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Don’t be afraid to be afraid for many reasons.
Don’t be afraid to fail. In fact, think you might fail or even will fail but be ready to try a new idea anyway. You might learn something new and might even succeed. Don’t be afraid of the opinions or discouragement of others. You don’t even need to tell anyone your plans because others might disapprove and you might never even start. Don’t be afraid to succeed. Success is strangely enough one thing that many are afraid of. Don’t be afraid to start something even though you might not succeed and will abandon your plan. Don’t be afraid to imagine. That’s probably one of the best ways new ideas start. Don’t be afraid others are better than you. It doesn’t matter. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t be afraid others might judge you, laugh at you, be jealous, ridicule, whatever. It doesn’t matter. Don’t be afraid of a failure. Nobody needs to know. You can even laugh at your funny experience to yourself or even to others. Don’t be afraid you won’t be a huge success. You don’t owe others anything. Don’t be afraid to be afraid. A stage fright makes a better performance — embrace your secret stage fright as a source of power. Don’t be afraid of fear — it is one of the underused tools that might block your great ideas. Welcome the fear as a necessary step to succeed. Don’t be afraid to write down all the reasons you are afraid. They are just thoughts and might never materialize — or you’ll find ways to overcome each one and feel empowered by each victory. If success is sure, everyone would do whatever others might fear. Make fear your friend to use and succeed. It might lead you to other unknown roads. Fear is just your thoughts of unknown and your active imagination. It might at times warn you of dangers by intuition but it might be an exciting, imaginary obstacle to overcome and prove to be just a thought. Don’t adopt fears of others, let them keep theirs and work at yours. Your success after fear is that much sweeter. You own your success and owe it to your fear and courage to grow and try. Don’t be afraid of fear. It shows how strong and logical you are to find solutions. Even if you fail, there are other fears to welcome and tackle to make them worthy of your efforts to succeed. Seek fears and eliminate each one to find the core truth and power to get started.
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 Just a while back, the big trade publishers ruled the market. They only accepted one percent of submitted manuscripts through agents, often called their gatekeepers, and those authors became rare celebrities admired by others regardless of what they had written or how much money they had made.
It was a dream of virtually all the writers to sign a contract with a trade publisher. Times have changed. Now anyone can self-publish and market a book. The self-published books may be good or not, but the point is that anyone can now become a published author, and it is up to you to create your reputation and market your book.  Entire books have been written about launching a book. I am adding just a few thoughts to get you thinking about introducing your new book to the world.
Ever since I started jotting down my self-publishing story, I was thinking about the launch and marketing my book. It was in the back of my mind, on and off, for months. I read in several places that on an average you might sell 100 copies, or 200 copies. It sounds dismal. Why would I bother even writing with that diagnosis of failure? Never mind, I did not let it discourage me. Besides, I was happy to write my book, even if it wouldn’t sell any copies. It would be my story, my legacy, and lead me to other things.  What are your biggest problems when you are trying to put the book together?
You work hard. You know your book is good. But something is bugging you. Your self-doubt is destroying your good feelings, your energy and courage. Why would you think your book is good enough, where would you find customers and reviews, how can you prove your book is good, maybe other books are much better, it was just an idea, maybe too much work to launch and market, maybe it is best to forget it… It would be too costly and time-consuming to start marketing it. It was so much fun to be writing it, so maybe it’s better and safer to just start another book, or the fifth… It’s best just to keep on writing and worry later about content.  One good way of becoming a reputable author is to give and get criticism with diplomacy. Both are hard and take time to learn and to understand.
Writing a book is difficult, especially writing your first book and especially self-publishing your first book. When you self-publish a book, you are not buffered by trade publishers to make you part of an authentic clan of special and respected authors that have envious admiration and immediate value in the eyes of others, perhaps even unattainable by others.  There are some 200 million blogs out there with a few new ones started every second. Something for every angle. At irregular intervals I will write randomly from my angle of self-publishing.
