From Student to Self-Published: 3 Things I Learned About Being an Indie Author

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By Nathan Zeiter

I remember the terrifying feeling of sharing my work with other students in my creative writing workshops at UW-Eau Claire. Sitting there—unable to speak—as others pick apart my writing. Dozens of eyes stare me down as I squirm in my chair, biting my tongue and accepting every bit of criticism. Despite the fear, it no doubt made me a better writer.

I reflect on all that I learned about writing during my time at UWEC as my hand hovers over my mouse. The next click will submit my novel for self-publishing. Five years of off and on work. Countless days and nights spent crafting a tale that people will hopefully enjoy. Once I click the button, it’s out of my hands. The horrible, anxiety-inducing thoughts swim around as I try to build enough courage. What if people hate it and leave bad reviews? What if it doesn’t sell? What if I wasted all this time for nothing?

As choose to let go of those fears and my fingers finally click the “submit” button, I find myself thinking about all that I’ve learned on this self-publishing journey. Here are the three things every writer should know if they’re looking to self-publish their work:

1.)  You’re too attached to your story. Find someone else to edit it.

The other day, I re-read the beginning of the first draft of my novel. It’s garbage. A nonsensical, poorly structured collection of word-vomit. Then I re-read part of my second draft. A little better, but still missing key characters and plot threads. A quick glance at the third draft left me shaking my head, wondering what the hell the character’s motivations were. The fourth draft was finally a decent product, but I wanted my manuscript to be perfect. So I went through it again. And again. And again.

I toyed with the idea of not hiring an editor and just putting the best version of my manuscript online. That would have been a huge mistake. After shopping around a bit, I sent a sample of my book to a professional freelance editor, and she sent it back to me a few days later. I was confident there’d only be a few markups. Wrong. I missed so, so much. But how? I read the dang thing like twenty times! Turns out, I was too focused on the big picture. Narrative, characters, plot holes, etc. Grammatical errors and sentence structure slipped through the cracks because my brain saw what it wanted to see—not what was actually on the page. I didn’t want to put out a subpar product, so I hired the editor and she helped make my novel a million times more readable. 

Hire an editor, folks. It’s worth it. If you don’t have the cash at the moment, then I’d advise hitting the pause button. If you release an unedited book, then any readers you happen to attract might be put off by the lack of polish, and even worse . . . they might not return for the next.

2.) Grab Their Attention and Keep It.

Anyone can self-publish. You need to stand out.

We’ve all heard it: don’t judge a book by its blah, blah, blah . . . Thing is, if your cover art looks like someone opened up Photoshop and slapped the keyboard three times, then potential readers are just going to scroll right by and pick something else that looks more professional. In the massive sea of self-published work, your cover art is the beacon of light that is going to draw people toward shore (the shore is the page where you can buy the book). If you don’t have the graphic design experience to create your own cover, then make sure you hire someone that can assist you. You don’t have to break the bank, but you need something decent. Once you’ve hooked in a potential buyer with a sweet-looking cover, the next step is to entice them with a blurb (make sure an editor looks at it!). If they like the blurb, then they might check out the free preview . . . which means your first chapter better be intriguing.

3.) Keep Writing!

What do you do after you write your first book? Write the next! Sounds obvious, right? However, here’s what I did the entire first week after publishing . . . I constantly refreshed the sales reports, repeatedly checked the Amazon page to see if the first review has been written, and I suffered through dreams about both rave and terrible comments. 

By researching and talking to other self-published authors, I learned that the best thing to do is to move on to the next book, and you should, too. Don’t ignore the ugly behemoth known as advertising, but don’t let its shadow loom over you all day. There’s no one way to be a successful indie author, so keep writing while you try to figure out what works best with your schedule and style.

Keep writing more and more. The freedom of self-publishing means there’s nothing in the way to stop you, so you need to take that momentum and run a 5k with it. You’ve laid the foundation—now build on it. Write, write, and write. I know you can do it.

Read a description of Nathan’s new book: 

In the heart of Pinewood lies GRACIE’s, a clothing store supergiant where Henry Holloway is having trouble keeping his head on straight. Literally. When he wakes up the morning after a rather humdrum shift with nothing between his shoulders but a dark, endless void, all he wants is for someone to acknowledge his abnormality.

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Demanding answers and receiving little to no help regarding his headlessness, Henry turns to his friends, Sarah Rohmer and John Clemmens, only to find they have also undergone dramatic, inexplicable transformations. When they find themselves haunted by a ghostly being from another world and hunted by Pinewood’s neighborly, panini-loving cultists, Henry has no choice but to fight against a seemingly unstoppable force . . .

Headless: Book One of the World Eater is available right here.