Are you waiting for permission to publish your book?

What “golden ticket” are you searching for and from whom? Most importantly, what can you be doing in the meantime while you’re waiting? And if that permission from the outside never comes, how can you turn your “while I’m waiting” activity into your OWN golden ticket?

Authors today have more opportunities than ever to print our own golden tickets. Statistics from the publishing front lines in recent years show self and indie publishing book sales trending sharply upward while sales of traditionally published books are spiraling downward by comparison.

There is also subjective proof supporting self & indie publishing as a wise choice for authors, especially those with brand platforms (or the capacity for building future platforms).

Consider what one of my authors was told earlier this year by the former head of a MAJOR traditional publisher:

“If you are already in business, an entrepreneur, with any semblance of a brand, it would make NO sense whatsoever to go with a traditional publisher vs. self-publishing (and marketing through your existing means) where you actually get to keep control of your book and not hand all your book profits over to someone else. Going with a traditional in your situation is very ’10 years ago’ at this point.”

The once mysterious world of producing, distributing, and selling books is no longer a mystery. Authors have found the keys to the golden gates of publishing and are refusing to wait for permission to share their stories with their readers.

It would also be a reasonable assumption that traditional publishing has taken a financial hit as a result of these trends. However, this probably hasn’t slowed the flood of aspiring authors knocking on the golden gates, still asking for permission to be published.

Consider this – if the old systems are falling (which we’re seeing in many industries, not just publishing), do the traditional houses even have the funds to say “yes” anymore? And considering that each “yes” is attached to a price tag – how often can they realistically do this?

Knowing that, and even if Rome wasn’t falling, how willing are YOU as an aspiring author to put your dreams on hold while you wait for permission to publish? How long will you keep your words from changing lives? How do you think your readers would feel about your self-imposed holding pattern?

What are you going to do about it?