Are You Worrying About Reaching Readers?

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine 

Some authors are starting their new year off worrying about how they are going to reach readers. 

They are aware of all the books being published –since it is so easy now for independent writers to self-publish.

Instead of fretting, here is something for you to remember.

Even though there are a lot of people publishing many of those writers (if I were a betting man I would say 80% of those writers) do not spend the money required to hire editors to edit their work and help them with the flow of their writing. Hence, their writing leaves a lot to be desired especially when readers are falling over all the misspelled words, wrong punctuation or very little punctuation and literally there is no flow to the story.

Readers don’t like this. They may buy one of those books, but they won’t buy that author again. And they will be more cautious on buying an unknown author again.

This means they will look for authors who spend the time, and effort to hone their craft and hire that editor to polish their manuscripts before they are published.

Word of mouth is wonderful for an author, it can also be deadly. Every time a reader picks up a book from one of those authors, you can bet they will be spreading the word to people they know.

So don’t fret about reaching those next readers, concentrate on writing the best book you can and making sure it stands out with good editing and a great cover.