By 
Yesterday, I shared the post I wrote in 2017 announcing I was going to become an author. I can still remember how terrifying it was to press ‘publish’. Going after a dream is difficult enough, but announcing it to the world is another thing. Especially when you have no idea what you’re doing.
Sure, I still did it. Without the experience and confidence, I did it. But I made many mistakes. The silly mistakes that are easy to avoid, but waste money and time to fix.
After ghostwriting so many novels, I finally figured out what I was doing. Eventually, I went back to correct my mistakes, but I wish I would’ve known better from the start. It could’ve saved me, a lot.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I found myself with more time than I’d had before. It felt like the perfect time to embark on a dream project of mine. I’d wanted to host writing retreats, welcoming people to a beautiful location to focus on their projects with minimal distractions and maximum resources. I wanted to share all I’d learned about writing, editing, publishing, and marketing.
Obviously, I could not execute that in person with all the travel bans and lockdowns happening. In what I thought would be a compromise, a better idea was born – Write It, Sis! a Virtual Writing Mentorship.
Since then, I have mentored over three dozen women in their varying stages of writing. My mentorship, much like a lot of my writing, is my way of short circuiting the process I struggled through, for someone else.
Let’s have a heart to heart. Here are some mistakes I made along the way that hopefully you can avoid.
- You Don’t Have to Sell the Rights to Your Book to Make Money
There are plenty of companies and publishers happy to give you a few dollars upfront in exchange for the rights to your book. It sounds good in the beginning, but it’s much better to retain your ownership, publish the book yourself, and sell it over and over for years to come. Publishing doesn’t cost you a penny, and you can continually collect royalties as a form of passive income without any additional work.
2. PDF is not an acceptable format for an eBook
My first book release was so tacky I cringe at the thought. I didn’t know about formatting and was so excited to get my book out, I released it as a PDF. Of course, people could still read it, but it didn’t function like an eBook should. You couldn’t zoom in on the font, or scroll effectively. You want to format your book as .epub. Formatting doesn’t take long and doesn’t have to be expensive, but it makes a world of a difference for the reader.
3. Find a Community
Writing a book is a lonely task. No one cares about your book. In fact, most people won’t take you seriously. Many feel they ‘have a book in them’, but few actually see it through. Find a community that cares so you have someone to talk to about your book, ask questions throughout the process, and share portions for feedback.
Write It, Sis! has become that supportive space for women over the course of two years. And today I am opening the doors to my writing mentorship for the first time since March 2021. It is not something that happens often, so if writing a book is a goal you have, this is your opportunity to invest in the process.
The mentorship guides you through every step of the writing journey, starting with an idea and ending with an asset – a published book that you can sell digitally and in print with no upfront costs.
Because of my involvement with each book, I have to limit how many women can participate in the mentorship. If you’re ready to write a book, learn more about my mentorship here.
