Becoming an Author
The simple answer to the question “how do I become an author?” is just that you start writing and you put your work out there for people to read. It really is that easy. You could do it right now. Write a few chapters, do some editing and then set up a WordPress where you can release your chapters. Or, finish the book and upload that file to Amazon instead. Congratulations, you are now an author.
But, I think what the people who have asked me this question really mean is “how do I become a successful author?” or “how do I make writing my job?” These questions are a little harder to answer.
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It’s not that they are particularly complicated, it’s just that there isn’t really a single set path to achieving that goal. What I can tell you though is that it requires a lot of skill, dedication and work. You need to practice and hone not only your writing skills - whether you are writing long or shortform fiction, poetry or even non-fiction works - but also develop your business acumen and understanding of the industry. You have to put a lot of work in to promote yourself, make connections and improve on the quality of your work - all while actively writing your books, serials, comics etc.
Furthermore, there is the matter of how you want to publish your work. I touched on self-publishing through Amazon or Wordpress (or a Squarespace site like this one). This is the independent route. But there is also the option of traditional publishing - either through a big name publisher or a smaller indie publisher.
I think the correct path to take here depends entirely on you. I’m still on this journey myself. I’m making progress and my audience and reach is growing every day. But I’m not some guru in a place where I can give you all the answers. Frankly, given the competitiveness, volatility and ever-shifting landscape of the industry, I’m not sure any author could. Even the super successful, famous writers can probably only give very generalised advice. The paths to becoming an author are many and varied and there isn’t a step-by-step guide out there that can guarantee you get to where you want to go. Hard work, dedication and skill are all important, but luck also plays a part.
What I can do though is help you decide which pathway is right for you.
Traditional Publishing
Traditional publishing refers to putting your book out through a publishing house. Generally, people think of the “big five” publishers when we talk about traditional publishing - Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster. However, smaller and independent publishing houses are still traditional publishers as well.
Once you have your manuscript completed, you submit it to the publishing house. This sounds simple enough, but it generally isn’t as easy as just emailing your book to Penguin and getting it picked up. Most publishers, especially big ones, won’t take submissions from anyone other than literary agents. So, to publish traditionally, you’re most likely going to need an agent.
Securing an agent is also easier said than done. You first have to query agents, providing them with a query letter containing a synopsis and brief explanation of your book and any relevant information about you as an author. The hope is that you can hook the agent with your synopsis and that they will choose to represent you, but there is a finite number of agents and many, many authors vying for their time. Some authors spend months or even years in the query trenches without much success. After that, assuming you succeed, it is your agent’s job to submit your manuscript to suitable publishers and sell them on you and your story. The good news here is that agents typically don’t make money off you unless they succeed, as usually their income is taken from a percentage of the profit your book makes. So agents are generally motivated to do their job right. Of course, that also means that agents are much more likely to want to represent authors/books that fit current trends in the industry or that look like they are likely to be part of the next wave of trends. This can be pretty limiting for people trying to do something more avant garde and hurt their chances of getting picked by an agent.
Once your agent has, theoretically, succeeded in getting you signed-up with a publisher, the focus shifts to cleaning up the manuscript and preparing for sale. You will generally be paired with an editor - either in-house or subcontracted - who will work with you on fixing up your manuscript to suit industry standards. Once the book is ready, the publisher will handle printing, digital formatting and distributing the book to retailers. You can also expect a degree of help with marketing the book. Although, the extent to which this is the case will depend on the size of the publishing house and their own policy.
Essentially, the challenge in getting published traditionally is attracting the attention of your agent and publisher. A task whose difficulty level really cannot be overstated. The plus side though, is that you can count on at least some measure of support if you do successfully land yourself a traditional publishing deal.
