Get Rid Of Publishing Anxiety Once and For All

One question people ask me a lot is, “Is publishing a do-it-yourself activity?” “Why do I need help, can’t I get published on my own?”

It’s true, people get published all the time on their own, but often I see a lot of wasted time and effort.

When people try on their own, they struggle because they don’t know how to start, what the standards of the publishing industry are, or they’re not familiar with the industry itself.

They’ll bang up against the wall again and again, eventually giving up. Or, they’ll self publish and have mediocre results, only selling a couple of hundred books.

For the people who get help, for the people over in the Writing Gym, what I see is they’re having a whole lot more fun.

When you’re working with other people who are doing exactly what you’re doing, are as serious about publishing as you are, and have the same dreams, goals and aspirations as you do, “you’re in your tribe” as one of our writers said. (Shout out to Stephen!)

Those are your people. They want what you want. They’re a great sounding board for you, and it’s wonderful.

And while they are having more fun, and fun is good, fun doesn’t get published necessarily.

What else is great about getting the help that you need?

Well, if you’re working with the right professional, as the people over in the Writing Gym do, things happen.

I am making phone calls on behalf of my writers to literary agents and publishers, fast-tracking them to publishing and avoiding that slush pile.

Somebody said to me recently, “Oh, you know, I saw one of your Facebook lives, so I decided I could do it on my own. I’m going to call the publisher, and it’s going to work.”

Maybe it will and maybe it won’t, but I can tell you that I spend a lot of time getting lunch with publishers, agents, and so on. By doing that, I can pick up my phone and say, “Hey I got this great YA novel, here’s a brief synopsis,” and then give them the elevator pitch and ask, “How would you position this?”

Nine times out of ten when I’m on the phone with them, they say they’d love to see that project, and ask to send it over right away. 

The other day, I was on the phone with an acquisitions editor, chit-chatting with her about the industry, and got talking to her about one of our writers. She said “Please send me both manuscripts,” and off those manuscripts went.

So working with others brings you more fun and better results.

Writers in the Writing Gym get together, write on a regular basis, and receive a specific kind of feedback based on the way your brain learns and creates the best.

This process allows you to gain more confidence so when you get those rejections, you can see okay, it’s not what that particular publisher is looking for, rather than taking rejection as a setback. You’ll understand how to process feedback, integrate it into your writing, when to listen to and when to say “Thank you very much, but that’s not for me right now.”

These are all the advantages that writers have over in the Writing Gym. If this sounds like something you’d like to explore, let’s chat.

Until next time. Happy writing.