I’m in the relatively unique position of having been rejected by several Catholic publishers, then self-publishing, and through it now getting published with Catholic Answers.
So when people contact me about getting published, here’s my advice to them:
1. Start a blog
You already like to write. So blogging will be natural for you. You may even have the charism of writing (I do), which means writing is deeply fulfilling. It’s one of the gifts God gave you through your baptism, to work for the Kingdom. Awesome!
You have to have a blog because it forms the basis for your Platform. Whether you self-publish or find a publisher, you need a platform through which people can find you, learn about you, read your work, and connect with you. And a blog is the most natural way to do it. Use wordpress (self-hosted if possible) or blogger, but the important thing is just to get started.
Without a platform, convincing a publisher to take on your project is much more difficult. They want to see that you are out there building a brand. Not because they are stingy or lazy but because social media is now the most effective way to market books. So while they will do both traditional marketing and new media marketing, they want to partner with writers who are going to be actively promoting their work, speaking on the radio or at events, blogging, on facebook and/or twitter, etc.
2. Reap the Blog Rewards
Through blogging, you will become:
A more practiced writer.
You will be writing multiple posts each week. Writing will become like second nature to you. You will be exercising your charism on a regular basis, making your even stronger at it.
Sure, there’s a danger in being sloppy and learning bad habits with frequent word-slinging, but in my opinion that danger is outweighed by the advantages.
Used to criticism
If you are going to write a book, you will receive criticism. Some people won’t like it, will disagree, fairly or unfairly. They will leave negative comments, email you, diss you on your YouTube channel, give you one-star reviews on amazon, etc. With blogging you will get the opportunity to develop a thick skin.
Adept at Incorporating Feedback
On the positive side, you will also receive criticism that is constructive, that provides feedback on your ideas. You float an idea out to your readers and find out what they think. You learn which arguments work and which don’t, which claims are specious and which are solid, what resonates with people and what falls flat.
3. Endure the Slow Growth
There’s nothing worse than writing what you think is a great blog post, and you publish it, and you wait for comments, and you wait some more, and none come. No one cares. No one read it, or three people did and none of them were moved enough to respond.
It takes time to build a readership. I’ve been blogging for over seven years and my “numbers” are still fairly modest. Jen Fulwiler’s blog is orders of magnitude more popular than mine. She once told me that the great thing about a blog is that, if you just keep at it, your number of readers will continue to grow. I nodded sagely but secretly wondered whether that was true. So for the next six months or so I watched my numbers. My blog readers did grow but seemingly at the pace of a large glacier melting.
But after plugging away for a long time, more and more people have discovered my writings and now I receive comments on almost every post I make, sometimes lots of comments. For most people, moderate readership increases will be the norm, but slow and steady wins the race so it’s worth it. So I do think Jen’s advice is true, but the trick is to keep at it and not get discouraged.
4. Connect with Others
Facebook is one of my prime mediums for connecting. I’m active on there and if you friend me, I will read what you post and will comment on it if it interests me. I want to get to know people–this is coming from an introvert by the way–and facebook is a nice sandbox for doing so.
But some people aren’t on facebook. That’s fine: take the shotgun approach. Start a YouTube channel and make some videos. I don’t pay attention but just looked and saw my YouTube channel has almost 100,000 video views. Wow, that many people have watched videos I created. Some people love videos and this is the way to connect with them. I still get emails every week from atheists who are irate about my video on how to convert them to Christianity. Stir up the hornet’s nest baby!
Other people don’t watch videos but listen to podcasts. So make a podcast on iTunes and upload your recordings to it. I made one and lots of people have found me through it. Matter of fact so few Catholic apologists do podcasts that if you google catholic apologetics podcast you find mine as the first link. I don’t deserve that but it’s the way it is because I started one a few years back and just slowly plugged away with it.
Some won’t listen to a podcast. So go on twitter or pinterest or google+ or wherever and try to connect with people there. And don’t stress if you can’t place bets on all these forums; just pick a few you like and stick with it. Blog + facebook is fine. Blog + YouTube is fine, etc. The goal is to make connections with others.
5. Submit Your Proposal to Publishers
Traditional publishers are still very important, especially in niches like Catholic-related books. Do your best to craft a proposal and send it to lots of publishers. Get ready for rejection. These outfits operate tight ships; they work to publish books that do well with their audience. Yours may or may not fit. Listen to their feedback but don’t get worked up if they don’t provide detailed criticisms. In part that is protective of themselves and in part they don’t have time for it.
Look around for all the publishers you can find. What do they offer you: professional vetting of your idea, editing, layout, cover design, credibility, and marketing. You cannot do all that yourself as well as they can, even if you can approximate it.
6. Self-pub, Editing, and Cover
Let’s say everyone rejects your work. Oh well, if you want to try it, self-publish! Use Amazon’s CreateSpace for the paperback and Kindle Direct for the Kindle version. Go through Barnes and Noble’s PubIt platform for Nook and then use Smashwords to get to Apple, Sony, Kobo, and the others.
