one where he is holding his head:
Author drink coffee have breakfast in bed. Lack of inspiration or idea. Creativity crisis. Writer tired desperate author used old fashioned typewriter. Man writer lay bed bedclothes working book
I can’t stop giggling
“Coffee inspiring him to write.”
My own writer friends tend to find it works the other way around, but we’ve already established that he’s special.
I just saw this comic and had to share.
That’s hysterical.
That one is good. 😀
Too funny! Would make courtroom proceedings way more interesting, especially with “trial of the century” ones…
<3 the concept of NY viciousness… Not in a bad way, but I've seen writers with good editors who produce engaging, interesting work, and then they get famous and feel that they no longer need editing and you see the absolute crap that totally destroys the character and love you had for that universe (*cough* LKH).
I can’t comment on any specific author, but I can tell you our editors totally shred everything we write. Shred it. To where sometimes I lose my cool and scream incoherently.
When Tom Clancy hit it big I wrote him and told him he should hire the editor he had at Navy Press because his big house editors were too busy being impressed that he was Tom Clancy to do the type of collaboration he needed to write his best.
I got a form letter back… And I still bought his books when they came out… But always regretted that they weren’t as tightly written as his first books and tended to wander off on his love of geeking about weapon systems instead of advancing the story.
If you write this to me, you will also get a form letter thanking you for your enthusiastic support. And if I ever show up to your place of work telling you how to do your job, feel free to hand it to me right back. 🙂
+1
I think film editing is the same. The filmmaker has a scene they absolutely love and the editor has to dig in their heels and tell them it has to go because it’s not essential, slows down the plot and the movie is already running 30min too long. Put it in the out-takes on the DVD mate, or save it for the director’s cut.
It’s got to be hella painful for the director/writer.
This is also inspiring to hear, in a variety of ways, for a variety of reasons.
I used to read LKH and loved her work. But I quite a few years ago. Too bad, I loved her earlier work.
Me too. I haven’t read the last three books which I used to always have a copy waiting for me at Copperfields on release day.
The worst is GRR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, and no I don’t and haven’t watched Game of Thrones. But in the series, there are several places where he could condense 3-4 chapters into a paragraph and lose NOTHING. Except some reader boredom. Oh well.
I think you should watch the series – boring is not a quality it embracest ! 😉
And while I haven’t read the books I understand that condensing plotlines and characters is exactly what they’ve done, with Martin’s blessing and assistance.
I doubt I’ll ever read the books but the series – epic!
What a great response, Ilona! I’m going to share it with the writers’ group that meets here in our library.
Also, for H. and anyone else starting in publishing:
Kristin Nelson is a literary agent who has addressed various aspects of publishing in her blog https://nelsonagency.com/pub-rants/
Topics include What Makes A Good Agent; Agenting 101 (what to expect from an agent; things to consider when you get an offer; how the money is paid; etc.); Queries and Pitches; Warnings about unscrupulous agents, editors and publishers; and much more.
I never realized just how many authors follow your blog! As a person who can’t even write a topic sentence in a paragraph, I am amazed at your ability to put words down on a page and have it flow. I’ll stick to happily devouring your words and try not to choke or pee my pants when you drop the hysterical pictures and visuals!!
Actual text from the linked stock image website
“Daily routine of writer. Writer handsome author used old fashioned manual typewriter. Man writer lay bed with breakfast working. Morning bring fresh idea. Morning inspiration. Erotic literature”
But wait, there’s more! From another of the twenty or so images in this collection, “Writer author used old fashioned typewriter. Author busy write chapter deadline coming. Professional fiction writer and literature instructor creative work. Man inspired lay bed bedclothes work book”
Follow the link, you won’t be sorry (unless you are eating or drinking, in which case you will be choking, but still not sorry)
omg that guy! I laughed for a whole minute too! This is an excellent post, very reality focused and I appreciate it. I’m sending it to my brother who has gone back and forth on writing as a profession; this is great advice.
