Does your book REALLY need to be published right now?

I feel like my book needs to be published as soon as possible.

I can’t wait for the amount of time traditional publishing takes.

I hear this soooo often from authors.

Especially when I say that it takes at least a year (or two or three) to build a substantial author platform, six to nine months to write a proposal and get an agent (if not twelve) and about a year or two from that to actually have a printed book in your hands within the traditional model.

And even then, you’re not guaranteed a bestseller.

Or the sale of a single copy, honestly.

I’m going to tell you the truth. When I started freelance editing in 2012, I was relieved not to worry about my clients’ chances at success. I didn’t have to worry about sales or platforms because my job was strictly to make the editorial content (i.e., the actual words on the page) as good as it could be.

Sales? Platform? Marketing? That was someone else’s problem.

But then I saw author after author disappointed.

Dozens of authors who said things like, “I want my message out there. I want my story to be heard,” and subsequently self-published.