Check out Lesli Richardson, over at her blog: http://www.leslirichardson.com/
Here’s the link for the original post…and I love the title - You Are Not A Special Snowflake!
http://leslirichardson.blogspot.com/2010/01/writing-how-to-you-are-not-special.html
She put together a marvelous, informative, coherent manifesto on how to do what we do best…write. I felt her blog was so important that I contacted her and asked her to elaborate on a few of her answers. She graciously agreed and took the time to get into a little more detail.
Thanks for having me! I appreciate you asking me to be here.
I don’t think any new writers are served by getting a pat on the head and false reassurances they can do it if they put their mind to it. There’s a lot more to it. On the other hand, the fact that it IS doable if a person wants to work hard for it-just like any other career path-should actually comfort them. There is no magic formula, just a lot of hard work.
A. It’s a lot of frakking work! When you talk about work, are you talking about the mere craft of writing or are you talking about writing, editing, putting yourself out there, risking failure and rejection yet persisting? Are you talking about promotion and contacting individuals who might be interested in your book despite knowing that they may never respond? For instance - not only writing books, but blogging, commenting on other blogs, asking for interviews and reviews, really stretching your comfort zone…
All of it. A lot of newbie writers think that the hard part of being an author is writing the book. (I did a blog post on this a few months ago.) Writing is the EASY part. If an author thinks that writing is the hard part, they’re going to fail. In this very competitive market, you have to constantly better yourself as a writer, you have to promote, update your website, network-and then, of course, you have to edit your book when it comes back from the publisher. It’s a lot of work.
B. You are not the next Stephanie Meyers! How common do you think it is that authors believe they are the next Stephanie Meyers?
Very. I’ve seen it on publisher and agent blogs a lot. I’ve seen it on email list discussions. I’ve see it on Twitter when agents will post real things writers send to them. “This is the next bestseller,” is almost guaranteed to get you a rejection in a query. And too many authors form unrealistic hopes for themselves and, frankly, set themselves up for failure. Sign up for writing courses, buy books on writing, read writing magazines, hone your craft, and work hard. That is what will give you the best advantage, not magical thinking.
C. I love your statement, Writing for a living is not art, it’s business. I write because I love to write, but I ain’t quittin’ my day job as a nurse - it’s too lucrative and the money I make from writing is too inconsistent and definitely not enough! This is followed by your next statement - If you want to make money writing, treat it like any other business. Can you make a list of the most important things you think a writer can do to make this work of love a work that pays?
I have always wanted to write for a living. I’m blessed enough that I worked my patookie off to get here. But for years I had to have EDJs to make a living and pay the bills. Basically, to convert dreams into cash, you need to do what I talked about earlier, learn the craft and practice it. Read other writers. Join the Internet Writing Workshop (free). They are one of THE best resources out there for fledgling writers, and I think all writers serious about their craft should participate there and learn how to self-edit. It really boggles my mind sometimes how a newbie writer will write something practically incomprehensible and think it’s great. I’m not talking bad writing, I’m talking a person who speaks English as their native language who puts something down on paper that bears absolutely no resemblance to the English language. I want to ask them, “Did you even READ this? Did you read it out loud to yourself? Did you read it out loud into a tape recorder and play it back and realize it doesn’t even make SENSE? You TALK like an intelligent person, so why do you write stuff that most people can’t even understand?”
But I don’t say that, obviously, because it would be cruel. But, seriously, someone who wants to be a writer and who writes like that needs to cash a serious reality check.
You also have to give up the notion that you will change publishing. You won’t. Trust me, you will not. The road to success is littered with the shattered hopes and dreams of writers who thought they would. You have to play the game, build a name and reputation for yourself, and THEN you earn the freedom to take chances. But still, you’ll only be allowed to take those chances because you played the game in the first place. You won’t be changing publishing, you’ll only be cashing in your “paid my dues” chit.
D. *Not everyone will love what you write - You make a very important point. I’ve actually found I learn more from a reviewer who points out the weaknesses in my writing than a reviewer who simply says - rah rah yay yay! Please talk about developing a thick skin and the value of a real review.
A reader is a human being, with their own likes, dislikes, prejudices, etc. Some review sites are more fair than others, some are better run than others. I have some sites that even if they PAID me to give them books to review, I wouldn’t do it. I have some sites I love regardless of the rating I get, because I know overall their reviews are fair and well-written.
As a reader, I rarely pay attention to reviews in terms of allowing it to sway my opinion of a book. (I do use them to help me find books I might not have heard of before, however.) And frankly, any reader who accepts a review as the final word without looking more deeply into that book, and allows their opinion of a book to be swayed by it, then they need to grow a spine. I mean, it’s okay to avoid a book with trigger ick issues for you if a review tells you that. If you hate paranormal, and the book is paranormal, then no-brainer. But if a reviewer says they hate a book and you don’t even bother to give the book a chance, that’s on you as a reader, not on the writer of the book.
