The Business of Writing Only Begins with Writing

In the business of writing, writing – in many respects – is surprisingly the easiest part.

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As a child, I discovered that writing fiction – sci-fi and fantasy – brought me joy. I’ve always had an active (overactive, maybe) imagination. Channeling my imagination from playing pretend – imagining my swing set as a starfighter, creating Star Wars adventures with my action figures, building LEGO spaceships, and otherwise – into writing provided for a productive creative outlet.

As I got older, writing here, a little writing there, I continued to create new worlds and adventures. Over time, that opened an opportunity to get a couple of short stories published in a pair of anthologies. That opportunity would lead me to self-publishing.

I would go on to self-publish the first two YA fantasy novels of my Source Chronicles series, and the first novel of my Vapor Rogues Steampunk series (adding to the aforementioned short story published in the pirates and magic anthology Spells and Swashbucklers) in 2014.

In September 2015, I began what would evolve into my Void Incursion sci-fi series. This began as my process always did at that point – by the seat of my pants. I started to build characters and situations, which in turn evolved into a cohesive plot. I worked out how to break up the story into books.

In the Spring of 2020 – at the height of the pandemic – an idea came to me. That would lead to my Forgotten Fodder clones and conspiracies sci-fi series. This was plotted in advance – and I found I was able to write it surprisingly quickly.

By the end of 2020, I published the first 2 Void Incursion novels and my standalone fantasy Infamy Ascending.

In 2021, I published two more Void Incursion novels and all 4 Forgotten Fodder novels.

Since then, the lesson has been clear: The writing was the easy part.

The challenges that come after writing

Though this will vary some if you’re not self-publishing, I believe this checklist covers a lot of ground for before, during, and after writing:

• Conceive the story
• Plan, plot, or just write the book
• Edit the book
• Send the book to be edited
• Have cover art made
• Get the book back from the editor
• Reconcile edits
• Format the book, assemble the cover
• Publish!

Given all that, the lesson remains clear to me that writing is definitely the easiest part. This checklist doesn’t address the most difficult element of the business of writing.

Marketing. Advertising. Selling books. Publicity. Promotion. Self-promotion.

These elements of the business of writing further make the writing clearly the easiest part of the process.

Editing and cover art are outsourced.

You must edit your work yourself after you’re done. If not, you will miss contextual errors, consistency errors, typos, and other elements.

Then – send your work to a pro. Someone who edits for a living – or even part-time with a lot of experience – exponentially increases the level of your book among the world of self-published books out there.

You might have the talent to do the work required for building your own covers. But if that’s just applying KDP’s tools – trust me, hire someone for this. Do not half-ass your cover. The adage that nobody judges a book by its cover is totally bullshit.

As you can see, the business of writing only begins with writing.

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Elements in the business of writing

Following writing, editing and finding a cover artist are, frankly, the next easiest elements of the process. The biggest issue with that is that they will have variable costs. But marketing, advertising, selling books, publicity, promotion, and self-promotion are too important to the business to disregard.

Each of these elements in the business of writing deserves individual attention.

Marketing

This is both a before and after matter when it comes to the business of writing. Before – because you must know your genre. What goes into books in your genre? How are you matching the tropes? How and why might you be subverting the tropes?

To sell to a market – you must know it. After the book is done, marketing is reaching out in various ways to make sales. Marketing is a multi-faceted concept that can include social media, podcasts, attending cons, and so forth.

Marketing might not be a bad place to get an expert involved to maximize your reach and potential.

Advertising

Similar to marketing but wholly paid for. Determining where, when, and how to advertise can be tricky on lots of levels. Its worth is utterly subjective, too.

Learning the value of paid advertising is subjective as fuck. Sorry, there’s just no other way to put that. It’s convoluted and very easy to spend more than you get in return. Arguably, paid advertising can be skipped in favor of publicity or marketing. But it shouldn’t be disregarded and ignored outright, either.

Selling books

I’ve written a dozen different books. And I can only ask, beg, plead, cajole, and request that people buy them so many times in so many ways before people start avoiding me and my posts to social media. (Demanding people buy. FYI, is rude and will cause resentment and other problems).

When you publish books and don’t sell them, that can be deeply frustrating. How to sell books also presents numerous options, challenges, and more. Amazon alone? eBook and/or paperback? Smashwords? Barnes and Noble?

Suffice it to say – many options for selling books to be considered.

Publicity

This is one of the biggest challenges I’m working with right now. Namely – who in the fuck am I? (Specifically in the writing business). How do I get people to notice me, buy, and further legitimize my work? How do I get my name out there so that my presence is increased, and book sales increase?

When it comes to the business of writing, this is necessary to establish yourself.

And it ties directly into…

Promotion

What can I offer to sell more books? How can I get my books into reviews, talked about on podcasts, and into literary discussions? How do I promote my work to the world?

Attending related cons is an approach I’m increasingly taking to that end. I’m looking into getting more reviews and finding new ways to promote my various series and overall work.

And with that comes another, often easily disregarded – but hugely important – element in the writing business.

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Self-promotion in the business of writing

There’s a reason I have 3 separate personae. One is the people who know me on a personal level. Another is my medieval persona. And the last is my author persona.

The self-promotion of MJ Blehart – Storyteller, is a unique challenge in the business of writing. Because separating myself from myself – personal versus professional – isn’t easy.

For example, recognizing this is challenging: Rejection of my work – or not selling books – isn’t a rejection of me.

But as the writer who creates these works – self-promotion is intimately linked to the process.

During a fabulous presentation at a recent con I attended, I gained some much-needed insight into this – and the rest of these elements. I was instructed on 5 rules for pitching yourself and your products – which was an incredible presentation by Bryan “Kaiser” Tillman. He’s a dynamic speaker and an impressive artist as well.

Mr. Tillman’s presentation opened my eyes to a new way to quantify the business of writing and start some new initiatives therein.

There are lots of elements to the business of writing

If you are just writing for fun – then just write. But if you are partaking in the business of writing, and seek to sell books and get your work seen, be prepared for the much more involved work beyond the writing itself.

Writing in the business of writing is the surprisingly easy part. The road to success begins – but doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination end – when you type out “the end” or push the button to submit for publishing.

You’re not alone. Every published author has gone through this in one form or another, with very few exceptions.

Also – authors and artists are not in competition with one another. We can and should work with one another to support, encourage, and prop each other up. We’re a unique community, and that shared sense of community empowers us all.

When you turn pro and get into the business of writing, these other elements are necessary and important to acknowledge. Your approach will differ because both your needs and your writing works differ, too.

But if this is your passion, following it is joyful.

Go out there, kick-ass, and take names. And know you are utterly not alone in your endeavors.

How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?

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