Don't plan on making a lot of money from your writing. A survey by The Authors Guild a few years ago found that the average author earned about $4000 a year from his or her writing. That was a general survey, but even in the genres, there are plenty of people struggling--many of them quite good writers. If you make it into print, you are doing well. If you succeed in breaking out commercially, you'll be among the extremely fortunate few.

--Jeffery A. Carver

So, what does it take for a writer to beat the odds? In my opinion, he/she has to pull ones self up because nobody else is going to do it for you. Writing is the small part of the job. After you get published it is your responsibility to sell the publication. If you think differently, then you will never reach a higher level of success. Over the years I have taken Marion Zimmer Bradley's advice to heart:

Stay out of amateur "writing workshops" where amateurs sit around and read their failures to each other. Twenty times zero is still zero. Never listen to criticism from anyone unless they can sign a check. Never mind what your best friend, or your aunt, or your English teacher thinks. Trust only professional criticism.--Marion Zimmer Bradley

With that in mind I've sought advice on how writers succeed from some highly successful folks, both the writing and publishing side of things. Two things stand out from their advice. One--you have to be a talented writer. If you can't write, then nothing else matters. Two--you must self-promote. It is the writer's responsibility to sell the work.

Here's what one professional writer who made it out of the potato patch had to say:

 --Robert J. Sawyer Hugo and Nebula Award Winner

I've read similar advice from Stephen King, Richard Paul Evans, Orson Scott Card... The list goes on and on.

But there are some editors and wannabe writers around who are giving other writers bad advice. They are telling writers that they should never spend a dime out of their own pocket to promote the works in which their writing appears. They tell writers that "money should always flow to the writer". And there are a lot of small potatoes out there reading this advice from other small potatoes and taking that advice at face value. I'm not an advocate of self-publishing. You should never pay to get your work published. But you should pay to promote your work after it's published. Writing is like any other profession. If you want to make money at it, you have to invest money in to it. That's what the pros say.

Of course I'm just another potato buried out here in the patch with the rest of you, but I'm tempted to take the advice of Ms. Bradley and listen to people who know more than I do.

At Journey Books, we will get your work in print (that alone cost a hell of a lot of money), buy advertising for our products, setup websites and take care of orders, bookstores, and distributors. We'll list in catalogs, try to garner some nice reviews and all that stuff a small publisher is supposed to do. But in the end our results are also dependent on our author's ability to promote their work. If you're not willing to do that then don't submit here. Your job isn't finished when the writing is done.

I'll leave this with one more quote that kind of nails this all together:

One of the greatest misconceptions harbored by writers is that the job is done when the book manuscript is mailed. While manuscript completion is a time to celebrate, it is also the time to switch hats. The book writer now becomes the book promoter.

A book is like an iceberg. The writing is the easier part; the 20% visible about the waterline. The promoting is the most important part and usually consumes even more time and money. The promoting is also often the part not anticipated by the author.

Bringing a book into the world is like a bringing a child into the world—you are presented with an obligation to raise it. --Dan Poynter

Ed, you are so right. Nobody cares about your stuff like you do, except maybe your mom, and she doesn't know anyone who will buy the darn thing anyway.

If nothing else, attend the cons-- go to Kinkos and make a book board and huck it and some copies of the magazines and books you are in with you. Club cards are cheap, or even business cards with the cover of your book and your website and the publishers.

You goal early on is to build your readership. I too am small potatoes, but Saturday night at my book launch I knew I was on the right track when a fan bee-lined into the room with a copy of the book--- and 2 other magazines that I appeared in for me to sign. Without my relentless promotion of the "little stuff" over the last few years nobody would have cared about the book. And now the book is the step to... more books, more readers, and someday that villa in Tuscany and the summer house in Bali.

"Art is the celebration of the ego's destruction."