Your debut will probably flop

Your debut will probably flop, whether you are an indie or trad pubbed...and that's good news.

Hi,

I have good news for you. Your debut will probably flop, whether you are an indie or trad pubbed. It is almost impossible to get traction for a debut book. So, you can stop worrying about it now.

It will be painful. Then, it will be over, but it will not be the big hit you’ve been dreaming about.

Why? Readers and reviewers have a finite number of slots for debut books. Their priority is stocking books that already sell, and have good word of mouth, which generally means stocking books from bestselling authors.

As fun as it is to hand sell books, it’s also exhausting.

So, if you’ve only written one book, you can use it to make an introduction to the right people, but it probably won’t be a financial asset until you have maybe 2 but probably 3 books before you start to get real traction with them.

Publishers know this, and expect to lose big on a book 1, break even on a book 2, and then make a profit on book 3. All they really want in that first book is for a ton of people to read it a…