When I work with authors who are planning to self-publish a novel, one of the first things I work with them on is setting objectives. It seems like a simple place to start, but often the conversation gets to a core issue pretty quickly, and it's not always one that the author has thought about much. Many authors will say that they want to publish a book and that they want to sell as many copies as possible. At the heart of that, though, is some tension.
Publishing a book is a huge accomplishment, and selling a lot of books is an equally huge accomplishment. But when people say they want to publish a book, the motivating factor is often that they want to publish the book they've always wanted to write. I know that was mine. And when people say they want to sell a lot of copies of a book, the motivation can be anything from wanting that external validation to wanting to establish themselves in a field, or even just because that's that they think you are supposed to do with a book.
Often these divergent motivations and objectives don't lend themselves to the same approaches. Some of this came up in the comments of a post I wrote last week, where we talked at length about art vs. commerce. Understanding objectives will be critical to how an author feels about the process overall. Whether the objectives are more personal or financial driven will determine what takes priority when approaching the publishing process.
Here's what I recommend thinking about to the authors I work with:
1. Do you want to publish a book to be a published author?
That's a great goal. It's a big reason why I wrote mine. If that is the objective, then whether it sells at all is less of a concern. Having a book you are proud of becomes the number one consideration.
2. Do you want to sell as many copies as possible?
If you want a book to sell, there are some things you can choose to do with characters and themes, cover design and marketing, and overall presentation that will make it more appealing to a larger audience. This may mean making some decisions that are driven by the market rather than by your own personal preferences. That's where some of the tension comes in. Knowing whether #1 or #2 is more of a priority can help make those decisions less contentious.
3. Do you want the book to be a starting point for a career?
Whether you want to publish a business or a fiction book, if you want it to be the start of a career in writing, that's important to know from the outset. That will determine how you approach things, what makes more sense, and where to spend more money on production and marketing. Some people just want to publish one book, some people want to start a speaking career, some people want to be a genre fiction author, and many other reasons.
These aren't the only questions to ask, but they are a fantastic starting point for understanding what motivates an author to write in the first place. And they are not mutually exclusive. It is possible for all of them to be important. But I think it's even more important to know the order of importance for all of them. For example, if the most important is that you want to sell books because you want to make an income as an author, you'll want to pay attention to trends in what is selling, how and why those books are selling, and tailor your book content and design to do well in the current space.
If, however, the most important thing is to write and publish the book you've always wanted to write, it will mean it's more important to make content, design, and marketing choices that fit with your personal and nuanced vision. Finally, if your goal is to use your "book as a business card" or as the first in a series of fiction offerings, you'll want to think very strategically and long-term about story, marketing and about your author platform to tailor it to endure.
Again, I'm not saying it's not possible to do all three, but what I am saying is that knowing which is most important to you as a self-publisher goes a long way to figuring out how to make the many and big decisions you'll face along the way. What do you all think? Are these good starting point questions? Is it possible to do all three at once?
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