Mailbox Full of $$$ from Micro-Publishing

 

Novels on average, weigh-in at 300 pages, or about 80,000+ words.  That's a lot of dead trees for an author to toil over and for a publishing company to invest time and money into.  It may be years, even a decade or more, for a writer's first published book to hit the shelves.

 

That's a lot of time without any positive cash flow.

 

Christina Katz discussed how one can earn an income in her Mailbox Full of $$$: Micro-Publishing Your Way from Beginner to Book Deal workshop.

 

In the Pre-Internet Days, the literary world was divided into two distinct camps:  Aspiring Writers and Published Authors.  Now, thanks to the internet, along with the shrinking attention span of readers, there's a sliding scale of grey between these two black and white groups. 

 

Somewhere in the middle, is the "Salability Point," where a writer begins to earn money for their work.  And this income doesn't necessarily have to be in the form of a printed book either.  Other publishing options exist, such as:

 

--Producing an e-book (50-100 pages)

--How-to-Tips

--Anecdotes

--Essays

--Fillers

--Articles

 

By writing these short pieces you can develop your skills as a write and build your platform (area of expertise and web presence).  Anything you write, could lead to something bigger. 

 

Christina's a firm believer that writers should make money and not be starving artists.  However, you may have to start out writing shorter pieces for less money--and then write lots of things for less money--before moving on to write full-length books.

 

Even when you do decide to tackle writing a book, you have to decide whether to self publish or seek traditional publication.  Keep in mind though, traditionally published books are also produced on a spectrum.  Not every book will be as successful as anticipated, so budgets are tighter and publishers are pickier than ever on what books they decide to print. 

 

On a lighter note, no matter what we write, we should enjoy what we do.  When we get away from our playful/creative side, the less we'll enjoy our writing and our work will suffer.