What Every Author Should Know ...

Michelle Gamble attends the Northwest Book Festival
in Portland, Oregon.

I just came in off the road after traveling to the Northwest Book Festival and speaking to authors. I've realized the no. #1 thing every author should know ... writing a book means you are becoming in a sense an entrepreneur. "How is that?" you ask. Writing a book is only 50 percent of the work. Most authors get into the craft and forget that they are really embarking on a business endeavor. I named my writers' group Writers Who Mean Business to teach authors the "business of publishing" not just the craft of writing. Authors get so involved in their "craft" they often forget that the next step is for people to actually read their work -- and to get people to read their work it requires "business" activities and more specifically public relations and marketing. No one will know about your work without these business endeavors to publicize it. Marketing and public relations hold equal weight in publishing. First, you want an enticing, well-done product and second you have to share with the world, which requires publicity, advertising and marketing. The problem is most writers think of themselves as artists not business people. You have to be both to make a best-seller. If you don't have the business savvy or knowledge to publicize your book then hire a group (like 3L Publishing's PR and marketing division) to do it for you. If you don't publicize your book it will do nothing more than gather dust on the shelf or not be downloaded as an eBook.