True confession: not so long ago, I had a discussion with a promising young author about his current work in progress which is rather brilliant but needs refinement. Basically, he needs to spend more time honing his craft.
I said, “Finish it up and submit it. I’d love to have it in our stable.”
He hemmed and hawed and finally said, “Ah-h-h-h-h-I-e-e-e don’t really want to do that.” The rest of unsaid statement screamed through the ionosphere: I want a real publisher. Tor, to precise, or barring that Ultimate Authority in all things fantasy and sci-fi, one of the New York Big Seven.
Can I blame him? Absolutely not. Do I empathize? Only too well. I don’t know a single writer who hasn’t obsessed over the ideal of being “discovered” and getting that six-figure advance, a mere forerunner of the fame and fortune certain to come their way.
What writer hasn’t cast and re-cast their major characters for that big budget blockbuster based on [insert current WIP here]? (They’ll have to do an open call to find the perfect mix of hunky, troubled, and vulnerable for my MC. Christian Bale and Will Smith are just too old).
“The publishing world is changing,” I said. “Self-publishing isn’t just about vanity press anymore.”
“Yeah, but the industry needs gatekeepers,” he countered.
“The readers are the gatekeepers.” The conversation didn’t go well from there. They never do when I pit my debate skills against any of my sons. They never do. I have to write things down.
Last week (okay, two weeks ago—sue me), we watched the magical land of Published Author come crashing down around our ears as the Amazonian hordes defeated the literary giants and overran the city. What’s worse, we realized our emerald-tinted glasses clouded our vision. We began to lose faith in the Great Oz, Commercial Success. Perhaps—just perhaps—the emperor has no clothes.
But, remember those ravening hordes. They’re not only the writers. They’re the readers as well. As they jostle and shoulder one another in the marketplace, toes will be stepped on, feelings may get trampled. More than a few of both breeds will probably give up in disgust and go home.
But, the pundits are wrong. The Internet and hand-helds aren’t the death of the written word. I say, they hail a new Renaissance for literature. All of the sudden, writers with important things to say are sitting down at their keyboards and saying them. They’re blogging. They’re tweeting. They’re posting and sharing and pinning.
The Internet, e-books, and on-demand printing are to the big publishing houses what the Gutenberg press was to monks, velum, and feather quills in the middle ages: transformative. Democratic. Revolutionary.
It’s not only raw data that has flooded into our lives via the airwaves in the past decade. It’s ideas. The elite few no longer control the flow of information.
But, we do require gatekeepers, and the readers assume that place by default. Only they will allow writers even a glimpse of the Promised Land. The burning question then becomes, how does an author make their lone voice heard? How do they rise head and shoulders above the rest, enough that readers will open up and let them into that magical land of sales?
The simple answer is, they don’t. Not very easily, and not without sacrificing their writing to accomplish it.
Selling books—books that get liked, shared, tweeted, reviewed, and emailed—is far more than typing up your thoughts and uploading the file to a sales site. Because the life blood of this brave new world is word of mouth, that word had better be good. One bad review can turn off hundreds of would-be buyers. Ten good reviews can single out a work enough that it may eventually reach critical mass and go viral.
This is where the independent publisher comes in, and where writers need the most support. From the development of an outline, through to the final proofreading, a good editorial staff will help the author shape and polish their work, forming it into something readers will want to share—will feel compelled to share.
Then, a good marketer and publicist will guide the author in finding that readership, putting books into the right people’s hands, and making themselves visible in the independent hometown bookstores—the only place where business is booming in the brick-and-mortar retail market these days.
With the right publisher, the author doesn’t have to fight their way through the mob alone. They have security in numbers. They have a platform. They have an association of authors committed to their success in this brave new world, just as they lend their support to their counterparts. The right publisher’s logo on the spine tells readers that work makes the grade.
The right publisher will lead, guide, and instruct, shortening the author’s learning curve dramatically, and allowing them to do what they love: write.
Next time: Measuring Success
Editor-in-chief Penny Freeman’s current projects, Shadow of the Last Men by J. M. Salyards, and Primal Storm, Book II of the Grenshall Manor Chronicles, by R. A. Smith, are slated for release in August and October of 2013, respectively.
Her latest release, Mechanized Masterpieces: a Steampunk Anthology, hit the shelves in April, 2013, to excellent reviews.