I hope all goes well and that your consultant does right by you, and you are happy both with the finished product and your outlay for her services.

I'm afraid I've heard all too many similar stories. People embark on the process without a clear understanding of what's involved and end up with an unhappy outcome--or several such outcomes. I hope your experience wasn' too costly in terms of money or time.

Thanks for an eye-opening column.

my first SP book. OMG. I want to pull my hair out.

That said, I love the control I have over stuff like the cover, the font, etc. I have to take into account the cost of color (do I need color for the imprint in the interior? I don't think I do. It's in color on the back of the book). So I am pretty fair with graphics. I hired someone for formatting the interior and exterior for print and kdp. I am gasp purchasing ten ISBNs. A lot of $ involved. My self-publishing is good - but a human is always better.

I can figure categories and (non-ghost) keywords. No problem there.

But ...

Math and I have a love hate relationship. We love to hate each other. Putting together the formatting is not in my wheelhouse. At. All. But I do understand - from my POV - the machinations KDP puts one through. And checking it on Word, PDF, and on Kindle prior to?

That's the moment I said Stop the train! Hire someone!

Annnnd let me just write!

We don't have control over this crazy business. We can't control what a publishing house does or does buy. We can't force a reader to love our work. We can't wave a magic wand and create a perfect world.

What we do control is the number of words we put on a page. Who we share our babies with. How we react to rejection. Last but not least, how we continue to create. And, does anything else really matter?

Good, deeply thought-provoking blog, Doug. Thank you!

I like how you characterize it here. Everyone should learn as much as the can to achieve their individual goals.

Jenn, happy to contribute, and I could not agree more about the ever-changing aspect, but I feel there a few fundamental things that have taken shape over last, say, 25 years that are still confounding a lot of people. And I agree completely that while writing can be mean different things to different people, all kinds of publishing are very much businesses.

I'm really glad that you wrote on this topic. Writers need to decide what they truly want. Fame, fortune, a few printed copies for family and friends...

I struggle with the whirlwind of changes, trying to keep current while in what feels like continuing education with no end in sight.

In my opinion, it helps to have a goal and work toward it, not worrying about being on a best seller list. Just learn as much as you can and put together the best possible manuscript.

And while writing is a creative endeavor, and the joy of writing for some, is that, just the joy of it, being published author, and selling your work, is a business and should be treated as such. That makes the author a business person, and all writers should make sure they understand their business completely in order to be successful.

So, thank you for writing this blog post to explain to authors why it is so important.