I posted to my social media about these two articles last Friday, and now I’m expanding on them for 2023.

click here for – “real publishers” aren’t the only “real” real ones any more

click here for – What it takes to be an author and actually release a book

Self-publishing has been around for decades, if not centuries. Some of the most famous authors in history have self-published, and some even started out doing it at the beginning of their career.

But one thing that still remains, archaic as it may be, is that newbies still believe that being published by a “real publisher” is the be-all and end-all of being an author. Little do they know, something many of us have known for quite some time, is that these so-called “real publishers” are firing staff by the drayload and demanding their authors do their own marketing and promotion. They also won’t give you a book deal unless you have a decent number of followers. Imagine that! Not getting a book deal because you don’t have 100,000 plus followers on social.

Because that’s what it comes down to these days. You need the followers, you need the reality TV show appearance, you need the viral video. Otherwise, you’re nothing. You’re no one.

And do you have any clue what it takes to be an author? Slogging your guts out from start to finish creating a book.

You still have to do everything as a self-published author / indie author / authorpreneur.

From coming up with the idea, to writing, to formatting, to cover design. Deciding which website to sell it from, your own, or one of the many sale sites currently going.

Then there’s filling out all of the details for your book on sale site, book sites, and your website. Have you uploaded to social media and done a million videos for TikTok?

And all of that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are taxes, payments, shipping, producing, marketing, promoting, and oh so much more.

There’s a hell of a lot to do when writing a book. And writing a book is not just about the book. It’s also about everything that comes after. So much more.

These posts were originally posted in 2014, and in the nine years since, everything has changed exponentially. And your thinking needs to as well.