What Do You Really Want From Your Book?

The road to success is paved with questions that you have to answer for yourself. And the first one of those is: What do you really want?

It’s a simple question that’s harder to answer because it’s asking what your Why is and strikes right at the heart of what you want and makes you question whether your actions actually line up with the answer to that question.

I had a tough conversation with a friend recently. Over the past few years, she’s been working on a few manuscripts and invited me to read the first draft of her latest one. Intrigued by the concept behind it, I agreed and read it over the course of about ten days and then we scheduled a time to talk through my notes.

Now, the tough conversation wasn’t actually about what needed to improve about the book. She knew it had problems and was enthusiastic about discussing the problem areas and considering some of my points and ideas for improving it.

No. The real tough conversation came at the end when I asked her something that I should’ve probably asked her sooner: “What’s your goal with this book? What are you wanting out of it?”

“I want as many people to read it as possible,” she answered.

And here’s where we ran into a problem. Of course she wants as many people to read it as possible. What writer doesn’t want that? The problem is that her perspective was that the only way she could accomplish this would be through traditional publishing.

When I suggested she reconsider self-publishing, her reaction was visible, visceral. It was like I suggested she drink a gallon of vinegar the way she balked at the suggestion.

After all, the common assumption is that self-publishing is for losers, right? It’s for the people who’ve given up. It’s for the people who quote-unquote “couldn’t hack it” as a real writer.

Now, I don’t agree with those assumptions, not only because I’ve chosen to self-publish some of my own work but because I’ve seen the success that other self-published or even hybrid published authors have achieved by getting their work out into the world faster rather than waiting — possibly forever — for traditional publishing to fall in love with them.

So I decided to poke the bear a bit.

“How do you think traditional publishing will get your book in front of the most readers?”

Again, her assumption was that if she had a big, brand-name publishing house behind her book, she wouldn’t have to promote her work — the publisher would take care of that for her. All she has to do was write. The end.

And then I had to burst her bubble.

“Look,” I said, “unless your name is Stephen King, or James Patterson, or Brené Brown, you want to know how much money the traditional publisher is going to spend on marketing your book as a first-time, unknown author with literally no online following? Zero dollars. If you’re lucky — and this is a big ‘if’ — they might help set up a couple of local book signings for you. But whether you self-publish or traditionally publish, the brunt of the marketing is on you as the author. You’re still going to have to get out there and talk about your book and promote it.”

This was a hard pill for her to swallow. She literally cringed when I said it. And I’m not 100% sure she believed me. But I was telling her the truth because I had literally nothing to gain from whatever route she decided to pursue.

Only you can answer this question for yourself. And once you do, it means you will have to do the hard work of recognizing which obstacles you’ve put in your own way and take actions to get past them.

Because the hard truth is that every writer has to start somewhere. Even Stephen King was a teacher before he could be a full-time writer, but he was going out there, submitting his short stories for magazines whenever he could. 

But today, new writers have more opportunity to connect with readers than ever before. Whether it’s self-publishing on Amazon’s Kindle or Vello platforms, or posting on Medium — all of these are easy, affordable ways to start building a following for your writing and getting people to actually read your work — that is, other than your mom, best friend, and significant other.

So I brought the conversation back to her original goal of “getting as many people to read it as possible.” And I challenged her by saying, “If that’s really your goal, if that’s what you really want, then you need to start on that now. I’m not saying you should self-publish everything but you need to start with something. If you want people to read your work, then you’ve got to get it out into the world where it will be read and you can’t wait around on traditional publishing — since frankly, that might never happen.”

I’m not a dream crusher. Quite the opposite. I want to enable dreams for writers. But part of that means helping other writers recognize the thing that just might be standing in the way of their dream. And often, that thing standing in the way is our own assumptions or a myth they’ve accepted as truth. With my friend from the story above, I told her, “Hey, if you have an idea you think works best for traditional publishing, that’ fine. Just save it. But you need to at least be getting some of your other work out into the world to gain readers and credibility.”

