What does an author do?
Good Morning! Here is the Monday Morning blog!
As I am sitting here on Easter Sunday beta reading, Through the Darque Gates of Koth, for my author friend Christopher D. Schmitz, I wondered what I would say if someone asked me, what does an author do?
Of course, the obvious answer is write, depending on where an author is on their writing journey, they can be working on different stages in their writing projects. Some are writing a first draft. Some are editing one of their manuscripts. And others are trying to sell their published books. Thinking about it, there are a lot of things authors do.
There are three different types of authors, self published, traditionally published and independent. I am a self published author. I took all of the steps to write and publish a book on my own, even though I contracted with a cover designer and an editor to complete parts of the project for me. Traditionally published authors are ones a publishing house offers to take on the costs of editing, cover design and the publishing of the book and pay the author royalties, a percentage of the money made from the sale of the book. An independently published author contracts a publisher to help them through the entire publishing process. In this post, I will talk about the life of one self published author, me.
Authors not only write, but also read, a lot. I read other authors who write for the same audience I do, but I also read books from other genres. It provides an opportunity for me to look at other styles of writing. I have done book reviews on many of these books. Be sure to look for them on my blog.
Like I said before, I am currently beta reading a soon to be published book. There are two types of reads typically done by people other than the author before a book is published. An alpha read (first read) is done by readers after the author is done writing and self editing. Those readers look at things the author wants them to but typically they make sure story makes sense and there are no glaring pieces of the storyline missing. A beta read (second read) is a read typically done just before publishing. It can be a final look at content, but tends to be more of a grammer and typo level read. Which is the kind of read I am doing for Christopher.
Recently, I have been working on the business side of my writing projects and marketing my own book. This year I built a website. Here is a link to it Selma P. Verde. This is where I publish my blog and have a link to my book. I also work on my social media sites to promote my brand and book. I am on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter if you want to follow me.
Along with the writing, reading and marketing, I also network with other solopreneuers for business advice and their services to make my online presence more appealing to my audience to help me sell my books and products.
Here is my book cover. The novel is a coming of age teen read available for purchase on Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Check out the link on my website on the books tab to find out more and purchase your own copy.
What does an author do? Writing a manuscript, creating the book, and publishing the book. Reading other books, marketing and running the business is also a part of being an author.
So, do you think you would like to be an author? What type of author would you like to be? Please feel free to put your answers in the comments below.
Have a great week!
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