“What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing”
~Aristotle~
I used to think that becoming an author was simple:
Step 1: Write book
Step 2: Publish book
Step 3: Cash royalties check and retire to Aruba
It turns out, the process is more complicated. Quite a bit more complicated, in fact.
I was fully prepared to invest time and energy into writing a book — that is to say, the physical act of sitting down at my laptop and typing on keys until my story had a beginning, a middle and an end. I was ready to do research. I was ready to edit. That’s writing a book.
I was also kind of prepared to set to the task of getting that book published. Even though I knew it would take me waaaaaaay out of my comfort zone, I was prepared to seek an agent and/or query publishers about my novel. I was prepared for an onslaught of rejection letters and the outside chance that no one would say “yes” to this project. Still, I was ready to roll the dice. That’s the act of publishing a book.
However … becoming an author. That’s an altogether different beast. And boy was I unprepared.
Becoming an author means making a name for yourself. It means creating a professional author Facebook page and starting social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram. (Even if you’ve never before been on Twitter or Instagram.) It means reserving the URL of your name, which obviously I’ve done on this website, and beginning a blog to exhibit your work. Also done. Then you have to get a professional headshot taken and use that headshot on your business cards. You have to attend writers’ conferences and meetings of writers’ groups. You have to get “LinkedIn” and register on Goodreads. You help other new novelists out by reading and helping to promote their new books so someday, if on the magical chance your book gets published, they will do the same in return.
This piece of the puzzle is all new to me, and I’m totally learning as I go. But I’m excited about my progress and eagerly anticipating my first writers’ institute in Madison this April. That event will give me a deadline, so to speak, to get my manuscript and my pitch materials together so that I can present my novel to an actual literary agent. (After much practice, of course.)
Sometimes this learning is exhausting, especially the technological aspects of it. On Twitter, for instance, I’ve spent 90 percent of my time un-following people and deleting Tweets that I never wanted to follow or read in the first place. But it’s all part of the learning. You can’t learn how to make a cake by reading the cookbook; you have to get in there and crack the eggs and measure the flour and stir things up.
So I guess that’s what I’m doing — cracking eggs and mixing things up. Gratitude always to my published author friends Sharon Verbeten and Melissa Gorzelanczyk for mentoring me along the way and answering my zillions of questions. And thanks again to my husband, Tony, for not batting an eye at these unexpected expenses — there are startup costs to becoming an author! Hopefully all this learning will pay off in the form of royalty checks … and just maybe we will be able to retire in Aruba.
LB