I interviewed a published author, Erin Toner. While I am looking into becoming an author, Erin has a published children’s book. While it is not the same genre or audience of writing I am looking into I still learned some valuable things.

My main three take-aways were as follows:

1. When it comes to being an author, or just putting out any published pieces of writing, the editing and publication process is equally if not more challenging than writing out the initial material. As an author you are required to do a lot of self-editing of your own work and then hire an editor as well. And when it comes to publication, you may never even find anyone willing to publish your work.
2. Self-promotion is key when publishing a book. You need to be able to get the word out about your book(s) yourself. My interviewee, Erin has a website dedicated to her children’s books for this very purpose. Even if you’re working with a publisher you still need to learn how to sell yourself.
3. It’s hard to make a living off children’s books, or any writing unless your book is incredibly popular. There really is no one typical salary for an author. A book has to earn back it’s advances in sales before an author can collect royalties. That’s why many authors have additional jobs on top of writing.