I’ve had reviews come out positive about my books, but the review is so convoluted and wrong about some things in the book, I wonder, “Did they even READ the book?” but I let them go because it’s not worth it, and the review was positive, whatever.
There are popular books and series out there that I’ve tried to read and I think, WTF? People like THIS? And then there are books I love that others have hated and think, WTF? How could they come away from this book with that opinion?
So the bottom line is, you can’t please everyone. Period. Don’t even try. Write what you as an author enjoy writing, and you will find an audience. That is who you are writing for, not the people who don’t like you.
And most writers will tell you, overall, reviews don’t influence sales much. Maybe a momentary bump in sales. In fact, some authors have told me that horribly bad reviews will often net them more sales than a good review. *LOL*
E. This one is great - Not every book will make you money - live with it. I’d love to know your take on what we learn from our mistakes - in addition do you have an opinion on whining?
Whining is always counterproductive, regardless if it’s by a writer or by a nurse or your car mechanic. It’s a waste of time. If you want to whine, it won’t solve the problem. Identify why the book isn’t selling and try to take measures to fix it. Ask for HONEST opinions from others about the book, does it need more promotion? A different cover? Does it need a different blurb? Extensive re-edits? A new publisher? Whining doesn’t fix anything.
Some books just won’t sell. Period. It could be a great book and not sell. It might be too nichey or not hot enough or whatever. In e-publishing, the hottest books sell the most, that’s just the facts of current demographics. Non-romance/erotica is slowly carving out a niche as more people discover e-books, but ask ten people on the street if they read e-books, and most of them will say, “Huh?”
F. Don’t be a one-trick pony. Thank you. I write in three genres and I’m thinking of adding a fourth. A consultant told me I should stick with one genre so my readers would always know what to expect. I really would like to hear your thoughts on this issue.
Nope. You need to play the field, even if you think you need to use different pen names. If you only write vampires, you’re missing out on a HUGE market of shape-shifters. If you only write cowboys, you’re missing paranormal. If you only write sweet romances, you’re DEFINITELY missing out on the erotica market. (Although some people just will not make that cross-over, and that’s fine if that’s their choice.)
Learn what sells, don’t be afraid to email your publisher (if you’re signed) and ASK them what’s selling. Look at Amazon.com’s Kindle rankings, Mobi, Fictionwise, AllRomanceEbooks, and others to see what’s at the top of their list and don’t be afraid to exploit that to make money. You can STILL write a great story. Look at it this way-you wouldn’t move to Fargo, North Dakota, and try to grow oranges. It won’t work. They can’t survive the brutal winters. You’d move somewhere and grow oranges where they will thrive. Why some writers don’t do this with their writing I’ll never know.
G. Indie publishing IS real publishing. I have discovered something very important. In their money days, New York publishing houses put out a lot of short story anthologies by new authors - it was sort of a foot in the door, a way to introduce readers to the author. They don’t really have the money to take that risk anymore. Indie publishers do. A lot of what we do, as writers of ebooks, is put out short stories. The Indie houses provide that service. I’d love to hear your take on this.
As slow as traditional publishers have been to embrace e-publishing, some writers have been even slower. I don’t understand why. Maybe it’s they feel cheated that they worked hard all those years just to have someone else come up from the ranks and make money the “easy” way. (HA! It’s NOT easy, believe me!)
If your goal as a writer is to make money, then you HAVE to write smart. If your goal as a writer is to write and be an artist and you don’t care if you publish or not, then go the self-publishing route through Lulu.com or someone like that, you’ll make about the same amount of money that way and can claim you’re “published.”
But just like the Edsel didn’t survive, neither will traditional publishing if they don’t shift their business paradigms. Let’s face it-Harlequin started Carina, they see the money they’re losing by not embracing e-publishing. They’re not the only one seeing the light. Over the next few years, I see the big publishers struggling for money and more readily embracing e-publishing now that the little guys have proven it’s more than doable, it can be profitable if an author wants to work hard.
But traditional publishers, despite bleeding red ink from their coffers, didn’t want to take the risk until someone else proved it could make money. Just like erotica, now lots of traditional publishers put out erotica lines. Now it’s e-publishing. We’ve proven there is a viable and rapidly growing market for it, especially as more people get smart phones like iPhones and BlackBerries that can double as e-readers (I use my BB as an e-reader when out and about and stuck in a line).
I’m not saying traditional publishing is dead. The old-fashioned publishing MODEL is dying, however. It cannot sustain itself in the current environment. It will have to change to embrace new technology and reader desires. Look at the current backlash among Kindle readers over windowing e-book releases after hardcovers. Publishers will be forced to start listening to their readers, because they will start losing those customers-and authors-to those readers. I’m surprised more A-list writers haven’t actively started self-publishing. Once you have name recognition, you don’t need to fight a distribution stream battle, you are automatically in the door. I think (and I’m not the only one who’s said this) that you’ll start seeing more writers becoming publishers and cutting agents and traditonal publishers right out of the mix.
Thanks, Lesli, for these words of wisdom!
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