Writing Jobs: Can Authors Really Earn A Living Writing Through Self Publishing?
The answer is YES. And I am living proof of that yes.
After graduating from college in beautiful downtown Worcester, MA, it was my single-minded goal to write and publish a book. My own book. It consumed me. I could imagine nothing less. (Looking back I wonder if me being so naive didn't actually help me in the long run.)
And like many, many others before me and since, I thought a great idea and superior writing would be all I needed to accomplish my goal.
Whoa. Was that flawed thinking.
Truth is that the big publishers play the 90/10 rule. Ninety percent of their effort goes into 10% of their authors. The PROVEN authors who make them money with every new book that comes along. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense from a business point of view.
I even knew those unflattering 90/10 odds going in. (It's well known that publishers aren't WAITING for you to arrive at their doors.) So I didn't even get into query letters or writing first chapters on spec or networking to see who knew who. These and other familiar routes are well-travelled and the horror stories about their usefulness literally pushed me to think differently.
You have to remember...I wanted to be published and I wasn't going to allow anything to stop me!
So I didn't. I spent several months waitering at some of New Yorks' finest eateries and writing and laying out pages, and sending in proofs, and making edits, and checking cover colors, and getting book deliveries and distributing press releases, and doing radio interviews...and, um, everything.
The result of me wanting to earn a living through self publishing: over 12,000 copies sold in 19 countries. Not New York Times worthy, but not too shabby.
This article is not a plug for that book which was actually a short story collection much like the old Twilight Zone television series. That's not my intention. I'm not trying to sell you anything. Except hope.
(It was called "NIGHTALES" if you want to make sure I'm not a fibber!!!)
If you truly feel that a book is inside you and that it has to come out, I am living proof that the answer to the question 'can authors really earn a living through self publishing?' was answered by me and many others like me.
But that it takes an amazing amount of work to do it.
Kevin Browne is a former Creative Director and Senior Copywriter at agencies including J Walter Thompson, McCann Erickson and Young and Rubicam. Kevin now runs TABinteractive where PARTNERS WITH web owners and TOGETHER makes ridiculous, and consistent online sales at http://www.tabinteractive.net
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