New authors are finding out that it’s easy to self-publish with some of the latest and greatest technologies. And with the increase of e-book readers, there is a temptation to throw your book out there. However, there are a few important things new authors should consider.
Two trains of thought when it comes to releasing a digital book. The first is to simply throw your book out there and see what happens. If it’s not good, you’ll get some feedback. You can take that feedback and make the book better. This is how open source software has worked from the very beginning–release early, release often. It’s a good model for content creation, but it doesn’t translate well to content consumption.
Let’s imagine I go to a friend’s YouTube channel and watch 2-3 of their videos. They are painfully lame. Chances are, I’m not going to sign up to follow his feed. And when I meet him, and he tells me he wants to shoot a movie, I will suspect that the movie won’t be good. That person has damaged their movie making brand by putting out poor movies.
I’ve got a complete manuscript–Almost Super. I have gotten some very good feedback from people who I trust—both publisher and editors alike. I think it’s close to being ready to publish. I say close, because my writing group has been doing a phenomenal job of showing me where I could improve it even more. Sure, I could put it on Amazon and Smashwords, and I’d hope a lot of people would buy it. In fact, at one point I presold 300 copies. But if my book is decent, people will think I’m a decent writer. If my book is outstanding, people will think I’m an outstanding writer. I want to be the latter.
As writers, we all have a brand. A writing brand is harder to earn, keep, and repair. I can listen to a song in three minutes. If I don’t like it, I may listen to the next song simply just because it’s easy to do so. But if I read a 300 page book and don’t like it, it’s going to take a lot to convince me to read another by the same author.
I had a friend tell me one time that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do something. This is the same question every writer should ask before they put up their work–not can I do this, but should I do this? And before you answer the question, think about your brand.
