Publish your first book now and ignore the bad advice

Publish your first book and stop waiting for permission. Forget the gatekeepers—real growth comes from hitting publish, learning, and iterating.

Every author forum I’ve seen, every smug YouTuber I’ve watched, every “expert” in the trad-pub echo chamber I’ve heard, repeats the same tired gospel: “Don’t publish your first book. It’s practice. It’s not ready. Put it in a drawer and move on.”

I call bullshit.

If I had listened to that advice, Wind Wielder, whose cover’s going through a much-needed rebrand as I write this, would still be rotting in some Google Doc, and my shared universe would be nothing more than an outline collecting dust on a hard drive.

And guess what? I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Publishing your first book isn’t a mistake. It’s the best damn move you can make as a new writer.

The lie behind ‘don’t publish your first book’

Here’s the truth: Telling new authors not to publish their first book isn’t about protecting you. These people are keeping you in a perpetual state of permission-seeking.

That makes you afraid of the market, of embarrassment, and writing the damn story you wanna write. And worse, you develop a ‘play not to lose’ mindset.

That advice creates perfectionists who never hit “publish.” And perfectionism’s the graveyard where most stories go to die.

Publishing’s a learning curve

You don’t get better at writing novels by endlessly rewriting the same one. You need to put it out there, take your licks, move forward, and hone your craft.

Publishing’s the training ground, live fire exercise, and sparring match rolled into one.

You’ll learn:

• How readers respond to your characters.

• How your cover, blurb, and category placement either attract or repel.

• What marketing angles fall flat and which ones spark interest.

• That bad reviews won’t kill you — hell, they sharpen you.

These are things no beta group, critique partner, or craft book can replicate. You only learn them by putting skin in the game.

And if your book universally sucks? Unpublish it, fix it, change character names, sharpen the story, rebrand the book, and republish under a new title and pen name.

Wind Wielder: My case study

Let me tell you about Wind Wielder. My first published book and so-called “practice novel.”

Was it perfect? Hell no. Looking back, I can spot the pacing issues, the cover that didn’t land (hence the rebrand I’m finally getting to), and the blurb that needed more fire.

But here’s the kicker: People downloaded it and most readers liked it. Not like a blockbuster, but enough to teach me that yes, readers are cool with libertarian military sci-fi featuring elemental magic.

That was enough to gather reviews that built credibility, which pushed me into a cycle of improvement.

Because I published Wind Wielder:

• I got real-world data on what unorthodox tropes connected.

• Saw where readers checked out, and where they begged for more.

• Now, I’m retooling covers and descriptions.

• And I got tougher, sharper, and ready for more.

If I kept it in a drawer, none of that would’ve happened.

Iteration beats isolation

Publishing your first book doesn’t mean you’re stuck with it forever. Indie authors aren’t chiseling on stone tablets. We can revise, re-release, and rebrand, like I outlined earlier.

That’s the beauty of independent publishing: Iteration.

You don’t wait until Book 5 to learn the lessons of Book 1. You publish Book I, and maybe even Books 2, 3, 4, and beyond. Learn fast, and by the time you’re on Book 5, you’re battle-tested instead of still theorizing.

What’s the alternative?

Endless prep. Writing a dozen “practice novels.” Following all the rules until you’ve sterilized the fun out of the process. Waiting for some mythical “ready” moment that never arrives.

Meanwhile, the indie who dared to hit publish on their first book is five, ten, fifteen titles deep, building a catalog, a fanbase, and their business.

Is it time-intensive? Yes. Messy? Absolutely. But that’s what true success looks like.

Which one do you think wins in the long run?

Stop waiting. Start publishing.

Publish that first book. Watch the trad-pub purists and “author coaches” clutch their pearls, sneer while you rack up real-world experience, and build a tribe of readers.

Your first book’s a milestone, not a mistake.

And you can’t reach your second, third, or tenth without it.

So stop waiting for permission, and stop playing scared.

Hit publish, learn fast, and move forward. That’s how you grow, and how you win.

And make sure you track your growth. If you’d like some examples, download a couple of my freebies, like Wind Wielder and a book I wrote a few years later, Deceived Mage. Read ’em both if you like libertarian fiction and note the differences.