Should Teens Self-Publish?

Okay, chances are, if you're reading this, you're a teen who loves to write (or you know one).  You have this silly idea running through your head, and you are thinking about doing something insane, like writing a book.

If you start asking "normal" people (ahem, people who don't write books), you are probably going to get a lot of advice that borders on the negative.  "There's no money in books."  "You can't make a living in books."  "You aren't old enough to write a good book."

"Blah," said Toad.

What Makes Good Writing?

Let's not worry about the money today.  Today we're going to talk about that last point.

Does age make someone a good writer?

Yeah, I'm going to have to weigh in with a big, fat NO, on that one.  In my honest opinion, experience and practice make a good writer.  That has nothing to do with how old you are.  Your third book should be better than your first.  The tenth novel should be even better.  

And you know what grown-ups say?  "If only I had time, I would write a book about blah, blah, blah."

And They're Right

Grown-ups have more obligations.  They have bills to pay, kids to feed, and spouses to love on.  Writing usually gets dumped in the forgotten dreams category.

So What About Teens?

For the love of Pete, if you have a book in your head, this is the time to try writing!

If, for example, you are homeschooled and your parents are open to the idea, why not spend this school year focusing your English on writing a book?  If you get into it (despite realizing how much insane work it is), you could put out a whole series by the time you graduate!

You either discover you love writing and figure out how to pursue it, or you decide it's not for you.  Either way, you have something to show for it when you are done!

What Teens Gain From the Experience:

Wondering if there's really a school year's worth of work to self-publishing a book?  Here's what it takes:

• Brainstorming (this isn't just about creating a story, this includes learning how to write for a target audience)
• Outlining and Story Structure (for both a single story and for a series)
• Drafting the book
• Developmental Editing (breaking the thing into pieces and figuring out if you have, in fact, actually written a complete story)
• Copy Editing (making the wording run smoothly so that a reader forgets they are reading and just gets lost in the story)
  
• Proof-reading (grammar, grammar, grammar, and more grammar)
  
• Learning to Take (and sort through) Criticism (finding Beta and Proof Readers)
• Format for Publishing (kindle? print? both?)
• Hitting Publish
• ​Pricing
• Creating an Author Profile online
• Deciding where to go next (do you finish the series? create an author website?)
• Planning & Executing a Long Term Project
  
• Can You Say "Passive Income" ???​
  

The Number One Thing You MUST Do If You Self-Publish

I think that if you have the writing bug as a teen you should totally pursue it.  But please, please, please, if you decide to self-publish, I beg you to check out this post and see what I believe is the Number One Thing teens should do if they Self-Publish.

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