Wanna Write A Book?

I know you do.

Everything changed in 2010. Patrons handed library staff their shiny Christmas present: Kindles. “Make them work!”

Despite the many predictions of a paperless society, eBooks really hadn’t caught on. But suddenly it was possible to carry 15 or 20 or 100 books around with you in your preferred font type and size.

That same year, 2010, also marked the beginning of a big shift in the publishing landscape.

At that time, there were about 300,000 new titles published a year by “the Big Five” (Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster). There were roughly 60,000 new titles per year published by small and independent publishers who just couldn’t match the distribution system of the major publishers. There were about 10,000 so-called vanity press titles a year. Today we call them “self-published,” even though the platform usually belongs to someone else — Amazon, Apple and Barnes and Noble, probably.

Almost overnight regional, small and indie publishers could distribute electronic products anywhere in the world, allowing them to expand both offerings and reach. Today their output rivals the Big Five.

The biggest growth was in self-publishing. Today, literally millions of new self-published titles come out every year. Most are poorly written, poorly edited and sloppily formatted. Many others are quite professional, written by previously published authors who know their content and audience. The 2011 breakaway blockbuster, “50 Shades of Grey,” started as self-published fanfiction. These days, self-published titles consistently show up on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Why would an author choose to self-publish?

• Copyright. When authors get published by a big company, the company, not the author, is the owner.
• Control. Some authors feel like editors go too far, dictating either content or style in ways that compromise the authors’ vision. (But I would advise any author to get some tough copy-editing. Nothing says amateur like poor spelling and grammar.)
• Compensation. Beginning authors may make 10-12% on a sale. The rest goes to the publisher. Self-published authors can make up to 85% of the sale.
• Currency. Self-publishing options can allow a good and fast writer to hit the hottest topic of the day instead of waiting a year to go through more formal processes.

Why would an author choose not to self-publish?

• Some authors really need that editing expertise. They’ve got the beginning of a book, but no idea how to organize it and get it over the finish line. Experienced acquisition editors can be a godsend.
• Many authors need other kinds of expertise. They have to convert a manuscript from Microsoft Word to the ePub format. They have to incorporate tricky tables and graphics. They need an index. They need to adopt the kind of book front matter that helps librarians find and catalog them. They need the right cover.
• Probably the biggest reason is marketing. Today the challenge is not writing something, it’s getting anyone else to notice. Getting a book reviewed is the first big hurdle. But with so many new titles, there need to be book clubs, book signings, radio interviews, video clips, blog posts, speaking engagements and more. Some authors love making these kinds of arrangements. But most writers are more introverted and solitary. They wouldn’t know where to start.
• Then, of course, there’s getting the books into actual stores and keeping track of sales.

All of this is a business goldmine. There are many companies that will offer services to aspiring authors. Not all of them are reputable.

What advice would I give to someone who is just starting out?

• Read. Find the kind of book you want to write and devour the best. Librarians can help.
• Write. It takes at least five years of 40 hours a week of labor to achieve mastery at anything. Start!
• Seek criticism. But it doesn’t help to just bang away at the keyboard. Nothing improves the quality of your writing like public humiliation. Join a writer’s club. Hire a good editor. Seek out people who don’t just tell you how wonderful you are but help you improve.
• Keep writing. Accomplishment comes from discipline. Even the biggest books start out with just 150-200 words a day. Every day.

I’d also recommend heading to gcpld.org/elibrary; there you’ll find a service called BiblioBoard. As they write, “BiblioBoard lets you read eBooks written by independent authors in Colorado and more than 12,000 indie authors across North America with no wait or hold time. Plus, share your own eBooks with the Indie Author Project using the PressBooks self-publishing platform.”

So you wanna write a book. Wanna write a good one?

[This column first appeared in the April 16, 2025 edition of the Sopris Sun.]