An injection of realism in your writing life

I read an article at the weekend that really resonated with me and my writing life. It was about self publishing and how it won't replace traditional publishing, but it might supplement and influence it. The pros for self publishing in the article got me thinking. 

In life, as sad as this is, people are only deemed a success if they are rolling around in money. You can apply this principle to anything. For a writer, it means they are only a success when they are selling lots of books.

I'm certainly not saying don't have ambition, but creative minds need to be realistic - and everybody has to start from somewhere. Self publishing is a solid platform to take that leap of faith.

Personally speaking, I have changed my mindset a lot since I first started out. I had to do this in order to be productive, otherwise I would have given up writing a long time ago. Rather than thinking I must make loads of money immediately, I like to know my thoughts and ideas are out there in the world for anybody to receive at any moment. Thinking like this helps keep me focused and motivated. There is potential and that's all that matters. Right now, I view self publishing as a conclusion to my writing projects.

I know I won't always think like this. As humans we always want more out of something. Eventually I will want to have a giant internet following and eventually I will want to be traditionally published... but that will be the next chapter and the next one after that.

Little steps.

Self publishing is enticing because readers can get your book while you're still passionate about it. If you have amassed a decent sized internet following who are interested in what you're working on, then away you go. That's why it's so important to have a blog and social network. In contrast, the traditional publishing model puts money up front (the advance) and then sets about trying to build an audience for a book that's already created.

Whilst being published traditionally is great for the ego - how fabulous would it be to say "Headline are publishing my book in the Spring" - the risk that goes with it is greater as you're placed precariously in other people's hands. For me, control is quite important at this stage of my writing career.

We'll explore more of the pros and cons as this series on Self Publishing progresses.