
5 minute read
Mistakes I have made in Publishing Part I
SHEILA KENNEDY
I have built a platform on which independent authors and those that support them can thrive. It has been years in the making, and it started last year when I published a digital magazine, Zebra Ink. This year I am launching a digital directory of independent authors, publishing service providers, and independent bookstores.
Having been in the publishing industry as either an author or a publisher since 2013, I have learned a thing a two. Yet, I am still concerned about making this platform, an entire eco-system, as one of my clients called it – successful. I built it out of necessity. The funny thing about fear is that it tells me lies daily about no one being interested or it not being valuable. I know that it is not true.
How can I be so sure? Because I know I would have loved this platform when I first started. I needed this platform when I began and still do today. Everyone needs a cheerleader and a community of supporters. We all need a place to ask questions and get honest and useful answers. Most every author is capable of getting the work done to publish a book, but going to a central location to find information is crucial. I have built what I wished I had, so no one else can say they don’t have support.
My personal platform and social currency are not the largest by any stretch of the imagination. I haven’t made the New York Times best-seller list. I have sold a few thousand of my own books, but not nearly as many as I wanted to. In fact, I rarely mention that I have authored books because I am embarrassed by the quality of each book for a different reason. I have made so many mistakes in my publishing journey that sometimes I feel like I have no business being a part of the industry.
The interesting part of having made mistakes and even failing at times, means that I get to learn from those experiences. I get to make it better for the next time. Every single time I fall, I get back up smarter and more resilient. My commitment to making it better for everyone I get to work with gets stronger. My missteps are precisely what qualify me with the knowledge and audacity to think I can help others do it better than I have.
The very first time I was published in a book, it was part of an anthology of women who experienced challenging times, made it through, and were thriving. I paid $97 to write eight hundred words about how I had overcome adversity and was thriving. This was back in 2012 and I had experienced awful trauma earlier that year and thought I had made my way through it. That was my first mistake … that trauma is something that still impacts my life, but definitely wasn’t understood in 2012. I was deeply entrenched in survival mode and had absolutely no business trying to tell other women how to thrive. I now share with authors that are in survival mode to write everything they feel down, but to wait for a while before they consider publishing. Time and distance away from challenges and trauma change perspective. The lessons learned cannot even begin to form until after survival mode is a thing of the past.

How I thought I could share anything meaningful in eight hundred words is beyond me and that was mistake number two. I am all about being succinct, but if your story is full of nuance and details, eight hundred words cannot do it justice.
Mistake number three involved writing about someone other than myself. I had to dance around the cause of the trauma without naming names or exact details. The fear that I feel to this day about how that person would react if they knew what I wrote still haunts me. I am hyper-vigilant with clients now about how they mention other people and how to protect themselves as a result.
The funny thing about that book is that I remember thinking quite clearly when submitting my copy, that even if the other one hundred women in the book were the only ones who read it, I would be able to impact one hundred lives with my story. It turns out that there were about 30,000 copies of that book sold and multiple awards won before it was taken off the market. If I had known it would reached that many people, I wouldn’t have written what I did. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was told that the book would no longer be available because of a dispute between the publisher and some of the authors. That was another lesson learned … there is power in having a contract.
All in all, it was a great first experience with publishing, despite the mistakes made along the way. I saw how the publisher marketed the book, and the power of what a group of authors could do together. Being my first experience having an Amazon best-selling book that won awards, I fell in love with the idea of books and what they could do in the marketplace and for someone’s individual platform.
That book was released in January 2013 and by September of 2013, I decided to author my own solo book. Look for part two in this series for that experience. Oh – and if you are intrigued at all about this platform I have constructed, check out www. thezebraink.com. I would love to have you join us!
