We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kara Zone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kara, thanks for joining us today. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are often hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?

When I started working as a ghostwriter, I did it for me. I wanted to become the best writer I could be, with the eventual idea that I’d write and work on personal novels while helping others turn their ideas about books into reality.

I didn’t know or even think about how ghostwriting clients come into the world.

Yes, birth… I know how babies are made.

But there’s a group of people who come from self-publishing academies.

Sounds great. Clients get a boot camp-style workshop where they learn the ins and outs of self-publishing.

All clients I met on one specific online platform that will not be named in this anecdote were told they needed to publish one book a month to make money.

However, none of the clients I met on this online platform were writers.

They didn’t understand how the writing process went and were told many things that were a bunch of horseshit.

I met one client who was a lovely woman, and we seemed to work well together. I wrote a non-fiction book, but she wanted to be in contemporary romance, and I wanted to write fiction—not specifically romance, but the more we write, the better we become.

From the get-go, the process was a nightmare. Instead of taking five weeks to write 50,000 words, it took me way too long. I wound up writing 150,000 words and only getting paid for the 50k.

My fault. I let it happen.

I learned a lesson.

However, while working with a contemporary romance client, she recommended me to one of her other academy classmates.

I needed to make money, and the partnership was grating from moment one. I didn’t work with her for very long.

The expectations for these two clients were too damn high; they were putting all the pressure on the writing and not listening or understanding what the process was about.

The academies didn’t explain the difference between rough and final drafts.

They didn’t tell their students that self-publishing a book once a month isn’t going to give you the quality of a traditionally published book, not only because traditionally published books take at minimum two years to produce but also because an army of people also helping the book become the best it can be, and money… traditional publishers—the big five—have lots of money.

Traditional publishers know how the system works because they built it and have been using it for decades, if not longer.

So, two big lessons were learned on my part.

Don’t do more work than the client is willing to (and can) pay for. I was hurting for money that year.

I’m a good writer; I have five years of practice in non-fiction and fiction. I read best-sellers, track patterns, and see changes. I know what makes a compelling story and how to write one. I’ve come up with some of my formulas. I’ve had books on the best-seller list, and other best-sellers complement the books I’ve written. Yet somehow, certain clients still end up blaming the writing when they aren’t willing to do footwork, too.

Publishing is a beast—all publishing, not just self-publishing, not just traditionally publishing.

Every part should at least have a team of three people, and most parts will keep that team of three busy with full-time jobs.

I am grateful for these clients. They aren’t bad people; they tried. They just didn’t understand, and once they saw what they were really getting into, they decided that it wasn’t right for them.

And these are not the only two I’ve come across who have specific ideas going in because they weren’t told the whole truth. These are just the first two I had where I started to put my foot down.

I’ve learned a lot from these two and other clients I’ve met in the last five years. I’m in a position where I get to pick and choose my clients, just like clients have the opportunity to pick and choose me.

Now…

I won’t work with anyone who doesn’t have a marketing plan.
I lay out my terms in very clear manners.
I am okay with walking away from a client if we are not working well together.
I’m more than okay with letting clients know what I am good at and what they’ll need to hire others to do.
I’m more confident because I went through those experiences with clients.
I’m excited to give what I’ve learned to others and help them know they aren’t alone.

It might seem weird because even though I hated going through those experiences, I wouldn’t change it for the world because it helped me appreciate the good clients, ones who we can work together in a partnership, one where we both respect each other, the process and the knowledge each brings to the table.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started writing about fifteen years ago. Back then, I was married to the wrong man (he was also married to the wrong woman. We fixed that and are both happier now), had two small children, and had a massive lack of self-esteem.

But writing was the vehicle I’d been waiting for. It was my *thing,* it still is.

Before I could dive into it fully and find the confidence to believe that I could do it, I had to set some things straight.

I left my marriage, went to college, and found my footing. (It’s not as easy as it sounds, but that’s what I did.)

I also saw a therapist to help me with my confidence issues and discovered many things that were holding me back from believing in myself.

During college, I was a single mom who attended school full-time and worked two jobs for the first year. I also developed a chronic pain disorder called Fibromyalgia, which is one of the reasons I chose to continue to work for myself.

I graduated Cum Laude (something I didn’t think was possible) in 2018.

I also started working as a virtual assistant for all people who needed help writing.

It was my first step, and I always planned to expand my knowledge of the publishing world.

By 2019, I was working for a ghostwriting company, learning how to write nonfiction books for clients. I got a few children’s fiction books published—as a ghostwriter, not under my name—and after about a year, I was ready to move on to writing fiction.

Since I didn’t know how to start, and the ghostwriting company I worked for only did genres I didn’t want to write in, I googled “How to find clients for a ghostwriter.” Sounds lame, I know, but it’s what I did.

It led me to a few online platforms, where I started low and slow, learning about writing fiction, clients, and how to work with them (or when not to work with them). Throughout the years, some of my novels have gone on to be best sellers, and all are highly ranked.

I learned every part of publishing that I could—so far, it’s been all about self-publishing, but in five years, I’ve learned about almost every aspect. I started going to conferences and realized that even traditionally published authors go through the same things I do and that I kind of know the same things they’re telling me.

So, now, I’m at a new point in my career.

I still ghostwrite and edit, but I’m also a writing and self-publishing coach. I’m branching out because there are so many unrealistic expectations in the publishing world that I want to unravel for others. Not because I want to “pull back the curtain” but to give them a way to keep going when things look the hardest.

So many people I know, ghostwriting clients, editors, authors, and freelancers, give up when things seem the hardest because they weren’t told about the layers of this industry. It’s heartbreaking to see and understand that if they were told what they were getting into—complete transparency—they would know they weren’t failing, but what they were going through was part of the process.

I believe they wouldn’t’ve given up.

So, I’m stepping in to help them, too.

My career didn’t turn out like I thought it would. I learned a lot of shocking stuff along the way and dealt with a lot of crap I wasn’t prepared for, but I wouldn’t change most of it because each step I take leads me in a new direction, and I love growing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Helping other people achieve their goals.

Some think they aren’t creative, or they don’t want to try their hand at being creative, so clients reach out to me.

I get to help them develop worlds, build characters, and tell stories. I’m usually with them from start to finish, and I’m always in awe with how a story goes from a jumbled-up mess of word vomit into something truly beautiful and unique because it comes from someone’s heart and head.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to help other people achieve their goals.

Being a well-respected voice in the publishing community is something that took me a long time to suss out, I knew that I had a story to tell with the hopes that it would inspire others to take the first steps into the places they want to be. It doesn’t have to be writing, editing, publishing, but that’s where I’m sitting at because that’s what makes me most happy.

And one message I really love to hit home is that once you start listening to your instincts and are genuine to yourself, you’ll start using the momentum to feel truly complete.

If I can help people on their path to becoming who they were supposed to be, then I’ll keep going and hope to reach more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.karamzone.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karamzone_writes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karamzone/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kara-m-zone-b457016a/
• Other: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/46162684-kara-zone