Regarding publishing, here are my thoughts as we near the end of 2014. Mine is not expert testimony. My ideas/opinions are collected by absorption rather than concentrated research. But I want to share my notes from the
Asheville Bookfest this weekend, where I participated in a panel alongside several in-the-know writer-types.
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| AVL Bookfest 2014 |
Good News for Writers:
There are more ways than ever for a
writer to get published.
Bad News for Writers:
The “old” way is harder than ever
and demands as much work on the part of the writer as self-publishing.
Trend:
Your work is creative content and should
be considered marketable on many different levels – screenplays, video games,
merchandise, graphic novels, TV series, YouTube, anywhere a good story and
characters can be plugged in.
Let’s talk
about the good news…
Writers have a wide range of options
for publishing their work. This includes …
- Writing a
blog (my blog is hosted free on Google’s platform, Blogger.com)
- Being creative and going rogue, like Homestuck, which my kids are obsessed with (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6)
- Building
a website to start an online (literary) journal/magazine for your own work or the work of others (several
ways to do it free, such as Weebly.com)
- Joining
forums for fanfiction (FanFiction.net, tagline is “unleash your
imagination" and includes a category for anime)
- Joining
social platforms for writers (the largest of which is WattPad.com, which has a
database of 35 million registered user and 75 million free stories)
- And
writers have a wide range of options for self-publishing a book (what used to
be called vanity press); the list is long of service provider
Big Self-Publishing Service Providers
CreateSpace,
Amazon’s self-publishing arm, and its ebook platform Kindle Direct, both of which are free, for right now (major caveat)
Lulu.com,
which published both print and ebooks; it has a link to Indie Books on its
homepage
Bookbaby.com,
which also is associated with CDbaby if you want to produce music or the audio version
of the book
FastPencil.com,
which is launching a new site that won the Innovation
Award from the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) at the 2014
BookExpo America (BEA)
…and right in middle
America, out of Bloomington, IN, is BookTango.com,
which may be the only one of the self-publishing entities that allows writers
the option of earning 100% royalties. (Recently merged with Book Country.)
Because of
the tremendous choices writers have now to publish on their own and because
ebook readership is going up, this has put intense pressure on
the traditional publishing house (and some boutique/small presses) to become
even pickier about taking risks on new or unproven talent.
1. The market is saturated with more
books (some not so good; in fact, dare I say, very bad, poorly edited and written)
2. Big names writers are opting to go
it alone -- they fight for their digital rights or self-publish
3. This makes it difficult for
traditional publishers to find books they think will sell -- like picking a grain of
sand from a beach
One way
traditional houses are finding new talent is from self-published best-sellers. Agents and editors are trolling the lists of popular
self-published books and going after those authors with contracts and promises
of broader readership.
For the
writer, the mantra is becoming: A
well-received self-published book is the new query letter.
Why Trends in Publishing Put a Greater Burden on the
Writer
If you
happen to enjoy being discovered or building a relationship with a traditional
publishing house, you will likely end up doing your own marketing or be
expected to by the publisher. This means, in many cases, developing your own
brand (the hated B word), which may require significant investments in:
- graphics,
art, photography
- creating
newsletters and building email lists
- developing
avenues for exposure, such as teaching, workshops, manuscript editing and
tutoring, book reviewing, how-to articles and books about writing, guest
blogging, public speaking, youth tutoring, and volunteering for writers groups
- building
a web presence: having a blog and website and as many social media outlets as
possible (the list keeps growing, ever heard of Ello or Vine?)
- being
your own PR machine – white pages, press release, radio and TV interviews, road
tours
- finding
and cultivating reviews of your work, which can easily consume hour upon hour
of research
And the ever popular ...
- become a fab-u-loso blogger
- or just be smart and follow Jane Friedman
Catch you later.