This is my first blogpost to share a helpful warning with others. SELL YOUR WORDS, my 15th book, as a beginner’s guide to write, self-publish, and market nonfiction books, is now available. This new book depicts my self-publishing journey of more than thirty years with useful tips and personal experience to share with other indie authors. My journey started accidentally as revenge and brought me a success beyond a million dollars. Something fraudulent happened to me within the past few days so I decided this moment is as good as any to start blogging and report that incident. In the midst of doing research for my new book I listened to several webinars. Most webinars are good but it's important to beware of some that are not reputable. I was in rush, didn’t listen to my intuition, and didn’t do any research about this smooth-talking guy who had sent me emails for a while. I hesitated but gave my Visa number since it was just for a 99-cent report about smart book marketing, but within a few days had three much larger amounts charged to my Visa, yet small enough that most customers did not complain (in the range of $19.99 - $39.99). The only thing I received by regular mail was a plasticized sheet of paper (with this print on it: Warning. Novelist at work. Bystanders may be written into the story.) plus a small piece of paper with a URL of his “free webinar” to make 5 figures a month (the webinar was total nonsense). Not all company names are displayed in your Visa statement. I realized the charges were fraudulent after I googled the company and the man behind it. I called Visa to immediately cancel my credit card and block any new charges from this source. It is annoying and time-consuming to call, cancel, and give the new credit card number to several good companies for automatic monthly charges. Most of my calls were not returned, an email from them said “Cash Flow, the case is now closed”, one call was forwarded to an office girl who said she would charge my Visa US$19.93 monthly, then she abruptly closed the phone to my ear and sent an email to confirm that my subscription to “premium writers association” has been cancelled and terminates (I had never applied or consented). It amazes me to what fraudulent extent some go when they could use that energy to market something worthwhile and have positive results. To prevent a fraud, listen to your intuition, google the person/company (some use several names and addresses), be aware of every charge to your credit card, report fraudulent credit card use immediately, maintain excellent credit rating so your credit company will help you right away, and cancel your card and get a new one to block further fraudulent use. Some customers don't check the details on their monthly credit card statement. You must do that. To remember what you have ordered, take notes and keep a list or, if you can't recall some charges, call the credit card company within a month. One time, I was repeatedly promised a refund by a well-known pizza chain for non-delivery. After their third failed guarantee of a refund in the following monthly cycle, I contacted Visa. I got a refund immediately as a good customer beyond a normal 89-day cycle for complaints, and Visa went after the pizza chain. It pays to check our statements, it pays to complain. There are many important issues facing self-publishing authors, such as five-star reviews, and how honest they are. Some friends and families give new books great reviews to boost the sales. Bogus reviews from strangers are sold online, but Amazon promises taking legal action against manipulators of the review system. Fake review is a boomerang that will hurt you. Write a book that gets honest comments from honest customers. It's that simple.  The busier you get, the more you accomplish, so get busy.
Whatever software you use, learn it well: it can teach you more than you'd imagine. Be influenced by the best books you read, write the best book you can and let it influence others. Editing is important, easy, and enjoyable like weeding your garden: the more weeds you plug out, the more clearly the remaining errors will be visible, so once over is not enough. Be different: It will bring nods in the media room and give you coverage. One teacher paid his students to find errors in a writing sample, a penny for the first round, then a nickel, a dime, a quarter, and a buck for the final round. This is a good idea for you, a good idea for your readers. Make your readers think by asking important questions, such as this about self-publishing services: How do they make their money, selling books or selling services? Ideas are your invisible goldmines—catch yours before they are forgotten. They come and go so fast while you do something else or are half asleep. Write them down. You write like you drive: If you look at the ditch, your car will steer you into the ditch—and if you focus on failure, that’s where your book will steer you. Simply think of clear road ahead, think of success and great markets. Have courage and confidence, do your research, and don’t be intimidated by thinking some big guys or important companies know better. And one more, the best for last: Read my 170-page book “Sell Your Words” for hundreds of invaluable tips to guide you to write, self-publish, and market nonfiction books. Write to me with comments and questions.  One good way of becoming a reputable author is to give and get criticism with diplomacy. Both are hard and take time to learn and to understand.
