On July 11, 2020, Kasie and Rex took on the three major categories of publishing. Here are the show notes:

Theme for the day

Publishing Options Evaluated

Agenda

• Patreon is how you say you Love.This.Show.
• What are the publishing options out there? (definitions)
• What are the pros and cons of each? (examine)
• Which one should you choose? (evaluate)

Link to podcast

Segment 1

So we’re officially out of our June Patreon membership drive. Glad to have some new patrons on board. We also launched our Author Spotlights page on the site. You can become a spotlighted author on our site by becoming a patron of the show at Patreon.com/WriteOnSC

More spotlights to come this month but we’ve added Anna Fitch Courie, who has actually been a guest on the program back when we were allowed to bring people into the studio. She’s the author of six titles including the flagship Christ Walk, a book with a spiritual and physical fitness program to it. 

We also added CJ Heigelmann, whose work has been in contemporary and historical fiction. Crooked Fences is about a war veteran battling his own racism and PTSD and An Uncommon Folk Rhapsody is a sweeping, epic Civil War novel with multiple viewpoints and storylines. 

Welcome to both Anna and CJ. We’re proud to have you as featured authors in our WriteOnSC community and on our website.

Let’s start with the first question: Do you have to publish your work?

Jeff Goins (hack) writes: real writers don’t write for publication. They write for the sake of writing. Agree or disagree?

Why pursue publication?

• Share with readers
  • Connect
  • Grow
  • Change / Affect / Impact
• Credibility
  • As a SME
  • Professional advantage
• Pride
  • Achievement
  • Recognition
  • Become an “Author”

Segment 2

Options and pros and cons:

• Traditional
  • CONS: less control for the author, slowest route to publication
  • PROS: wider distribution, connection to an established brand
• Self
  • CONS: all the work is on you, less recognizable marketing (brand), stigma of lower quality work
  • PROS: full control of process (including time), higher earnings, plenty of digital platforms available
• Hybrid
  • CONS: still a good bit of work (marketing) on you, may take longer than self-publishing, so many hybrids it’s hard to discern which ones are quality and which aren’t
  • PROS: access to distribution networks, access to design and editorial professionals, established brand, expanded reach

Segment 3

Which should you choose? Maybe ask some specific questions.

Got the list above from Inc.com because publishing is a BUSINESS. This is not the wish-granting fairyland of magical experiences. It’s business.

What are some non-book publishing opportunities?

• Literary journals
  • Submittable
• Social platform publishing
  • Wattpad
• Contests
• Anthologies
• Serialization
  • Blogging

Have we covered this before? Weirdly, no. We talk in general about publishing and we’ve hung with some publishers but we haven’t broken it down so it could forever more be broke. And maybe each kind is worthy of its own show and this general overview was too general. But we can talk through that on the air.

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