Publishing and writing are two different parts of the puzzle.  They’re not the same thing and shouldn’t be approached as the same thing.


Writing is a creative art.  It’s image-intensive, using the imagination to create stories and poetry.  Even non-fiction is as much art as science, as connections are made between facts and figures.  There are many tools to help us keep the channel clear as we create.


Publishing is a business.  It’s about producing product that customers want to buy.  It’s changed a lot in the last fifteen years, from the consolidation of traditional publishing houses to the explosion of ereaders and ebooks.  Genre definitions have blurred and fractionated because the internet allows authors to give readers many different tags for a particular book that would be impossible to duplicate in a brick-and-mortar store.  


It’s important to remember that these two “jobs,” if you will, aren’t the same and that they require different skills.  Luckily, there are many places to learn the skills that will help you succeed at both, but the firs step is to recognize the differences between them.