A Whole New Respect for Authors

By Kim Dushinski - Dec 07 , 2007

Today I sent my book manuscript in rough draft form to my publisher, and as I was leaving the shipping center I started thinking about all the authors I’ve known and worked with over the last 10 years.

I thought I knew how much and how hard they worked on their books. I thought I understood how personal it was to them if someone had a negative comment. I thought I knew why having a successful book was so important to them. While I did have a pretty good grasp of these things, I didn’t know for absolute certain until now. It took writing my own book to fully comprehend the situation.

First of all, I am working from home and my main task right now is to write the book. I am spending almost every working hour researching, writing, re-writing—and in all other ways obsessing about how to make this the best book possible. I cannot imagine how hard it is for other writers who hold down day jobs and write in the evenings and weekends. It is a monumental task, to be sure.

There are days when I feel as if I have been writing forever. Although it has only been a couple of months, I can hardly remember what it is like not to be writing a book. I daydream about the free time that will surely appear like magic when I am done writing.

I’ve yet to hear back from my publisher or the other industry insiders to whom I am sending a copy of the draft, but when I get my first round of criticism, I am sure it will cut like a knife – or maybe just like a paper cut. I can only hope the criticism I do get is constructive and helpful.

As to why it is important to have a successful book—that’s a biggie. To people in the book industry, as I have been for the past decade, books and authors are a part of everyday life. Almost every time mail was dropped off a book was included and landed in my in-box for some level of review. Any trip to the bookstore meant seeing at least one book on the shelf whose author I knew personally. To authors, as I have recently become, there is only one book that really matters—your own. The thought that it might not succeed is, well, unthinkable.

Thankfully, I do have some insider knowledge that is going to come into play right now and help my book succeed. One of the biggest mistakes I saw over the years were authors who finished writing the book, published it, and only then began to market it—or even think about marketing at all. To many it was a linear process. Step one was writing, step two was production, and finally there was marketing. But by the time they got to that last step, they were behind schedule and burnt out. (See aforementioned day dreaming about free time.)

I’m now taking the next three weeks completely off from writing my book. Not only do I need a break mentally, but I also know it is time to get my book marketing plan fleshed out. When my book is done, I will be ready to jump fully into marketing. Fortunately, I also know the reality that writing the book is 10% of the work and marketing is 90%. I’m bracing myself for the marketing part.

In the mean time, I hereby salute my fellow authors. You deserve a big round of applause for stepping up and writing a book. And now I really understand why.

Kim Dushinski is currently writing her first book called, The Mobile Marketing Handbook: A Step by Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns. It is due out in Fall 2008, and in the meantime she will be building a world-class marketing campaign for it. To get a Free One Page Book Marketing Plan that you can use to create your own awesome book marketing campaign, go to www.HowToMarketMyBook.com.