Decide If This Is A Business Or A Hobby

I'm still a beginner at Self-Publishing but certain principles carry over to almost all endeavors.

The No. 1 reason small businesses fail is undercapitalization. They didn't have enough money to do whatever was necessary to take that next crucial step toward success. Humans are forever underestimating the cost of reality. Especially when it comes to activities that have roots in their whimsy - like flipping a house, writing a book, etc. It really shouldn't be that big an issue if you keep your eyes wide open and plan for the worst case scenario. But it ALWAYS is.

It gets especially bad when they realize half way in that they don't have enough money and then start scrimping on key issues that will eventually doom the project.

I believe everyone should write a book. Parents and children should write books together. Groups of friends can write books. With the Print-On-Demand industry blowing up everyone should be able to write a book and publish it for less that a couple hundred dollars. I think the world would be a nicer place if everyone did this. Even artists should write books.

The problem is if you haven't been writing and illustrating your entire professional life it's really unlikely that you can understand the professional edge that's required to get to the top of the marketplace. After much trial and error you can get there but you can't fall out of bed and write a best-selling book. There are exceptions to everything but.....

And then there's the problem of making money.

I have no illusions. I don't think I can make money publishing my books. If I were to be totally honest I'd tell you my only goal is to create books that can critically compare to most of those in the marketplace. I guess I do have a second goal. Not to lose an extraordinarily large amount of money in the process.

I only tell you this because unless you have a lot of money to burn before you ever reach Amazon.com with your book, you won't make it. The book has to be professional to succeed there. In the case of a picture book I'd say you'd have to have at least $10,000 to think about starting the project.

A professional artist costs several thousand dollar if you can find one that will work with a first-time author. Because of the color you'll have to spend several thousand dollars on offset printing. Marketing. Cover Design. Formatting. Yeah, you probably need more than $10,000.

I can see some of you shaking your heads no. You can't say I didn't warn you.

Michael LaLumiere