You can also count on a more guaranteed income, although don’t expect to be raking in millions and selling off film rights to be the next big hit like Gillian Flynn or Stephen King. Unlike independent publishing, traditional publishers will generally pay you an advance when you sign with them and then you would also earn royalties from your sales once your sales profit has equaled that advance. Of course, as I have outlined before, a first time author will maybe get $10, 000 US at most in that advance (on a book that took years to write) and earn 5-20% in royalties (some of which will go to their agent for a while). It will still take a long time to get to the point where you can be financially secure even with the support of a publishing house. Publishers want to maximise their profits too, so a minimum of 80% of sales revenue is going to go to them.
Independent Publishing
Independent publishing - or self-publishing as it’s usually called - is the path I have chosen to take. Essentially, this refers to any of the ways you can release your work without going through a publishing house.
Generally speaking, this means that as an independent author you will almost certainly be using the internet as your primary tool of doing business. The most common way to self-publish is through a third party like Amazon. You simply submit your finished book via their marketplace and then people can buy it with that third party taking some of that profit. In the case of Amazon (and likely other companies too), they will also print physical copies of your book for sale as required, with the cost for printing coming out of your profit instead of being out of pocket for them. Over all, this method isn’t that different to going through a publishing house.
Of course, you also have the choice of taking on more of the work yourself and releasing your story through your own site. If you’re planning to make writing a business, you could do this by using a digital storefront or you could release your story in a serialised format and try to make profit through advertising, donations and subscriptions. You can also do all of these methods simultaneously. In my case, I currently release a fair amount of free content as well as sell my books through my site and Amazon.
Being an independent creator means you have a lot more flexibility in the form your stories take, how you write and what you write about. You can also cut the queue, so to speak, and go directly to publishing your work upon completion however you please instead of having to first wade through the query trenches and then hoping that a publisher will buy what your hypothetical agent is selling. The flip side to all this freedom though, is that you are foregoing all support. If you’re going independent, then you have to do it all yourself and your success or failure is largely on you (and the whims of the algorithm and market). You are responsible for finding and working with beta-readers and editors. You are responsible for finding and working with designers and artists to sort out an appealing cover and layout. You have to do all the formatting and putting together of the book yourself. You are in charge of all of your own marketing and promotion, whether you have experience in that field or not. It’s a lot to take on and most of us don’t have experience with any of that when we take the plunge and start trying to get our work out there. It’s easy to look at the process of querying and traditionally publishing and see it as a lot of unnecessary work with many more restrictions, but publishing independently can be just as much work if not more. The process of publishing is much faster and you have all the freedom in the world, but you’re giving up on the support of that traditional system too.
Naturally, this means you’re giving up on financial consistency too. While it is true that technically speaking you earn a greater percentage of your sales as profit as an independent - ranging from 35-75% royalties from Amazon to 100% if you do everything completely on your own - you also don’t get an advance and you don’t have a publisher who wants to push your book to make it profitable for themselves too. In theory, you could earn more. A lot more even. But the chances are you will actually end up earning less as you get drowned out in the oversaturated market without even a tiny advance payment to make up for it.
Publishing independently has a lot going for it that makes it very appealing. I chose this road for a reason. But it is a hard road. Freedom and flexibility come at a cost and that cost is consistency and support.
In Conclusion
In the end, both paths towards turning writing into your career are valid ones. Each has their own risks and rewards and each is challenging in their own right. Neither is the easy path because there are no easy paths outside of just getting very lucky or being very wealthy and connected to begin with.
Like I said at the beginning, the way to become an author is really just to start writing. After that, the way you choose to publish is entirely down to your own preference and which risks and rewards you are most prepared to gamble on. A lot of writers out there can be a bit elitist about their chosen methods, but there really isn’t a “best” way to be an author.
The important thing is to not get lost in the weeds, focusing on the query trenches or devoting all your time to promoting. Put the work in. Hard work is mandatory. But never forget why you’re doing this in the first place: you want to write. So keep at it. Keep improving and refining your process. The better you get at what you do and the more practice you get being a working author, the better your odds of eventually finding some measure of success.
