The Two Hats
A writer who wishes to have a long, sustainable career has to wear two different hats. The first hat is obviously the writer’s hat. You put it on for weeks or months to get that story out and finish the book. The second hat is the business hat. That’s the one necessary when trying to get your work published and making an income from it.
These can be the same, but are different 99% of the time. The writer’s hat asks you to be creative, to take risks, to experiment, to be free. The business hat asks you to look at the finished book as “just another book” that a potential customer “knows nothing about and isn’t interested in (yet)”.
Most people struggle with that, the first few times. I did as well. In fact, I still struggle a lot with the Business Hat.
I generally do not care about money, status, career, or whatever. I also don’t like the insincerity that’s often pervasive in business. That makes it hard for me to fully put on the Business Hat, even though I know I should.
As such, as you read this course, put on the Business Hat. This is not the time to make any more creative decisions or change the book in a major way. This hat tells you to …
- Get things done (on time, in the right format).
- View your book as a mere product that needs selling, with no more attachment than that.
- Change whatever is needed to help with marketing and reaching the right target audience.
When I wrote my first book, it took a long time (like most writers). Because of that time investment, I was also really invested in the book itself and its content.
That leads to thinking that’s terrible for business. I wrote a marketing blurb that was way too long, because I wanted to tell readers about all the amazing things in this book. I spent almost zero time on the cover and marketing anyway, because I thought “this story is so good, it can’t help but sell itself”. When people suggested changes, I was very reluctant to do so. Don’t touch my baby!
I still had my writer’s hat on, which led to every possible publishing mistake you could make.
Publishing (or getting published), like all skills, takes practice. You will surely make mistakes with your first book. I recommend using a few throwaway books to get into the habit. Your oldest books, your worst books, whatever. Use those at first, when querying a publisher or trying to self-publish, to get practice and prevent mistakes before they become serious.
One of my first ebooks (a Dutch novel) has a grayscale cover. This was a mistake! The paperback version has a beautiful color version. What I didn’t know, however, was that the system I used at that time would automatically grab the first image from the ebook (usually a grayscale copy of the cover, on the very first page) and make that the cover image.
A really stupid rule. I’m still mad they didn’t communicate that. But I lived and I learned, never making that mistake again.
This is maybe a bit controversial advice. Others say you should “definitely put your best work forward”, otherwise you might taint your reputation. But here’s the thing.
- Publishers usually don’t accept a manuscript to be sent multiple times. So if it didn’t appeal the first time, because you wrote a rubbish synopsis for example, you’ve basically lost your chance with that particular publisher.
- When self-publishing, it’s usually not allowed (or expensive) to make changes after you hit that big “publish!” button. If you make mistakes, you’re usually screwed.
Sure, you might be the one person who does everything perfectly the first time (when it comes to publishing). I am too practical and realistic to rely on that, so I suggest using a handful of “guinea pigs” first. Then, when that amazing book of yours is ready to be published, you’ll know exactly how to turn it into a bestseller.
If it’s really bad, you can always just remove your guinea pigs entirely. Most of the time, however, people understand the idea of stepping stones and a writer growing over time.
I once read an interesting article about this. Most people said (paraphrasing): “if I like the style and ideas of an author, I always try another book by them. Even if I dislike it, I might read two or three more books before I give up on that author. Conversely, if an author just doesn’t match my tastes, I probably won’t ever pick up a second book by them.”
As long as you put the effort into making a good book, with your style and your way of storytelling, you will always find an audience that sticks with you. Even through the worse books.
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