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Ever since I chose to make a go of it as a writer, I've had
a number of people ask "How do you do it?"
"What? Write a book? I dunno...you just sit in a chair
and keep writing until, ta da! Book complete!"
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. It's a
pet peeve of mine: someone gets asked a question in an interview to the tune
of, "So tell me about your big break?" And then the interviewee
replies with, "Well, I was out in L.A., trying to make a go of it as an
actor, and then I auditioned for
Big
Network Sex-Crime Procedural and got the lead!"
Oftentimes, this is a gross oversimplification, much like my
hypothetical answer above.
The topic has come up enough that I think it's worthwhile to
get some of this stuff out into the open, out of the dank basement of the indie
author...uh...co-ed fraternity-sorority type group ("Now with extra
ramen!") and into the sunlight.
Originally, I tried to sit down and put this all in one
gigantic mega-post, which would've easily set a record for this site (a record
that I think currently stands at 7,500 words for one of the Power Rankings
posts...yikes!).
So instead, I'm going to break this up into a bunch of posts
over the coming weeks and months in the hopes that I might just inspire someone
else with a book inside of them to spend the (little) money and the (outrageous
amounts of) time to make their dream a reality.
The first installment will focus on things you should
consider before you even sit down to write the book. This is largely advice
that I wish I would have heard before starting down the path of becoming an indie
author, not because of any want of looking (more on that later), but rather
because some lessons can only be taught through experience. All of the
pontificating in the world won't necessarily help a lick until you get out
there and actually try to sell something that you've poured a good amount of
time, energy, and emotion into.
If this doesn't interest you, by all means, feel free to
come back when the usual ridiculousness is back—I assure you, you won't have to
wait too long. But if you're even a little bit curious about getting your book
into print (or pixels), if it's something that's always gnawed at the back of
your mind, trying to break free, even as you soak your brain in booze and
God-knows what all else, by all means, take the red pill that I'm offering you
and read on.
(Not, you know, literally.
If someone is there in front of you, offering you a red pill right now, that's most assuredly not me,
and it's probably not too safe to take. Of course, as we indie writers are fond
of saying, Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV)).
Before You Start
So you want to write a book? Good! Congratulations! That's
an important first step there. Go ahead and say it out loud, scream it from the
rooftops, "I WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL!"
Now that your spouse/sibling/friend has bailed you out of
jail for disturbing the peace, it's time to get down to business.
Writing a book, either fiction or non-fiction, is a lot of
work. I'm not talking "build the pyramids" or "dig the Panama
Canal"-levels of work; after all, plenty of people do it every year, but
it's still a big investment of time and effort.
Every little bit of streamlining you can do ahead of time
can help when you're in the thick of the story, desperately trying to remember
if the storekeeper's name is "Kirk" or "Kurt," and
desperately wanting to use that as an excuse to check out the internet to
"do some research."
Before you even get that far, you'll have to make some decisions
about what exactly you want to accomplish. Here are some questions that you
should ask yourself and think about at
length before sitting down to write.
1) Why are you writing?
Quick hint: It's okay to say "money." Heck, if you even have a vague
notion of quitting your day job "someday" to pursue writing
full-time, you're going to need money one way or another. Better to be up-front
about it.
To be fair, there are plenty of other reasons to write.
Maybe you want to write a memoir that can be a cherished keepsake for
generations to come; with Createspace, you absolutely have this option, and it
shouldn't cost you more than $100. Maybe you just want to share your writing with
others; on some level, that's why all of us do this, too.
Just be honest and clear with yourself about your goals
ahead of time. From here on, I'm going to assume that "making money"
is at least a tiny fraction of your set of goals (even if it's just coffee or booze
money, though one of those items is a lot larger number on the old expense
sheet for me than the other, but I digress), so I'm going to focus on that
route over the rest of this series.
2) What kind of a
budget do you have? Do you have thousands of dollars? Hundreds? Or less?
Knowing this ahead of time will better inform your decision of whether to go
indie or the more traditional route.
3) How much work do
you want to put in outside of writing? I've always had a bit of an
entrepreneurial streak, so the various ancillary duties of indie publishing
(cover design, editing, formatting, even [ugh] marketing) appealed to me.
That's not to say that they're easy things to do; those are
the tasks that I frequently find most taxing and just downright hard, but it's
incredibly rewarding to hold a finished product in your hand when all is said
and done, knowing that it's the result of a lot of your own sweat equity.
Keep in mind, even if you submit to and are selected by a
traditional publisher, they might not do as much promotion and other ancillary
activities for you as you might think, but that's material for a different
post.
4) How fast can you
write? This is a big, often underrated, facet of writing a book. When I
started out as a full-time, professional writer, I'd often peter out after
1,000 or so words per day. Though admirable for a lot of people, if you're
writing full time, you should eventually get into the 3,000-6,000 words per day
range, and be quite comfortable writing like that at least six days a week. If
you decide to go indie, that's in addition to all of the covers, editing, and
promotion that you'll have to do.
No one said it's easy, folks.
I also understand that most folks keep a day job, so 1,000
words a day in the morning or evening is actually a pretty good pace for them.
After a hundred days of that, you should have a manuscript.
Try keeping a blog for a few weeks just to gauge your own
speed. Do the math and be honest with yourself as to how long writing a book
could take.
5) Are you ready for
other people to read your work? In hindsight, this is perhaps the greatest
stumbling block for a lot of aspiring writers. "What if people think my
stuff is crap?" How will you know unless you put it out there? Why not use
a pen name, keep your real identity secret (this is perhaps the only way
writing is even remotely like being a superhero), and then publicize who really wrote those books if you come out
with a hit?
People are terrified of the consequences of releasing
"a bad book," and I do think folks with a book or two (or a dozen) under
their belts too often pay short shrift to this high psychological hurdle in the
minds of newbies. Just know that it wasn't so long ago that even the most
prolific and proficient writers harbored these same fears. Sometimes, you just
have to stand at the top of the diving board and jump.
###
Mull these over for a while. Maybe even (GASP!) write them
out; a structured outline with honest answers or a free-association exercise
alike can help you to sort out your thoughts.
Then, by the time you've figured out if you're ready to make a go of it, the
next post in the series will be up.
Thanks for reading.
Labels: Fiction, Indie Publishing, So You Want to Write a Book..., Writing
