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Yes, you
know what GIF usually means at the start of a newsletter! You are
stuck with me, Stuart, again this week!
2 out of 4 newsletters a month come from our award-winning Writer's
In Residence. They are packed with insight, wisdom and knowledge of
their traditionally published author lives. They are an absolute
joy to read and they fill my creative well every time. I adore
them.
But traditional publishing for many people reading this newsletter
simply won't happen.
There's a line peddled on social media that 'as long as you never
give up, you'll get published.' It is meant with a good heart and
to encourage writers. It is false.
Simply wanting something badly or continuing to try and or not
giving up, etc, is not enough to produce a story that will get you
a traditional publishing deal. Fact.
There are simply too many (good) writers out there (and poor ones,
too) for this to be true. And while I am not a negative person, nor
do I wish to burst the bubbles of those who say these things, or
those who believe it, we have to also be realistic about things.
For every 1 writer who does the 'I kept going and now look at me,
I'm a published author' there are a 100 (or even 1000) writers who
also NEVER GAVE UP, they have equal if not more resilience and
persistence, but still don't have the deal.
Tradition publishing is not for everyone. Nor, even, should we want
it to be.
I have spoken with many author friends in the last couple of months
and heard appalling things about how they've been treated by
publishers in the last year or two. Many of them you'd look at on
social media and think - wow, they're doing so well, etc - but the
reality is that their publication dates have been pushed, and they
don't get their last advance instalment and are struggling
financially, or worse still, they are writing out of contract, or
simply struggling to sell their latest work.
Words like 'brutal', 'chaos', 'lack of communication', 'forgotten',
'no publicity' are amongst the things I hear most often.
Traditional publishing seems like the fairytale for most of us. The
little daydreams of signing a deal and launching a book and
attending festivals with kids and winning literary awards are what
keep many of us going.
That happens for a tiny percentage of authors. We hear about those
authors, but those who are struggling, tend to remain quieter. They
maybe got the big deal but then their books didn't hit the shelves
or fly off them like they hoped. They maybe sold well, but not
quite enough for the publisher, and they don't have their next book
taken on by that publisher, or indeed any publisher. They have to
start from scratch, only (and many authors have told me this) it's
even harder when you're not a debut.
Sorry, that all sounds a bit grim, but I wanted to be a bit more
real with you today. And here's why.
Traditional publishing is not your only option.
To be fair, it hasn't been for a while, but even more so now than
ever, there's a different path to walk.
Indie publishing.
I wanted to talk about some people, who I know read this
newsletter, who have started to pave a way of hope and autonomy in
these more difficult times.
People like Sally Doherty (who wrote this great blog post for us) or Emma
Bradley (who wrote this piece), or even more
prolifically, Marisa Noelle, who did an hour long video on self-publishing
for WM.
And many more out there, too, who are in our community and have
taken the bold move to get their books directly into the hands of
readers.
Full autonomy, control editorial vision, professionally produced
with the aid of editors, illustrators, cover designers and anything
else you could ask for from a traditional publisher, in terms of
the book production. In fact, many trad publishers use the same
freelancers that self-published authors use.
There's been a long time snobbery about this route - and I have
seen evidence as to why people may see self-publishing as inferior,
as there is a lot of poorly produced and edited books out there -
but times and attitudes are changing.
Our world is changing and evolving - I watched a panel discussion
at a conference this week where two writers started self-publishing
their books in 2019 and are already number 1 bestsellers on Amazon,
have written and published 50 books, have a tv series based on
their book series coming soon and have done all of this themselves,
all via their own determination to write the stuff their readers
want and get it into their hands. They have used TikTok amongst
other things, like advertising, to sell over 5 million copies of
their books in just under 3 years.
Not everyone will be like them, or self-published bestsellers like
Andy Weir, or EL James, or LJ Ross, or indeed the authors I
mentioned above of the Zodiac Academy series, and make it big, in
the same way so few make it with traditional publishing.
And it's worth mentioning that self-publishing has many, many cons,
too. It's not all sweetness and light - it's a hard grind, like
running a full-time business on top of the writing and not to be
entered into lightly. Read the articles/videos above - follow other
self-published authors - see how they're doing it, if it interests
you.
But I just wanted to use this space today to open your eyes a
little wider, to see beyond the confines of a very old,
slow-to-evolve, and narrow industry to a much wider, dynamic, and
quickly changing landscape beyond.
Remember YOU are the HERO of your own story! You are not passive,
you do not have to wait for adventure to arrive on your door step -
we write about active character who chase what they want and
overcome obstacles and grow.
Focus on that this week - next week we'll talk about when you're
not the hero of your own story!
Have a great writing week everyone!
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