I have a paperback book coming out on Sunday.

No, this post is not just a way for me to push my book on you. I mean, if you’d like to read it, then by all means, read it, but I’m not going to force you. (I wish I could give you a link but Amazon doesn’t make paperback links available before they’re published. So weird.)

I really am writing this because of self-publishing. It’s a huge thing — a staggering amount of authors are putting out self-published books, and more and more of them are having success. But self-publishing is a lot harder than just writing a book, proofreading it, and uploading it to Amazon. There’s a lot of annoying parts.

1. A lot of books just aren’t good. This is something I’ve struggled with ever since I began writing. A lot of things that writers write just aren’t good. We write for fun, we write to get our thoughts out, we write our passion projects, and yes, some people actually write because it’s their full-time job. I’ve written plenty of stories that are good in my eyes but not so much in the eyes of others. Sometimes I’ll write a story because a specific friend of mine has asked me to do so, and the story will probably be good to me and to my friend, but if I showed it to ten people on the street, they’d probably say “get out of my face, weirdo.” It’s perfectly okay to write bad fiction for yourself, but putting out something that other people don’t like isn’t the best way to get yourself out there as a self-published author.
2. “Where” and “how much” are big questions. The reason I only publish on Amazon is because of their particular revenue sharing system. I could put my stuff out in more places, or I could go through Amazon only. Amazon has apps for all platforms, and they’re by far the biggest, so I figure I’m safe. But you may disagree. You may want your book on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, Apple Books, Google Books, and Kobo; if so, that’s your decision, and it’s perfectly valid. And then, once you’ve decided where, you have to decide how much to charge. I mean, this is your baby, right? You want to get paid what you’re worth, and you want to get a little disposable income on top of that. But if you charge too much, people won’t buy the book because there will be others for them to buy that cost less — and might be better than yours.
3. Marketing sucks. I hate talking about myself. I hate marketing myself. I hate asking people to help me by retweeting or Facebooking or Instagramming (or, heaven help me, Tiktokking). But I do it because I have to. I don’t do it well, mind you, but at least I do it. It’s countless e-mails, tweets, DMs, and Facebook messages to people who I think can help me out in the process of getting my book to more people, and I feel vaguely dirty every time I do it — even when I know the people I’m contacting are going to be positive. Sure, I get rejections (two of my former editors have said they don’t have time, which is totally acceptable because I’m asking them to do me a favor), but getting those “yes, I’ll help you” messages are awesome, and they make you feel good.
4. Getting people’s attention is hard. Okay, so, let’s say you wrote an amazing book that is literally as good as anything Mercedes Lackey or Andre Norton ever did. Even with that great novel done and uploaded and ready, you can’t guarantee anyone’s going to see it, let alone pay for it and read it. Countless things go into readers’ decisions about what to read, not the least of which is mood; for example, I really want to read the rest of the Dexter series, but I might be in the mood for some hard SF, or I might have just noticed that a new Sandman Slim novel is out, or I might have just gotten a new book to review. By the time I’m done with those, who knows if I’ll be thinking about your book?
5. People are going to look down on you. For all the great works that have been self-published over the years, there’s still quite a stigma against self-publishing your own work. It’s considered vanity; it’s considered a “waste”; it’s considered “below” having a professional publisher (or even a small press) put out your stuff. I mean, you’re just throwing your work up there with no trusted gatekeeper to tell potential readers that it’s good enough for people to buy, and that scares readers. Hell, I self-publish my own work, and I’m still leery about reading random self-published books.
6. It takes time away from writing. The most annoying thing about self-publishing is that it takes time away from writing. All writers want to do is write (or complain about how much they’re not writing), and if we have to spend time prepping our books for self-publishing, marketing ourselves, and making sure our stuff is in front of people’s eyes, then we have less time to write. Of course, if you actually buy my book, I’ll be more inclined to write more. Just saying.