Tell Your Story

The book business has changed dramatically in recent years due to the internet, ebooks and Amazon. Book publishing has always been a business, but now all of the big houses are subsidiaries of major corporations, and there’s even a greater emphasis on publishing books that turn large profits. They focus on celebrity books, often written by ghostwriters, and books by established authors. But you now have the option of self-publishing. Amazon, for instance, will sell your book so long as it’s in the proper format, and if you don’t know how to do that, there are people who will do it for you for a reasonable fee. You can find book covers for reasonable fees, too. Amazon will sell both an ebook version and a print-on-demand version of your book. You don’t have to pay them anything up front. They make their money by taking a percentage of sales.

You might think that you’ll never become a well known and popular writer if you self-publish. Well, some have, but the truth is, only a few writers have ever become widely known celebrity authors. Few writers have ever been able to support themselves with their writing. Writing isn’t about making lots of money or being interviewed on TV chat shows. It’s about wanting to tell your story.

Even if a traditional publishing house agreed to publish your manuscript, they would likely only agree to a first run of maybe 500, 1000 or 1500 copies. Very few books make it to a second printing. If you’re a writer who sells a few hundred copies, even in the old-fashioned traditional way, then you can consider yourself a successful writer.

You might think a traditional publisher will promote your novel, but the truth is they probably wouldn’t. They use their publicity budgets to push those celebrity books and books by established authors. It’s up to everyone else to promote their own books the best way they know how.

The greatest thing a traditional publishing house will do for you is to provide you with a highly qualified editor. You might think your book doesn’t need any editing, and you might pride yourself on being a grammar Nazi who would never let a mistake slip by you. Well, my advice on that score is to get over yourself. The creative aspect of writing is hard work, but so is the physical process of writing out the words. If you write a book that’s 300 pages long, you’re going to make mistakes and a lot of them. And you’re not going to see half of them no matter if you self-edit a thousand times. But if you don’t publish in the traditional way, and you can’t afford the services of a professional editor, there are things you can do to improve your manuscript. You can have friends read your manuscript. It’s great to have a friend who notices typos, errors and inconsistencies. You don’t want a blue shirt mysteriously turning red, and if your protagonist breaks down outside of Albuquerque, you don’t want the tow truck to pick her up outside of Phoenix. A friend might ask you if you meant to tell your reader four times that your protagonist’s mother had an extra toe. There are programs available that look for mistakes, but they’re likely to miss your inconsistencies and redundancies. They look for typos and grammar errors and overused words. That can be highly valuable. You should self-edit over and over again, run your manuscript through one of these automated systems, and then give the manuscript to a few trusted friends. If you really want to do your story justice, and you can afford to spend several thousand dollars on a professional edit, my advice is to go for it. You might not recover that money, but storytelling is about storytelling, not making money.

My dream of being a writer began when I was in my teens. I imagined that I’d finish school, have a career, and then retire at age 35 or 40 after my first book was published. Well, that didn’t happen. But I have written three novels, and I’ve sold well over 1500 copies so far. For years, I tried to find an agent and get published the old-fashioned way, but no one was interested. Several agents told me my stories sounded interesting, but gay characters aren’t moneymakers, so stories about gay characters are a hard sell. Well, okay then. I want to tell my stories, the ones that burn inside my imagination. I don’t want to make up shit that will sell just for the sake of being popular or marketable.

Putting your stuff out there can be scary. There are always going to be people who don’t like your stories, and they won’t be shy about saying so. If you agree with their criticism, you can use what they say to become a better storyteller, but if they’re looking for stories about giraffes, and you write stories about goats, what can you do? You can’t please everybody, and some will take delight in knocking you no matter what you write. Those people need to feel superior, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to write a nasty review. But if you put forth an effort to tell your story well, some will appreciate it and tell you.

If you have a story to tell, I urge you to do it. And don’t hold back. I came across a good bit of advice from a writer a few years ago; write as though your parents were dead. That sounds harsh, and it is, but what he was getting at is you should be honest about your story. Try to be truthful about the story in your head, not respectable. Respectable is flat and tedious. Good luck!