Always Keep Learning (From others).

One of my favorite sayings is, "Learn from the mistakes of others because life is too short to make them all yourself." (I'm not sure who said that, perhaps Mark Twain, Will Rogers, or Groucho Marx but a quick search didn't bring anything up.) But, it is also good to learn from other people who are willing to share their experience with you. 

On a whim I signed up for a free "Writer's Boot Camp" put on by Hay House Publishing. It is a four day workshop, basically, where they have a 2 hour talk. Of course, you can "upgrade" to VIP access and get opportunities to submit proposals or manuscripts for consideration and talk to people in the industry. 

I didn't do that and stuck with the "free" version. I'm not exactly sure why I thought I could spend 2 hours a day, from 11 am to 1 pm, uninterrupted to participate in that because, you know, kids, hubby, life.... But I was thrilled to know that they do a replay, which is available for 24 hrs. Cool. 

Day 1 -- totally missed the whole thing. You know. Kids, hubby, life. But that's okay. I already know how to write books.

Day 2-- Caught the replay in the evening, which was a bonus because I had to pause it a lot with kid things. Day 2 was about traditional publishers vs. self publishing, editors, and all that. They had a guest speaker after the first hour, one of their authors, Collette Baron-Reid, who does mostly self-help, metaphysical type books, did a 30 minute talk. Up until watching this, I had no idea that Louise Hay started the company, because I've read her energy healing books and "grew up" with some of those ideas. They are a mostly non-fiction publisher but are now venturing in fiction as well. Anyway, I am really glad I caught that 2-hour talk because I had all sorts of preconceived notion about what traditional publishers could do for me vs. what I could do on my own. 

Here are the two huge things that were dispelled for me:

😱I believed that traditional publishers would do the lions share of the marketing. All you had to do was show up to where they wanted you to.  Yeah. No. Nuh-uh. Traditionally published authors still have to do 80-90% of the marketing for the books. Uh, what? Yeah. Plus they do want you to have your platform already built before they get serious about you. Wow. 

😵You make more money with a traditional publisher because they do all the marketing and get your books into places you can't. Yeah. Well, in a way. So, if the publisher gives you an advance, say $25,000, they are essentially hedging their bet that they will sell that many books. So, let's say, $20, you won't get anything until you surpass your royalties in sales. So, what's your royalties in sales? 7.5% of the cover price. So, you, get $1.50 per sale. So, to get more royalties, you'd have to sell nearly 17,000 copies of said $20 book. Traditional publishers can get books in stores, which is in front of people who browse. Self-published are mostly online. So, yeah, I figure you'd sell more books allowing people to see them in a book store.

Plus, something I figured but was confirmed is that traditionally published books can take up to two years to publish. 

Wow. Plus, if you want to be traditionally published, you really need to have a literary agent, who gets 15% of your royalties. Which is fair because they're doing the active selling of your book to the publishers. And movie business. And whatever else they can think of because they get 15% of what you do. It's worth it to them. They have their feet in doors most of us don't. 

Oh, and you can start out as a self-published author and then have your books picked up by a traditional author and republished later down the road. Wow. Part of me wasn't sure about that before. 

All in all I'm really glad I signed up for the course on a total whim. Today is Day 3, and I believe they're covering AI, audiobooks, and writing. Day 4 was the reason I signed up for the course and that is how to get your books in front of readers...Who will actually read them. (🙋Me, totally me. Sign me up! I need that!)

Since I'm talking education here and learning from others, I'd also like to direct any future self-publishers to watching an author named Mandy Lynn -- Stone Ridge Books. She's on YouTube and she co-wrote a series on self publishing. She's published her own books since she was teenager (she's in her 20s now) but even this old dog here was learning new trick watching her channel and reading her books. I've watched a few of her videos which led me to getting her books because hey, at this point, I'm always learning and any "tricks of the trade" anyone can give me is what I need. 

Alright, since life is calling me, I'd best end this for now. Later this week I hope to share updates here on my next book, The Allegheny Chronicles: The Healer, due out on November 15th!!!!!

Until next time, keep on reading, keep on writing.

Em

There is always an adventure in an Em Brooks book!

Find all fourteen of my books on Amazon in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, paperback, and now on Audible!!!