The Lie Self-Publishers Tell . . .

Have you heard that “publishers will steal your ideas”?

Or “you need to get your book out NOW before someone else steals the idea”?

Then . . . you’ve probably heard some pretty effective (and in my opinion, manipulative) marketing from the world of self-publishing.

And though most of this is bullshit — as I’ve said before, publishers won’t steal your ideas — there is a chance that someone else will publish the book you’ve been dreaming of.

But it’s not for the reasons you might think.

Most of the time, would-be authors don’t steal their friends’ ideas or violate NDAs.

Instead — they simply act first. This scenario is way less sexy — and way more common.

Here’s an example. Let’s say Amy and Beth are both experts in Stuff (and are both totally made up). Amy has a brilliant new idea about Stuff that would be perfect for a how-to book. And so does Beth. They both read these posts every week too!

Beth dreams of the day she’ll hit the bestseller list. She writes a Table of Contents, but feels a little stuck because she needs to spend most of her time focused on client work that pays. She starts an email list, but only sends a few emails before letting it wind down. After all, there’s only a handful of followers…