Writing a book is difficult, especially writing your first book and especially self-publishing your first book. When you self-publish a book, you are not buffered by trade publishers to make you part of an authentic clan of special and respected authors that have envious admiration and immediate value in the eyes of others, perhaps even unattainable by others. The trade publishers know how to elevate their authors to make them reputable celebrities and a notch above the so-called ordinary people, and they do it so that the books published by them would get publicity and recognition and therefore sell well. It’s all about business and you are a commodity. Think about it. The trade publishers cannot put down the authors they have chosen to publish, since that would imply they are nothing special. To be a trade-published author has an immediate stamp of celebrity far bigger than winning, say, a million dollars. Winning a lottery is a question of luck and it is not earned. But writing a book implies hard work for having accomplished something unique. That status of being a published author is for life especially when you write more books and win some awards. When strangers ask you what you do and you say you are an author or you write books, their eyes light up and you rise above them no matter what they are and whether they are perhaps even the ever-admired clan of doctors. It happened to me several time but often I spoiled that admiration by saying, “well, I am just a self-publisher” so don’t do it. Delete the word “just”. Be proud to be a self-publisher after writing a good book. When you become a published author, you’ll have a special status and you’ll deserve respect, not just now but for years to come especially if you have worked hard, written a good book, and earned good criticism and publicity. You have earned your fame. Use it without being timid. Don’t say or write “I am just a self-publisher” as if trade publishers are any better. In fact you are better in some ways because you have more courage and you work harder. Trade publishers might deposit a check once a year to their authors' accounts, and maybe not even that, as it is deposited by their department in charge of that. The trade-published authors might earn more money initially but not necessarily because they are better than you. They just happen to get a big advance because they are more famous and have more fans. This is a good reason to write your press release and book description as someone else to give you instant clout. I don’t like to write a PR or a book description as someone else. I write it as me and find it easier. Money and fame and fans will come if you are good, if you work hard at marketing, if you chose a good topic, and if are lucky and get good publicity. Many things depend on many things, so don't just sit there and wait. Much to do. Read comments about any book and you’ll see that others like to like what others like, but that means it’s often just a copycat effect. Copycats don’t take time to think with their own brains. Maybe they didn’t even read that book and just like to see their name among the comments tied to a book written by someone who is becoming a famous author. Some good comments might be just lazy repetitions from other comments, sometimes just a few words, as it is so easy to repeat a few platitudes by others to be in the crowd and to feel like you belong. When you read enough comments, you will get used to them and see the honest ones. Writers need your comments. They need and want good books. Be honest, be thoughtful, be gracious, be polite and find something to say to show you actually have read the book. Explain if and why the book was less than good and how it could have been even better. That’s diplomacy. Some good comments are genuine. When you are shopping for a new book, look at comments especially with two-to-four stars that show those who have taken their time to describe the positive and less than positive sides of the book. Even if you become the best on your journey as a self-publisher, you will likely get a few comments from different people with different stars. Value them all and learn from them all you can. If you see or get comments, long and thoughtful, that explain intelligently what’s wrong with the book, there is often some truth to that. Don’t get crushed but analyze every word and consider yourself lucky if you get mostly good comments and feel you have earned them. Your readers might admire you or love or hate or envy you. Turn the tables around and admire them, love them, or hate or envy them--or their comments. Comments are an interesting insight into the world of people, read by others and used to sell books, a lot of books. It can work for you if you have a good book but remember you cannot please them all. First write a good book and get a good comment, many good comments, then spin it around to get all you can out of it. Good comments will atract other good comments and customers. It can make you a reputable author. If they are good enough, they can help your book become legendary, or almost. Isn't that a good enough reason to become not only reputable but write the best book you can?  Trade publishing, self-publishing services, vanity press, self-publishing
