Writing is a Skill, Publishing is a Process
Anybody can learn to publish a book. It is not a skill, it’s a series of processes. A skill is something that is learned through practice and studying other people’s work. A process is memorizing a series of steps to accomplish a task. Reheating pizza in the microwave is a process. It is learned by memorizing a series of steps. Everybody does it the same way with the same results.
I can teach you how to hold a paint brush and apply paint to a canvas, but I can’t teach you how to paint. That comes with talent and talent is developed, not learned. You have to do that on your own. Yes, you can take classes on how to dab a sponge brush into paint and make leaves on a piece of paper, but that is a process and everybody in the class will have trees that look the same way.
I like to bake, but is that a skill or a process? It depends. My baking is a process. I do not have any skill when it comes to creating deserts. I open a cook book and follow a recipe- a simple list of instructions that somebody wrote. My chocolate chip cookies look and taste like everybody else’s assuming that I followed the recipe correctly. If I had real talent in baking, I would create my own recipes and develop my own unique creations.
Getting back to #publishing. Some people say it’s easy, some say it’s difficult. I will tell you that any process can be learned and reproduced. To me, that’s easy, it just takes time. Skills are much more difficult to develop so, yes, publishing is easy, but it’s work. I can teach you how to publish your book.
Writing, on the other hand is difficult. To be a good writer, you must practice and study other people’s works. Before you publish anything, you must be a good writer, but that is something I cannot teach you.
Where are you on your #writing path? Have you read a lot of books in your genre? Have you been practicing your craft? If the answer is “yes”, then take the next step and learn the process of publishing. If the answer is “no”, then start there. Take a year off and study. Then come back and publish your art.
Remember, writing is a skill you develop by studying and practicing. Publishing is a process you learn by memorizing a series of steps. Anybody can publish. Not everybody can write well.
Article and photo by Jeffrey David Montanye.
#JeffreyDMontanye #SelfPublishing
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