I realize a lot of you following me are authors yourselves. Today I’m going to point to an article I wrote for the How To Write Shop. My influence for Dig Up and Rebuild Platforms is the sheer rampant sensationalism I keep hearing related to the business of writing but not about writing itself. There is a market for writing advice and I hesitate, nigh trepidate, to dive into those waters because what I care most about is my work. I’m online for a different reason than others may be. I’m not here to seek out internet fame. (Definitely not going to complain if that happens, though. Hee.) I’m here to learn, share, and engage for three reasons. First? Online marketing has a very high learning curve in part because it’s constantly changing. This has been my world for many years and I have to keep up with the technology. Second, I like the community aspect of the web provided my priorities are in the right place. I talked a little bit about this as my biggest take-a-way from going offline for 100 days. Third? I use the web for testing different ways to talk about, share, and publish my stories.
This wasn’t always the case. I started out thinking that the way people would get to see my work is if readers could get to know me. After a while? I felt used because it was *very* clear that the two worlds didn’t coincide. Worse, I started losing money because I get paid to consult. By giving away good information (a lot of data you get from consultants is the vanilla stuff for this reason) the majority of the people in the fiction world got what they wanted and walked away. When I needed help? Looked for my fiction readers? They were in sparse supply. Who made that mistake? Me. Because I did not put my work before my platform and I paid the price based on my goals and desires, not anyone else’s. It did, on the other hand, help me out with my professional life because people understood my business philosophy. Again, we’re talking about two, separate audiences rather than appealing to the one that matters to my work as an author.
Some writers write a couple stories and become famous. Others write hundreds of stories and never break the best-seller’s list. This is the reality of being an author regardless of who you are, when you’ve written, what you’ve published, and what the state of the industry is. Right now, everyone is looking for that magic formula on how to position themselves in a flood, fluctuating, volatile market. I know I did. Now I’m not. Why? Because the formula really hasn’t changed. It’s still about reading, writing what you love, researching markets, and submitting to them. A lot of people are using self-publishing as a bypass in the hopes they’ll get rich and famous but here’s the thing: self-publishing is its own market. Instead of submitting to a publisher and working with them, you’re now hoping to find your own readers who’ll follow your work through your self (small) press. Keep in mind, too, that authors who started out with the Big Six and bailed didn’t leave their readers behind. Some of them followed along because they were hooked on their stories. I played around with self-publishing and I’ll continue to experiment. It’s just not a business model I want to bank everything on.
Growing financial concerns seem to be the ever-pressing reason why authors do the thing they do and create the platform they have. Some are happier making less money but having more readers because the publisher is taking care of a lot of the business-facing aspects. Others will gladly take a diminished audience and make more money. By and large, however, many authors are banking on the potential of what they could make based on what they think publishers want out of them. This? Is incredibly stupid. Experiment, yes, but have your core business — which is your work, not your brand. If all you’re doing is banking on a dream, then you’ll die a fool. I didn’t become an author because I wanted to constantly play the lottery; I always was an author because this is who I am and what I love, love, love to do. Making a decent living as an author is very difficult which is why all too many of us have day jobs. I often joke about how I’m writing for my retirement, but I’m planning my career as an author over the course of several years — not just next week or next quarter based on that one story.
The sensationalism aspect of “YOU MUST DO THIS OR ELSE” bothers me because it’s really sending a crappy message for new writers about the business of writing itself. There is a market for writing advice. There are people that are much, much, much better at this than I could ever hope to be. I make people cry because I am very blunt. (Not kidding!) I do this because I care about the work itself and sometimes forget there’s an ego involved. First drafts mean nothing to me. I work and pare and polish because I enjoy it — revisions are FUN! Sigh. Still trying to find my tribe. What I wouldn’t give for a killer critique partner.
I hate the fact that now we’ve come to the point where other authors are bitching about other authors not giving the “correct” advice in the way that “we” prefer. BACK OFF. Yes, this is a competitive industry but that does not mean this has to be a competition. Have we really stooped that low that now we have to criticize how people are trying to help others? Screw that! Different things have always worked for different people. Don’t like it? Don’t read it or promote it. It’s as simple as that.
The mad, mad, mad rush to get new stories out there is cheapening the writing process and I feel that this is not sustainable or good for storytelling as a whole. Really, the best writing advice I’ve ever taken, was to stop reading what you should be doing and focus on how you’re applying it in your work. It’s kind of like getting back in shape. You can read, and read, and read all the diet tips that you want, but unless you’re actually on the machine? You’ll never lose the weight.
Anyway, I meandered a lot today I know but this has been on my mind for weeks. I hope that if you read my blog or any of my articles you know that I am not telling you what to do — you need to figure out what works for yourself, your work, and your platform. If you don’t trust yourself, then who the hell will?
Mood: Ranty. ARGH!
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: One and a half.
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Went for a walk.
Yesterday’s Projects: Game, Short Story
In My Ears: Avatar soundtrack. Um, which was the only thing I liked about that movie…
Game Last Played: Grepolis
Movie Last Viewed: Ironclad
Book Last Read: Harper’s Encyclopedia of the Paranormal
Latest Artistic Project: Crystal cluster bracelet in silver
Latest Release: Strange, Dead Love for Vampire: the Requiem