The trade publishers, the big five, were the kings until recently. They were important, almost like royals. They thought the situation was status quo, comfortably forever—a dangerous thought. They had big, posh places and endless respect. They employed professionals for each job, editing, cover, layout, etc. They didn’t even talk to unknown writers, the mere mortals, unless the writers went through agents, the so-called gatekeepers, sometimes even two levels of gatekeepers. It was very difficult to find an agent who would accept a new writer to their meeting room, as they were so busy and so much in demand. Desperate writers sent their unwanted manuscripts to trade publishers anyway, hoping the publishers would accidentally pick their manuscript from a so-called “slush pile” and discover how marvelous and unique it was. Some manuscripts went through dozens of rejections before being finally published to great acclaim, while most never got published by trade. Imagine the feelings of all the trade publishers who had turned them down along with millions of dollars. It’s not that the trade publishers were good or professionals. In fact, they were not. They had so much money that they were able to hire a dozen professionals, one for cover, one for editing, and so on. Those experts did not know anything beyond their own job—they simply did the routine front matter or layout with no need to think further. They had important, time-consuming meetings to decide which new manuscripts they would select to keep the money rolling in. They chose manuscripts from celebrities and previously known authors as safe bets. The rest were unsure. How boring and risk-free was that? The previous sure-bet authors were paid a lot of money as an advance, the best getting millions of dollars. Some new writers were included and the luckiest ones became important authors. Most manuscripts lost a lot of money, while many broke even, and only a few top money makers were so successful that they carried the entire business afloat in style and paid the salaries of their important personnel. And the business continued like that for a hundred years. No problems. Why rock the boat? The business was great. Then something went wrong. First sign of trouble was with vanity presses popping up luring some writers off the trade publishers that had turned them away for years. Those discouraged writers hopped over to the vanity, oops subsidy press that were ready to publish any book with a lot of money, typically some tens of thousands of dollars changing hands, except that the money was flowing the wrong way, this time from the writers to the vanity press before any work was done. Desperate writers were so eager to get their books published that they did not know what else to do. Vanity press retained all the rights without offering anything useful in return, no editing, distribution, publicity, or marketing. A stigma was attached to vanity-published books—they were not reviewed by reputable media nor purchased by libraries or bookstores. The vanity press convinced their authors to buy the pile of books they had written at a “discounted price” and sell them to family or friends. Some vanity-published authors were so ashamed they did not tell about it to anyone, and maybe it was the end of their dreams of writing books. This is a multi-billion dollar market, so it was inevitable that apart of vanity press there soon appeared a somewhat better option, in fact many options—if you had money. So, there are now self-publishing providers (or services), better and different from vanity press. They also advertise everywhere to get your contact info. You also must pay them in advance. It’s like buying the proverbial pig in a poke, sight unseen, and it can get misleading and very costly. The more work they do, the more it will cost you before your book sells even one copy. The less you do, the less money you’ll pocket even if your book sells well. Whatever else you do, be adamant about buying and owning your own ISBN. Don’t rush into debt or mortgage your house: there are no guarantees your book will sell. First, before paying self-marketing providers a penny, learn frugal self-publishing and intelligent marketing so you understand what those providers are talking about. You may decide to create your own team by using help from a reputable company, do some things yourself, and use a contact you trust for the rest. If money’s no object and you don’t want to market your book beyond family and friends or give away as gifts, some self-publishing providers might offer a good solution to print beautiful books: your family history, yearbook, memoirs, recipe collection, poems, or short stories for a limited print run, and possibly also books to sell for profit. Take a book or two they have published to your local bookstore or library and ask if they would carry such a book, the pros and the cons. Apart of new breed of self-publishing providers, many giant trade publishers also became self-publishing providers. The important trade publishers we used to admire suddenly discovered they don’t have to give new writers any money to publish their books when the same writers are willing and able of paying thousands of dollars to see their manuscript in print. They had an important meeting, crunched the numbers, and decided that why should the new providers charge big bucks when the trade had dozens of years in business and knew more and deserved more. So they now have self-publishing arms with many names. Some are called assisted-publishing services, or