Kristen Lamb gives the best advice to new self-published writers in this post. Read the comments as well.
She gives us five mistakes that kill self-published authors. I agree with every one of them. She is giving her readers my talk at the Blue Ridge Writers' Conference in Blue Ridge, Georgia a couple of years ago.
She is also telling us what two small press publishers have told me this week when I interviewed them.
Here is Kristen's number one mistake:
Mistake #1 Publishing Before We Are Ready
The problem with the ease of self-publishing is that it is, well, too easy. When we are new, frankly, most of us are too dumb to know what we don’t know. Just because we made As in English, does not automatically qualify us to write a work spanning 60,000-100,000 words. I cannot count how many writers I’ve met who refuse to read fiction, refuse to read craft books, and who only go to pitch agents when they attend conferences at the expense of attending the craft sessions.
Read more of the article here. https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/caveat-venditor-five-mistakes-killing-self-published-authors/#comment-227839
I am a reader not a writer, but would agree with all of those points.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who considers himself a playwright and an author. He doesn't read anything except the form guide from the paper. He approached several agents. Nada. And then self published. Also nada...