But you should find a freelance editor to edit your work. Expect to pay them well for their work. A good editor will save you many embarrassments and provide invaluable feedback on your work. Same with cover design. Unless you are good at designing graphics, don’t design your own cover.
Yes this all means you will have to pay your own money to self-publish. Expect to pay $1,000 for editing and cover minimum. More like $2,000 for good ones. But if you believe in your work, then you can believe you will make this money back.
In the one year my book has been out there (self-published), it has sold 6,000 copies (ebooks + paperbacks). That fact surprised me greatly. I don’t tell people they will have such success as I think I got lucky in several ways, but I tell it to you to encourage you as to what is possible by a regular guy like me with a blog.
Conclusion
I’ve been something of everything: wannabe author, unknown to somewhat known blogger, self-pub writer, now God willing published author. Yet I’ve always been the same person; my self-worth is not found in how many people read my book or blog or whether a publisher likes my manuscript. Neither is yours. So don’t get too caught up in it all. If God wants you to be raised up through these means, He will raise you up (but not on eagles’ wings!).
And sometimes others who seem less worthy will rocket into the stratosphere in popularity. People will share their blog posts like breath mints, while yours go ignored. That’s life. Unless you’re the next sensation who thinks up Stuff White People Like or that Call Me Maybe song, the road will be long and uphill. But trust in the Lord and do all for His glory, leaving the results in His hands. Say that prayer about hoping others become more saintly than you so long as you become as saintly as God desires for you.
God bless! Let me know if you have more ideas or (gasp!) criticism of these suggestions.
Just one quibble. The number of responses has more to do with the controversy in the article than the truth. Very often I see brilliant blog entries, with no comments (including mine). Why? Because it says it all and there’s nothing more to be said. I’ve also seen blog entries with hundreds of responses precisely because the blog touched a nerve, or one of the commenters said something contagious and 50 people try to correct that person. You can look back at your own blog. Not too long ago you wrote something about the Eastern Orthodox that raise quite a number of comments.
I don’t know what the best metric is for a single blog entry, but I think that # of page hits and the trends is the best measure for a blog. So you may not know if a single blog entry bombed, but if people keep coming back, they must find something valuable in what you’ve said in general. And if the number of hits start to go down, only then should you have second thoughts on your blog.
I’m breaking my normal “stalk” mode to agree with Anil.
I normally don’t have much to say on your blog, for example, Devin. I’m a frequent flier, however, but you typically say everything extremely well, or your regular commentators (like Anil, for example) raise whatever question / comment I had before I get a chance to.
So I pretty much remain in my quite bubble of agreement.
However, if something particularly awesome tickles me, I’ll jump in to go “Right on!” or “I never thought of that before.”
Usually, though, I keep my yapper shut because everyone else is way more eloquent than I. *Grin*
However, I wanted to comment because
1) this entry way awesome. I loved it. Great advice and very good points.
2) Anil’s take on the reason for comments was my first thought as well.
Anil, you are right that controversy generates comments. And I and other bloggers must walk a fine line avoiding sensationalism/controversy-inciting while still writing in a provocative, interesting way.
Thanks for this, Devin! I’ve been working on a book for a while now, and I love reading stuff like this. It’s very helpful.
Very cool, Justin! Would love to hear more about your project.
Oh, and I get this is a bit off topic, but I have to admit being impressed with your variety of social media use.
I recently signed on with Twitter / Facebook (as MBF) and trying to keep track of them all is exhausting (so I end up not checking Twitter for like a week, but if I do, I forget I have a FB page… and if I somehow manage to remember to check BOTH of them, I realize too late that I hadn’t spent any time responding to commentary on a Proboard thread I started.
Ha ha ha – so kudos to you for being able to juggle all of that PLUS YouTube and book-writing. That, too, is a gift. Well done, my good sir.
Hey MBF,
There are a couple of programs you could try that would let you check your accounts at once.
TweetDeck allows you to see both your Twitter and FB updates.
Buffer lets you schedule posts to each, which is great for when you know you have a busy week but don’t want to be out of touch.
Disqus keeps track of the comments you make on other websites (including your own blog, if you have one). That’s much easier than having to remember every place you posted.
Hope that helps!
Disqus has got to be the most brilliant idea I’ve ever heard of…
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks! I focus most on the blog, then on facebook, then on youtube and podcasts, and lastly on twitter.
Thank you for your generous advice via email concerning this topic. This is good: “But trust in the Lord and do all for His glory, leaving the results in His hands.” Amen. Cindy Hurla
Cindy, best of luck with your writing! You were definitely part of the inspiration for this piece.
Thank you for thinking of fellow writers by posting this article. The conclusion is particularly poignant–way to cite the Litany of Humility at the end! All the best.
Thanks Father!
Thanks for posting! I thought this was very informative and I will probably come back again in the future to read this. I have never thought about expanding my blog or trying to get published. Maybe someday, but for now I am pretty happy with the small group of readers I do have.
