30 Things I’ve Learned About Author Success in My 30 Years in Book Publishing

In no particular order…

Photo by Johannes W on Unsplash.

Today marks my 30th anniversary in book publishing— I legally registered my first publishing company, Lake Claremont Press, on 9/7/1994. And in honor of the occasion, I present 30 things I’ve learned about finding and achieving success as an author.

1. The business of publishing continues to get harder and more confusing and the options for authors and publishers continue to expand, meaning you must keep up with what’s new, creatively mix and match old and new, and be consistent and persistent in your efforts.
2. Authors must also learn business and stay open to the promises of business. These are the fundamentals, the ABCs of growing an author business as I see them.
3. A good way for authors to learn business is to simply copy what’s working for other authors and publishers until the knowledge is internalized.
4. Here’s the business advice I give author-clients on repeat.
5. The best approach for most authors is to juggle three critical pillars of author life at the same time: writing, publishing options, and marketing/sales.
6. There are non-sales sales approaches that even reluctant authors can and should consider and learn to move more…