Here are some random tips about writing and publishing that I've picked up on my own journey.
I made so many mistakes when I was starting out way back in 2011. Before that, in 2009, I tried the agent route and came close a few times — full-manuscript requests and everything. My writing was still unpolished, but apparently I give good query letter. When that didn't work out, I decided to self-publish and never looked back.
1. Google your pen name before you commit to it.
Then there's the practical side. Are the domain and the social handles still available? Can readers actually find you when they type your name into a search bar, or does a dentist in Ohio own page one? (No shade to dentists.) A name nobody can find is a name that works against you every single day.
(BTW, look up the Armentrout/Armintrout saga as a cautionary tale.)
2. Research your titles, too.
Same drill for a book title or a series title. Be careful about anything that might be trademarked or copyrighted, and avoid anything too closely related to a project Disney owns. Disney don't play.
And you really don't want KDP deciding whether you were in the wrong, because their policy is guilty until proven innocent. Somebody files a complaint, and KDP can terminate your entire account over it — every book you've ever published, gone in a single second. You find out from the email they send afterward. Then you get to explain yourself to a support inbox that answers in five business days with a form letter, and reinstatement can take weeks, assuming it happens at all.
You'll probably get it sorted eventually. You'll also lose weeks of your life and age about four years.
Remember Cockygate? One extremely common adjective in a romance title turned into a legal circus that swallowed months of a lot of authors' time. Run your title through the free USPTO trademark search first. Five minutes now beats a cease-and-desist later.
3. Your cover is doing most of the selling.
Study the top 100 in your genre. (Some books get miscategorized, so not everything you see there truly represents your genre — use judgment.) Then get a cover that looks like it belongs on that shelf. Readers shop by pattern recognition, and if yours doesn't match the visual language of the genre, they'll scroll right past it. Matching what's trending makes marketing so much easier.
Can't afford a fancy cover designer? There are plenty of affordable ones out there who do solid work, and premades are a great option too.
If you have no design skills, please don't do it yourself. I'm begging you. We can always tell.
4. Get eyes on the manuscript that aren't your own.
Hire a developmental editor. Can't afford it? Then find a good CP (critique partner) and some beta readers. But only exchange with writers and readers who actually read and write in your genre. Your literary fiction friend will tell you the ghost is a metaphor for grief. Your mom will tell you it's perfect. Neither one is going to catch that your third-act romance beat is off-balance.
Also, protect the file while you're at it. Have beta readers sign a simple agreement, or send the book out through BookFunnel so it's watermarked with their email address. Most beta readers are lovely humans who'd never dream of leaking your work — the watermark is for the one who would, and you won't know which one that was until it's already on a pirate site. It costs you nothing and it sets expectations up front.
5. Read, read, read your genre.
Know thy tropes. Study how bestselling authors craft their work, and get specific about it — why did that chapter ending make you turn the page, and where exactly did she plant the clue? Take courses and read craft guides.
I'm constantly studying to stay up-to-date and improve my skills, because the market shifts and what worked three years ago doesn't always work now.
None of this is the glamorous part of the job. But every single one of these lessons cost me either money or a small piece of my sanity, and I'd rather you keep both.
Here's the good news: you don't have to get it right the first time. You just have to publish and learn faster than you mess up. Now go write.
~Sherry (aka S.A. Soule, Creativity Coach and bestselling editor and author)
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