Tips and Advice for New Authors: Version 4.25

I see many posts from new writers who ask the same thing others ask repeatedly. Let’s answer some basic questions.

1. If they want you to pay them to publish your book, it is a vanity press and a scam. Never pay to publish. This is your golden rule. Google them. Page Publishing, Xlibris, Vantage Press, Dorrance, the Famous Poets Society, and Poetry dot com are all examples of vanity presses. They are very predatory and are known for taking advantage of inexperienced authors.

   1a: A vanity press looks legit on the surface. They will ask for your manuscript and then send you a reply stating they love it and it will fit in with their publishing needs ideally. This is the bait they put on the hook. New authors desperately want their work to be read and accepted. Getting an email or letter from a big company stating your work is perfect for them is very exciting. They then send you a contract. This is where it becomes clear they have no interest in your material but are only interested in your money.

2. Createspace used to make high-quality paperbacks that printed on demand. They were simple to use. An Amazon company merged with KDP, and now you can get your book in paperback and ebook on Amazon across their platform.

3. KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is an Amazon company. It is free to use and will publish your book for ebooks across all of Amazon’s platforms. Since they merged with Createspace, they offer a nice paperback book with many options.

4. Do spend some money on an editor. What you missed 100 times will be caught by experienced, fresh eyes. Editors aren’t cheap, so save some money and take the plunge.

5. If you can use Facebook, you can self-publish on these platforms.

6. Never pay to publish.

7. Start with an outline. Always know precisely what, where, when, and why. Write a one-page synopsis of your story from start to finish. Bob owns a farm. He has horses. He marries Jane. She hates horses. Bob sells the horses. Jane falls for his neighbor. Bob misses his horses. The fundamental structure. Take that outline and divide it into pertinent facts. One page per fact. Bob owns a farm. New page. He has horses. Etc. Now add detail. What does the farm look like? Who is Bob? If you have divided your outline into 20 facts or pages, and you said 1000 words of detail for each page, you have 20,000 words, and you haven’t even tried yet.

  7a: The actual writing of your book is entirely up to you. The above process is just an example. There are many ways of achieving the same goal.

  7b: The length of the chapters is irrelevant. Page count is irrelevant. Short stories can be as long as 20k words, novellas can be as long as 50k words, novels can be as long as 200k words or longer. The average for a novel-style book is 75-100k words. The average for a novella is 25k words. The average for a short story is 5-10k words. The average for children’s books is 1,500 words or less.

8. People will critique your work. Some will like it, some won’t. It happens. It’s all part of being an author. NOTE: Do not reply to reviews on Amazon.

  8a: Do learn from helpful criticism of your work. It will help you grow as a writer.

  8b: Among the worst things you can do as a published author, either self-published or traditionally, is to leave a 5-star review on Amazon on your own book. This is very amateurish and one of the biggest taboos in the industry. If your book gets multiple bad reviews, one and two stars, take what the reviewer is saying to heart and make the suggested changes. Never argue with a reviewer in the comments. This makes you look petty and childish. Reviews are priceless, and good reviews are awesome, but your peers can tell if it’s legitimate. No, people don’t need to buy the book to leave a review. Verified purchase reviews are nice, but other reviews are just as legitimate if they were gone by actual customers or people who have acquired the book through other means. Making several Amazon accounts to leave false reviews on your work is immoral and easily spotted. Paying for reviews is also very bad. Let reviews happen naturally, and heed their content.

9. Hybrid publishers are vanity presses with fancy clothes on. I would highly recommend looking for a traditional publisher first.

10. Write what you know. If you are a software engineer, and your main character needs a believable profession, make them a software engineer. You already know what they do, how they do it, and what they earn.

11. Read what you love.

12. You can hire many professionals to do cover work, illustrations, and editing services for you. This is not vanity publishing; this is paying for a service to improve your product. Vanity presses often have no criteria to meet when publishing your book; they will sometimes not edit it. You are paying the vanity press for the 6 or 7 authors’ copies. That is all you get from them.

13. Small traditional publishers often will accept unsolicited submissions from new authors. Traditional publishers, however small, will pay you royalties based on your net sales. I suggest looking for a small conventional publisher before approaching a hybrid publisher.

14. When in doubt, Google it. Is this offer good? What is the average royalty paid to a new author? Is this company legit? What rights do I give up when I sign a contract? What’s a good, easy chicken soup recipe? Google knows all this and more.

15. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

16. Writers Market is the best resource for new authors available. It lists thousands of legitimate places to sell what you write and has instructions for each. Writers Market is available on Amazon in paperback and in ebook. It’s a great investment.

17. Pen names are an effective way to change up your genre and your experience writing. It is also an excellent way to build fan bases for different writing genres. You can publish under any name you wish, within reason, but for tax purposes, your publisher will need your real name.

18. Invest in a sturdy laptop computer or a high-quality desktop model. The industry standard for manuscripts is Times New Roman font, 12-point type, double-spaced, left-justified. Nobody wants to read a manuscript, so save yourself a step and type it into the computer.

19. Be professional. If you’re going to be a writer, be as professional about it as possible in everything. Manuscript, grammar, editing, story, preparation, and marketing your work to publishers. If you are serious about it, then be serious. Follow the industry standards, look up the submission guidelines, learn to use Google, plot effectively, and target your audience.

  19a: A solid social media presence is invaluable these days. But remember, what you say on social media can be easily researched, so be professional and mindful of others.

   19b: Once you have gained experience and published some work, remember to offer help to those just starting out.

20: Always do basic research on anything you aren’t sure about. Google is easy to use and will answer many questions.

Write on!

Keith Nichols is a veteran author who has traditionally and self-published over a dozen books. His work includes the popular Cat Land Series, a trilogy of novels, and a large assortment of short stories. Keith’s children’s stories feature a team of friends working together towards a common goal and each book contains a unifying theme or lesson.

 After a not-so-pleasant experience with a shady individual, while publishing his first book, The Ghost of Jack Woodford, he has been committed to helping other authors avoid the pitfalls and expensive mistakes that can be detrimental to their author journey. As a member of several writer/author groups on Facebook, Keith has been sharing Author Tips for over three years, with each different edit getting a new version (the current version being 4.25). When not writing and publishing books, Keith enjoys spending time with his wife and “a thousand cats” in Missouri. Authors and readers can connect with Keith on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MidnightRescuePanther/