Last week, I did a deep dive into the results from my recent KU free days promotion, and I promised to keep y’all updated. As of now, I’ve almost earned back my ad spend on this series. Only $38 to break even. Now, I’ve noticed the money trickling down day by day as I get further away from the promotion, so that big boost may be wearing off now. I’m still confident that this was a good call. Even if I never earned back that $38, it’s a small price to pay for the lessons I learned from this particular marketing push, not to mention the new reviews and ratings I got on all three books.

Now, let’s move on to our October theme of the spooky side of publishing. Today, I’ll go over some common fears writers have about the publishing space and whether these fears are well-founded or overblown.

* Someone will steal my work.

This is the most common fear among the newer authors I see. It comes in three forms, and it’s largely not something you need to spend lots of time thinking about. Let’s analyze.

               Stolen ideas

               Sometimes writers, particularly those who may be just now authoring and not yet moving toward the onward stage, fear even describing their ideas, sometimes even ducking out of pitch contents or promotional opportunities. I won’t say stealing ideas never happens. Sometimes it does, but you know what’s a whole lot harder than coming up with a great idea? Executing that great idea into a great book. There’s a big barrier to swiping ideas and it’s a whole lot of work. Don’t let this fear stop you from workshopping an idea with a trusted critique group or writing coach or entering a Twitter pitch contest. You don’t have to let everything out and tell the whole world your whole plot, but don’t let this fear hamper your growth or opportunities.

Plagiarism

               People passing off someone else’s writing as their own also is a thing that sometimes happens, but it is rare. You know what’s even harder than writing an excellent book? Publishing and marketing it! This is not a scam for the quick-fix scammer. There’s a huge learning curve to publishing. Just make sure the people you hand over your manuscript to are folks you trust. Know your critique partners. Vet editors or formatters or agents well. Look for testimonials from past clients. Ask past clients questions if you want. As a freelance editor, I’ve signed more than one NDA, though they aren’t really necessary for me. If I ever swiped a manuscript, my editing biz would be in the toilet. And I also have no interest in leaking content or ideas from a book prior to publication, though I love to know when clients do publish so I can brag about their awesome books online. If it makes you feel better, though, you’re well within your rights to ask for an NDA.

Pirating

               Now this one is very likely to happen. And it’s also impossible to prevent if you publish your book in any form. And for that reason, I don’t think you should let it take up too much of your headspace. Every time a group of authors gets a book pirating site taken down, it seems like three more spring up in its place. I’m grateful for the folks who take the time to fight these entities, but I personally don’t have time to search out and send a cease-and-desist letter to every pirate site I can find one of my books on and then follow up and then… It’s a lot of work, and I don’t think the folks who are getting pirated books would actually pay real money for my work anyway.