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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Henry Mosquera – 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Becoming a Published Author

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Becoming a Published Author

by Henry Mosquera

1)    Most traditionally published authors sell less than 10,000 books.

2)    Most NY Times best selling authors have days jobs.

3)    Unless you are an A-list author, your publishing house will not help you promote your novel. That’s what your advance is for.

4)    An advance is just that. You will not see a single penny more until your book’s sales have surpassed the amount you were given. It is assumed that authors will use their advance to promote their works.

5)    Even if you are traditionally published that doesn’t mean you will get reviewed by conventional media outlets. Your work will always take a backseat to better-known authors. Professional critics are in the business of making money as well.

6)    The idea that publishing houses only produce quality books is a myth they love to perpetrate. Look at any bookstore (if you still can), they have a few highlights and then a whole bunch of filler. Just like not every indie book is an undiscovered gem, not every published novel is a classic.

7)    Publishing is reactionary; they go wherever the market leads them. If novels about people sitting on benches talking to themselves sell, that’s all they will publish, until the next thing hits and then the whole industry shifts in that direction.

8)    As it stands today, traditional publishers are all about maximum returns in the shortest amount of time. Hence the rise of ghost-written celebrity books. The days of discovering and nurturing new novelists are long gone.

9)    Indie writers are the scourges of the earth, flooding the market with unprofessional drivel. That is until one of them manages to breakout and out-sell most traditional authors. Then publishers step over each other trying to get a piece of the action after all the work is done, offering a fraction of the money a self-pub writer can make on their own.

10)  A lot of mid-list authors hate indies and with good reason. Mid-list authors have jumped through every hoop thrown at them and managed to get their books out there. Then they were stuck doing all the work for a tiny fraction of their returns with little or no support from their publishers. At least they had the assurance that they managed to navigate the “gatekeepers” on the strength of their talent, or so they thought. Wouldn’t you be bitter against a movement that shatters your whole professional literary experience?

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Political Thriller

Rating – R

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Henry Mosquera on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://redroom.com/member/henry-mosquera

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