Do you know what it takes to self publish as a career? I'm sure you've seen the memes about what my friends think I do versus what I do as a writer, but the truth is far from funny. Independent authors who write for a living should be applauded for the daunting work to entertain our readers. Many think that we sit down and type for hours and then upload the book, and magically people buy it, and we become famous and make lots of money.

The truth is altogether different. Not only do we come up with an idea for a story, but we also have to figure out who the characters are, and I'm not just talking about naming them. We have to get to know their personalities and how they interact with the other characters in the store. We have to name them and describe them physically. When we are done with that, We have to spend hours pecking away at a story that we alternate between loving and hating. We start over multiple times until, finally, everything fits together well enough to look like a book that someone might want to read.

After we have written this book, we have to edit it, and if you knew what it costs for a good editor, you wouldn't pick on an author who is doing their editing to start. I've been writing for and publishing for almost five years, and I just got to the point of being able to afford to hire a professional with excellent rates for those who don't make six figures yet. Editors charge per word, so a story containing 60,000 words can cost anywhere from $1,200 - $3,000 and sometimes higher.

If a writer is selling their books for $2.99 and they don't have a huge following, the cost of the editor will be more than that book will earn in the first month or so to cover the cost. Editors want their money when the work is done, not in four years paid on credit. They have bills too.

We also have to give it a name, create a cover, write the product page description, and choose keywords phrased that will help people find our book when it is available to the world. After doing those things, you have to put together marketing materials that we can post to social media. We also have to trim the description down to a one hundred fifty word phrase or a few sentences that we can use to save space in our posts. Then we have to market it to the world because who will know that our book is out there if we don't shout it to the rooftops.

I made a list of everything that I do from beginning to end for each book.

1. Conceptualize the overall story idea

2. Plot the story

3. Write the story

4. Design the cover

5. Write the product description

6. Write the elevator pitch

7. Make marketing material

8. Market the book

9. Research the keyword phrases relevant to my book

10. Edit and proofread the story

11. Format the eBook

12. format the print book

13. Upload the book

Each thing on this list takes time, hours, and in some cases, it takes days. As you can see, many other authors and I work very hard, and I'm certain I've left something off this list. This list is still only a small amount of what we do. So the next time you read a book by an Indi Author, be sure to leave a review/rating to let them know that you appreciate what they do, and don't buy the book read it, and then ask for a refund because you can't see spending $2.99 - $4.99 for a book. That is stealing, and it belittles the author. If you can't afford Kindle Unlimited or the book's price, give up that expensive coffee or that bag of Doritos and pay that author the undervalued fee they've put on their hard work. Would you buy a carton of milk, take it home, serve it to your kids, put in cake mix or cereal, drink it all up, and return it to the store for a refund? No, because you and the store both know that if there were a problem with the product, you would have brought it back and complained before you consumed it all. Stop cheating these authors. Amazon has got to do better.

Sign the petition to help authors change the refund policy to stop book thieves from robbing authors. https://www.change.org/p/help-change-amazon-s-policy-on-ebook-returns