On Being a Self-Published Author

I'm not quite yet a self-published author, but I will be tomorrow.  And let me tell you, there's nothing easy about being a self-published author. In fact, (excuse my language) it takes a shit ton of work.  I have been promoting the heck out of my book. I've had friends set up twitter feeds.  People are reviewing my book.  I've been trying to get bloggers and websites to promote my book.  There is so much work.

I love to write. It's my passion. I'm not crazy about all the other stuff.  I read, about two years ago, an article about how much time and effort it takes to self publish. I think I brushed it off, put it aside, and went on thinking, "la la la," this will be easy. Well, it's not.

The thing about being an indie author, is sometimes you're not taken seriously.  I tell people I have two full time jobs: executive assistant and writer (I really have more than that because I'm a mother too). And it feels like it. I wake up every morning at 5:15 to: write, edit, send email requests to bloggers, reviewers, format, request covers, upload, etc. This is a time consuming job.  The people who don't want to invest the time into finding the right communities to be part of, into marketing and promoting the heck out of themselves, well, they need to find something else to do. I probably spend about 50% of my time on trying to market my book, and the other 50% writing or editing.

In a perfect world, I could wake up write, edit a little bit, send off to an agent, BINGO, get an acceptance and never look back. But that's not going to happen. Even if I do end up with an agent (one day), I still have to make changes to the book and self promote. Many publishers these days play a hand in the marketing and promotion of books, but they don't do it all.  The bottom line: If you want your book to sell then you have to promote it.  You have to have friends who will share your link. You have to have an active twitter account.  You have to have reviews on Amazon (this is key), Goodreads, and blogs.  Your name and the title of your book needs to be visible on the world wide web.

Anyway, after reading all of this you might ask why I do it? And the reason is simple: I love writing. When you find something you love doing, you might jump through hoops to be able to do it. Plus, I have met some incredible authors who are living the same struggle as I am.  If I had never taken on this endeavor, I would never have met these incredible people, maybe never known their books existed, never been able to help them just as they're helping me.  It's so worth it in the end.

If you would like to read an excerpt of "No Turning Back," you can check it out here: https://awomanswisdom.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/new-release-no-turning-back-by-lauren-greene/

You can buy it on Amazon. 

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