So You Wanna Write a Book?
No, you're not too young to do it. Here's your quick start guide to doing it.
Before We Begin
Writing a book isn't easy. Publishing is a whole different ballgame. Marketing, even, is difficult to do well. But none of it is impossible. In this guide I'll break down publishing, finance, legal stuff, marketing, scams, and more.
The Publishing Landscape
I'll try to make this as jargon-free as I can.
In the book publishing world, there are 2 (3, depending on who you ask) routes you can take to publish a book: Traditional and self-publishing (and small-press, but I'll briefly cover that later.)
Traditional
Traditional publishing (often called "trad" publishing) usually refers to the "Big 5" publishing houses: companies like Penguin Random House, MacMillan, and Simon & Schuster. These publisher don't accept direct submissions from authors. Instead, you'd have to follow a long, complicated process:
- Querying a literary agent
- Signing with that agent
-Having the agent pitch the book to publishers on your behalf
-Waiting months (or years) for responses
-And maaaaybe, if the stars align, getting a book deal.
For most authors going this route, this process takes 1-2 years before a book even enters production.
Then, the publishing house takes the rights and pays you an advance ($0-$1,000 for small press and $5,000-$10,000 for trad.) They don't pay you anything else until the royalties pay back their investment. The advance may be the only money you see from the book if marketing doesn't work out.
I kind of glossed over it, but it's really important: the publishing house takes the rights of your book. They can change the title, change the cover, cut chapters, alter characters, reject sequels, etc.
Trad publishing can also lock you into multi-book deals, non-compete clauses, strict deadlines, and limited control over foreign, film, and audio rights, often for years at a time.
A quick note on reversion rights: this is a clause in contracts that determine when the author gets the rights of their book back. The language can vary, but usually rights revert if: sales fall below a certain threshold, by the publisher's discretion, after a certain number of years, or if the book is out of print (which in the digital age with eBooks, can mean that the book is never out of print.)
Of course, this is all assuming that the book gets accepted. Many publishers are hesitant to sign with teen authors and assume the risk. Even talented writers face dozens of agent rejections, deals falling through, and months/years of silence from agents and publishers.
I'll be honest: I don't really love this route. It works for some people, especially writers who write as a career, but most people don't have the time or the money to gamble on something like that. The royalties are very small compared to the amount of work involved, and the author still has to do a lot of their own marketing. Money isn't everything, but your work has value. Not every family can invest thousands of dollars into a process that may not lead anywhere.
Self-Publishing
Self-publishing, often shortened to self-pub, is exactly what it sounds like: you skip the agents and the people in the publishing world and upload your book directly to platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) or IngramSpark. These platforms let authors upload a manuscript, upload a cover, set a price, and make the book available worldwide in both digital and print. For most teen authors (myself included), self-pub is the most accessible and empowering option. Here's why:
- There aren't any gatekeepers like in trad publishing. You don't need to wait years for an agent or publisher to say yes. When your finish a book, you can publish it onto the platform. This is crucial as deadline management...isn't exactly teen's strong suits.
- You get waaaay higher royalties with self-publishing. I sell my book on Amazon for $13.99, a competitive price for debut novels. I make about 3-4 dollars in royalties for every copy sold. Had I gone trad, I would have made 5%-8% per copy.
- You gets more creative control on the cover, formatting, release date, marketing, pricing, and the content of the book itself. It's no secret that trad publishers will sometimes edit the content of your books to make it more market friendly. This is helpful when you have a story you want to be told their way.
The two main publishers, KDP and IngramSpark, are free to publish onto, but they get your book on different places. You can do both, I did both, and so have many authors.
KDP: gets your hardcover, paperback, and ebook (as a kindle book) on Amazon.
IngramSpark: gets your book basically everywhere else, no exaggeration. I've found my book on obscure international book sites, Kobo, Barnes and Noble online, and so many more.
- The cost, if done correctly, is lower than trad publishing. The final ticket is ultimately based on how much you want to invest into it:
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Hiring a cover designer vs your teen doing it themselves (or collaboratively, if they have an artistic friend)
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Hiring a formatter vs doing the formatting themselves
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Hiring a professional editor vs having friends and family read it (NOT RECOMMENDED)
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Paying for ads/marketing vs doing grassroots social media marketing
Can you pay for all of this, and more, if you want to? Absolutely. But should you? Probably not. The beauty of self-publishing is that it can be scaled down to fit your budget.
