Result: Starting Point 4
I have a draft but I have no idea how to publish it
You did the hard part. You wrote something. And now you’re staring at it wondering what on earth you’re supposed to do next.
Publishing has a lot of paths and a lot of opinions, and it can feel impossible to know which one is right for you. You’re not behind. You’re just at the stage where the decisions start to feel real, and that’s exactly where having the right information (and an honest look at what you actually want) makes all the difference.
Your one action step this week:
Don’t pick a path this week. That’s the mistake most writers make at this stage, trying to research everything in parallel hoping enough information will make the choice obvious. It doesn’t work, because every publishing path has real pros and cons, and the more you research, the more appealing each one starts to sound.
It’s also tempting to just use “ask every author I can find what path I should choose,” but here’s the problem with that: those authors aren’t neutral sources. They have their own biases (and they want their own choices validated by other people choosing the same). But also, many times, they don’t ask you what’s important to you. They just tell you what’s important to them and what path you should choose.
You cannot choose your path based on someone else’s desires and needs.
Instead, start by building out your list of decision criteria. What actually matters to you? Think through things like: What’s your realistic budget? Do you already have an audience? What support do you actually need? What parts are you excited to learn and what parts would you rather outsource? What does your life timeline allow? What’s your long-term goal, one book or a career? How much control do you want? How much collaboration?
Write these out for yourself. Don’t try to decide anything yet. Just get the list of what matters to you on paper. Your “right path” becomes much clearer when you can see all of your real considerations side by side.
(This is also the stage where I see a lot of writers make fear-based decisions without realizing it. Choosing indie because they’re scared of rejection. Choosing traditional because they want the validation of being chosen. Neither is wrong, but it’s worth doing an honest gut check before you commit.)
Your Starting Point: SP4 goes deeper on how to do that honest gut check, what each publishing path actually looks like in practice, and how to move from “here’s what matters to me” to “here’s which path fits.”
Want to talk through your specific situation?
Twenty minutes on Voxer, just you and me. Tell me about your book, what you’re considering, what’s scaring you, what you wish you knew. We figure out what matters most for you and what your actual next step is (not a generic “here are your three options” answer).
This is what a Jumpstart Session is for. $20.
About Angela James
I’ve spent over 20 years inside publishing, editing more than 1,000 books, launching Harlequin’s first digital-first press, and helping authors at every stage figure out what their book needs and what to do next. I’ve worked with debut authors and #1 New York Times bestsellers, and what I’ve learned is that the confusion and overwhelm don’t discriminate. They show up for everyone.
What helps is having someone in your corner who knows the industry, will give you straight information, and actually cares whether you succeed. That’s what this session is designed to be.
I don’t judge what you’re writing, why you’re writing it, or where you are in the process. I just help you figure out your next step.