The Right Expectations to Have When Publishing Your Debut Novel

The final step. After all of your work writing a novel, proofing it again and again, going back and forth on minute decisions to get the details just perfect, it's time to publish your debut novel. Without a doubt, you will have the same question that every first-time author has: What is the publishing process like? 

Understanding the realities of the publishing world and having an idea of what to expect can help you be prepared, but what you’ll find while you look through articles and forums is that so many people have different experiences and stories to tell. 

That’s just it, this is a unique process. The same water that hardens the egg will soften the potato, after all. With all of the stories out there, we decided to make things clear for you by putting together this article. 

Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing

This is the first decision to make as this will set up what the process will look like. If you’re able to get an agent and publisher, then they will have a number of tasks you’ll need to handle, on top of the work to get an agent in the first place, which is an entire process on its own. As you may expect, self-publishing comes with a lot of work, but more flexibility. 

Here are some of the key things to expect depending on what route you take: 

Self-Publishing: 

• Expect to need a wide variety of skills or the money to pay people who have those skills. This includes graphic design for the cover and for the formatting of your text, web development skills if you don’t want to sell on Amazon, marketing skills to promote your book, social media skills to get an audience, and more. 
• Expect to spend time cultivating trust. With no publishing house name to attach your book to, people will be hesitant to pull the trigger on giving their time and money for your book. Establishing trust takes time, but is arguably the most important part of the self-publishing process.
• Expect to have major FOMO. There are a ton of choices to be made while self-publishing. From what the cover should be to where you will sell your book to where you will put your marketing budget, and more, there will be a new decision to be made at every corner. Wondering how things might have been different if you made that other decision is totally natural, but is a thought that will get you nowhere. You made the decision you made for a reason, remember that.

Traditional Publishing: 

• Expect to send out dozens of inquiries to literary agents. People give different opinions on how many queries you can expect to send, some saying 30-70, some saying you can expect to surpass 100. There are different ideas about how to break this up over time. The key is to remember that querying literary agents will take a long time and a lot of effort, especially as most all literary agents have unique requirements for submissions. As a debut author, it's important to remember that literary agents will be hesitant as you don’t have an audience to point to, so they’ll be taking a risk. 
• Expect to have a ton of work to do. We get it, the idea is that the publisher is going to handle all the work, but that’s not the case! They will control the process and handle some of the major work, but they will make sure you’re involved and there will be plenty of tasks for you to be checking off.
• Expect to compromise. The publishing house needs sales, and they have experience in what sells and what doesn’t. Those ideas they have are going to run counter to what you’re picturing, at least to some degree. Go into it expecting compromise and be pleased whenever no compromise is needed.

What To Expect In Terms of Sales For Your Debut Novel

If you want an honest answer on how your debut novel will sell, we can give you one: Not well.

Some authors get lucky! They get a great recommendation, or they get a viral video and things just take off. But, for most authors, they can expect to not get very many sales for their debut novel. While looking through stories of different authors, it was extremely common for authors to give away more than they sell. While it’s possible your first book will do well, keep your expectations in line.

Now, keep in mind that this is an opportunity to play the long game. Just as many businesses operate in the red as they increase their market share, you, as an author, should use your first novel to establish yourself in the writing world and connect with an audience that can grow with you. Don’t bank on this novel as a money-maker. Operate at a loss so that you can find success in the long-term. 

Enjoy the Process!

What’s important to remember is that this is going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a hell of a lot of work, but it will be fun. You can expect to meet interesting people, lose your mind when you hold the book in your hand for the first time, feel the excitement of your first sale, and more. There will be times where things feel slow or the work is overwhelming, but those will pass, and the excitement of the process will come back.