Don't be a waiter

2012

Holy cow it's a new year! When did that happen?! The end of the year just flashed past and now it's January.

There's been a lot of talk about Amazon and now a rumor of Apple starting a self-publishing program has popped up on teh interwebs. I hope the rumor is true and that their program is comparable to Kindle. I also hope that B&N's self-pub'ing program gets a revision, or at least their search for interested readers is cleaned up. More retailers for independent writer-publishers is a good thing. No more waiting around. You can start making money.

1. You can sell your work as soon as you want.
2. You can price your work for as much as you want.
3. You can continue to sell your work for as long as you want.

 

I've heard a lot of excuses: lots of writers moan and groan and say, "But I don't wanna be a publisher, I wanna be a writer!" or "That's a lot of work and I'm already tied up with day job and family and Xbox and websurfing and lolcats and and and..."

The biggest whine I've heard is, "But I want to be a real published author. I want to be taken seriously!" translated to mean, "If I publish my own work, everyone will think I'm a loser because only loooooosers publish themselves."

This excuse always makes me scratch my head. Novelists want to get paid for their work. Why is getting paid directly (more or less) somehow less desirable than getting paid by a publisher? From everything I've heard (and been a part of), the publisher takes a really long time to pay out. And that's if you even get offered a contract. So you're either sitting around waiting to be paid, waiting for a contract, waiting for someone to respond (agent/editor).

You're a WAITER.

If your goal is to get paid for your writing, you are shooting yourself in the foot for not even considering the potential of Kindle/Smashwords/B&N, etc.. Your manuscript in the mail or in someone's In Box or sitting on a shelf or in your drawer is NOT making you any money.

No sale at $0 = $0

3 sales at $2.00 = $6.00

Don't you think your work is better than $6.00? Of course you do, that's why you sent it out to a list of literary agents you hoped might get you a contract from a publisher. If you didn't think it was worth something to someone else, why would you have bothered to send it out in the first place?

I'm not saying that you will become an overnight billionaire with one book on Amazon. But if you don't even try, then I guarantee you won't sell a single copy.

You believe in your writing (you must since you think an agent and publisher should find it saleable), so take control of reaching your own goal instead of waiting for someone else. You are not a WAITER.

You are a writer.

So get cracking and make 2012 your year to make money from all your hard work as a writer!