What are your publishing goals?

And Remember - Publishing is a Business!

You might think you have an answer to this question. I’m sure you’ve daydreamed about it. Your debut is going to be a number one New York Times Bestseller for weeks on end, selling millions of copies. Soon you’ll be sipping coffee with Hoda and she’ll be telling you how life-changing your book was, and you’ll get a movie deal from Reese, and you can quit your day job and just write all day, every day.

Babe, I want this for you.

Shoot, I want this for me.

So, when I tell you that you need to know what your publishing goals are, what am I talking about? You have your goals! You’re going to be on bestseller lists and The Today Show or Good Morning America and podcasts, maybe Good Hang or House of Maher or, or, or, and, and, and…

I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw a woman’s post with a response from an agent. The agent had read her manuscript and enjoyed it. They were complimentary and polite. They had some feedback for her, but first they wanted to know what the writer’s goals were. The writer shared this on Instagram with some indignation. She had just completed a book. She was so proud of it and proud of herself. She’d worked so hard. The book was good. She was getting good feedback. She was getting attention from agents and people wanted to read it.

But she couldn’t answer the question.

She didn’t have a goal. She’d written a book. And she was proud of it and she was proud of herself. But she didn’t have a goal except that maybe she thought - she didn’t quite know, she wasn’t quite sure - that maybe it was good enough to be published.

Imagine if instead of this book, she had a product prototype. Let’s imagine she’d invented a machine that would complete a twenty-step skincare routine, applying serums, and moisturizers, and cleansers, and toners, etc. while the user just lay there. Let’s imagine she goes on Shark Tank with this product. The Sharks are interested until they ask her what her sales projections are, how much money she needs, what percentage of the company they’ll get. The Sharks ask their questions and she can’t answer a single one.

Do you think if she goes on Shark Tank, and has no answers for the Sharks she’ll secure an investment?

The answer is no.

You cannot forget while you are a writer and an artist, you are also a small business owner. By the time you’re querying an agent, you have met with focus groups (beta readers, editors). You have started marketing the product (the book). Or if not the product, then you have started working on your personal brand. You have some platform where you have some audience you are actively building.

And then you have to ask for money.

I understand if you think talking about money is gauche. And I understand if in your deeply artistic soul you feel I’m cheapening your art by talking about it’s value. But you cannot forget that publishing is a business.

An agent, who will ask for money on your behalf, doesn’t get paid until or unless the book sells. If the money doesn’t matter to you, if you don’t know what your goals are and you’re just proud you wrote a book, then your agent is doing an awful lot of work for free.

If you have a completed a manuscript, you should be proud of yourself. It is an unbelievable achievement to write a book and many who dream of doing so never even begin. You should pat yourself on the back. You should relish all the positive feedback you receive. But before you query agents, you need to be able to answer the question: what are your goals?

Is your goal to be a full-time writer? To continue to write and publish and promote until you’re able to retire from your day job and write full-time? Or do you just want the one book you’ve written to exist in the world? Do you want it to reach as many people as possible? Or do you just want to send it into the universe and allow it to connect with the small, dedicated group of people that manage to find it?

How you pursue publication should reflect your longterm goals not only for your book, but also for you and your writing career. We’ll talk about the varying publishing paths soon, but until then, try to figure out what it is you want. Until you do, don’t be surprised if you have trouble acquiring an agent. If you can’t communicate your goals, your agent can never deliver them to you. And if you don’t care about making money, then your agent is going to have trouble putting food on the table, all in the name of preserving your artistic sensibilities.

Publishing is a business. And agents need to eat.