Learning to Publish as I Go

When I decided to publish my book, I looked up what I needed to do.

The internet made it sound simple.

Query. Get an agent. Get published.

That was the explanation I kept finding. No real roadmap, just those three steps.

I even had to search what querying was because most places didn’t actually explain it. Once I figured it out, I did exactly what the internet seemed to suggest.

I queried.

Seven times.

At the time, I thought that meant I had completed the step.

Thankfully, nothing came of those seven queries because I later discovered something important — my book was nowhere near ready for that step. That realization didn’t come from publishing guides or official resources. It came from social media and other authors who were kind enough to talk openly about the process.

So I asked AI what I should be doing to prepare for publishing besides querying. The answer I got was to set up social media and create an author website.

That seemed reasonable.

So I did.

And very quickly I discovered that I was lacking in almost every way as an author trying to enter the traditional publishing world.

Social media taught me things the search results never mentioned.

You don’t query a handful of times. You query dozens… sometimes hundreds of times.

You should have beta readers.

You should do rounds of editing.

You should refine your manuscript before you ever send it to agents.

Which brings me to beta readers.

Step one: ask AI what beta readers were. Step two: figure out how to get them.

So I made a few posts asking for help.

And suddenly people started volunteering.

That was the moment I learned something else I hadn’t known: beta readers are often paid for their time. I had been completely oblivious to that fact, and I felt terrible. I was asking strangers to give their time and effort to something I should have understood better beforehand.

But these incredible people told me they were happy to help anyway.

Dozens of them.

Then something even more unexpected happened.

An editor reached out to me. A professional editor. He told me he would help me for free. I immediately told him not to. I didn’t want to take him away from work that should be paying him.

He told me he loved my story and wanted to help.

I cried.

I couldn’t believe someone would want to spend their time helping me improve my work simply because they believed in the story.

Learning as I go through this process has been challenging. At times it has even been embarrassing. I’m in my mid-forties and stepping into a world where it feels like everyone else already knows the rules.

There have been moments when I wanted to hang my head in shame and walk away from it all.

But then I remembered something important.

I may not know everything about publishing.

But I do know how to tell a story.

I created a world that people can fall into.

I created characters that people can care about.

And that means something.

So I’ll keep learning.

I’ll remember that beta readers should come from my target audience, not just anyone willing to read.

I’ll remember to prepare questions for beta readers so their feedback can actually improve the manuscript.

I’ll remember every mistake.

Every misstep.

And I will keep going.

I will get better.

I will get published.

Because I will not stop.

Until next time, stay sassy.