Now, I’m going to talk about the myth of “you’re only a real writer if you’re traditionally published” in another post, so let’s get back on theme here:

What do you really want?

If you can verbalize — or write down — the answer to that question, then you can start making real steps towards being a professional writer. In fact, you should write it down. I know that sounds corny, but it’s a good exercise.

Let’s say your answer is the same as my friend’s answer, “I want as many readers as possible.” Awesome. Cool. Then start a blog and get disciplined about posting once or twice a week no matter what. Create a Medium account and start posting your poetry, your short stories, whatever. Create some ebooks for Amazon, start a Bookfunnel account and start building an email list. Get on Upwork and Fiverr and start ghostwriting or editing for people. Join a local writer’s group and get feedback on your work. There’s a ton of things you can actually do to act on whatever it is you really want.

I’m not going to cover all of those things here because they deserve their own posts — the point is, if your goal is to get your work out into the world, the tools are already available to do exactly that. You don’t have an excuse like you would’ve twenty-five years ago and you don’t have to wait for publishers to take a chance on you.

Because let’s say an agent or publisher is interested in your book pitch. You know what they’re going to ask? 

“How many readers do you already have? How many social media followers? What platforms are you on and what’s your reach?”

And if you haven’t done the work already to get your writing out into the world, then you’re not likely to get the interest of that publisher to move forward no matter how good your book is. That’s because big companies are risk-averse. They’re generally only going to invest in authors that are a “sure thing.” But at the very least, getting your work out there on your own shows effort and that is going to be way more impressive to them and make them more likely to consider your book. And that’s exactly what I told my friend, by the way.

But let’s say your answer is different than that. When I asked myself this question, I realized that what I really wanted more than anything was simply to make money as a writer. I didn’t really care in the beginning what that looked like as long as I also enjoyed what I was doing.

Now, cards on the table…I love screenwriting. And I’d love to be a full-time screenwriter. I’ve actually been paid by a real studio before to write a screenplay and not a ton of people can say that. But I’m also not going to wait on Hollywood because I can’t control them, just like I can’t control a traditional publisher. I can only control my own actions.

So if my true goal is to make money writing, then what could I do that would help me realistically fund my screenwriting pursuits? With that in mind, I brainstormed what that could look like. I could be a copywriter, I could be a developmental editor, I could ghostwrite. I had more options than I realized!

And I did a little bit of each, refining my skills, building my portfolio and experience, and figuring out what I was best at and what I enjoyed the most. It took time but it’s was all part of the process of me figuring out how to answer the question of what I really wanted. Eventually that led me to where I am now as a book coach. That’s what I enjoy the most, it’s what I’m best at, and it’s what I could actually make a living from. And rather than hurt my chances of being a screenwriter, I’ve found the opposite to be true — it’s actually helped me hone my skills as a screenwriter, especially in terms of structure and dialogue.

So yeah, there’s a reason I’ve built a ghostwriting and book coaching business instead of building a social media following. That’s not my passion and I hated spending the time on it when I spent several months trying to build up my Instagram following. It was a disaster and I was spending hours on posts and getting maybe one follower a week out of it, none of whom were buying my book. But I love ghostwriting, I love book coaching, and I love empowering other writers to pursue their dreams, so that’s where I invest my time.

But it started by asking what I really wanted.

Your answer might be different than mine. And it might surprise you. You might realize you really want to write social media content for people. Good on you! Not my thing, but there’s huge demand for that right now, so why not? You might realize you want to write website copy. Again, good on you, there’s demand for that too!

The toughest thing about this is that only you can answer this question for yourself. And once you do, it means you will have to do the hard work of recognizing which obstacles you’ve put in your own way and take actions to get past them. I wasted too much time doing a little of this and a little of that, starting this thing and then giving it up, all because I didn’t think about what I really wanted and focus my efforts in that direction.

Otherwise, it’s like starting a journey without knowing where you’re headed on the map and you’ll end up driving in circles. No matter where you’re going, there will be twists and turns, stops and detours, sure, but at least you’ll know where you’re headed.