Hello, darklings!
I spent a weekend at a sci-fi/fantasy convention recently. I was left unsupervised. And I bought books. Lots of books. Will hopefully have a few reviews of some indy titles for you little deviants.
They had great panels for writers, featuring traditional, small press, and self published authors. I learned a great deal on pen names, Amazon’s domination of the market, writing guilds, and engaging with readers.
Though the authors varied greatly, they all agreed on one thing no matter the panel: the book market has changed drastically.
Before, an author or agent would get the book to a publisher and that publisher would handle all the publicity and advertising. This can still happen, but it is rare, like hitting the lottery, getting struck by lightning, falling into another dimension… Just not likely to happen. Which means that authors need to be savvy about finding their audience, making smart business choices, and navigating social media platforms.
They also stated that one shouldn’t wait to get these platforms established before publishing, either. There is more need for initiative on the author’s part than ever before.
And all the while, one still needs to write a book, because none of that work is worth anything if there is never a product. So until you can prove to yourself you can finish a work, don’t bother with the rest. In this fast-evolving market, it will change by the time you manage a manuscript.
That’s why we crows don’t want to fly solo. Writers can make it easier now as a group. There’s support, the sharing of marketing burdens, helping each other navigate, and having more feet on the ground when needed. Writing comes naturally to us—marketing our work is a new, scary beast we don’t know.
From what I discovered by listening to other authors, mistakes will happen. Much of the market is also chance. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how well a book is written, how pretty its cover, how intriguing its blurb, it just won’t hit the market right, and that is no one’s fault.
We know to give ourselves grace when at the mercy of that mutable beast. We have to try different things to get our books in the hands of those who need them. We might publish traditionally; we might not. We might all publish through different venues. The important thing to us is that no matter what pathways we take, we’re attacking it as a flock.
Be awesome, you uncanny corvids.
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