When you become an author, people are quick to shower you with praises. You’d better believe they’re thinking big things about your writing achievement, even before the ink can dry on the autograph that you just gave them. “Wow, I would love to write a book some day!” “How long did it take you?” “Are you going on a book tour?” The above remarks are pretty popular, at least up there in the top 3  comments in regards to what most authors will hear at some point in their career. 

PAUSE. You’re NOT hearing Hunter Hayes complaining about being placed on a pedestal; admired for work that she’s put lots of unsupervised time and effort into. #FAME This isn’t a blog post about that; those Kanye-West-FLASHING-LIGHTS that can take an AUTHOR from being unheard of, to being super popular. This is about AUTHORS (myself included) getting REAL with themselves. But let’s get my shallow accomplishments out of the way first:

Hunter Hayes got 2 very prestigious literary agents to represent her. Hunter Hayes sold lots of books and nabbed a 2-book publishing deal with a MAJOR publisher. Hunter Hayes managed to get a positive review in Publishers Weekly while she was SELF-PUBLISHED. Hunter Hayes has done many book signings. Hunter Hayes had a poster with her book. Hunter Hayes was a part of the book ads in Essence Magazine.

Now onto what’s important. What’s the REAL STORY behind the books that we’re selling? As an author who has gotten caught up in the hype, I can recollect a journey when I remember high sighing, going straight DIVA, telling a major publisher that “they just don’t get it.” This doesn’t mean that I feel like I was wrong, but as I look back on the situation, I feel like I could have definitely approached the subject differently. And then there was that AHA moment that I just got a few years ago. Do you know that it hadn’t dawned on me to check into EXACTLY how many books I’d sold in my publishing career? How did I know that my royalties were correct? How could I make myself marketable if I didn’t identify and establish my track record? Jay Z says women lie, men lie, but numbers don’t, so where did that put me?

 And here’s a better question? Even if you do decide to do it all on your own terms, do you not think that record keeping is a huge part of making the self-publishing journey? Guess what? Close to 100,000 books sold in this CHICK’s writing career. Better late than never. And now she knows better, which is more than most people can say.#Faith #Eyesontheprize #Lookingstraightahead #Overcomer

If there’s a lesson to be learned then I give you permission to SNATCH A PAGE FROM MY BOOK. 

If you’re with a big press publisher, a small press publisher, or self published, check your accounts (Smashwords, Amazon, Barnesandnoble).
Don’t forget to PAY the tax man. There’s no way around this one. He’ll come for you when you least expect. Most authors are sole proprietors or have established an LLC.
Don’t just give your paper away. Find out about the expenses that you can deduct as a business expense. If you’re running a book ad, if you’ve done giveaways, travel costs—all of that ish. 

Lastly, shout out to the people who held me down at a time when this author needed support, my parents, my family members who always treat me like a celebrity with 4 books under my belt or none at all. Janice, my clique—my cousins Michelle and Kim, you two were exceptionally over and beyond there for me at almost EVERY BOOK SIGNING. I finally get that you don’t need an AUTHOR acknowledgements page to let someone know how much you APPRECIATE THEM. 

Until next time.  I’ll keep you posted. I’m out.

Hunter Hayes