books, books on the shelf

Bravo, writer Damien G. Walter of The Guardian has come up with a checklist of seven items the budding self-publishing writer should have accomplished before jumping in the deep end of the scary pool of independently published books.

He doesn’t say that you must have accomplished all seven of these items, though that would certainly help. If you’ve solidly come up with four, you may actually be ready.

By and large I agree with this list – certainly, for the likelihood of a commercial success (which is what everyone wants, right?).

#1: High Concept – usually (esp. in movies) refers to the kind of plot you can describe in one sentence. So, this may not indicate that anything is good, it’s just understandable before the purchase. Walter uses “Da Vinci Code” as an example. There are, however, many great books that would be hard to describe this way – and why do we need to dumb down the field any more than it already is?

#2: Practicing 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, a la a Malcolm Gladwell hypothesis. This I like. Writing, like music or dance or painting or anything, really, gets better with practice. The more you do, the better you get.

#3: Getting serious feedback for your writing. And, this doesn’t mean your mom! I can’t emphasize how important this is. Although painful, as well. Take classes with other writers who will critique your work. Listen to what they say and understand that the world may not be on your wavelength and that you haven’t communicated.

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#5: Having a platform: Self-publishing demands this, as the traditional publisher would be the marketer of the book, and that humongous task falls to the self-publisher. So be sure you do know social media or can afford to have someone do the marketing and publicity for you.

#6: Willing to invest: Are you willing to invest both the time and money it will take to make a superior product? That may mean another edit, delaying publication a year. It may mean saving up for a few months to be able to have an editor take a good look at your book. It may mean being willing to pay for the best cover design possible – something that will make your masterpiece fly off the virtual or literal shelves (this is so important… the cover!)

#7 Being ready: Are you really ready to put this work out there to the world? You will know, you won’t have reservations. Do you have a hesitancy about it? Is it not as perfect as it could be? What benefits will you get if you wait, just a little bit? It could make a huge difference in both the quality and the commercial success of your book.