So the big news in publishing is there are no game changers anymore. We must bury the words. The game changer was the internet way back more than 12 years ago. Now anything and everything is possible. And anything that can happen will happen. Not all of it is good and not all of it is bad. But one thing is for sure -- no one knows what is going to happen.
There is no one solution. Everything is a solution.
That means writers can't jump on every bandwagon thinking this one is going
to change my life.
This is a terrific article.
Please read it. Jason Pinter has it exactly right.
We have to understand that technology is not a short
cut to hard work. And we have to understand that what worked for Jill might
not work for Jack.
Before you jump on a bandwagon, look at the the
path that writer took before you evaluate his results and try to follow them.
When an author like Seth Godin self publishes a novel
after having several NYT bestsellers and a strong tribe of followers and sells
100s of thousands of copies - it isn't proof that self publishing works.
It's proof that Seth made something work.
Ultimately its about the book.
Sadly I meet authors every week who self publish books
and spend $1000, $5000, $10,000 and more and sell less than 100 copies. I
recently met one who spent $100,000 and who wound up selling 200 copies. What
happened? People went to their websites or online booksellers and read the
excerpts and didn't like them.
I'm not saying don't be innovative. I'm not saying
don't try new things.
We must keep being innovative.
But I am suggesting we shouldn't be followers without
studying the paths we are about to take and making sure our footsteps even can
match up with the ones we're sticking our shoes into.
We can't all self publish a book and expect to have
the success of The Lace Reader if we don't have that specific that book
and that PR budget and most of all that group of bookstores willing and
able and excited about hand selling a book that has to do with their town.
750,000 books were self published last year. 250,000
traditionally published.
That's a million books a year! And no one can buy a
book they never heard of. No one asks a friend or a bookstore owner or a search
engine "Tell me about a book you never heard of and I never heard of but
that I will want to read."
I believe - I want to believe - I am desperate to
believe - that talent will always rise. But I'm a realist too and I can
see that the path to that rising will become more complicated than ever.
I
feel certain creative minds will figure out ways to help the cream rise to the
top. A friend of mine suggested that one way is more expensive
books - not less expensive. Maybe that will happen.
Free
books are already failing to translate to bought books. Many are being read by
people who only read free books.
One
friend had 89,000 downloads of his free ebook. His next book -
which was not free - only sold 1000 copies. What happened? Was the free
book bad? Did the readers just not like his work enough to buy the next one? Or
did they just not want to buy a book if it cost money?
But
whatever we do we have to remember one thing - the most important to me -the
thing so many writers seem to shrug their shoulders about when it comes up is
that we have work hard and take our time and learn our craft.
If
we want to keep readers- not just get them once - but keep them - we have to
do everything we can to write good books. And there are no short cuts to
that.
There are no game changers there.
Like most truths, this one is as simple as it is hard. It does seem like the tools are overwhelming the craft right now. Perhaps this will subside as digital publishing choices become more familiar and, well, boring.
Thanks for this.
Posted by: Thereadingape.blogspot.com | May 19, 2010 at 09:24 AM
We also need to remember there are no shortcuts-a lot of people are going to look at this as a shortcut, think it's a way to skip the slush pile, to skip the rejection, to skip the hard work that goes into the polishing the craft, refining your work...in short, putting in the time needed. There's no way around it, people are going to look at this 'game changer' as a way to skip all of that, but there are no short cuts.
Getting those rejections hurt, but we need them. It's how we improve.
Posted by: Shilohwalker.wordpress.com | May 19, 2010 at 10:46 AM
Truth is most would-be successful authors will never be successful, no matter how dedicated to craft. Mediocrity now has a venue. (But is that really so bad?)
Posted by: SuspenseMan | May 20, 2010 at 08:33 AM