"You should always put the quality of your book first."
-Victoria Danann
When writing an article or a story, there is a lot of thought during the process that goes on before actually deciding to do something with that story. Then, one has to figure out whether to share that story with others and how to do that.
While many authors are able to find a publisher that will release their work, some authors decide to do this process all on their own.
Author Lisa Oliver explained how she started to publish her books as a self-publisher six years ago.
"I originally started with non-fiction books and later with my fiction titles. I was originally a ghost writer, and I saw what my clients were doing with my work, and decided I could do the same," Oliver said.
When writing, all writers know life can have some ups and downs and that could cause Writer's Block. Yet, writers manage to power through it to get their writing finished or just write to get their thoughts on paper.
Self-published author Donya Lynne explained how she was looking for a publisher but was suddenly let go from her job in July 2010 and couldn't find a job to replace the one she lost. She went on to explain how she got into online roleplay a year and a half later and how she finally followed her dream to become a published author.
"A year and a half later, I was still searching for a job, the unemployment funds were running out, and I had gotten involved with online roleplay to keep myself entertained at home. Many of the people I roleplayed with were looking at self-publishing their stories, so I started looking into it," Lynne said. "I’d built up quite a fan following for my roleplay endeavors, and that’s how my first novel was born. I wrote the story of Micah Black, a character I’d created for online roleplay purposes. I published that novel in March of 2012, and thus [the] 'All the King’s Men' series was born."
Lynne is still writing the "All the King's Men" series today.
Self-published indie author Sheri-Lynn Marean explained some problems she had while trying to self-publish her books.
"Finding the money to hire an editor, hiring a good cover artist who could do what I wanted and formatting cost a lot and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it," Marean said. "Then, after I released [book one], I started to use Scrivener, a writing software. [I] loved it, and Val (another self-published author, Valerie Comer) pushed me to learn how to format myself. I usually screw things up for a good mess before I figure things out, but now I got it and do all my own formatting."
New York Times bestselling author Victoria Danann gave some advice for anyone wanting to self-publish and getting themselves started. She talked about how writers should always put the quality of your book first.
"Understand from the beginning that, if you go the Indie route, you stop being a writer and become a business owner. You’re responsible for creating the content that is the product you sell, the planning, the marketing, and the record keeping," Danann said. " ... In other words, sixty percent marketing, forty percent writing or some variant on that distribution. Always put the quality of your books ahead of everything else. If you don’t have that, you don’t have a sustainable business. If you’re lucky enough to get people who follow you, value them and let them know they’re appreciated because they’re every bit as important as your talent."
All the authors listed were very helpful in providing the information that was needed for this article and I am very thankful for being able to talk with them while gathering their views on self-publishing.
Other self-published authors, not mentioned with quotes, include Quinn Loftis, Lisa Oliver, Sharon Hamilton, Melissa Snark, Valerie Comer, Cynthia D'Alba, Wendy S. Marcus and B.L. Marsh.