Good stuff Mr. Rose, thank you for sharing. I’d like to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my own blog!
Thank you for the advice, Mr. Rose, and God be with you in everything you do! This blog entry was of particular interest to me because I’m a wannabe writer as well, and have been complimented on my writing–and I have a blog of my own (over 500 entries so far–I probably should have been less enthusiastic and more meticulous since I’ve had to update information as I’ve received new information). I have some comments and some followers, but I would like to have more (although I’ve made anonymous comments impossible to post), and I would like to publish–not just the blog but other things I’ve written. And I’m fairly good at editing myself, so I might not even need to pay an editor.
The only problem is that I’m unemployed, so the self-publication thing is probably out for me right now, which makes it difficult as I would then need to find other publishers, and I don’t know how to do that.
Yes you probably want to find some stable financial footing before banking on self-publishing success. Most people (myself included) work full-time jobs and then in their spare time work on writing and getting books published. God bless!
I’ve just found out about a site called publishamerica.com. Do you know anything about them? If so, would you recommend them?
What encouraging and timely advice this is for me! Thank you very much for this post, and God bless you and your work!
You’r welcome, Heather!
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I so needed this… Thanks for this posts…
Great post, Devin! Any tips on finding that perfect freelance editor?
Crawfords, is there a Forgotten Altars book in the offing?
With an editor, you want to find someone who 1) is good at editing, 2) will be honest with you, and (ideally) 3) knows something of the subject matter of the book.
In my case, I found a great one: http://www.betsywellsstokes.com/ Betsy was a friend of a friend at the time and was deeply interested in Catholic-Protestant issues. She was tough but had great feedback too, especially to make the book’s tone irenic and less off-putting for our Protestant brethren. We did all the work remotely as we lived 700 miles away from each other, though we had met in person prior.
I think it would be best to find someone through a recommendation of someone you trust. Avoid having your best friend take the job though, unless your relationship is strong enough to give and take candid feedback.
Thanks so much for the great advice, Devin. As for the book…Maybe someday, who knows?
Dear Devin,
Nice tips.
Everytime I read about readership, I remember John 15,19 (If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you).
Once I told to a blogger that want to give up blogging because of the lack of readership, that if he wants audience he should join Lady Gaga (people of world), if it is to follow Christ, endure it.
I also have a blog called Thyself, O Lord (it is written in Portuguese, http://thyselfolord.blogspot.com.br/). I not have too much people reading, but I love my readers.
Also, I try to publish some papers on economics and international relations. I use to have difficulty when my point of view bring some Christianity. Last year, I just get to publish a paper in Ukraine because my paper argued for a least human-restritive approach to environment ( http://www.nbuv.gov.ua/Portal/soc_gum/Npdntu_ekon/2011_40-3/186.pdf).
Many thanks.
God bless you.
Pedro Erik
Thanks for the great advice. I’d also like to add, that if a writer never gets his work published, that doesn’t mean he’s a failure. I’m writing materials to be used in small faith groups here in my area. I love to write, saw a need (let’s just say it involves virtues and saints), and have been plugging at it for several months. I think that I have a product with genuine appeal. But, if it never goes beyond the few small faith communities here, I know that I succeeded in helping a few people learn and grow.
Good point, Joanne!
Great advice Devin as well as some of the comments are really helpful too! But you know what the coolest thing about all this is? Catholic folks excited about their faith using the media to promote the Catholic faith! Even if most of us never get published or get many readers, or sell many CD’s (in my case with music) the Word gets out there. I went 31 years away from the Catholic faith never understanding a thing about it, believing false information. With the advent of the internet and now social media, it will take any one with average IQ about 27 seconds to learn about some aspect of the Catholic faith, if they want to. There are thousands of blogs about the glories of the Catholic faith from the unique perspectives of cradle catholics, converts, reverts. Perhaps the new social media will be one of the ways that the Tide Turns for the Church.
Russ that is spot on. I was just talking about that with Mark Shea yesterday when I got to meet him. In times past much confusion and ignorance abounded but now with the internet, social media, blogs, etc. all people can learn the truth of what the Church teaches.
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Thank you Devin. This is good timing for me as well, as I am working on writing a few books on apologetics and spirituality, along with a whole mess of Catholic tracts on various topics. I’m also starting to record podcasts and CDs and such; so all of the information was helpful. Thanks for all of your hard work.
Awesome, Bryan! Way to cover all the bases and best of luck.
Quick question – Generally speaking, how long does it usually take to read and respond to all of your comments? Just curious. I know some bloggers respond and some do not. Is there a recommended reason for one over the other, or is it just a preference?
Hello Devin! Thanks for the wonderful tips! I just started blogging and I was really inspired by your tips! I hope I could sustain my own blog! Thanks and God bless you always!
Want to be a writer? Write!
“How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks”
http://www.amazon.com/Write-Your-Novel-Weeks-ebook/dp/B005Q371FI/ref=sr_1_8?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1317423272&sr=1-8
You can do it!
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