helpers to self-publishers, or self-publishing providers. All they want is your money, of course, but in return they will fix your manuscript into shape better than vanity press did. And they will do at least some marketing and distribution. Some operate alone while others joined forces with dozens of other publishers under a new name and umbrella. They don’t seem deterred by negative publicity, bad comments, or court cases—maybe only a few writers know about such things and it’s easy to explain to them that the court cases have all been minor and settled. Don’t be intimidated by trade publishers even with a hundred years of experience offering you their services. They have beautiful websites and ads all over the internet. They want your telephone number and would call you relentlessly every week. They are friendly and likable. There is a desperate competition between some to convince new writers to trust them with fresh manuscripts and credit cards. When I was researching several for my new book, some said I know too much and hung up on me. Do your research and look through the websites of self-publishing providers. They’ll list dozens of services with names like substantive editing, post-layout proofread, automatic printing, expanded platform, enhanced distribution, consultation and strategy. Before pulling out your credit card, devote a day or two, maybe more, for research. That time is well spent and will save you a lot of money. Don’t pay for costly publishing packages before doing your research. They have several packages from roughly two thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars, and soon you’ll discover that’s just to get started—as somehow, for many reasons, the costs keep rising. After trade publishing, vanity press, and self-publishing services, there now comes a new, brave soul of a self-publisher. Self-publishing is a multi-billion dollar business. Hundreds of thousands of writers want to get published. We don’t know everything and sometimes we know nothing to get started. But that doesn’t mean others should use us and abuse our vulnerable situation for their financial gain. The situation has dramatically changed. The trade publishers that used to turn off your manuscripts are now eagerly seeking out your manuscripts if you pay them enough. They also have bills to pay and their bosses need high salaries. There are options. We don’t need trade publishers. We don’t need ill-matched trade publishers repeatedly rejecting our manuscript—it’s unlikely they’ll make any money for themselves or for you from your manuscript unless you are a celebrity or a dramatic figure of some sort. And we don’t need trade publishers sneakily turning our beloved manuscript with false praise to their own self-publishing services stealing our time, money, and hopes. You are on your own and must find a better way. Life is not long enough to waste on futile search and disappointments to match a trade publisher with a self-publisher. We have discovered self-publishing. And there are amazing pros:
I have just finished writing “Sell Your Words”, my fifteenth book as a guide to new self-publishers. It is now available online through many channels. Meanwhile, there is help available about self-publishing providers, and sometimes the best help is a timely warning. Consult The Better Business Bureau, ComplaintsBoard.com, and RipOffReports.com. TheIndependentPublishingMagazine.com reviews the pros and cons of several self-publishing services by Mick Rooney, Publishing Consultant. The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi, allianceindependentauthors.org) will answer self-publishing questions. They have recently published a book, How to Choose a Self-Publishing Service, which features the best and worst self-publishing services based on appraisal of multiple criteria. Remember to always use your own judgment even if a company is vetted as a partner member in the book. Also read the reputable articles below: Victoria Strauss’s blog “Writer Beware” (sponsored by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, SFWA, about the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls). David Gaughran’s article “How to Avoid Publishing Predators.” Penny Sansevieri’s article “Authors: Warning Signs That You’re Being Scammed.” Don’t get discouraged. Instead, become a successful self-publisher. You write because you love writing: you wouldn’t if you didn’t. Words are free, the supply is unlimited, sell yours.  This sounds bragging but read on. Some well-known, successful, important, handsome, famous, self-confident, super rich (add your own adjectives) persons have publicly claimed that it is impossible to make your own book covers, do your own editing and layout, and still be successful. Well, I did all that, and still made more than a million dollars. I was not perfect but nobody criticized me. I should add that English is not my mother tongue, I did my own drawings, too (they are naïve but original and charming), I made my own press releases and got about 500 write-ups, some several pages long, I wrote in three languages, and success found me.
How is that even possible? I mention some ways in my new book, Sell Your Words. Here are some points in retrospect:
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Leila Peltosaari
Author of Sell Your Words. Archives
March 2020
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