Now that we are deep into romance writing and self publishing I have some clear words of wisdom for people who are considering writing a book. There are a lot of things you should do before you write a word.
Buy all the major books about self publishing and marketing and read them cover to cover. That means such books as those by the Rosses and Kremer etc. Having read them and having gotten truly depressed you need to consider if you are that self destructive or into punishment. If you can truthfully say you are not self destructive and you are willing to do all that work and have the emotional and financial resources to do it, then you may want to consider beginning to write.
I am clearly getting the impression that most authors never even consider what it is going to take to get published. Sure they have heard the stories about rooms papered with rejection notices but it's not going to happen to them.
Now it may be that you like writing as a hobby and are pleased to have a book on the shelf. If you don't care if it ever gets published, then write on. But, if you want it published, that is another matter.
A major consideration is whether your book is nonfiction or fiction. Nonfiction is much easier to get published. Fiction is nearly impossible. We got two nonfiction book contracts just on the strength of proposals and they got published. Going into fiction is like going into a train wreck.
As I've written previously, publishers won't talk to you and agents mostly don't need your business. See a prior column about finding an agent if you must go ahead. Additionally, we were not often ecstatic about the services of publishers so we ended up taking it all back for us to do. Are you a control freak people ask? Maybe but things also seem to be working better.
Even after you get a book printed as a self publisher, then you go looking for a distributor. Only one title at present? They don't want you. So you get fulfillment but go looking for a publicist. They are more interested in nonfiction and many won't touch fiction. And on and on it goes.
It is sad to hear people who say they are so proud they just finished their novel and now they want to know how they get it published. The train wreck is imminent. I am in the process of clearing ours and things are looking better and better. It was clearly not what I anticipated. But being pissed off is a motivator for some strange people.
Don't spit into the wind comes to mind but I'm still going to say that writers, particularly fiction writers, need to be very clear what they are letting themselves in for.

For Much More Come Visit us at www.annierogers.com