Small-Press Publishing
I'm mostly writing this section to acknowledge that this is an option. Small-press publishing is the middle ground between trad and self publishing. Authors submit their work to smaller, independent publishing houses. Some small presses will accept submissions directly from authors, while others still require a literary agent. They move faster than their Big 5 counterparts, work closer with authors, take more creative risks, and publish more niche genres. But, they can still take years and have lower royalties, while still leaving you with having to do all the marketing yourself (unless you purchase more expensive packages.)
They still function with the advance system: they pay you a small advance, and until your book makes back the money in royalties, you don't see any additional money.
A VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT VANITY PRESSES!!!
The publishing industry is not immune to scams, unfortunately.
Some companies pretend to be small, indie presses but are actually vanity presses. The scam works by charging authors (or their parents, in this case, you) HUGE fees to "publish" books, while offering very little in return.
Some red flags to be aware of:
- Charging money to read or even consider a manuscript
- Offering exorbitant prices for marketing packages
- Promising bestseller status (as a publisher, marketer, or vendor of anything, you can't 100% guarantee any amount of sales.)
- giving you a lot of pressure to make a decision.
If you see this stuff, run. Or consult the internet. A small press, or any press, will pay you an advance, not turn you upside down and shake you for money.
Further Reading:
A more professional breakdown by professionals in the industry. Reedsy is a great site for information like this.
Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing: A Guide for Writers
Marketing, Social Media, and Scams
Publishing is exciting, but you should tamper your expectations of success. I'm not saying that to be a doomer or Debbie Downer, but your book isn't gonna find readers on its own. You kind of have to help it.
That doesn't mean you have to become an influencer or anything, but you do need to show up somewhere online so that people can discover your work.
Here's what I mean by that:
Marketing doesn't have to be loud, salesy, and annoying, with subway surfers playing on half the screen while you break down your plot. Low-budget marketing can look like posting snippets and quotes, sharing your writing process, participating in hashtags (though hashtags don't boost visibility a ton in my experience) and joining writer communities. You don't need to have a huge following, and don't be discouraged if you aren't successful right away. It took me like 9 months to find my audience.
What if I don't want to show my face?
Then don't. You can use stock images or images on Pinterest (credit artists and watch out for AI) to illustrate snippets, or shoot videos in real life without showing your face. You should have at least one place where readers can find you, on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram (most low maintenance), Substack (if you like essay writing), and so on. But pick one or two that you actually enjoy. You'll burn out if you force yourself to post too frequently, or on platforms you don't like. You don't have to show your face, your location, anything personal.
Protect your peace, too. Block early. Block often. There are a lot of trolls out there and people who will call your work unoriginal and can't be convinced otherwise. Don't respond to hate comments, and delete offensive ones.
Websites
Use a free website builder to create a landing page for you as an author and your book. This is what I usually give to family/friends in real life and professionals, like publishers and editors, while keeping my YouTube as my slightly less polished face. Even if it doesn't get high visibility, it creates a record of your book and you as an author before publishing, and (slowly but surely) starts building SEO relevance.
On Scams
The writing world has a lot of scams. Here are a few.
"Publish with us for only $3,000!"
Ew. No. Yuck. Scam. As I wrote above, publishers pay YOU an advance, not the other way around. This is a vanity press.
"Here are our marketing packages: $50 Gold Package for a story post, permanent post, and mention in our bio, $70 Diamond Package for 4 story posts, 2 permanent..."
These are accounts, mostly on Instagram, that have a bunch of bot followers and charge authors for promo on their pages. They get like 20k likes, sure, but none of that translates to real sales. Don't fall for these. Bots will often comment on your posts saying "@writers_heaven I suggest" followed by a bunch of emojis, or the actual scammer will say "send me this post <3!!!!" Report and move on.
"We'll edit your book for cheap!"
If it's too cheap to be real, they're probably using AI.
"We guarantee X amount of sales (or bestseller status)"
No marketer, salesman, or publisher of ANY kind in ANY industry can promise any amount of sales. If they are, then it probably means they're botting. Or just trying to scam you.
