The Fear of Traditional Publishing and How to Avoid It

There are many reasons why a would-be author could be stalled in the process of writing a book. In many of these unfortunate cases, they have one certain thing stopping them from hitting the best-selling charts. This barrier may be an issue in the story, or, perhaps even more daunting, the fear of being turned down by a publisher. If you happen to be one of those anxious writers, this posting may be of some help to you.

Traditional publishing houses have a high quality standard for accepting books, and these levels are difficult to meet. That is the beauty of self-publishing; there are no standards, and any work can be transformed into a book. This is not to say that authors who self-publish are not fit to be accepted by a big-time publisher, just that they wish to bypass the costs of publishing, and have things done exactly the way they want it.

Self Publishing: The Alternative

The process of self-publishing has been helped dramatically with the advent of KDP Publishing. This allows you to set up your manuscript directly into a book format on Amazon. I published my children’s science fiction book, A Month Well Spent, using KDP, and it worked very well. The program is laid out in a very simple step-by-step way, and it makes writing a book so much easier. Once you have reached the last step, you click ‘publish’ and it tells you to wait. A couple days later, people will be able to go on Amazon and buy your book!

However, that is not the difficult part. I highly recommend that if you write a story and want to have it published, seek out a professional editor. This person is trained to correct not only grammar mistakes, but also to provide suggestions on improving your story. Even if you have an amazing book at the start, it will still be improved in some way by sending it off to the editor. A Month Well Spent was professionally edited, and I was given some great ideas on what I could tweak to make it better.

My mom prepares books to be published by way of Amazon KDP. Originally, this was for my uncle, who is a mystery author, but now I am also writing, so I take advantage of her work. It was very inspiration to have a real author in the family. That made the whole process seem so much more achievable; less of a fantasy and more of a reality. His ability to write books sparked my interest, and I continued through my writing journey with the idea that ‘if my uncle can write books, so can I!’ I believe that I never would have reached this point if it hadn’t have been for him.

It Still Requires Effort

Notice that when I was discussing the benefits of self-publishing, I never once used the word ‘easy’. That was on purpose, because no part of the writing process is easy. It takes effort to create anything worth reading, and even then you can not be sure that your book will be something that people will want to buy. That is just part of the journey, the surprise of whether you will turn out to be popular. Even if your very first story is not a huge hit, that says nothing about following books you might decide to write. It is kind of like flipping a coin, only better: the first time there is a certain percentage that you will be noticed, and then with each attempt after that, the odds grow. Obviously, they never quite reach one hundred, but you get the point.

Hopefully, this posting was of some use to you. If you have any thoughts on self-publishing, or if you have sent a book to a publishing house, just let me know in the comments box below. I’m excited for your feedback!