#lessonsilearned

I know that in one of my last posts, I covered the topic of lessons I learned while writing my first book, Saving Emblem City. Today, I wanted to discuss a different angle to that: lessons I learned publishing my first book. (Now, this post isn’t to say that I’m NOT grateful for this opportunity, I AM VERY grateful for it, and that my dreams were able to come true, regardless. This post just centers around the lessons I’ve learned because of it. Also, this post is to not intentionally bash the company I used to publish my book).

When I was thirteen, I began writing my first book, and a year later, when I was fourteen, I finished writing the first draft. Around the time when I was fifteen, I published my first book, months after finishing the first draft. This is where my lessons from publishing come into play, and where I personally feel I went wrong with it.

Lesson #1: Never Publish A First Draft.  

As I said, shortly after I finished writing the first draft of my first book, I pretty much published it straight away, which is the first point I can acknowledge as to where I went wrong. As a result, since it’s a first draft, it’s resulted in a huge mess of a book that needs A LOT of work, with major plot inconsistencies threaded throughout. One very important piece of advice that writers should keep in mind is that you SHOULDN’T EVER publish a first draft, and this is something I wish I’d kept in mind. The lesson I learned from this is that taking time away from it, coming back to it, and doing however many edits and revisions you need, is VERY important. (This also accounts for taking time to improve your craft before you publish, and discovering on your own how you can make the first draft better. A first draft is just a place for you to tell the story on paper, then fix it later-not something you publish straight away after you finish). Needless to say, I’ve definitely learned from this mistake, and am currently in the process of re-plotting the book to prepare it for a much needed rewrite. (I’m pretty sure no author wants this for their book, especially if its a debut).

Lesson #2: Don’t Rush Into The Publishing Process When The Opportunity Arises.

This lesson is also one of my biggest takeaways when I published my first book. I was so eager, so desperate to publish my work, that I jumped into this process the moment it arose. (I jumped into it naively). With this, I wish I hadn’t been so eager to rush into it all. I wish I had taken the time to actually do more research into the publishing industry (along with doing a lot more work on my book), and the company I used to publish my book, XLIBRIS. This leads into my next few points.To be fair, though, I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, and I hope that the rest of the points within this blog post reflect that, because I am essentially also giving advice on what not to do when publishing a debut novel.

Lesson #3: Not Doing Enough Research.

This is another thing that really sticks with me. While I did do some research into the publishing industry, during the time when I was writing my first book, and after I’d finished it, I know that I didn’t do enough research, and didn’t know as much about the publishing industry like I do now. (Though I wouldn’t consider myself an expert). This even included not doing ANY research into XLIBRIS, which is a small publishing company that also specializes in self-publishing services that I had used to publish my first book. (To be fair, after I’d finished the book, I had my mom help me look into possible publishing options, and she was the one who first told me about XLIBRIS). Even still, I wish I had looked into them before deciding to go with them, because then I would be familiarizing myself with how this company does things, when it comes to all things books. 

Lesson #4: Publishing At A Young Age.

Now, I’m not saying that publishing at a young age is bad, but if I’m being honest, I wish I had waited until I was older and until I had improved my craft before I published. That way, my work would be more mature, and so much better than it is now. (I wonder what my debut year would’ve been like, had I published my first book now, at the age of 19, instead of 15). However, this isn’t to say that I’m mad that I got a book deal at such a young age. (In fact, I think that’s amazing! I just wish I’d been older when I dived into the publishing process. That is the only thing I would’ve done differently, when it came to my debut year).

Lesson #5: Not Doing Enough Editing/Rushing Through The Editing Process.

I think this lesson is pretty straightforward. Not doing enough editing and rushing through the editing process is not going to produce a good book in the end. (I strongly feel this way about my first book). Editing is a process that should never be rushed, and is one I think should be treated with care. Also, editing is so much more than just checking for spelling errors, and making sure various phrases and lines within the book sound great. Editing also includes big picture things about books, such as developmental edits, structure edits, copy edits, and content edits. These were all edits I had skipped on. When I went through the book, I barely did any proofreading of it, and just assumed that my book was good, but also, even with the editors I was working with, (and this isn’t meant to intentionally bash them) while I was given a few suggestions of things I could change, not a lot of suggestions came up. (I should also point out that with professional editors, their job is to also give the author more input on what they should change, and what is or isn’t working with the story, as well as giving the author notes as to how they should go about revising the book. This, looking back on it now, wasn’t something the editors over at XLIBRIS did for me, which is strange, but because of this, and also because of my initial skipping over the editing of the book, is why the book itself is such a mess). The  lesson I learned from this is that editing is extremely crucial for any book, and that in order to produce a good book in the end, editing should be treated with as much care as possible, and isn’t something that should ever be skipped over. While I did in fact do some self-editing on my own, I clearly didn’t do enough, and it shows in the book. But I still find it very strange that the editors over at XLIBRIS didn’t acknowledge anything that was problematic with various aspects of the book. (However, I am not placing the blame on them for this at all. Even so, this is also a huge reason why I personally don’t see myself working with them again. I’ve reached the point where I can recognize the big picture problems with my work, and I know how to look at my work with a critical eye, so that I can fix what I see is wrong with my work, but it is also nice to be aided by professional editors, who can help improve your work even more). One of my biggest newbie writing mistakes from back when I was first starting out was not catching big picture things that were wrong with my work, let alone knowing how to go through these sorts of edits on my own. All of that has completely changed now, and I know how to edit on my own, although I think having an extra hand with it would be nice, especially when it comes to professions, whether that be other fellow writers, or editors.

Those are the five lessons-the five crucial lessons-I learned while publishing my first book, Saving Emblem City. I hope fellow writers reading this, even though it mostly centers around the lessons I learned, can learn from this as well. I hope this post also provides some insight and advice on what you shouldn’t do when publishing your book, whether it’s your first or fifth. Helping others is another thing I really like to do, and giving insight is one of the ways I like to do so. Learning lessons is very important for anything, and being able to grow from them is an amazing thing. I know I won’t ever take my personal growth for granted.