You finally did it. You’ve penned your novel. You’ve poured your heart, soul, and sweat into the 50K word baby, and now you face the question every author faces: now what?
Putting words to paper is not the hard part. In truth, it’s only the beginning of a process that will balloon into a never-ending yellow brick road that stretches ever toward a constantly moving horizon. But you did it: you wrote a novel.
So now you sell it, sit back and sip wine while living off the royalty checks. Right? You may want to rethink that.
First, you write, then you edit
And edit. And edit. And when you think you’ve trimmed more fat than a Hollywood plastic surgeon, you edit one more time. By now, you’ve read it through so many times, you’ve dreamed it at night. Now you have to find multiple people and convince them to read it.
Don’t give it to family, don’t give it to your best friend from college. You’ll get a much more honest critique and more productive criticisms from people you don’t actually know. They won’t care if they hurt your feelings or make you feel like a complete idiot. And that is the kind of feedback you need to improve your work. Online critique groups or meet-at-the-library writer groups are a much better use of your time.
When you have the book fine-tuned to where you’re finally satisfied that it has become all it can be, then you have to make a choice. If your goal is to have people read what you’ve written and paid you for the privilege of doing so, you have three avenues open.
You can self-publish (print or eBook), go with a small publisher, or hold out for one of the publishing Big Boys.
You’ll make the most money if you attract the attention of a large publishing house, like HarperCollins or Penguin. You’ll probably need an agent to crack that nut. If you opt to self-publish, remember that you are all there is.
Get help with editing; no writer can edit his own work effectively. Then there’s the formatting and the layout and the eBook formats for different sites and the jacket blurb and the cover art. Don’t fool yourself; everyone judges a book by its cover. The small press may be your best option, as they are usually hungry for good work and can be a way to get your foot in the door to the publishing world.
Final Thoughts
And to sum it all up, just remember that it is never too early in the process to start promoting yourself. Don’t count on Facebook to make your fortune. Start a blog and update it. Go to writing conventions. Participate in writing forums, online and offline. The publishing industry has no qualms about eating its young, so be prepared to be chewed and spit out more than once along the way.