Adorable picture, but — I don’t care if her hat falls off, make that gal sit up straight and get her a decently ergonomic work station! 🙂
Amazingly, this is just how I write my case notes. I tried conducting circle meetings like this, but it got a little crowded with 5 people on the bed.
I especially like the shots with the artfully draped sheet.
Drew, I just about snorted water up my nose reading your comment. .
Thank you AuthorLords for sharing your thoughts and hard earned wisdom. Also thank you for sharing that hilarious picture and the thought of you guys writing like that. I’m still laughing. I’m truly grateful for all you do.
Being an editor is crazy work.
My sister-in-law took a break from pharma/biology jobs and did editing for a medical publisher – she said worse than dealing with grad students. Hounding adult scientist-people about due dates and deadlines made her life more stressful than long days dealing with cells and microbes (which don’t argue with you or ignore your emails and phone calls).
A friend from high school worked in editing and proofreading in NY when she was starting her opera career – it paid the bills, but when she got established as a performer, she switched to teaching voice lessons. Less stress….
I have zero skill at writing, editing, science, or singing as a profession. I am glad to be a reader and a theater techie (wear all black and shlep props backstage or run a spotlight).
On the topic of needing editing… From a blurb I just saw on the title page of the Washington Post: “… killing two civilians dead…”.
As opposed to killing them alive? Or wounding them dead?
Huh… in terms of Chinese grammatical structure (probably something to do with it being an aspect oriented language) that makes perfect sense – there’s a lot separation of intent from result in verb structure. I sometimes wonder how much American English has picked up slang terms from second language speakers… or maybe it’s a more fundamental human logic thing.
For a lifelong Post reader, it has been very distressing to observe the decline in proofreading and copy editing over the past couple of decades. I’m not even going to get into the general decline of print journalism, except to point out that maximizing shareholder value, no matter which company or industry, serves absolutely no one but those particular shareholders. As the saying goes: Poor people spend any extra money they get, because they have to. Rich people save it, because they can.
I am impressed with the man in the photo. There are no crumbs, no coffee stains, and no grease stains on the pretty white sheets. My job requires writing, all day, every day. If I tried to write on a typewriter while drinking coffee and eating a roll, I would be cleaning coffee and roll out of the machine every few minutes. Also, my back would kill me for trying to type while lying on a bed. I am so thankful I am not a model.
My first thoughts on that picture:
1) doesn’t he need a more manly size of beverage to wash down that croissant?
2) the saying “wouldn’t kick him out for eating crackers in bed”
3) Hubba hubba.
SNORT.
Interesting post, I always like hearing about the inner workings of your job.
Loved it all, including the picture. Regarding this comment ” A lot of self-published authors churn out crap. There is no politic way to say it”, I think a chap named Sturgeon said something about that.
Is it just me or does that gentleman look a bit crazed? Just around the eyes? It could just be me. I’ve had the weirdest day. I was driving home from the bank and there was a half naked buddha man standing on the street corner, hands on hips and his head thrown back sunbathing. Not in yard or anything, just on a busy street corner. I hate when the local asylum gives out day passes.
Omg thanks for the laugh! I needed it! I just started a food blog and it’s really hard to write for other people -so much deleting and rewriting. And never enough time to perfect anything. Especially with a day job too. Good luck to the aspiring author!
With all this talk about (possibly vicious) editors, I am once again fondly thinking of the chief editor back when I wrote about food*, and how being able to go from idea to fairly complete draft, and then hand it off to someone I trusted** who could say “why don’t you move this section over here. And then write a conclusion.” …and she was amazing. (She’s still a good friend – writing and editing fiction these days, as well as a bazillion other projects, every time we check in. We’re across the country from each other, but still stay in touch.)
…I wish this came with something more useful? The inspirational hottie might be worth a try, though he doesn’t look that… practical. (Gods, those pictures, though.) I just spent all day being the graphics half of a revision duo, and am wondering about my life choices.