Other forms of scams/suspicious behavior is anyone asking for your full manuscript, apart from your buddies, beta readers, people from vetted groups, or the actual publishers/editors that you've signed with.
Finance
This is how finances typically look if you're choosing to self publish.
As mentioned before, the beauty of self-publishing is that you can spend nothing (not recommended) or spend a fortune (not recommended either).
Here are what I consider to be the "mandatory costs:"
ISBNs: this is basically your book's ID, the barcode on the back. You need a separate one for paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audiobook (if desired.) If you use your name when buying the ISBNs (which you can while not breaking any rule) you own the ISBN.
KDP provides them for free, but it's exclusive to Amazon. IngramSpark requires you to buy your own. If you buy your own ISBNs from Bowker (the ISBN vendor), you can keep consistency with the ISBNs across both publishers.
Oh, and buy the 10-pack. It's more cost effective, and buying individuals is expensive and inefficient, especially since you need 3 (paperback, hardcover, and ebook). the other seven will come in handy when you write the sequel, or other projects. They're YOUR ISBNs.
Proof Copies: this is the only other "mandatory cost." They can range from $5-$15 plus shipping. The publisher sends you a physical proof so you can check the formatting, and make sure everything looks right. Trust me, proofreading a physical book is SO much different compared to a digital copy.
Now onto the technically optional costs, where you can choose to invest to make the book better:
Professional editing: This is, in my opinion, the single most important investment. There are different kinds of editing, but for our purposes, I will be referring to copyediting: cleaning up the final version to make it free of both technical errors (punctuation inconsistencies, wrong quotation marks) and logical errors (character stands up, says something, and stand up again without having sat down). This can cost $600-$2,000+, and the rate is often a few cents per word. Longer book=more expensive, which is why self-editing and paring down the word count is generally advised before you take the plunge with a professional.
Getting professional editing matters because teens are still learning grammar, structure, pacing, clarity, and punctuation norms. A well-edited book earns better reviews and makes the book seem more legitimate. The editors often work with you, allowing you to ask the editor questions about writing and editing the right way. I advise you not to skip this step.
Next on the optional costs, cover design. A professional cover designer can cost $50-$300 for stock, premade covers and $200-$600+ for custom covers, and more if it requires specialized artwork like many fantasy covers have. Readers do judge books by covers. I made my own cover myself, investing about 118 hours, and if you're artsy or have an artsy friend, it makes for a fun project. With the right tools, a cover is very easy to do on your own.
Lastly, formatting. I formatted my book for free in Kindle Create for digital and LibreOffice for print. You could very easily do this on their own, but some people prefer not to. Pricing is generally $50-$200.
Some smaller costs are author copies (buying copies of your own book to give away to family and friends or have for yourself, generally at a discount), and the cost that is your time. Having calculated it after my project, I've invested about 2,400 hours into my book (not counting marketing and such), which is equivalent to a master's degree. You will invest bucketloads of time into their project, which also has value. Remember to take stretch breaks and stay hydrated, though.
There is no "right" amount to invest into marketing, it's entirely what works for your family. Many teen authors like myself succeed on a smaller scale budget by learning how to do all those processes like formatting and cover design ourselves.
Legal Stuff
Don't panic, it's simple.
The one thing you really need to know is that you can't sign contracts or receive royalty payments as a minor. You need a parent/guardian to make the account with you, make the bank account, and cosign legal forms. This doesn't stop you at all, it just means your need a partner for this. I have the full detailed section on the page for parents, if you really want to know about it.
On that note, the copyright of your book is and always will be yours (unless you sign a book deal that transfers or lends the rights.) Your IP is your IP, at any age.
Conclusion
Yes, it's possible to write, publish, and market your own book successfully, even if you're a minor. You don't have to be famous or perfect to do it, and I promise you, there are so many authors, adult authors, out there who have written terrible books. You have nothing to be afraid of.
All you need:
- A trusted adult
- A comfortable headspace (if you're struggling emotionally or in school, wait to publish)
- Consistency
- A willingness to learn
- Patience
- And a place to share your work
You're not behind, too young, or alone in this.
And if you ever feel overwhelmed or confused about any of this, you can always hit up the Teen Author Hotline, a Google form where I'll answer your questions in email or a YouTube short. I made it for you.