When I first started publishing my own work, I made some stupid mistakes. Hindsight is a lovely thing, isn't it? Over the next week or so, I am going to document my failure. What? Focus on my failure, says you. Yes, absolutely. If you can't take those failures, analyze them, and decide how to go forward, you are likely to fail again.
It's also easier to look at failures when you are no longer failing. :)
When I first started self-publishing I focused on creating the company far too much and creating the books far too little. I see this all the time in the work of others and I recognize it all too well because I fell captive to it.
One example of this was the amount of time I spent looking to publish the books and e-books of others and designing a framework for doing so.
Now ask me how many of those ideas came to fruition. One thing I discovered about the publishing of other people's writing is:
a. Many people have an inflated sense of how good a writer they are (and have the ability to disguise that up to a point); and
b. Many people treat deadlines like suggestions as opposed to lines in the sand.
As loyal readers know, I have spent this decade publishing books for others and for myself. I understand the business reasonably well. I have been moderately successful and expect to be even moreso within the next couple of years.
This did not happen by accident. Along the way, what I have discovered is that I can control what I do at a much higher level than I can control the work of others.
My advice: Become successful publishing your own work first. There will be time to publish the rest of the world later.
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