SFA 119 – Myths About Success in Self-Publishing

This week, we discussed some of the myths that continue to go around about what it takes to have success in self-publishing. Some of these may be of interest to traditionally published authors too.

After that, we answered a couple of questions on burnout that were submitted via the Six Figure Authors Facebook group. If you missed the show where we originally discussed dealing with writer’s block and burnout, that’s here.

Myths discussed:

• You need to get in with the “in” crowd by hustling or networking, or you need someone with a big following to blast your book out to their newsletter, and that’s going to be the key to your success.
• You need to rapid release/write a book a month to have success, especially in certain genres.
• You need to be Amazon exclusive to make a living in self-publishing these days.
• You need to invest in expensive software and hardware to publish effectively.
• If your first several books don’t do well, it will mess up the trajectory of your career.
• If you could just get the perfect schedule, the perfect setup, the perfect most supportive partner/spouse/family, the perfect location, you’d be the most productive you’ve ever been and would be ragingly successful.

Listener questions on burnout:

• How do you pick the “right genre” for you to avoid burnout before you experience success? Some genres have release schedules that might burn an author out even when it is the genre they love.
• What are some of the ways burnout hides (i.e. going from loving your story to hating it overnight, etc.)?

Thanks for listening!