* and gardening, and witchery, and a bunch of other stuff. But mostly food.
** and oh, M, how I learned to treasure you! Even more since almost all my writing has been in academia the last *cough* years.
Your blogs are hilarious – ta for the laugh x
Bless you and bless this happy man. ❤️
I’m not going to argue with Ilona at all. But once you’re published, I have this to say as far as a consumer of books and author websites: if I am going to your website, I like you. I like you enough to try to find more books by you, or more ABOUT books by you. As such, my needs are super simple.
1) a list of things you’ve published, ideally in publication order, with series tags.
2) what’s coming out next and when.
3) if you have any freebies (including short stories you haven’t sold yet), then sure, I’ll take those.
4) you as an author really hope someone wants to contact you about giving you money and stuff. So all your contact info should be there. Once you’re published, your agent’s/publisher’s/whomever else’s contact info should be there.
All this can be accomplished with one front page for the links, and one back page per subject. So 5 pages. You don’t need contact forms, you don’t need “buy here” links. Everything except those four things is extra. And hey! Extras are fun! I have a blast with Karen Chance’s Tarot Reading Generator. And I love the blog here. Maybe you’ll want a newsletter. That’s all your call how much time you want to spend. But if I come to your site and I can’t find #’s 1 & 2? I’m now PISSED. “Up Next” is something a lot of authors don’t keep up to date, and it makes me nuts, because published authors should know what their contracts say. Even if the current release date is “fall 2023” or “TBD,” I want to know what’s coming. And I CANNOT count on Amazon. I follow the authors I love on Amazon, absolutely. Amazon will often let me know as much as two months later that an author I follow has published something new, when it should be the easiest thing in the world to let all of said author’s followers know within seconds of the pre-order link going up.
Bells & whistles are exactly that. 2 (maybe 3) lists for me, 1 for you. It doesn’t have to take more than an hour to set up, assuming you’ve never used WordPress before.
The truth is that I feel SO incredibly strongly about this that I want to just find more and more ways to say this same thing until everyone gets it as well as Ilona Andrews, Kelley Armstrong, and a couple others. But I’ll shut up now.
And all this is AFTER, of course, you have stuff to offer. So everything Ilona said first.
+1, oh yes!
Yes, lists of what you have done and what is coming is so important! I hate going to a website and find it way out of date. As a reader I totally agree with Ilona, book first everything else second.
So glad I’m a reader and not a writer. I get an advanced copy from an author that I enjoy. I’m always surprised how a little blip in the word flow stops me cold. I catch words but punctuation is definitely not my strong suit. I love a great finished product but having to organize, edit, and suggest would probably make me crazy.
With your experience with editors, where do most of them get their start?
Ah, NY editors. This is how I pick a book: check the cover, the title font (yes, seriously), blurb, then the dedication. Did they thank Anne Sowards? Instant purchase. I love that lady’s work. She’s amazing.
Hmmmm. He doesn’t do a thing for me.
true dat!
I have so many questions about what’s going on in that series of stock photos. So many.
Nooo it wasn’t dry. Your writing is always engaging, even on technical stuff. But thank you for the eye candy anyway ?
Hot buttery goodness!!!! … now if only the guy in the background wasnt so distracting from that yummy looking croissant….
“I wanted you to know, that’s exactly how we write, naked in bed on old typewriters, while sipping espresso and eating crescent rolls. Just like that.”
You forgot “on parchment.” Only the best stories (a category your stories fall into) are typed on parchment.
🙂
The stock guy pictures are amazing. I still can’t imagine the talent it takes to type with the hand that is resting his weight on that elbow .
On traditional pub editors. I know of at least 4 authors with AMAZING work with big publishers but as they were mid-listers either got dropped or decided there was more money in self pub. The self pub books are totally unreadable.
See, this is what I like about blogs like yours. I’ve seen Scalzi’s name around, but haven’t felt the urge to check. You mention him, not to promote, but as an example of your topic and I go check. What do you know? I’m interested.