Which bit of the publishing-business side of this caper would you ditch if you could? Or, which bit of the business side would you happily do for yourself if you had to?
When one typically sets out to be a writer, it's partly because we lack the skill set to do more typically business-like endeavors. Then comes the shocking confrontation of the business side of the writing...well, the writing business.
Marketing one's own work is a chore and something I have come to realize (though truthfully it's not that revelatory) that I'm lousy at it.
I do fall somewhere in between in that I like doing interviews. I like doing appearances and speaking in public. I like going to places where I've been invited. It's the awkward asking someone to invite me that I don't care for. It always comes off as needy and very outside my character. When was the last time it was a good look on someone to invite themselves into a party?
The very idea that I need to convince someone else that what I wrote is good and worthy of them spending their time on it is contrary to my very DNA. And it's not even that I doubt the quality of my own work. I think I write quite well. But saying that out loud to someone? Please.
There's a very good reason I need an agent. If I had to rely on my own hype to get a book into the marketplace, I'd still be unpublished.
The daily grind of a social media presence is still an aspect of authorship that is debatable about how effective it is at moving book sales. I'll gladly post something if I feel I have something to say, but when I don't, I shut up. I think that's a rather nice trait to have in a human, but one that is rare and falling away like a vestigial tail in modern society.
One aspect of writing that I would gladly do myself, and have done on many occasions, is design my own book covers. I'm no expert and no whiz at photoshop (I don't even have the full version of PS because it is stupidly expensive) and I have no training whatsoever outside of a curiosity about art and design. But I've managed to create covers for over 100 books, both for myself and others. Some people have actually paid me to do it, which is weird.
I don't think it's a control thing. I'll gladly let someone else take over and I've been pleased with most of the covers I haven't made myself. But I enjoy the challenge of it and the creative outlet.
I would gladly read my own audiobooks if it wasn't such a time commitment. Does that count?
It is a business and there is no getting away from that. But others are there to take the burden of the most business-y of the business off the shoulders of writers so we can get to the task of creating work to feed the business machine. But agents, lawyers, editors, PR firms all get down to work only when we create a product for them sell. If I took on more of those tasks myself, I'd put people out of a job. So, really, my reluctance to do these mundane and math-based tasks is contributing to the economic sustainability of the publishing industry. If we start producing a generation of self-promoting master businessmen and -women who also write well, then the industry is doomed.
I've always felt that someone else is the best sales tool for your book. It's the only honest opinion. If I meet someone and they tell me how great their book is, I get skeptical. I want the PR sales pitch. I trust word-of-mouth far more than an author's own words out of their own mouth.
So I respect the people out there doing the jobs I'm unwilling and unskilled to do. Keep it up. When I try marketing and self-promotion it feels to me like putting a giraffe on ice skates. Come to think of it, that would get a whole lot of views on instagram...
No comments:
Post a Comment