It should go without saying that to be a successful author, you need to know how to write.
Do you need to be perfect? Of course not!
Do you need to be dedicated to improving, which often means seeking out criticism and dealing with harsh feedback? Absolutely!
There are millions of resources out there to help you get better at writing, so we won’t go into them here. Let’s focus on those other non-writing skills. While perseverance, networking, and patience are things all writers need, there are some specific skills that self-published authors should consider adding to their toolkit.
Here are 5 skills you’ll need during your self-publishing journey and in Episode 3 of the podcast we talk about why they’re important to the self-published writer.
- Editing – because very few people should ever hit publish on their first draft
- Cover design – because people do judge a book by its cover
- Interior formatting – because pretty covers should have readable interiors
- Copywriting – because writing a blurb is not the same as writing a book
- Marketing – because people need to know you have a book to be able to buy it
However, you do not need all of these skills the very first day you decide to self-publish. Nor do you necessarily need all of them. So how do you decide what skills to focus on?
It all comes back to your goals – your WHAT and your WHY.
If WHAT you want to do is get your words out there, not matter what, because your WHY is to have an external motivation to actually finish your work, then there is no reason to spend much time on anything other than writing.
If have the resources to outsource some of these, then you may not need to develop any of these. Even a small amount of investment ($50 premade cover, free Reedsy or Draft2Digital formatting) can leave you with more time to work on the actual writing side of things.
Even if you have unlimited resources to invest, it’s still worth it to learn about these things, if only to make sure that whoever you hire to do them for you is doing them well. Someone else can run a marketing campaign for you, but how will you know if the results are adequate if you haven’t tried to do a few on your own?
If your goal is to supplement or increase your family’s income through your writing, then it’s even more important to develop these skills, but not only for your own books. If you enjoy making covers, then sell them! If you bought Vellum for your own use, you can trade formatting with other writers and they can edit for you or write your blurbs. If you have a Rafflecopter subscription and love running contests, then that’s a marketing skill you can offer to other authors in exchange for services or money.
There are very few people who only enjoy the writing part of the process. As you learn more about every step, from editing to hitting publish and beyond, there will be a few areas that you really enjoy doing. There is no reason that you can’t keep doing those for other authors to help fund the expenses on your own books.
Indie author moms have countless valuable skills: writing, networking, scheduling, organizing, designing, tracking, problem solving… If your goals are in any way financial, then it’s essential to consider all possible ways to make money beyond simply the sales of your books.
Writing is just one skill. It’s not your only skill. You’re already dedicated to making one skill profitable. Take some time to consider how you can make your other skills profitable.
The third section in the Writer Mom Life Self-Publishing Workbook focuses on HOW you achieve your goals. Sign up for the free workbook to get started on your self-publishing journey!
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